Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Lagos, Portugal - DAY NINE




Today we took it easy as we were leaving for Lisbon the next day. We startd with a great yummy breakfast and a bit of a read (The usual morning routine) and then decided to wander down to the pier and the marina to sit in the sun and read.... a change of scenery from the backyard. On the way down the marina we noticed a guy in a wet suit swimming around. Curious, we sat on the little wall and watched. He was actually spear fishing for crab and fish. It was amazing to watch. He came up every couple of minutes with dinner-worthy catch. He stayed in the water to do this while his partner stayed up on land. Everytime he caught a fish he threw it up to his partner. It was fun to watch. From there we walked the length of pier and sat down to soak in the rays. Very relaxing. There were big waves and they continuously crashed up over the huge rocks and up onto the pier. Lovely.
Late afternoon we headed to the grocery store to treat ourselves to a big, thick, juicy steak as this will be the last good meal we'll have in a while I imagine. We brought it back and had it with pork, veggies and potatoes stuffed with cheese, butter and onions... YUM! We ate early (6:30pm rather than the usual 9:00pm), packed our stuff up and then headed out to a bar to watch the soccer game at 7:30pm. After the game we hit up this place referred to as the Canadian bar where we had a couple of 2 for 1 cocktails. At around 11:30pm we headed back to the apt where we chatted and then hit the sack. Up early to check out and catch the bus to Lisbon.

Lagos, Portugal - DAY EIGHT





Dolphin watching day!
Luke and I got up early and headed to the marina to sign up for the dolphin watching excursion offered here in Lagos. We arrived at 10:30am to sign in and at 11:00am we were off! We all hopped on this boat with 12 seats that you straddle like a horse and with stirrups so that you don't get flung off when the boat hits a wave. Off we went.... and Jesus the boat went fast! On our way out to the ocean we were told that we should all keep a lookout for the dolphins as, of course, the more people that are looking, the more likely that we'll spot them. And who spotted the first pod? ME! That's right! ME! I saw them from quite far away and pointed in that direction as I had been instructed to do. The boat changed course and charged over and as we slowed down we could see them.... Beautiful. So lovely and graceful. They jumped and danced for us. They played with the boat. It brought tears to my eyes (Though I hid that fact from everyone else). Once we had a look we zoomed off to another spot about 8 miles from the coast and when we arrived there were at least a dozen beauties playing around. They swam under the boat, around the boat, in front of the boat.... It was beautiful. Definitely one of the top ten things I've experienced. They were so close to the boat that I leaned over the edge I felt like I could touch them (Though of course I didn't as they are wild animals and not meant to be handled). It was positively wonderful.
Once we got back on land Luke and I headed back to the apt for something to eat (We skipped brekkie) and then we relaxed by the pool with a book. At dinner time we cooked with Tom and Sarah and spent the balance of the evening chatting with them over drinks in the backyard.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Lagos, Portugal - DAY SEVEN





We woke up to the alarm and I dragged myself out of bed to get ready for the water park. I woke Luke up and unfortunately he had a headache and didn't feel up to going and went back to sleep. I stayed up so that I could tell Tom and Sarah that we wouldn't be joining them after all. They said that was fine and didn't end up going either.
Since Luke was sleeping I decided to take a walk around and hit the supermarket for some stuff we needed as well as pick up a pastry that Luke is in love with and a croissant for myself. I came back and made myself some coffee and enjoyed my croissant with some delicious cherry jam. YUM.
Evenutally Luke rolled out of bed at about noon to join the living. He joined me at the table for a coffee and then I gave him his treat. He was a happy camper. We relaxed for the day reading and having a look for gifts around town. There are tons of little boutiques and souvenier shops. As we were walking back to the apt. we came across this guy that was painting tiles with his hands. Amazing. Luke and I watched for about half an hour and then decided to have him make 2 for us (I thought this would make a great gift for my Dad, and Luke and I wanted one for ourselves). This guy is great! We told him to just paint whatever he wanted and he did... wonderful. Hope Dad likes it!
After that we headed back to the apt and made dinner and had a chat with Tom and Sarah. We hit the sack early.

