Toro! Toro!

Sunday, April 18

The plan was for the Woodmere Gang and the Aussies to have breakfast together before going on the free walking tour at 10:45 on Sunday morning. Well, half of the Woodmere Gang made it to breakfast. Katie decided to skip out on her Spanish breakfast in favor of another hour of sleep. By the time the tour rolled around, Katie was up and showered and ready to go but the Aussies couldn’t get excited about walking around for two hours so they went back to sleep while the Woodmere Gang braved the rain clouds and set out on the tour. Our tour guide’s name was Ronnie. She is from Tel Aviv and she was really cute and fun. Our group consisted of the Woodmere Gang, two other people about our age, and a married couple with their two year old son. It was a nice intimate group, which always makes things more fun. We got to see the cathedral of Sevilla which is the world’s largest Gothic cathedral and the people of Sevilla are very proud of that fact.

We also got to tour the old neighborhood of Barrio Santa Cruz, Plaza de España, the Murillo Gardens and lots of other fun things. About halfway through our tour, it started sprinkling a little bit. No problem! We’ll just throw our hoods on and we’re set. Well, that worked fine until a little later when the deluge of biblical proportions that threatened to wash us all away! This ended the tour a little early, as it was raining so hard that we couldn’t even hear what Ronnie was saying. That’s okay with us! We know just what to do on a rainy day! We made our way back to the hostel and decided to nap the rain away. It didn’t exactly work, but we did get nice and rested up for the next phase of our Sunday in Seville - the bullfight!

It wasn’t raining near our hostel when we left for the bullfight, but we were prepared just in case. We walked to the bull ring and got our tickets. We had fun people-watching. Bullfights are like football games in the South. Everyone comes dressed to the nines! There are lots of women in towering high heels and men with coats and ties and cigars. Lots of them came with little red and gold striped cushions to sit on. Well, we couldn’t miss out on something as cute and red and gold striped cushions! We saw a guy selling some and they even had cute little holdy-handles on the side for easier carrying. OMG, precious! We each bought a cushion so we could try and fit in a little with the people all around us in their Sunday best. We were a little late purchasing our tickets online and weren’t able to sit together so we each made our way to our seats and got comfy on our cute cushions. We were pretty early, but that turned out to be a good thing because the stands ended up being PACKED!

There was barely room to breathe or move, but that just made it even more fun. Rachael got to sit next to a really nice older Spanish couple. The wife barely spoke any English but the husband spoke a little, so they enjoyed trying to communicate and explain to Rachael what was going on. On Katie’s right were a couple of young Spanish guys who basically ignored her but on her left were a couple of older Spanish men who were really nice.

Bullfights are really interesting because while the action is going on, the whole crowd is completely silent. If anyone makes a noise, they get shushed. If the bullfighter is doing really well, the band starts to play music and it looks more like a dance than a fight. If the bullfighter does really well, he gets awarded an ear of the bull and then he walks around the ring while people throw their hats to him. If the bullfighter does poorly, the crowd begins cheering for the bull. It’s so funny that’s it pretty much exactly like you imagine a bullfight to be. We both made friends and enjoyed the whole experience. Anyone who knows Terrell Stanley knows that he’s a big hunter and has instilled the same bloodthirstiness into his children. So, it probably comes as no surprise that Katie thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing (it was her second bullfight) and can’t wait to go again. Rachael, on the other hand, isn’t a big fan of animals being killed but she stayed through the whole thing, thought it was interesting, but will probably never go again. Overall, though, it was a good cultural experience and we gained a lot of respect for both the torero (bullfighter) and the toro (bull). Below are some pictures.

***Please be warned that there are some that are kind of bloody.

After the bullfight, Katie and Rachael reconnected and started to make their way back to the hostel. Apparently we chose the right direction to go, because we ended up walking right past the exit where the bullfighters were being escorted to their getaway vehicles. It was a mob scene! One of the bullfighters ducked into the van waiting for him and the guy in the front seat started passing out sweet 8x10 glossies of the studly torero. Well, we couldn’t let an opportunity like that pass without getting a glossy! Katie jumped right in the thick of things, reached over all the people, and grabbed on of the photos and then was able to escape all in one piece.

We got back to the hostel and dropped our things off and then headed back out because we were both starving. We ended up at this teeny restaurant right by our hostel where we had some tapas and the most amazing sangria we’d ever had. Take note, y’all: the guy put sugar in the bottom of the glass, poured the sangria in (to which he told us he’d added rum and something else we didn’t understand) and then sprinkled cinnamon on top. It was amazing! When we got back to the hostel, Natalie and Blaire had just returned from a flamenco show, so we made plans to go to the Royal Alcazar with them the next morning and headed off to bed.

XOXO K&R