9th day - Seville

Mum, Stace and I took the River Cruise. Yet more sightseeing!
Well, there was a whole package, where you have 48hrs from the time you purchase the tickets to take either the Bus Tour and the River Cruise and go and see anything you like. Like the Bus for example; if it stopped at a particular place you wanted to go to that day then you could alight and walk around. And that same ticket would get you to other places but you have to use it in only 48hrs.

After that we went to this Bullring Museum. There the tour-guide showed us all around this old bullring but there wasn't any bullfights that day. Thank God. Either that or they don't use it anymore. That's good. Bullfighting is actually very horrible. The process of bullfighting I mean. The only thing good about bullfights is the fact that the meat is given to the poor people, standing at the doors waiting for it, right after the fight. The process of bullfighting? Let me let you in on something I never really thought about. Bullfighting.

The game of bullfighting usually starts at five o' clock. At that time,3 matadors together with their assistants,the banderilleros and picadors behind them march into the ring while the march rhythm is being played. The matadors are the main acts in the show and were highly-paid at about $25,000 per show. They wore expensive clothes consisting of a silk jacket ornated in gold,tight pants and a bicome hat. Together with their assistants,their main aim is to kill the bull.

As the bull is being freed from the bull pen gate and charges towards the cape, the matador executes certain motions called passes. The basis on judging the matador's performance are his nearness to the charging bull,confidence and calmness in facing danger and his style in executing manoeuvers with the cloth towards a 1,000 lb. bull. The bull just charges towards the cloth because it is a moving target and not because of its color,since they are color blind.

The next process involved is having the horse-mounted picadors carry thrusting weapons with them called lances and try to stab the bull at about 3 or less times. The number of stabs done depends on the president of the judge for the day. After that,a trumpet is sounded as a signal for the banderilleros,men who work on foot and wear silver-embroidered pants and jackets to place barbed sticks called banderillas in the bull's shoulder to lower its head.

A trumpet is sounded again for the last part of the act. The matador again tries to execute passes using a cape called a muleta. At this time,the bull's strength weakens but it becomes more aggressive. After giving thrills to the audience by trying to go nearer the bull with the cloth,the matador moves quickly over the bull whose front legs are stood together and thrusts a sword over the bull's horn which pierces into its heart. Thus,the bull is killed.

And this my friend, is the process of bullfighting. Courtesy of http://nmnm.essortment.com/bullfightingde_oap.htm. If you want to know more about bullfights you can just look up "bullfighting" on google.

The museum showed us the different bullfighters and different heads of bulls that were killed in that ring a long time ago. It was quite sad. But it's a tradition, a custom there. I felt like being an animal acitivist. "No bullfights!!" haha. I think I'd get thrown out of Spain in an instant.

Well, after that we had our tea/dinner at BK again. I bought the kids meal! haha. Coz I wanted the toy. haha! Such a kid I swear. Well, the box was quite cute too. heh heh. Oh yeah! Then we were trying to find this ice-cream place where they said you can get free ice-cream. Something like a refreshment after all that touring around. hah! My foot! It was almost like a tour trying to find the ice-cream place! La Florentina. Cept that it was really easy to find, coz we had gone there before, as it was near our hotel, before we knew we could get free ice-cream with the tour package. Well, when we realised how close we were, all we had in the end was a teeny-eency-weency scoop of our preferred flavour on a triangular wafer. hahahaha! No wonder it was free!!! haha. Then we had our real dinner at this al fresco dining place El Atun just round the corner from our hotel.