Lagos, Portugal - DAY SIX

Today we took it easy... again. We did do some poking around the town but again pretty much just stayed around the apt and read. We're both really enjoying the books we're reading so we're happy to just sit around and get into them.
We had dinner at home (We haven't eaten out since we've been here) and then headed out to the bar to meet up with Tom and Sarah. We arrived a little early so we played a game of pool to entertain ourselves. Tom and Sarah arrived about half an hour later and the four of us played doubles which was pathetic cause none of us are very good. After the pool we had a seat an chatted and then Karaoke began. We all watched for a few hours and then Tom and Sarah decided to go home and go to bed. We had all agreed that we would get up early and head out to this water park about an hour out of town. We thought it would be fun to spend the day like kids on the slides.
Luke and I weren't ready to go home just yet so he and I checked out a blues bar we had noticed a few nights before but when we poked our heads in Luke wasn't all that impressed by the band so we opted not to pay the 5 Euro cover charge and instead headed back to the apt and our bed.

Lagos, Portugal - DAY FIVE

Today we were pretty tired and lazy so we slept in and had breakfast late and pretty much just sat around the pool. We did take a walk to the supermarket and a bit of a wander but we basically just lazed around all day. How fabulous.
A new couple arrived (MORE AUSTRALIANS) and we hung out with them for the evening. We all sat in the backyard and had a few drinks together. Luke and I had intended to go out for a few drinks but instead ended up staying in with Tom and Sarah all night. We made plans with them to go out the following night.

Lagos, Portugal - DAY FOUR




Beach day! Again we had a fabulous breakfast and some coffee and a little read and then decided to hit the beach. We walked to the grottos and found a quiet little beach with only about a dozen people and we plunked ourselves down in the sun. Luke went in the water (While I watched and froze my ass off for him) and I lay there soaking in the rays and working on my golden tan (Luke and I are brown, brown, brown and loving it!). Because the beach is surrounded by the cliffs the sun started to move behind one and before we knew it we were in the shade and the tide was getting high enough that we had to move. We walked through a tunnel through the cliff to the second beach where there was more room and lots of sun and continued to read and sun ourselves. By this point I was sweating like a pig (The sun here doesn't burn like it does at home but it is HOT HOT HOT) so I decided to brave the cold water and take a dip. Luke went directly in, no hesitation and I chickened out and only went in a little past my knees. I wasn't THAT HOT! The little dip cooled me down but that only lasted about half an hour. Eventually I got the guts and Luke and I went in together.... and BOY WAS IT FREEZING! Once you get in to about your thighs you have no choice but to immerse yourself as the tide is so strong and the water gets so high it just covers you and drags you out there. It was GREAT once I got used to it so Luke and I had a swim and a play and then headed back to the beach to warm up. After a few hours we decided it was time to pack it up and head back to the apt.
We hung out by the pool in the backyard and read and had a drink and then we lay down and watched T.V. for a little while before preparing dinner. We had another great meal and then headed out for a drink at the free internet place before heading back home to go to bed.

Lagos, Portugal - DAY THREE




















We got up and had another yummy breakfast and sat around in the backyard for a while reading our books and drinking coffee.
Early afternoon we decided to go out and walk the cliffs of the grottos that we had seen yesterday. We put our suits on under our clothes and left.
The walk was great - good exercise and GREAT views (As you can see from the photos). It was VERY hot which made it a little difficult but it was definitely worth it! We walked for about an hour and a half and then eventually turned around and came back... figured we'd hit one of the beaches on the way. We climbed down a ton of stairs and walked out onto a beautiful beach. I took my flip flops off and put my feet in the water and ...... YIKES! The water was bloody freezing! There was NO WAY I was going all the way in! What a change from France and Italy... shouldn't have been at all surprising as we are now at the Atlantic Ocean. Luke, the tough guy that he is stripped down to his swim shorts and went in! BRAVE! He looked like he was freezing his ass off and that just confirmed that the water was definitely too cold for me. After he took a quick dip we headed to the supermarket to pick up dinner as we had invited Miles and Jo and Magda to join us for a BBQ. Luke and I picked up 1KG of prawns, 5 potatoes and some veggies to cook and we picked up some wine and beer for good measure. On the way back to the apt we ran into Jo who was also on her way back from the store. She decided to head up to our apt with us as Miles had gone ahead to ring the bell... we had agreed to meet outside of their place but they couldn't remember that... they weren't sure if it was there or at our place so we headed that way hoping to run into Miles, which we did. Jo sent him to the butcher to get some sausages and hamburgers and we went ahead to the apt to get settled. We dumped everything, prepped some drinks (Tinto de Verana - the wine and fanta drinks we consumed the whole time we were all in Seville) and Jo made some nachos (Very Portuguese, I know). Miles arrived a few minutes after us and at that point we started prepping the food.... a FEAST! We had prawns cooked with lemons, garlic and onions, potatoes chopped up with s&p and butter, fresh pork sausages and zucchini, onions, peppers and mushrooms with herb dressing. INCREDIBLE! We had a great time chatting as we cooked and drank and finally Magda arrived and joined in the fun. Such great company. We're lucky to have met Miles and Jo. As we feasted we complimented eachother on the lovely job we all did cooking (Who needs to go out for dinner when you can eat like that at home!?). After dinner the drinks and conversation continued to flow until a little after midnight when we all decided it was time to retire to our rooms. Luke and I said goodnight to Miles and Jo and finished our drinks alone in the backyard. A short while later we got into bed to watch T.V. and fall asleep. All in all it was a great day.

