Bull Fights and the Aquarium

Dolphin Show

The Planetarium (foreground) and the Opera House (background)

About to stab the bull for the kill...didn't work out

Recently, I have had the pleasure to enjoy some of the fun activities right here in Valencia when I cannot travel or don't have any other plans. Two of those highlights include my trip the Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias and the novice bull fight. The Ciudad de Artes y Ciencias (CAC) is the very aesthetically pleasing and futuristic complex devoted to the advancement of, like the name suggests, the arts and sciences. I went the first weekend in March. We had no classes on Friday, so I originally planned to go to Paris that weekend but the plans fell through. I also was going to go on a day trip hike with some other students who didn't travel that weekend on Friday, but my alarm was off by an hour for some reason so I also didn't go on that as well. I woke up around 10 am, decided I couldn't find the hiking group and realized I had yet to visit the CAC. The buildings were completed around 1997-1998 by the world renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrave who also is from Valencia. They remind me of the Sidney Opera house and something out of a science fiction movie. The complex is made up of a Opera house, science museum, planetarium, green house and, Europe's largest aquarium. I only wanted to visit the science museum and the aquarium. It was a kind of dreary/overcast day but I still decided to take the 45 minute walk down El Rio (dried out riverbed, now a park) that leads directly into the CAC. My priority was the Océanografic (aquarium) so I went there first. The ticket price was a little expensive (21 euros) but after I made my way in I definitely thought it was worth it. It is designed so some exhibits are above ground and others are below. Mostly animals that require some land like penguins, birds, sea lions and, dolphins have outside exhibits. The large fish tanks are all located under ground. Visitors make there way up and down throughout the aquarium to see all the animals. There are about seven distinct areas that include the Mediterranean, the red sea, arctic, aviary, tropical and, the dolphinarium. Going by myself was nice because I could spend the time I wanted to on the things that interested me the most. I think my favorites was the dolphin show and the sea lions. Both were sufficiently entertaining. Also the architecture was very interesting, along with the rest of CAC. After I wandered around the aquarium and decided I had seen all there was, I made my way across the street to the science museum. According to the wikipedia article, it is supposed to resemble a whale's skeleton which I kinda sort of noticed but it would not be my first comparison. Then again, that fact came from a wikipedia article so it could be wrong. The museum was significantly cheaper than the aquarium (7 euros) and it was the typical interactive science museum. It had all the standards like outer space, physics, electricity, human anatomy, aviation, history and, animals. Still fun and entertaining on a rainy afternoon. After I finished the science museum, it began to rain and I brought my new, very compact, umbrella with me. It was a nice stroll through the rio, in the rain back up to the dorm. I stopped and got McDonald's for the first time since being in Europe. It was good. That Friday was a nice "me day." Later that night, I went out with the few of us who didn't travel. Definitely a great but slow weekend.

Another recent activity I participated in was my first Spanish bull fight. Every week UGA en España organizes cultural activities to do around the city in the afternoons. Two weeks ago, one of them was a novice bull fight for young matadores to hone their skills with an audience. It cost only 9 euros and you got to see at least 6 bulls be "fought." Even though it was more like a slaughter. The fight started out, a little unfair to me, with 7 matadores running around the bull with pink blanket like objects used to distract the bull. After they pissed off the bull to a sufficient level, one of the matadores would take over and continue the fight. Before that, men on horses covered in special armor to protect the horses from the bull's horns, would come out and stab the back of the bull with a lance-like weapon. I think they are called picadores, but I'm not sure. After that, the lead matador assigned to that bull would take these short, spike like sticks and try to pierce the bull's skin on its spine and get them to stay. The weapons were festively decorated with bright colors but they all turned a dark red from the bull's blood. After several pairs of them were stuck in the bull, the matador would take out the infamous red blanket-thing and begin a series of dance-like moves to dodge the bull. Some included kneeling on the ground and getting up as the bull approached. Other would be the matador twirling around the bull using the red blanket to distract it so the bull would just barely brush up against him. It was quite an interesting choreography. When I was there, I felt I was getting a truly quintessential Spanish cultural experience. Some of the girls that went had to leave as soon as it started because of the violence. All I kept thinking was, you knew they were going to die, so why even pay to get in. After the matador was done with their little routine, they would take out a saber and try to kill it. They aimed to stab them in between the shoulder blades and I'm assuming get at their heart. This is where it was easy to tell that these were novices. All of them had to attempt that stab at least three of four times before the bull would go down. Even after they were speared with sword, another matador would run up when the bull was on the ground and start to hack away at its neck until the animal was really dead. This part was a little hard to watch. It looked like they were just sawing away at the neck until they cut through the spinal cord. I don't think they were familiar enough with a bull's anatomy to know where to stab it so it would die in a somewhat quick manner. I did enjoy the fight and I think it is something everyone should try to see if they travel to Spain.