Bullfights

The first day we arrived in Seville, we asked the hotel for information about seeing a bullfight - when, where, time, cost etc etc. As it turned out, they only have Bullfights on Sundays, and that was the day we arrived, lucky us, right? HA ... I think more so lucky Arnold and not so lucky me. I didn't know a lot about bullfights when I agreed to go and maybe that was a good thing because I would have told Arnold he was on his own otherwise. As it turns out, we got two tickets for the fights that night and made our way down to the arena, which I should mention was VERY cool.

I was pretty excited when we first got to the arena because it was a really great vibe. I sort of felt like I was about to witness a gladiator fight haha. We were all crammed (okay, well not crammed, but people were sitting really close to us) into this beautiful arena, it was lively and just different then anything I have been to. The trumpets start, the matadors come out and the show was ready to begin. They released the bull into the ring and the first thing that it does was to charge one of the "helpers" who then hid behind a wooden wall which then caused the bull to smash head first into the wall and pretty much knock himself out cold. (I'm not joking either - the bull was on the ground for a solid 20 seconds before it moved again) I almost got up right then and there and left. I couldn't believe what happened and was totally caught off guard. I sort of knew that eventually the bull would die, but I didn't know the whole process of the fight. I will spare you the details because it really isn't pleasant, but lets just say there are "three acts" in each fight. I also didn't realize how many bulls died each night - there were three matadors and they each kill two bulls - so 6 in total.

After the first fight I was ready to go, but I knew Arnold really wanted to stay a bit longer so I gritted my teeth and stayed (he did offer to leave if I wanted to). The second fight wasn't nearly as bad as the first one, but I guess it was because I knew exactly what was going to happen. But at that point I was actually starting
to feel a bit sick to my stomach.

The third fight started and it happened to be a female matador. Which I thought was very crazy!! Like what is she doing in the ring with this massive bull. I should have gone with my gut and left after the second fight, but for some stupid reason we stayed. Which was a really big mistake. By the end I was almost in tears and couldn't even watch the last part of the fight. Once we could finally stand - I bolted for the door. I was so upset by what we just saw that I had to get out of there. (I even forgot my sunglasses because I was distraught). I won't tell you what happened, but I will say that she couldn't kill the bull as she was supposed to and it was a terrible experience - even Arnold struggled with it. Needless to say, I will NEVER ever go
to another bull fight again - I don't know why I even agreed in the first place. So if you ever have a chance to see I bullfight, I would highly recommend not going.

Love Melissa and Arnold