I'm finally back in the USA after nearly two months away... and finally back with family for an extended period of time. I woke up at 6:30am Dublin time (1:30 EST) and took a bus to the airport to catch my flight at 10:30. After checking my bag, I went off to the gate.
The Dublin Airport has a special section of its main terminal dedicated to gates that only service flights flying to and from the United States. I had to fill out my Customs Declaration form before getting to the gate and I basically went through the entire US Immigration Process while still in Dublin but when I got the gate, I was legally in the US already - passport stamped and everything, haha!
The gates, themselves, were decorated with pictures and memorabilia celebrating the long and valued history of Irish Immigration to the US so I guess that's why the US Border Patrol has such a great relationship with Irish officials and is able to set up this efficient process.
The flight was pretty smooth and I met a really cool girl who was flying home from two months in Europe like me. She had done her backpacking with her boyfriend a month ago, visiting Switzerland and Italy. Then she flew to Scotland to do a month long psychology-geology program there. We talked for a while and swapped traveling and airline delay stories... she won. I also watched Entourage and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I think Philadelphia will be my next TV show to get on the bandwagon of... so, so funny.
When we got to New York (on time!) we went right past the immigration offices and headed right to baggage claim to pick up our bags. I was forced to check mine in Dublin and waited nervously until my bag was literally the LAST one that came down the belt. Bags in hand, I headed to the Airrail Train to get out of JFK Airport and go to Jamaica Station. At Jamaica, I got tickets for the Long Island Railroad to Long Beach Station where I finally was able to meet my aunt Zhanna.
After a delicious late lunch (I missed home cooked food!) I showed Zhanna many pictures from my travels with the VGs and the London crew and am now doing a very necessary load of laundry.
Tomorrow I'm sleeping in and then going to the beach outside Zhanna's condo before going to stay with my cousin Alex and his family.
This is the last of my regularly updated blogs. It's been a pleasure sharing my travels with you and I hoped you enjoyed reading about them.
Cheers and thank you!
-Simon
Hours in Airports: 9:15... Lisbon, Frankfurt, Dublin, JFK (31:00 Total...Lambert St. Louis, Charlottesville, DC Reagan National, Miami, Panama Tocumen, David, Panama Tocumen, Miami, New York JFK, Shannon, London Heathrow, Lisbon, Frankfurt, Dublin, New York JFK)
= 1 Day, 7 Hrs or 1.29 Days
Hours in Airplanes: 12:00 (35:53 Total)
= 1 Day, 11 Hrs, 53 Minutes or 1.49 Days
Total Air Travels: 66:53 or 2 Days, 18 Hours, 53 Minutes... or 2.79 Days
I'm fighting the urge to sleep at 7:31pm in New York since I need to go to bed at a normal EST time to kill my jet lag... so bear with me.
Hours in Trainstations: 16:40 Total (London King's Cross, Cambridge, Cambridge, London Paddington, Slough, Windsor, London St. Pancras, Paris Gare du Nord, Paris Gare St. Lazare, Versailles, Paris Gare du Lyon, Montpellier), Barcelona Franca, Barcelona Sants, Madrid Atocha, Sevilla, Granada, Sevilla, Madrid Atocha, Madrid Chamartin, Lisbon Santa Apolonia)
= 16 Hr, 40 Mins or .69 Days
Hours in Trains: 38:58 Total
= 1 Day, 14 Hr, 58 Mins or 1.74 Days
Total Train Travels: 55:38 = 2 Days, 7 Hours, 38 Mins or 2.32 Days
Total Air-Rail Travels: 120:31 = 5 Days, 0 Hours, 31 Mins or 5.02 Days
TOO much travel time! But it was so worth it!
(Note: I'm not even going to begin to try to calculate buses!)
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Friday, July 23, 2010
Frankfurt Day 2 - Two nuts were walking down the strausse...
I woke up and checked out of my hostel but was able to leave my hiking backpack here until I head out for the airport. I grabbed one of the local maps the hostel was giving out and went on a self-guided, semi-successful walking tour of downtown Frankfurt. It's a really easy city to get around and I was lucky to go out in a cloudy but really pleasant day.
I walked down the strausse (the Kaiserstrausse) right into the center of the banking district and the head of the Financial EU.
From there I headed over to see some beautiful plazas and older German architecture around St. Paul's Church, City Hall and the Frankfurt Cathedral.
