Bullfighting - the most popular, spectacular and utterly cruel 'sport' in Spain.
The Spanish see bull fight as a form of entertainment, and bullfighters as glorious heroes; in their eyes, the sport was a scene of such:
pure magnificence
In my eyes, it was something like this.
And this.
one of the most famous bullfighters receiving a severe groin injury
Are you squeling?
So am I.
I don't get the sport. Other than the cruelty of of animals, the sport itself is outrageously dangerous, and more often than not, fatal. And yet there are hundreds of thousands of people in Spain, Portugal, Southern France and Mexico cheer for this sport every year; despite of tens of thousands of people protesting against it every year.
But nevertheless, I respect tradition, so in this visit to Spain, I visited an actual bullring-turned-museum in Seville to understand more of the crazy sport.
remember that horse?
Here we go.
Entering the bullring.
the interior around the bullring
VVVVIP seats?
the not so VIP seats
super third grade seats, jk.
the bullring!
Is this where they kept the bulls? no?
Inside one of the halls inside the arena was where they set up a museum to showcase the history and culture of bullfighting in Seville.
one of the heroic bullfigther's costume
people who died running from bulls?
The guide also showed us how to kill a bull with one strike.
aim for the point above the head, and it will kill it instantly.
one of the legendary bullfighters
look how small the costume was, imagine how tiny people used to be back in those days
And this was the legendary bull of all time.
Can't remember its name but according to the guide, it was increadibly massive and has defeated many bullfighters of its time. Unlike many of the bulls, it used to march and charge with its HUGE head held high hence made it difficult for bullfighters to spear its weak point.
I bet the bullfighter who finally defeated it must've gained massive amount of fame after.
That's about it for my bullfighting experience. Pretty shallow. LOL.
Anyway here are the rest of the photos for the rest of my trip in Seville.
Visited the Plaza de España and its Botanical Garden.
don't know what to call this vehicle...
I love how their trees are so tall and skinny
line of trees
rainbow!
Traveller friend lent me his polaroid film to take this photo, did you notice how nice the sky looked?
Plaza de España! Built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929.
I want to take one of those! We used to have plenty of those in Melaka in the 90s; come to think of it, they're more of cow carriages.
Ended the day at a cozy tapas restaurant for some authentic local food before I sign out of Spain completely.
Moi traveller friend with his glass of sangria
some salami and jamon
cheesy beef burger, looking a bit sad.
bread, d'oh
And then we parted, as usual, and I went on my journey, leaving beautiful Spain behind, and into happy Portugal.
Monday, September 12, 2011
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