Lagos, Portugal - DAY TWO












Ahhh..... today we slept in until about 10am.... wonderful.... like a VACATION! I didn't sleep well, again, due to my cough but at least I could sleep in.... it kinda makes up for the missed hours during the night. We made breakfast... Fried egg sandwich with HP and sausages.... YUM, YUM, YUM.... a REAL breakfast. It's been so long.... Anyway, enough about the food.... not all that interesting to all of you, sorry.
So..... we had breakfast and read magazines for a bit while we waited for noon to roll around when we left to pick up the balance of our laundry. Everything was clean! We haven't had a bag full of clean clothes, well, ever. It was such a small thing but we were both thrilled. Once we got back we had a sit down by the pool where we met another neighbor, an Austrian girl named Magda. She's here for a week of surf lessons... pretty cool. We chatted with her for a while and then invited her to come out with us for a drink later. I told her we would be at the Shaker Bar (Free internet if you buy a drink - what a bonus when you have a budget like ours!) at around 9:30pm. Luke and I then made lunch, had a sangria and at around 3pm we headed out to have a look around. We walked down to the harbour, which is lovely... there are little crabs climbing all over the rocks and lots of sardines swimming about... kinda neat, and then kept going until we found the grottos we had heard so much about. We found stairs that bring you down to the beaches but the water was pretty high at this in the day point so if you went all the way down you would end up in the ocean. We could see from there that you can walk along the top of the cliffs but we didn't want to start that at that point.... we decided to walk the whole thing the following day when it wasn't so late in the afternoon.
We then headed back to the apt. to make dinner.... prawns with lemon and onions, potatoes and pork chops on the BBQ. Double yum! After dinner we headed out to the bar to meet Magda and check our email. When we got there it was packed as there was a football game on so Luke sat at the computer and Magda and I headed somewhere else to have a drink where it was quieter. We agreed to check back in with Luke after about half an hour. She and I had a good chat and a cold drink then headed back to pick up Luke. We all agreed that the bar was just too busy and loud for us so the three of us found a nice, cosy place where we had another drink. Magda left at about 11:30pm as she gets up early in the morning for her lessons and Luke and I finished our drinks shortly after and headed out to find another bar. We ended up bar-hopping until about 2:30am when we ran into a bunch of the Busabout kids at this all-hours club. We hung out for about half an hour but we then decided to go home as we were pretty drunk and didn't want to sleep the following day away.