Then I walked to the bank of the Schone river and walked along the river for a bit.
I ended the walk at my new favorite store (Sorry Sweaty Betty).
I'm off to the Frankfurt Airport in a few hours and then to Dublin.
-Simon
I walked down the strausse (the Kaiserstrausse) right into the center of the banking district and the head of the Financial EU.
-Simon
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Frankfurt
Last night was the most comfortable, fullest and most necessary 11 hours of sleep I have gotten all summer. After battling sweat-inducing heat and loud Dutch girls for the past week, Matt, Paul and I slept like drunken babies in our quiet, cool hostel. This, of course, meant that we woke up at around noon and had to scramble to see what we wanted to see in Lisbon today. I woke up a little earlier than the other guys and packed up my stuff for my flight. We then headed out to see the excellent Lisbon Oceanarium. It's a big aquarium right on the waterfront that has a "One Ocean" theme - There is one massive central tank in the aquarium and then all of the other tanks, themed after all of the various ocean habitats around the world, are connected to it. If you ever visit Lisbon, I highly recommend taking a few hours and going to the Oceanarium. And then, do what we didn't have time to do and just walk around that waterfront area of Lisbon - it's the very modern, newest district of the city.
When we got back to Rossio, our hostel area, I went to get my bags while Paul and Matt found the right bus that would take me to the airport for cheap. I got to the airport around 5:30 and flew out at 7:30. Other than their lack of free wifi, the Lisbon airport is awesome and people there are really, really helpful. In both the Oceanarium and the airport, everything was written in both Portugese and English but not Spanish.
I got in to the Frankfurt Airport at 11:20 and then took a taxi (way too pricey) to my hostel. I wish I had more time in Frankfurt since the area I'm in seems really cool. The hostel itself is the complete opposite of our Madrid place. The third floor is the reception/common area and there are loads of people here, radio playing, a bar and now, live music in the form a guitarist playing "Come Together" and "Wonderwall".
I'm off to get some sleep. I'm going to take in as much of Frankfurt as I can tomorrow and then I'm heading back west to Dublin.
Check back soon!
-Simon
When we got back to Rossio, our hostel area, I went to get my bags while Paul and Matt found the right bus that would take me to the airport for cheap. I got to the airport around 5:30 and flew out at 7:30. Other than their lack of free wifi, the Lisbon airport is awesome and people there are really, really helpful. In both the Oceanarium and the airport, everything was written in both Portugese and English but not Spanish.
I got in to the Frankfurt Airport at 11:20 and then took a taxi (way too pricey) to my hostel. I wish I had more time in Frankfurt since the area I'm in seems really cool. The hostel itself is the complete opposite of our Madrid place. The third floor is the reception/common area and there are loads of people here, radio playing, a bar and now, live music in the form a guitarist playing "Come Together" and "Wonderwall".
I'm off to get some sleep. I'm going to take in as much of Frankfurt as I can tomorrow and then I'm heading back west to Dublin.
Check back soon!
-Simon
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Lisbon! There are clouds here!
Yesterday we celebrated our last night in Madrid. It's a fine city but 5 and a half days were about 3 and a half too many. Our favorite attractions, the Prado, the Reina Sofia and the City Park can easily be appreciated in just a couple of days while allowing you to spare yourself from the stifling and, honestly, mood destroying heat of the city.
Still, we made the best of our last day in Spain's capitol city and met our Italian friends for lunch. They made a delicious pasta for lunch (clearly) and then we finally said goodbye as they rushed off, late for their scheduled time at the Prado. At this point we were presented with the task of finding something to do for 7 more hours in Madrid because our train was scheduled for 10:25. We got some drinks at LIDL to fight off the heat and then decided to go find the Crystal Palace which had eluded us on our previous visit to the city park. On our way, we did some souvenir shopping which will certainly encumber us on our flights home (bulky stuff!) We also stopped at the Jardin Real Botanico, or the Royal Botanical Gardens. I'm not a big botanical gardens fan but, at the very least, I felt that it might be a great place to get some good air and rest in the shade. Unfortunately, we soon realized that the peak (only) time that one should visit these gardens is in March, April or May. By the dog days of July, most of the flowers were drying up and the weeds were taking over. We were pretty seriously underwhelmed with the "Real Jardins" but we did find some really comfortable benches and some shade and breathed in the air being purified by what was left of the flora.
