Ibiza, Pamplona and Madrid

Hey all,

We are now in Madrid after a busy few weeks in Spain. I will begin where I believe I left off on my last post; Ibiza.

Ibiza is a party-goers dream. Every night the bars and clubs rage, while sunburnt brits fill the beaches during the day. It was a real experience. The beach is not a nice beach like we have in NZ. In fact, it is littered with as many beer cans as bodies, but for some reason the brits love it. We spent four nights going out and lazing on the beach, but I must say that four nights in one of the biggest party resorts of the world was more than enough for most of us.

We caught an 11pm flight from Ibiza to Barcelona and spent last Thursday night sleeping in the Barcelona airport (something I would not recommend, but a necessity for us). We then caught a 7am bus to Pamplona which lasted 7 gruelling hours in seats designed for Gary Coleman. By the time we arrived in Pamplona and found our accommodation, very were exhausted.

Amy had managed to get us into a campsite just outsite Pamplona for the San Fermin festival (erroneously known as running of the bulls). This involved sleeping in two man tents on lilos. Brilliant! The good thing was that it was cheap, available and had regular buses running into the festival. We hit the sack early that night, but, thanks to some inconsiderate irish drunks, failed to sleep more than 2 hours.

Sam, cam and I got up at 5:30am to catch a bus into town for the running of the bulls. The bulls run every morning of the festival through the streets and are then locked away to fight the matadors that evening in the bullring. Six fighting bulls run with 6 herding bulls, so 12 in total. We decided to watch the running on the big screen at the bull ring, the final destination for all the runners and the bulls. During the running many people were injured including 3 in a critical condition. Yeehaw! After the fighting bulls are locked away, they release young bulls with corked horns one at a time into the ring full of punters. It was great fun to see arrogant foreigners get monstered bulls that they were teasing. Two were taken away on strechers, but many more seemed to suffer minor injuries. Suffice to say we had a great time watching all this.

That night we all went to the bullfight. I managed to negotiate a good price with a scalper outside the venue, but this meant that Amy and I sat in one area and Sam and Cam sat in another. A bull fight involves 6 bulls being fought by 3 matadors, one at a time. First the bulls are stabbed in the neck to anger them, then they are speared by men on horseback, then torredors stabb at their lunds with 6 banderillas (long knives) and finally the matador comes in to finish the job on the wounded bull. It is a viloent display and many would call it cruel. I am going to reserve judgment on the sport as I can see that the spaniards have a great amount of respect for the bull and what it represents. They perceive it to be an honour to die in the bull ring.

The show was great (although violent; a matador was gored, a horse was gored and all the bulls died obviously), but the atmosphere around the stadium was incredible. We were drenched in sangria and the crowd showed their approval of a matado´s death stroke with screams of excitement or a flurry of insults. We were lucky enough to be adopted by a spanish group of people that explained the sport to us, gave us sangria and beer and even shared their homemade paella with us. Sam and Cam had a similar experience in their seats also. The spectacle ended with the President of the bull fighting club awarding both the bulls ears to Joserillo for an excellent display on the last bull. Just like the movies, people threw their hats into the ring to show their approval and someone even threw a rose which he clenched firmly in his teeth. I`m not sure if I will ever go to another, but it was a great experience for all of us.

I jump now to the World Cup final; a once in a lifetime experience. There was a large screen set up in the Pamplona town square. We met up with about 10 other kiwi mates and joined the rabble in the square awaiting the start of the big match. The atmosphere was electric with vuvuzelas sounding and people being merry. When the winning goal was scored by Iniesta the whole square erupted, sangria flew and I believe that the ground actually shook. We partied into the early hours of the morning with the locals until we thought it wise to retire to our lilos. After all we were busing to Madrid the next day and, given our last bus experience we thought we would need to have some gas in the tank.

The bus trip was short 5hours, followed by a quick metro ride. What awaited us up the stairs from our local metro station was very unexpected (we should have known better). There were thousands of people partying in the streets waiting for the spanish team to parade past with the much coveted World Cup. We hurredly made our way to our hostel where Alex Hazledine was waiting for us. Amazingly enough, we had a balcon that looked out upon the parade, so many of the hostel guests piled into our room to see the Champs parade past. When they did, the place went absolutely mental. Another great accommodation choice by Amy.The Spaniards have still not stopped celebrating their victory so sleep has been a little hard to come by, but not to worry.

Yesterday we all went to El Prado Museum, which houses the most famous works of both spanish and international artists such as Velazquez, Goya, Ruebens and Rembrant. After this we went wandering to the Royal Palace and checked out Plaza de Espana and an Egyptian Temple that is over 2,200 (gifted to the Spanish in 1968 by the Egyptian Government as thanks for their help restoring temples in Nubia). We finished the afternoon with beers in La Plaza Mayor while the rest of Spain took a siesta.

Today we visited El Museo Reina Sofia and saw the works of Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso, including arguably his most famous piece, Guernica. I was so pleased to have seen Guernica as I studied the painting in a Spanish Civil War paper at uni. We all really enjoyed the visit, but the more recent art works did not strike a chord with any of us. Maybe it will appreciate over time...

Amy and I are about to part for a few days. She is going to Paris to meet her Mum, while I need to return to London for a job interview. I am meeting them both in Paris on the 21st of July (special day that one) and will spend a few days there with them.

I hope this blog finds you all well. Apologies for the gap between blogs but there is so much to do and internet is not as cheap as in South America. Stick it out though, because I will come through for ya.

Much love to the fam. Love you all.

Matt