Friday, September 23, 2005

Lagos, Portugal - DAY ONE






We left Seville at 8:00am (Those early mornings are not getting any easier even though we've been doing them for 2 months now....) to head to Lagos, Portugal and THE BEACHES..... SANDY beaches!
We arrived at about 10:30am and we were impressed as soon as we walked from the bus to the hostel office. What a beautiful country. Even as we crossed the border from Spain the scenery changed drastically and was probably the most beautiful scenery we have seen from the bus so far. (Pat, you're a lucky bastard to be from this wonderful country!).
We lined up to check in and as we were waiting the receptionist called out "Does anyone want a double room?" Luke and I were booked to be in a 4 bed room but we looked at eachother and I said "Ah, fuck it, let's just do it...." and we did. We checked in and waited to be taken to our apartment. (The way it works here is that they have apartments all over the town where they put everyone). Miles and Jo had checked in before us and came down from their apartment. We asked how their room was (They booked a double as well) and they told us they had a private bedroom and a kitchen, etc and CABLE T.V:! (Luke and I haven't seen English T.V. since we left). They mentioned right after that they thought they might be the only ones with that luxury because when the woman told them about it she made it sound that way. Luke and I crossed our fingers, hoping that we'd get at least the news in English so we can catch up with what's going on in the world...). Well, we lucked out.... We arrived at our place, were let into the front door, walked up the stairs and led into our apartment. It was incredible... (Keep in mind we've mainly been living in rooms with a few, if not many other people and that the only times we've had privacy we were in tents or trailers, none of which had kitchens or private bathrooms) we had a bathroom (Shared with only ONE other person) a dining room (Shared), a kitchen (Shared but with stove, fridge, microwave and all the cutlery and dishes we could ask for). We were taken through the kitchen to the BACKYARD (God.... to access the outdoors without going down a million stairs or an elevator!)where there was.... wait for it.... wait for it.... A POOL! A BBQ! LOUNGE CHAIRS! GRASS! A PATIO TABLE! We were blown away! And then we were showed to our room. The woman took us into the backyard, unlocked a set of sliding glass doors on the side of the house and then we saw it.... our room.... HUGE! A 4-poster bed! A T.V. with cable and about 20 English channels! A full-length mirror! We were in heaven (See photos of everything!!!). After checking in we followed the receptionist to a laundrette where we dropped ALL of our clothes off to wash out the bed bugs. It ended up costing us €32 but we were able to pick half of it up at 6:30pm and the second half at 11:30am the following day. From there we headed out to the fresh food market and a wander. We got to the market, hoping to find some fresh mussels but didn't and we weren't exactly sure what we had at the apt. and how we would go about cooking most of the fish, etc that was at the market so we hit up the supermarket afterwards. There we boughts some prawns, calamari, cheese, eggs, bread, milk, chips, juice, wine, spagetti sauce, fusili noodles, HP sauce, margarine, etc... It was just like being at home! Oh, the meals we could cook!
We wandered around town keeping an eye out for Miles and Jo as we had told them earlier that we would see them at the laundrette but we didn't go to the same one that they went to so we figured we'd take a poke around to see what they were up to. We came across them ordering lunch so we stopped for a minute but Luke and I continued on to the apt to make our lunch.
We headed back to the apt. and made lunch... tuna sandwiches and home made sangria. Fabulous. Yummy and refreshing. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging around, reading magazines in the sun in the backyard because neither of us had our bathing suits or anything to swim in because EVERYTHING was in the laundry.
Luke ended up taking a bit of a lie down so I decided to befriend a couple that were sitting in the backyard.... Nice couple, from Australia of course, isn't everyone? And eventually 6:30pm rolled around so we walked to the laundrette to fetch our clothes. We weren't sure if she would wash mine or Luke's bunch first so we were both crossing our fingers for ourself and, the wonderfully smart lady behind the counter had combined our stuff so we both had something to wear! YAY! Clean clothes... FINALLY! (Truthfully not only were the clothes buggy, they were also pretty dirty and stinky!).
We headed back with our booty and started prepping dinner.... fusili noodles with spagetti sauce, baby shrimp, calamari, peppers and onions... to die for! Afterwards we had a few drinks in the backyard and relaxed until bedtime. We were ready to hit the sack early cause I've got my yearly nasty case of bronchitis so neither of us has slept a full night in about a week...... it's pretty tiring and frustrating but hopefully it'll pass soon.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Seville, Spain - DAY THREE

