Madrid

Went for a little trip across to Madrid to visit Ester and Fernando, two ski instructors that I met last season in Japan. They were wonderful hosts and took me all over the city, from each picturesque plaza to ham museums. Weather was a perfect temperature for walking out and about.

Hanging with a couple of locals was great as they introduced my to lots of little habits that are so Spanish. My favourite were the stops in a casual bar or ham museum which is more like a ham shop, for a plate of tapa and a ‘clara’ which is a small glass of half beer, half Fanta lemon, kind of like a shandy, but better.

Another favourite at breakfast, that I have continued since Madrid is eating olive oil and salt on toast, oh so good.

One of Fernando’s friends, also called Fernando, is a reporter on the bullfights, which happen every night in May. It was interesting hearing him talk, although I couldn’t understand a word apart from ‘toro’, I could tell he was passionate about a sport I know nothing about. From the snippets of conversation that Ester and Fernando translated for me, a bullfight is like a fight between life (the bull fighter) and death (the bull). After a successful fight, the bullfighter is carried out of the stadium and people try to grab the little tassels from his jacket which is very expensive. Fernando also mentioned that for him it was like a personal contraction, as he likes the bull but he also likes a bullfight. During each bull flight about six bulls are used and after are butchered and sold as meat. Not knowing the in’s and out’s of this sport it’s hard to comment on the event. Looking at it without really knowing the history and tradition it does appear to be a very violent sport that a lot of people seem to enjoy. In Japan, I would maybe compare bull fighting to whale and dolphin killing – I don’t understand it and the counter argument always seems to involve ‘it’s our tradition’ as a major comment.

We couldn’t get in to the bullring, but it is a very pretty building from the outside, when there aren’t bullfights going on, it is the venue for various concerts. 

Photo album from my time in the city...

Madrid