Madrid

We arrived in Madrid around 7pm and found our hostel, Cat's Hostel that my friend Rebecca and my cousin Cara had told me about. We were again in a huge room, this time with 16 people, and unfortunately the room was right on the street so it was very noisy. I did like the hostel though because it had computers with internet to use for free and it also had free breakfast and a bar downstairs with cheap beer. That first night we walked to a restaurant that was a block away and had chicken fajitas and sangria and found that the place had really good guacamole. We then walked around the area and also found some churros con chocolate, fried dough that you dip in chocolate sauce, which were good. We went back to the hostel and went down to the bar for a little bit and were surprised to hear the song "Space Jam" from the movie and see all of the kids in the bar immediately start dancing and singing all the words.

The next morning, September 6th, we woke up from an off and on sleep due to 14 people coming in and out of the room all night and we decided to walk around the area we were staying in. We walked to Puerta del Sol and also the Plaza de Mayor which was really nice. John really wanted to go to a bull fight and I thought it might be interesting so we found out how to get tickets for that and where to go. We showed up at the Plaza de las Ventas at 5pm to get tickets and they were having a deal where you could sit anywhere for 10 Euro. The stadium was a circle with concrete steps as seats going all the way and the place was actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be. The event started at 7pm and all the matadors came out together as they played music. Then the first bullfight started and a bull came rushing out to face a few less experienced matadors, with the pink capes, before seeing the head matador, with the red cape, at the end. At first the fight was entertaining as the bull was energetic and running around and then the matadors started to spear the bull in the back with these colorful sticks that then hang from the bulls back to weaken it. Then the head matador comes out and plays with the bull before sticking his long sword directly into the bulls back. If the matador is good, the bull will die very quickly but if he is not good like some of these matadors the bull still runs around and gets weak before they have to stab him the brain. This part was not very nice to watch and I didn't really expect it. Then when the bull is dead a carriage of horses comes out and pulls the bull out of the ring by a rope attached to his horns and everyone in the stands waves white hankerchiefs up to the sky. There were six bull fights while we were there and overall I was glad I went because it was interesting but I don't think I would go to it again.