Running "With" The Bull

Katie and I recently spent the weekend with her family at the Falles festival in Valencia, Spain. Katie's Dad had witnessed the spectacle when Katie studied there in college, and was so impressed that he was determined to show it to the rest of us. Thus Valencia was part of their itinerary while visiting us. I must admit that I was skeptical of Falles prior to going--it's difficult to get an idea of the magnitude without seeing it in person. I guess you'll have to take my word for it. If you have a chance, I highly recommend checking it out. Here's the Wikipedia description as I wouldn't know how to explain the whole thing. You can also check out our photos here.

In Valencia, we tried to buy bullfight tickets. I thought we were successful, but in fact we had bought tickets for an event where they bring out a bull, attach flames to its horns, and let it parade around the bullring. The crowd is invited to come out and do their best to play matador. This is done a total of 6 times (i.e. 6 bulls). The entertainment is watching your average Spaniard get as close to the bull as possible. Whereas a real bullfight is like a night at the theater (pagentry, tradition, etc), this is more like NASCAR... no one really wants to see someone get hurt, but we're all secretly hoping the bull gets its horns on somebody. We saw 2 close calls but (thankfully?) nothing serious.

Things got really interesting when Katie's brother and sister both went into the ring**. They got to see at least 2 bulls up close! After mulling it over, I finally gave in and went down--I'm sure I wouldn't have gone had they not done it first. I'm such a sucker some times. In the photo, I'm on the far left (in the white shirt) running in full stride away from the bull. It looks like I'm far away from the toro, but when you're down there it seems so close! I was only in the arena for a few minutes, but it felt much longer! What a rush (that I don't need to repeat). So that was my bit of excitement for the weekend!

**I have a photo of Mike and Mo in the bullring that I could share here, but hey, this is my blog not theirs.