"Granada"

Random fact for the day: the direct translation of the word "granada" actually means pomegranate.

I'm heading to Paris tomorrow to hang out with Marina. Hope you all have/had a fabulous Halloween!

Ronda, Spain

 Saturday we took a train to a city about two hours away by the name of Ronda. Ronda is one of the most unique cities I've ever been to. The city is located on top of two cliffs, connected to each other by a bridge, overlooking a canyon with a river down the middle. It has the most amazing views overlooking all types of geography.

 Ronda has the oldest bull ring in Spain, of course we had to check it out.

These rooms are where the bulls are kept before they are brought out to the ring. No wonder the bulls are furious by the time they get to the ring, these rooms aren't bigger than a king-size bed.

Attached to the ring is a horse riding school, where they train the horses and riders before they enter the ring. If you remember from my last post, the horses are used first in the bull fight to help tire out the bull.

Amazing.

Peter, Chris, Adam, Elizabeth, Kyla, Alla and I.

We ended up hiking down into the canyon a little ways, just to get a different perspective of the mountainous bridge and cliffs. Despite the rain, it was a fun little day trip!

Horse Show

Friday night, I went to a very traditional horse show here in Granada with an organization that I volunteer for. I will explain more about the organization in a later post, but I basically go to a nursing home type organization for people of all ages with cerebral paralysis and do activities with them: play cards, go for a walk, etc., so they have a change of scenery. Typically, each Friday a group of the residents go somewhere to see/do something. Last week they rode horses, this week was to see a horse show. 

The show started with a man reading a story about the origin of the sport, while horses were showing the crowd their moves. I have never seen horses dance like this before in my life. I don't even know how to explain their dancing, but it was pretty spectacular! Sometimes there were two horses out there doing their "dances" in sync with each other.

The final stunt was with fire...

The organization I volunteer for is amazing, the residents are so happy and get multiple opportunities each week to spend time out in the community, rather than sitting inside their home all day, every day. Now if I could only bring that idea back with me to the U.S.

Sevilla, España

I must begin by saying Sevilla is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen, probably second to Rome. I can't even pinpoint what was so beautiful about it, besides everything. Perhaps it was the fact that it still felt like Spain, but a little more modern, but not too modern that it felt like being in the States again.

 These Pocahontas sized trees were all over the city.

 Spanish Plaza is hands down the most beautiful, spectacular, magical, romantic, detailed, spacious, etc. that I have EVER seen. Once again, pictures don't do justice, but you can get a glimpse. Pure beauty.

There was even horse and buggy rides, both for children (shown) and adults.

Next to the "Plaza de España" was a huge park with what seemed to be like several square miles of gardens, trees, ponds, fountains, etc. We rented bikes for the day and rode through on our bikes.

And awesome frog fountains.

 After an hour in the gardens, we had to return to "Plaza de España" to admire the beauty again. Honestly, if I lived in Sevilla, this plaza would be a weekly visit for me.

Each city in Spain has it's own portion of the side of the building. Here is Granada's mini display.

A pretty awesome crew: Scott, Eric, Patricia, Kyla, Kayla, Peter and myself.

This level of detail was found in every place possible.

There is an around the world fair each weekend in the Fall. It consists of a food stand from every country so you can get a little taste from around the world. The smells were amazing, as was the food. I think this is such a cool idea! One side of the fair consisted of the food, and the other consisted of little shops where you could buy a little something from each country. However, the United States was represented in a pretty embarrassing way, filled with flat-billed baseball caps and confederate flags.

Sevilla has bridges all over, and at night they are all lit up like this one.

 This structure is a little more modern than most buildings I have seen in Europe, it was built in 2010. The ground level functions only as a little plaza, while underground has a museum, restaurant and a market. Also, you can take an elevator to the top to overlook Sevilla.

 "La plaza de torros"

Direct translation of: plaza of the bulls, or the bull ring.

 Sevilla has the second oldest bull ring in Spain. As you can see it is huuuge, and can fit up to 13,000 people in the stands. The season runs from about May to September and seats vary, in the shade from 110 euros to 70 euros and in the sun half the price (roughly $150 to $90).

There are five gates located around the ring, one for the bull fighter to enter, one where the bulls enter, one with the hospital, one for the mules to take out the dead bulls and lastly and most importantly, if the bull fighter wins and receives his three trophies, he may leave the ring through the fifth gate, which goes directly under the King and Queen's seats. If he does not succeed, he must leave through the gate in which he entered. 

For those of you that don't know much about bull fighting, the picture below best represents it because it shows all parts of the bull fight. 

As the tradition holds today, there are 3 parts to a bull fight:

1.) One bull verse 2 horses, where the objective is to simply tire out the bull.

2.) Three bull fighter come out and use spears to poke the bull, to both weaken it and make it angry.

3.) The "torrero" or bull figher comes out to make the bull "dance" by waving a flag around and basically dodging the bull when it comes towards him, to make the bull even more angry and to show that he has complete control over the full. Then eventually he kills the bull with a sword. The more talented bull fighters can successfully kill the bull with one swing of the sword by cutting the spinal cord on its neck. If the bull fighter does not succeed quickly at killing the bull, the crowd gets extremely upset and boos at the bull fighter (alike making bad play in a game or having a bad performance as a singer) and likewise, becomes less liked. The objective is to kill the bull quickly and cleanly so the bull doesn't suffer.

Throughout the course of each show, six bulls are killed, each one going through these three steps.

 Centuries ago, the king did not like the idea of bull fighting, so he attempted to make a sport of spearing fake human heads. On horses, people would hold a nearly 30 pound spear and try to spear human heads made of metal or wood... just a tid bid of interesting history to me. Obviously it was not popular for long.

 Back to modern day bull fighting... once the bull is dead in the ring, three mules come out to drag it out of the ring. The meat is then sold to local meat lockers and restaurants to eat.

 Also, if the bull fighter successfully kills the bull, it's possible that he will receive a trophy, as appointed by the president of the bull ring. The typical trophy is the bull's ear, which is why this mounted bull's ears are both cut off and apart. Sevilla is the only city which requires the bull fighters to receive three trophies to succeed, while all others only require two.

 Here are two different bull fighter's uniforms that have nearly a century between them, as you can see not much has changed. The one on the left is from the 21st century and the right is from the beginning of the 1900s. The lowest cost for a uniform is 3,000 euros.

Just a powerful, motivational quote located in the little church connected to the bull ring where the bull fighter can pray before entering the ring.

 

The view along the river.

I am beyond content with my visit to Sevilla. If I ever come back to Spain, I will most definitely spend a few days back in Sevilla. 

Thanks for reading. Have a great rest of your week!