[To see the pictures of the events, click on the picture above]
During the first week of October, our Spanish friend Katia (she is one of the managers working for me, from Valencia) her husband Vicente and their daughter Paula invited our family to their home town Algemesi, which Is very close to Valencia. Every October, for hundreds of years, they hold their 'Fiesta de Taurino' where for 9 days the town completely shuts down to enjoy fiestas, bull runs, daily bull fights and, of course, food, lots of food!
We arrived Friday night and were able to stay in the beautiful apartment of our hosts. The apartment overlooked the main street of the town, with views of the main basilica and the bull ring: plaza del toros.
The bull ring is a special matter in Algemesi. It is temporary, being built and later dismantled every year just for the 9 days of fiesta. It takes several weeks to build and is the only one of it's kind in Spain because of it's rectangular shape, which is unique (typically bullrings are round). A little trivia: the bullring has 29 sections (imagine slices of cake) which are sold every year through an auction to the 29 highest bidders. Bidders are typically groups of local people that buy the whole section for the 9 days of festivities and then sell tickets to recoup the funds. They never intend to make money, rather they spend it by installing 29 "restaurants/eateries" that get you a free meal and drinks with your bull fight tickets. To buy a ticket for the whole 9 days will cost you 500-600€, but to go to one bullfight and dinner may set you back only 20-30€, depending on the seats you get. The proceeds from the section auction goes to buy entertainment, bulls and bull fighters. This event is a barometer of how well the times are: this year the bull fighters were very young and very few known ones. Crisis is good for the bulls.
The Saturday morning we got up at 7am and ran to check out the daily bull run through the streets of Algemesi. It was slightly anticlimactic: the run was 30 minutes late and the people didn't run with the bulls. Instead, they would climb up the walls while the bulls ran by. I suppose after the experience of The Bull Run in Pamplona, it would be hard to expect more. Later we had a very nice breakfast in a huge hall, with all three girls dressed up in their beautiful traditional dresses, complete with fans,bracelets and hair combs. They looked very lovely, thank you to Katia's family for providing these special outfits.
Later we went off to lunch with twenty of Katia and Vicente's friends. The lunch lasted about 3 hours complete with 3 courses of food, beer, wine and shots. Needless to say we all felt very pro-siesta, But that was not to be as we were heading to the bullfight next, which started at 5:30.
Before I go on, I will say that I am very aware of multiple and controversial views about this sport. Especially when it was officially the last bullfight in Barcelona when we were at the bullfight in Algemesi. We decided to go and experience it first hand to then make our own judgment.
The bullfight involved toreadors, 5 bulls and some bullfighters on horses. The event lasted about 3 hours, leading to the relatively bloody end of each of the five bulls. The young toreadors got jostled by the bulls also: some very close calls, none of which ended in more serious matters. The color, the movements, the tradition was all well and live that evening. And the show was sold out. I suppose Paul Watson will never run out of things to do...
During the show our seats were great: they were in a shady part of the ring, which allowed for a very pleasant temperature and uninhibited view of the event. We were worried about the girls watching the event, but they did fine, and Tessa actually liked it.
That night Cathy and the girls stayed at home and Katia, her husband and I went out for another dinner and a small pub crawl. We were concerned that we might get hungry, so we had to keep it going.
The next morning we had a special excursion to Katia's in-law's orange plantation very close to town. The region is the largest producer of citrus fruit and the season is coming in November and December. We even got to take a few locally grown squashes and melons back, which were great. Later, after another beautiful three course lunch we all headed back to Zaragoza, still full from the experiences and the feasts.
This experience made us feel more authentically Spanish and we so appreciated the opportunity to be on the 'inside' of such a marvelous cultural experience. A big thank you to Katia and her family for inviting us.
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