After the gardens, we took the longest path possible to get to back to the city park and realized just how navigable Madrid really is. If you get past the heat, you can get from anywhere in the city to anywhere else on foot within 45 minutes...if you walk slowly. We found a really cool stream in the park and, continuing with our theme of the day, laid down to take in some more fresh air and embrace some shade. This lasted for about 3 minutes until a rather large woman walked past with her dog. This woman apparently thought that it was perfectly acceptable to walk around in public with only a bikini top and jeans on... and her bikini top, at least 3 sizes too small, wasn't very good at its only job. Apparently the shady spot we found was right next to a sunny patch that she decided to claim as her own. This was our cue to leave (and void our stomachs and pray for blindness) and soon we miraculously found the Crystal Palace amid our relatively aimless wandering around the park. After our discovery, we turned back and hiked back across Madrid to our hostel where we picked up our bags and then took the metro to the train station.
Our night train to Lisbon left at 10:25 and got here at 7:30 Lisbon time (which is an hour ahead of Madrid). When buying tickets, we were presented with two options: either buy regular seats for just 5 euro or get seats that will recline into a bed for 20 more euro per person. We cheap, stupid college students chose the regular seats. This was a mistake. We were in a large compartment with a bunch of other like-minded cheap, stupid college students from around the world and, though Paul and I watched Ace Ventura until around 1am, the other students didn't feel like shutting up until 2 when the train officials finally decided to turn the lights off in the compartment. At 4:30am they were rudely turned on as we crossed the border into Portugal and were woken for Passport control.
In the end we all probably got about an hour and a half of sleep. Still, we somehow managed to get off the train and to our hostel this morning. We were ecstatic to find that this hostel has AC and that we have single beds this time. After dropping off our stuff and rubbing the sleepies out of our eyes, we headed out for a day in the city or, as I hoped, a search for a nice beach to relax on.
The view outside our hostel was of the beautiful Praca Figueroa (Figueroa Plaza). We quickly realized that while Paul is a Spanish major and Matt took Spanish all through high school, this means jack when it comes to understanding Portugese. I was the most upset at this since I've only now been able to master a few Spanish words and am now being thrown a whole new language! Needless to say I definitely thanked more people in Spanish than in Portugese today.
We decided to see the older part of Lisbon today and had three big landmarks in mind but, again, if a beach popped up I was definitely going to anchor the group for a bit. Unfortunately, this was the closest Lisbon has to a beach.
After abandoning hope for the famous Lisbon beaches, I resigned myself to seeing the old city and we decided to walk over their. Though we expected the walk to take about 45 minutes, we were fine with that and were taking advantage of the clouds and the not 100 degree heat.
About 45 minutes into our planned 45 minute walk, we realized that the old town was a lot farther away than we thought so we caved and hopped on the bus. It was a really strange walk actually... The harborfront at the newer part of the city is pretty well developed but then in between the new town and old town there's just a lot of construction and virtually wasted waterfront space. The first thing that we saw when we got there was the old Lisbon Tower.
Note the tiny beachfront teasing me and also the beautiful, white things in the sky that most call clouds.
We got some really beautiful views of the Lisbon inlet and I did, as seen earlier, manage to get in the water a little bit...meaning that in one summer I have touched the Pacific Ocean, Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Win!
On our way back from the Tower, we saw Portugal's beautiful, guarded Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
Next on our journey was an amazing monument to exploration and the new world. I was a bit skeptical of a monument to imperialism and colonization but the work was dedicated to the spirit of adventure of the explorers and the spirit that the new world offered. It is absolutely massive in scale but has really beautiful details and carvings.
As we got closer I was even more impressed.
Again note the beautiful clouds in the blue sky. We got paradisaical weather today. After leaving the monument, we finished our tour by visiting a beautiful old monastery nearby.
Inside was the body of Vasco de Gama and outside was a very pretty, small courtyard.
We then took the bus back (not repeating our earlier mistake) and went to the grocery store to make our dinner for our last night together. I'm starting my epic journey back to the US tomorrow with my flight to Frankfurt so we decided to have our last "three best friends" dinner tonight. Of course, I made a Capresi Salad and Matt made a really nice pasta dish with two sauces. The red sauce was really excellent - it had a really cool spicy kick. The white sauce that Matt bought and didn't alter was a "cheese-milk" sauce. The white sauce, by itself, was pretty bad. But when Paul and I mixed it with the red sauce, we found that the result tasted EXACTLY like vomit. Literally, we somehow recreated the human digestive process with pasta sauce.
