Bullfight, birthday, and museums (Spain part 4)

(Part one, part two, part three)

I was lucky enough to get to spend my birthday in Spain. It just worked out to be the best time for us to go! We spent most of the day at museums. 

First, we went to the Prado. I didn't take many pictures because I wasn't sure when it was allowed, and being chewed out by angry Spanish lady docents (in Spanish of course) is kind of a scary experience best avoided. Trust me. 

Las Meninas! This photo was taken right at the precise moment one of the said angry Spanish lady docents gave me a chewing out accompanied with a most dirty look. Maybe it's because I'm American because there were definitely a few Spaniards taking pictures and she didn't say nothin'! 

Some big names up there! Although after going to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg I think I'm too spoiled when it comes to museums...

For lunch, we ate at Telepizza! Dallin ate here often on his mission because they have a buy one medium pizza, get one free deal that is perfect for missionaries. We got the carbonara pizza, and it was oh so good! And of course we had to get orange Fanta to drink. I think I drank more soda during the time we were in Spain than I've had all year, and that actually might not be much of an exaggeration. It was just so good! American soda really is crap compared to this goodness. 

We visited the Reina Sofia Museum after lunch. This museum had more modern art whereas the Prado is mostly classical. There were lots of Dalis and Picassos, including Guernica which was even bigger than I expected! Of course, no pictures were allowed of that (and thankfully they actually had signs here letting you know what you could photograph!).

This is the awkwardness that ensues when I ask Dallin to take a picture of me.

One of the many Picassos

We were pretty tired so we took a little break at the hotel during medio dia, or middle of the day, which is when things pretty much shut down for a couple hours in the afternoon. Wish they did that in the US! :)

My birthday palmera and with (of course) orange Fanta. I'd take this over birthday cake any day! 

We did some more exploring and shopping after this. It was really fun to just walk around (holding hands of course) just seeing what we could see. 

I'm really proud of myself... I only bought two scarves this trip!

Dallin finally got his paws on one of the calamari sandwiches he'd been looking forward to! On the outside, this place looked like kind of sketchy (which I think is what Dallin was looking for, to be honest) but they lead us back through the noisy bar to a nice dining area we pretty much had to ourselves.  

I wasn't going to order anything, but I ended up getting the gazpacho. Very... interesting dish. It is a vegetable soup that tasted good but was a little overpoweringly rich. And I was not expecting it to be cold, not at all! Dallin got a big kick out of my reaction that makes me question whether he "forgot" to tell me that it wasn't served warm. ;) It was pretty much a pureed, chilled salad.

More walking around. I think I already mentioned this in a previous post, but I loved all the street musicians. There were quite a few out when we were walking around this time. They must have known it was my birthday or something, right? ;)

Breakfast the next morning: churros and chocolate! It's a good think this isn't something I can find in the US.

This is fat free, right? 

The Temple of Debod, an Egyptian temple that was moved to Madrid around 1970 to preserve it because a dam built on the Nile was threatening it. Pretty cool! I would have liked to go in but there was a herd of people waiting (in the hot sun, no less, a ginger's worst enemy) so we decided to pass.

A beautiful rose garden! 

We went back to the Almudena/Royal Cathedral to climb up into the dome.

View of the Royal Palace

Madrid skyline

There were statues of saints all around the base of the dome.

I like this guy. He makes a good travel buddy. ;)

Inside the cathedral

I loved the ceilings! I don't think it is any secret that I love bright colors and patterns, so this was right up my alley. 

This was a really interesting mix of Gothic and modern art/architecture. The stained glass windows are kind of absract, which wasn't my favorite, but it was interesting. 

The last thing we did on our last day in Spain was go to a bullfight. 

Oh boy, was this an experience. A very intense experience.

 I'm not sure it would be accurate to say I "enjoyed" it, but it sure was something else to see these crazy guys dressed in sparkly outfits elude a 1,400 pound horned beast that wants to (and easily could, if given the chance) rip them to shreds. Oh and by the way the only thing you get to "protect" yourself is a little cape.

If there is anything I learned, it is that becoming a bullfighter is not the career choice for me. No sir.

I didn't know a whole lot about bullfights before coming to Spain. It is more structured and involved than I thought. There's four stages to each bullfight. First, they let it loose and the matadors tease it with pink/yellow capes, as seen above. This was my favorite part because this is when the bull is most active and energetic, and there isn't any blood or gore (Yet! But don't worry, there are no gory pictures here... yuck).

Here's a video from that first segment!  

Then two picadors some out on blindfolded, armored horses with a long spear in hand. The bull charges the horses and the picador spears it in the back of the neck a few times.

After that, the banderilleros come out and have the gutsy task of jabbing short sticks with barbs on the end into the back of their neck, meaning they have to jump up and reach over the horns of the bull. That has to be the worst (as in scariest) job of them all. You don't even get a cape or anything to distract the bull. Yipes!

 Last of all, one matador comes out with a red cape and a sword, and after he teases/weakens it he stabs the bull through the back of the neck and (hopefully, unless he hits a shoulder blade) into the heart. Then some horses come out to drag it away so they can prepare the meat to sell. 

Ugh... this gives me the willies! No thank you!

There are usually six bulls per fight so they repeat this five more times. It's pretty intense! I was sitting anxiously on the edge of my seat the whole time, especially since the first matador got gored and the bull got on top of him. Somehow he avoided getting stepped on (you'd be toast if that happened!) and he got up and finished the job. Another matador got nicked in the face, but again he stayed in and finished. They are very proud and I imagine it would take something pretty serious to get them to give up the fight.

The bullfighting arena

Rather than take the metro back to our hotel we decided to walk because we would have had to buy another pass to get to the airport in the morning. Plus, as Dallin said, it was a lot more romantic than cramming on to the crowded trains. 

We flew home to the good ol' USA the next morning!

We were sad to go, but it is always good to be home. 

Hope to see you again soon, Spain! :)