A Very "Spanish" Time in Madrid

Picadore on padded and blindfolded horses
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It was off to Madrid on the night train. Not a bad ride except for being scared of falling off the top bunks on a very rocky train with very cramped sleeping quarters. We stayed in a hostel in the gay area of Madrid so we were hoping to catch a drag show! Our first day was our big Spain day. We did lots! We went to the Prado museum and saw some really cool Flemish art that showed lots of differences between life-death-hell-heaven. Very detailed and cool. We had 2 favorites: Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights showing hedonists and the hell that awaits them and Peter Breugel’s The Triumph of Death that shows lots of torture and skeletons leading the world. After the Prado, we went to the Reina Sofia museum that had way too many exhibits closed including their biggest draw, Picasso’s Guernica! Boo to that! So we saw some work by Dali and Milo and some weird pop art stuff (I am not a huge fan of pop art).

Banderillero sticking the bull with banderillas
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After the museums, we went to a bullfight (don’t read this paragraph if you are a big PETA supporter). Anyway, there are 6 matches and each match involves a process of weakening the bull and finally killing it. The bull comes into the ring and it gets all riled up by about 5 guys with pink capes. They are kind of like rodeo clowns. Then, the bull is stabbed in the back a couple times by these guys on horses (horses are padded and blindfolded), called picadores, which was kind of unfair since these guys could never get hurt. The horses are covered with this mat thing that the bull can’t get through and the guy’s legs are covered as well. So after more pink cape riling up, these 2 guys (banderilleros) charge and stick the bull with 6 colourful sticks (banderillas), 2 at a time in the back and they are like fish hooks since they stay in the bull for the rest of the fight. At least their job is a bit more challenging! Then the main matador comes in with his red cape and has the bull charge him. After the bull makes many passes, the guy stabs the bull in the back with a sword with a loopy thing on the top to weaken it some more (might take many attempts if the sword doesn't stay in). Then they use their final sword to lift the loopy sword out and finally stab the bull in the brain or heart (hard to tell) to kill it. This may take a couple stabbings for the bull to die. Then they drag the bull out the ring by the horns with 3 horses. We were not sure if the fans were into the actual sport of it or really just wanted to see these guys get gored and tossed around by the bull. We enjoyed the latter more. No major injuries but a matador got a horn between the legs and tossed twice. And a rodeo clown was running away and trying to jump the fence but the bull caught a bit of him and he totally bailed over the fence! It was definitely cool to watch but not for the faint of heart. It would've been better if the bull wasn’t as weak so there was more tossing and goring since we liked to watch the bodies fly.

It would've been better if the bull wasn’t as weak so there was more tossing and goring since we liked to watch the bodies fly

Matador creating passes with the red cape
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Later that night we went for tapas and a contemporary flamenco show. The music was really cool and the dancing was amazing. It was so fast and graceful. I was especially impressed since I am definitely NOT graceful and would be pouring sweat (I think I have hypo-hydrosis). Actually whenever the guy spun his head around, his sweat sprayed onto the first row crowd...suckers! The costumes weren’t the typical flashy costumes but just some simple polka dots and some ruffles on the bottom of the girl’s skirt. So we felt it was more modern and maybe less touristy even though mostly tourists were watching the show.

Palacio Real (Royal Palace)
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The next day we did some walking and hit up the Royal Palace and saw a couple plazas. The palace was very fancy and is still used today. Especially for royal feasts. We were sad that there was no way we could get that many friends to fill that dining table and that’s with free beer too! Since we had an early flight to Amsterdam the next day and when I say early, I mean we have to be there around 4:30 am for a 6 am flight. Instead of just getting a crappy sleep, we decided to party all night instead. After some careful analysis we decided to hit up a club called Palacio Gaviria. It was definitely one of the funnest nights we had. There were so many different rooms and they played some fun music and even some stuff we knew. We met some Mexican guys and girls there and we now know the Mexican pick up line for guys or girls. “Que pasa, Baba/Mama?” which is kind of like “How YOU doin?” Once again, as is all over Europe, our drinks were glasses of vodka with a splash of 7-Up. At least they gave us a whole bottle of pop that we could continue diluting the alcohol with this time. Europeans were crazy.

Church outside the palace
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That night I am not sure how we ended up on the plane, but we got from the club back to our hostel to pack (pretty sure we lost a couple things), grabbed a taxi and successfully acted sober enough to get on the plane…Whew!