After throwing out the white sauce and washing the taste out of our mouth we finished our dinner and are now ready to sleep for the next seventeen hours.
I'll do my best to blog from Frankfurt and/or Dublin over the next few days.
Check back soon!
-Simon
Still, we made the best of our last day in Spain's capitol city and met our Italian friends for lunch. They made a delicious pasta for lunch (clearly) and then we finally said goodbye as they rushed off, late for their scheduled time at the Prado. At this point we were presented with the task of finding something to do for 7 more hours in Madrid because our train was scheduled for 10:25. We got some drinks at LIDL to fight off the heat and then decided to go find the Crystal Palace which had eluded us on our previous visit to the city park. On our way, we did some souvenir shopping which will certainly encumber us on our flights home (bulky stuff!) We also stopped at the Jardin Real Botanico, or the Royal Botanical Gardens. I'm not a big botanical gardens fan but, at the very least, I felt that it might be a great place to get some good air and rest in the shade. Unfortunately, we soon realized that the peak (only) time that one should visit these gardens is in March, April or May. By the dog days of July, most of the flowers were drying up and the weeds were taking over. We were pretty seriously underwhelmed with the "Real Jardins" but we did find some really comfortable benches and some shade and breathed in the air being purified by what was left of the flora.
After the gardens, we took the longest path possible to get to back to the city park and realized just how navigable Madrid really is. If you get past the heat, you can get from anywhere in the city to anywhere else on foot within 45 minutes...if you walk slowly. We found a really cool stream in the park and, continuing with our theme of the day, laid down to take in some more fresh air and embrace some shade. This lasted for about 3 minutes until a rather large woman walked past with her dog. This woman apparently thought that it was perfectly acceptable to walk around in public with only a bikini top and jeans on... and her bikini top, at least 3 sizes too small, wasn't very good at its only job. Apparently the shady spot we found was right next to a sunny patch that she decided to claim as her own. This was our cue to leave (and void our stomachs and pray for blindness) and soon we miraculously found the Crystal Palace amid our relatively aimless wandering around the park. After our discovery, we turned back and hiked back across Madrid to our hostel where we picked up our bags and then took the metro to the train station.
Our night train to Lisbon left at 10:25 and got here at 7:30 Lisbon time (which is an hour ahead of Madrid). When buying tickets, we were presented with two options: either buy regular seats for just 5 euro or get seats that will recline into a bed for 20 more euro per person. We cheap, stupid college students chose the regular seats. This was a mistake. We were in a large compartment with a bunch of other like-minded cheap, stupid college students from around the world and, though Paul and I watched Ace Ventura until around 1am, the other students didn't feel like shutting up until 2 when the train officials finally decided to turn the lights off in the compartment. At 4:30am they were rudely turned on as we crossed the border into Portugal and were woken for Passport control.
In the end we all probably got about an hour and a half of sleep. Still, we somehow managed to get off the train and to our hostel this morning. We were ecstatic to find that this hostel has AC and that we have single beds this time. After dropping off our stuff and rubbing the sleepies out of our eyes, we headed out for a day in the city or, as I hoped, a search for a nice beach to relax on.
We decided to see the older part of Lisbon today and had three big landmarks in mind but, again, if a beach popped up I was definitely going to anchor the group for a bit. Unfortunately, this was the closest Lisbon has to a beach.
About 45 minutes into our planned 45 minute walk, we realized that the old town was a lot farther away than we thought so we caved and hopped on the bus. It was a really strange walk actually... The harborfront at the newer part of the city is pretty well developed but then in between the new town and old town there's just a lot of construction and virtually wasted waterfront space. The first thing that we saw when we got there was the old Lisbon Tower.
On our way back from the Tower, we saw Portugal's beautiful, guarded Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
After throwing out the white sauce and washing the taste out of our mouth we finished our dinner and are now ready to sleep for the next seventeen hours.
I'll do my best to blog from Frankfurt and/or Dublin over the next few days.
Check back soon!
