Spanish Encounters
My trip to Spain is very interesting in many ways:
1) Interesting Traveling Buddies
2) Spanish History
3) 3 demonstrations
4) Bullfight and the debate of ethics
5) Day trip to arab influenced Toledo
6) Spanish, the Language
1) My buddies
This is how it all started. Lina and I were lying around lazily after dinner one day discussing our travel plans for the periods of Easter and beyond. Then we came across Ryanair for the 5th May, which flew to Madrid for 26 euros. We figured it couldn’t get any cheaper, so we booked the return flight which cost altogether 58 euros.
The Original Plan
The new deal
There were different reasons to why we decided on this ‘couple’ trip. What was in for her was (not to flaunt or boast, but just from what i gathered) an opportunity to travel with Gabriel, her good friend who happened to be the powerful, resourceful, independent traveler whom everybody wants to travel with. For me, Lina is from Panama and speaks fluent Spanish, simply because it’s her native tongue – what better than to go to Spain with a Spanish speaking person, imagine the amount of Spanish the langauage enthusiast could pick up!
Suddenly, someone else joined the party. Lina’s friend from Hongkong who couldn’t speak much english, de nada espanol and a tinny bit of chinese. From there, like our initial intuitions that the trip would end up in a disaster, the catastrophe commenced. I could describe it as me endowed with a responsibility to whom i owe none.
Rule of the thumb: travel with whom you want to travel with, or travel independent
Independent traveling is the best!
2) Spanish History
Spain is quite cool. They call themselves ‘ungovernable’. And history proves it so! There is just so much history about the entire country, I’m happy to be in Madrid, the capital of it all, the geographical centre of the entire nation. The following pictures will illustrate what words I am lazy to type below.
Don Quijote, a novel written by the most influential Spaniard, Miguel Cervantes
State symbol of Madrid
3) Demonstrations
As part of the reasons to why they cannot be governed, I cite 3 experiences while I was in Madrid. On Sunday, just within this day, I observed 3 different demonstrations. The first was at Plaza Mayor, where we saw hundreds of cleaners demanding their cleaner’s union to raise wages. The entire place was in a mess, and the city had to hire cleaners from a different cleaning company to clean up the place after the demonstration was over.
Cleaner's Strike
The second was something to do with the banks. I couldn’t really understand the spanish but lets allow the pictures to speak for themselves. In this scene, people were chained up and walking around the market in one straight file.
Anti-bank Protest
The third was a protest, the standard anti-nuclear protest. I have never seen one before in my life so this was really interesting. I had the urge to go up to them, talk with them, protest with them (even though I am pro nuclear but shhhhh), but, as I sorely regret even today, and so does Lina, giving in to the whiny little kid who was more interested in seeing the market which was on every single day.
Anti-nuclear demonstration
4) Bullfight – Plaza de toros
Bullfighting in Spain. An interesting fun fact is that bullfighting is banned in Barcelona and other northern regions, but accepted in central and southern Spain. Fortunately (for benefit of my cultural enrichment), bullfighting is still permitted in Madrid. Most interesting was seeing how most of the Asians there couldn’t bear to see the bull die, while many couldn’t be bothered. Which brings to light the debate between animal cruelty and cultural extinction.
In a bullfight, there are about 7 bouts, a matador versus a bull. The following is the procedure on what happens in a single bout, and I it’s not meant for the faint hearted:
a) Group of matadors are paraded around the ring
b) Bull is let loose into the ring
c) Matadors taunt bull by running close to the bull and piercing daggers into its hide many times
d) Matador on the horse rams a lance into the bull while the bull lifts half of the horse into the air with its horns. Both bull and horse bleed profusely
e) Injured bull is further taunted by matadors with piercing daggers
f) The matadors leave the ring, leaving the bull against a lone matador with a sword and a red cape
g) After toying with the bull, the matador raises his sword and plunges it deep into the bull. It is extremely difficult to make a clean kill because you need to pierce the bull’s heart even while it is moving. This is probably the hardest part and where most of the courage and bravery is needed.
h) If the collapsed bull is not dead, matador jams a dagger into it’s brain – instant kill
i) Dead bull is hooked onto horses and paraded around the ring
j) Cleaners sweep sand over the area where the bull died, to cover the blood while matador parades himself
k) Each bout has a fitter and faster and stronger bull. At the end of the 7 bouts, the main matador parades around the ring. If the audience thinks he did a good job they wave a white napkin. If everyone waves the napkin, the matador (Toreros) receives some kind of award.
Parading the dead bull
Matador preparing for the Coup de Grace
White napkins saying 'Bravo'
Horseman's lance into the bull
- The Ring and the advertisements
A biologist myself, I am aware of the cries of animal cruelty of this display. “Where comst any courage in killing an injured bull?”, and “They are toying with the dying bull and the crowd is cheering” are commonly heard. But do not be so quick to discount the sport of bullfighting. Until you understand what is going on in the ring, it is extremely difficult to see any honor. But once you see past the cruelty and have knowledge on why each and every action was performed, you can then feel the spanish culture bestowed upon you, you can sense the honor in the act of a man fighting the bull, and you can finally be part of the Spanish tradition.
5) Day trip to Toledo
Toledo is a pretty small town south of Madrid. Her beauty lies in her city fort which has both christian and muslim influences. You can tell from the brickwork and design of their walls that it is strikingly different from other castles in Europe, especially from catholic Crusader states.
Toledo
6) Spanish, the Language
I learnt a huge amount of spanish while in spain. Just 3 days I had, to pick up simple verbs like ‘to be’, ‘go’, ‘eat’, ‘like’, ‘understand’, you get the gist. I didn’t score too well on their conjugates, but my greatest achievements were to say
“How do we get to the bus station from here? We would like to go to Toledo tomorrow by train then bus”, and
“I can speak french, but i like spanish also and I want to learn because I am going to Mexico in two years”.
It really helps to have a teacher traveling with you in a land that speaks that language, and a burning interest to be able to speak the same language as everyone else. And with the patient (though highly demanding) teacher that Lina was, I couldn’t have asked for more for my trip to Madrid.
