Spring Break - Day 3

Yes, another gorgeous day and no alarm. We planned to go to the Prado Museum because it was supposed to be free on Sundays, but signs said that was not the cfase. We decided to go to the botanical gardens right next to the museum instead. WE had another picnic there and enjoyed the weather more. After spending quite a while there it was time to get our tickets for the bullfight. The ticket office was supposed to close at 4 and I was afraid we wouldn't get there in time, again, that learning curve. We rushed there and even though it was after 4 we got our tickets just fine. It was an hour and a half until the bullfight but we didn't want to take any chances so we went to the stadium right away. Our seats were much better than we'd expected for what we paid. Turns out you pay more to sit in shade and the distance from the ring isn't the important part. Now, I went in knowing that bullfights are violent but I didn't know the extent. First, they have the bull chase pink capes around the stadium, then they bring out a man on a horse and the bull charges the horse and the man stabs the bull with basically a big poking stick. After that, some of the men with the pink capes stab these barbed pinata-looking sticks into the bull, it ends up with maybe 10 of those in its back. Finally, it's time for the matador and his red cape. There's a period of the sterotypical bullfighting business and then, the matador gets a special sword, gets the bull to stand still using his cape, and gives a hopefully fatal stab. There are 3 matadors for the fight and they're each supposed to kill 2 bulls. The first matador got injured by the bull though. He could still walk and managed to kill the bull, it was on the news the next 2 days, I was like "hey, we were there!" Really though, kinda serves him right. I probably won't be going to another bullfight, but it was definitely interesting and I can appreciate it as a cultural experience.

After the bullfight we had some tortilla espanola bocadillas for dinner, which is just an egg and potato quiche-type thing on a baguette, it was tasty. I also managed to find Kilometer 0, woohoo! Back at the hostel, after getting ready for bed, one of our roommates started talking to us and invited us down to the hostel bar for a drink. Hanging out in the hostel bar was fun, one of the guys, pretty drunk, climbed under the curtain they put in front of the bar after it closed and got himself kicked out, kinda uncalled for I think since he didn't do anything back there. After all this, we ended up going to bed around 3.