-Simon
Monday, July 19, 2010
Madrid 5
In our last full day in Madrid, we headed over to the city's main park and took in some much needed fresh air. We haven't been sleeping well at all so we tried to rest up today but we'll see if it works. Each night it is ridiculously hot in our room because it is ridiculously hot in all of Madrid. So, we get up and open the window. But it's really, really loud all night in the plaza outside our room so we close the window... but then it gets really hot again so we open the window... but then it gets really loud so we cry.
Seriously we've been waking up sweating in the morning...
The good news is that Lisbon is going to be 15 -20 degrees cooler. Yes!
We went to the park and saw the beautiful main pool in the center of the park as well as a miniature model of the hanging gardens of Babylon.
Afterwards, we headed back the long way to our hostel and saw some more streets and plazas of Madrid. We also tried to go to the National Natural History and Science museum but we got there only to realize that it was closed. The museum is run out of the Engineering School of the Madrid University.
In the evening, Matt and I went out for Kebabs and then we met up with our Italian friends from the hostel in Sevilla and went out to a club in a barrio of Madrid. What we didn't know until we got there is the Italians were taking all of us to a gay club. Still, we had a pretty good time there and got back about a half hour ago.
Happy birthday to my brothers! They're 10 today!
Off to Lisbon tomorrow. We're taking a night train so I'll blog from Lisbon in two days
-Simon
Seriously we've been waking up sweating in the morning...
The good news is that Lisbon is going to be 15 -20 degrees cooler. Yes!
We went to the park and saw the beautiful main pool in the center of the park as well as a miniature model of the hanging gardens of Babylon.
Afterwards, we headed back the long way to our hostel and saw some more streets and plazas of Madrid. We also tried to go to the National Natural History and Science museum but we got there only to realize that it was closed. The museum is run out of the Engineering School of the Madrid University.
Happy birthday to my brothers! They're 10 today!
Off to Lisbon tomorrow. We're taking a night train so I'll blog from Lisbon in two days
-Simon
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Madrid Days 3 and 4 - Museums and Bullfights.
Yesterday we rolled out of bed a lot later than we anticipated (11:30) and decided that in order to make up for our tardiness, we had to take in a day of Madrid's culture. We walked to the Prado Museum to get our fill of beautiful Spanish art and I must say that even though I'd sworn off art museums for the rest of the summer, the Prado was worth it. We spent three hours there but it felt like it went a lot quicker and I got my first exposure to the works of Goya and Velazquez. My favorite pieces were Goya's revolutionary pieces and Velazquez' portraits of Phillip the IV's family and his beautiful work Las Meninas where he paints himself painting a family portrait.
On our way back we passed the Cibeles Fountain which was constructed as a monument to the Greek God Demeter. On our way back we went to the grocery store to get food for yesterday and today because our restaurant excursion two nights ago set us back a little more than we'd hoped it would. We stocked up because grocery stores are closed on Sundays.
At this point I want to take a moment and tell a little story as an aside:
On our second night, Paul was sitting out on the balcony for a while and came to realize that there were several women at the plaza below who literally had been sitting in the same places all day. They were sitting on the railings or on Vespas and were dressed a little, but not too obscenely suggestively. Clever Paul then saw, over the course of a few hours, men walking up to the women and sometimes, the women would leave with them... but then come back later. We've realized that their are hookers outside of our hostel! Even more interestingly, their pimp operates out of the snack stand on the plaza right next to where they wait all day. The candy, chips and sodas are all a front!
Today we woke up considerably earlier in order to get out of room by 11am so that our beds would be made and the sheets would be changed. We went to the Reina Sofia Gallery of Modern Art and were lucky enough to see some of the most famous paintings by Picasso and Dali.
The Reina Sofia Gallery is home to many of Dali's most beautiful works and it also houses Picasso's most famous piece, Guernica. Still, one of my favorite sets of works was a set of beautiful cityscape photographs of Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla taken from the 1860s-1880s. The most interesting part of the photos, however, were that they were in full color. There was a beautiful photo of the Puerta Del Sol from 130 years ago and everything was in color. It's so funny how when we picture the past, or our ancestors, we always picture them in black and white while knowing full well that life still had the same colors as we have now. Still, it was a really surprising contrast to see the plaza that we live on in full color and 130 years ago.
I also saw a very important piece that warns one of what could happen if they play too much piano. Rennie and Mom, take note:
After touring the artwork, we went up to the top floor of the gallery to get some really cool views of the roof and also of downtown Madrid.
Realizing that it was about 100 degrees however, we decided to head back to take a siesta and rest up for our evening activity - the Bull Fight. We left at 5pm and go to the stadium at around 5:30 to get tickets.
We thought that the bullfight was going to be at 6:30 but unfortunately Paul and Matt can't read so at 7pm, while waiting outside the stadium, we realized that we still had an hour and a half to wait and went to get some kebabs instead. We got back well in time for the proceedings, however, and got to our stone seats in the large stadium.
There were 6 novellos (young bulls) and three really young matadors performing today. The matadors, one of whom was making his debut, were all 21 or 22 years old. After watching the fights, however, Matt, Paul and I were pretty horrified with how gruesome the whole event was.
All of the time with the bull seems to be designed to piss off, then weaken, then tease, then weaken, then piss off, and then finally kill the bull... and the final kill is never as humane or precise as it needs to be.
First, the bull is stabbed with a shallow pick tied to a ribbon to make it angry and then let out into the ring. Then the younger not-yet-matadors run around and taunt the bull and try to tire it out. (I'm sorry these photos are so awfully distant... again my camera can no longer zoom).
After that, they bring out two padded horses that are ridden by guys with spears. The not-yet-matadors taunt the bull and direct it to attack the horses and when the bull comes toward the horse, the riders spear the bull in the back of its neck.
This only wounds the bull, however, and next the not-yet-matadors take these metal sticks with hooks on the end and try to pin them on the bull as well. If they put two on at a time they're applauded but if they fail they are booed mercilessly.
At this point, the real matador comes out and starts flashing his red cape around. He is the only one who gets to use a red cape and he teases and taunts the bull until it seems sufficiently tired. Remember that the bull has now been stabbed and speared multiple times and has hooks hanging out of its back.
The matador finally brandishes his sword and, if the bull is lucky, he stabs it cleanly deep through the neck and into its heart. There were only two clean stabs all night, however, and most times the matador misses and has to try a few times. (And he gets upset because he loses "points" for stabbing poorly). Meanwhile, the poor bull is getting mutilated and cut up. Finally, after the matador manages to hit the bull's heart, the bull, dying, is taunted again and staggers around until it collapses. At this point, a not-yet-matador comes up to it with what must've been the equivalent of a butter knife and stabs at its spinal cord to finally end the poor beast's life. It is then tied to a rope and dragged off the field by horses...
Needless to say this whole experience has convinced me to go vegetarian for the next couple days. To the bulls that have come before!
-Simon
At this point I want to take a moment and tell a little story as an aside:
On our second night, Paul was sitting out on the balcony for a while and came to realize that there were several women at the plaza below who literally had been sitting in the same places all day. They were sitting on the railings or on Vespas and were dressed a little, but not too obscenely suggestively. Clever Paul then saw, over the course of a few hours, men walking up to the women and sometimes, the women would leave with them... but then come back later. We've realized that their are hookers outside of our hostel! Even more interestingly, their pimp operates out of the snack stand on the plaza right next to where they wait all day. The candy, chips and sodas are all a front!
Today we woke up considerably earlier in order to get out of room by 11am so that our beds would be made and the sheets would be changed. We went to the Reina Sofia Gallery of Modern Art and were lucky enough to see some of the most famous paintings by Picasso and Dali.
I also saw a very important piece that warns one of what could happen if they play too much piano. Rennie and Mom, take note:
After touring the artwork, we went up to the top floor of the gallery to get some really cool views of the roof and also of downtown Madrid.
Realizing that it was about 100 degrees however, we decided to head back to take a siesta and rest up for our evening activity - the Bull Fight. We left at 5pm and go to the stadium at around 5:30 to get tickets.
We thought that the bullfight was going to be at 6:30 but unfortunately Paul and Matt can't read so at 7pm, while waiting outside the stadium, we realized that we still had an hour and a half to wait and went to get some kebabs instead. We got back well in time for the proceedings, however, and got to our stone seats in the large stadium.
All of the time with the bull seems to be designed to piss off, then weaken, then tease, then weaken, then piss off, and then finally kill the bull... and the final kill is never as humane or precise as it needs to be.
First, the bull is stabbed with a shallow pick tied to a ribbon to make it angry and then let out into the ring. Then the younger not-yet-matadors run around and taunt the bull and try to tire it out. (I'm sorry these photos are so awfully distant... again my camera can no longer zoom).
This only wounds the bull, however, and next the not-yet-matadors take these metal sticks with hooks on the end and try to pin them on the bull as well. If they put two on at a time they're applauded but if they fail they are booed mercilessly.
At this point, the real matador comes out and starts flashing his red cape around. He is the only one who gets to use a red cape and he teases and taunts the bull until it seems sufficiently tired. Remember that the bull has now been stabbed and speared multiple times and has hooks hanging out of its back.
The matador finally brandishes his sword and, if the bull is lucky, he stabs it cleanly deep through the neck and into its heart. There were only two clean stabs all night, however, and most times the matador misses and has to try a few times. (And he gets upset because he loses "points" for stabbing poorly). Meanwhile, the poor bull is getting mutilated and cut up. Finally, after the matador manages to hit the bull's heart, the bull, dying, is taunted again and staggers around until it collapses. At this point, a not-yet-matador comes up to it with what must've been the equivalent of a butter knife and stabs at its spinal cord to finally end the poor beast's life. It is then tied to a rope and dragged off the field by horses...
-Simon
Friday, July 16, 2010
Madrid Day 2 - My Camera is... not doing well
Today after waking up a lot later than we thought we would, we decided to go on a walking tour to get ourselves acclimated to the city. I decided that for once I'd try and play tour guide so I planned a route without real knowledge of Spanish or good city landmarks. I basically just looked at our map, found some things that were especially marked, and found some cool ways to get there.
Matt wasn't feeling well last night but he was almost back to 100% today and we all knew we could use some good Spanish air. We set out for the Royal Palace and it was at this point that I realized that after 5 years, my camera was finally calling it quits. The 4 Megapixel, 3.1 optical zoom Fujifilm A345 has lost its ability to focus when zooming so, unfortunately, all my photos will either have to be of really big things or will be pretty distant. [Edit: It seems to be gradually losing its eyesight completely - after checking my photos, the poor camera is unable to focus on anything but the very center of the image... :( ]
After we saw the Royal Palace, we came back to Puerta del Sol and then continued on to the Spanish Congressional Palaces. We also walked past the Royal Theater, the Prado Museum (which we're hoping to visit tomorrow), the Museum of Architecture, the Columbus Circle and the Independence Monument.
I've realized two things: 1) There are still no clouds in Spain...anywhere. 2) Charlottesville and the greater United States are seriously lacking in Plazas. There are so many beautiful Plazas in Spain and Paris and London.
After a good three hour walk in the middle of the day, we went to the grocery store and downed multiple liters of iced tea (Simon), orange soda (Matt) and Coke (Paul). Then we went out for dinner and finished the day with a viewing of The Hangover.
"We're the three best friends that anyone can have. We're the three best friends that anyone can have..."
Cheers!
-Simon
Matt wasn't feeling well last night but he was almost back to 100% today and we all knew we could use some good Spanish air. We set out for the Royal Palace and it was at this point that I realized that after 5 years, my camera was finally calling it quits. The 4 Megapixel, 3.1 optical zoom Fujifilm A345 has lost its ability to focus when zooming so, unfortunately, all my photos will either have to be of really big things or will be pretty distant. [Edit: It seems to be gradually losing its eyesight completely - after checking my photos, the poor camera is unable to focus on anything but the very center of the image... :( ]
After we saw the Royal Palace, we came back to Puerta del Sol and then continued on to the Spanish Congressional Palaces. We also walked past the Royal Theater, the Prado Museum (which we're hoping to visit tomorrow), the Museum of Architecture, the Columbus Circle and the Independence Monument.
I've realized two things: 1) There are still no clouds in Spain...anywhere. 2) Charlottesville and the greater United States are seriously lacking in Plazas. There are so many beautiful Plazas in Spain and Paris and London.
After a good three hour walk in the middle of the day, we went to the grocery store and downed multiple liters of iced tea (Simon), orange soda (Matt) and Coke (Paul). Then we went out for dinner and finished the day with a viewing of The Hangover.
"We're the three best friends that anyone can have. We're the three best friends that anyone can have..."
Cheers!
-Simon
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