Today we woke up at about 10:00am and immediately headed out to buy an outfit for each of us to wear while all of our clothes were being washed. Once we did that we headed back to the hostel, packed our knapsacks into large plastic bags the clerk at H & M gave us, put together all of the non-clothing items, took a shower and put our clean clothes on. We each had these HUGE bags of clothes to carry but we headed off on foot to find the two laundrymats the receptionist at the hostel told us to go to... and of course they couldn't have it done for us today, which won't work for us cause we have to head to Lagos tomorrow... UNBELIEVABLE! We dragged these bags across town for 1 1/2 and then back to the hostel FOR NOTHING... and everything we own is STILL INFESTED to boot. (Well, Luke doesn't have any bites or any signs of bed bugs but we still want to wash all of his stuff just in case he's a carrier - some people don't get bit they just infect all of the beds they sleep in!). Luke and I argued the whole time we did this... it was Luke saying "Who cares about everyone else... who cares if they get bed bugs... fuck 'em" and me yelling back... "I care, asshole.. someone did that and I have bed bugs now... I'm not doing it to someone else... and I don't want to keep getting bit and carrying these bugs around for another two months..." It was unbelievable. I swear he doesn't take it seriously simply because he's not in my position.. well, I'm hoping that he'll get them too and then I´ll say the same shit to him!
After we brought our stuff back to the hostel we were starving so we went back to that Irish Pub where we had the great lunch the day before and who did we run into... Miles and Jo. It's like we're all attached at the hip at this point or something.... Well, we joined them for lunch and then we split off from them to go back to the hostel and switch rooms... there was no way I was going to sleep in my bug-infested bed again now that I was clean and bug-free.... We moved our stuff into a 5 bed room and we have these great, clean, fresh beds to sleep in. Wonderful. Luke and I took a nap (Siesta) and then got up and went for a drink. Now it's 8:30pm and we're here at the internet place updating and emailing. From here we'll go the old man tapas bar for cheap drinks and snacks and then we'll head out for dinner. We leave for Lagos and the beautiful beach tomorrow... can't wait. Lagos is nicknamed The Black Hole of Europe because people stop there for 2 days but end up staying for 2 weeks or 2 months. We're prepared to be part of this group. We're looking forward to sitting on our asses, sleeping in and not feeling guilty about it and enjoying the cheap food and booze (Though the accommodation is crazy-expensive).

Seville, Spain - DAY TWO




















Seville! I love it!
Woke up this morning with little, actually big, bites on my arms and legs (It's sick cause now they're a little weepy... sorry, but it's true. I'm pretty damn gross. No fun.
I told the guy at reception cause I want to make sure that they sterilize everything when I leave but for some reason he didn't seem all that worried and simply said that they would change the bedding... God and I know that won't help the next person.
It was Sunday, and of course nothing is open so we couldn't do our damn laundry. I have to go through yet ANOTHER day of wearing bug infested clothes and sleeping in a bug infested bed (Infested by me, sadly - the bed, that is).
That aside, I got up earlier than Luke and tried to drag him out of bed but he wouldn't have it so I went ahead to the cafe on the corner with my book and had a cappuccino. Luke arrived shortly after me. After the cappuccino we wandered around a bit to find the tourist office where we could find out the time of the BULL FIGHT in the evening. Bull fights are on every Sunday.... we had damn good timing stopping here for the weekend! At the info centre we ran into the lovely Miles and Jo. We found out that the Bull fight was at 6:30pm so, starving, we all headed out for lunch. We found an Irish pub/restaurant that served regular pub food (None of us are all that fond of Spanish food - It's kinda creepy) where Luke and I had THE BEST grilled chicken burgers with guacamole IN THE WORLD! The four of us enjoyed our lunch and a beer and then headed to the cathedral across the street (The 3rd largest in Europe after the St. Peter's in Rome, St. Paul's in London... the 4th is in Florence - FYI). The cathedral was free... another bonus about Sundays so we wandered around inside taking everything in... absolutely stunning. It was about 3:00pm at this point and everyone wanted to go home to shower and have a bit of a siesta so we split up and agreed to meet at the Plaza del Toros (Bull ring) at 5:00pm to buy the tickets to the fight. Luke and I had a look at some souvenir shops and then headed back to the hostel to take a shower. (The city SHUTS DOWN at around 1:30pm until about 6:00pm for siesta because the afternoon heat is KILLER here).
Luke and I arrived at the Plaza del Toros at 5:00pm SWEATING like PIGS from the unbelievable heat and waited for Miles and Jo who arrived about 5 minutes after us. We all agreed that we would buy fairly cheap tickets just in case we didn't enjoy it and wanted to walk out. We paid €10 each for quite good seats.... the ring is quite small and lovely so you have a great view from pretty much anywhere but we were about 12 rows from the ring itself.
After purchasing the tickets we still had about 1 1/2 hours until showtime so we walked down the street to an air-conditioned cafe for some sangrias. Very refreshing. At 6:00pm we headed back to the ring to find our seats. As I mentioned previously, they were great seats though we were directly in the sun for about 1/2 hour until the sun started to set... then it was lovely.
Bull fighting is not what I expected. It goes like this: About 6 matadors come into the ring, salute, and then take their positions around the ring. There are little slots that they can slide behind if the bull gets too close so they stand near those. Then the bull enters. These matadors (Not very important matadors.. kind of like third string) proceed to tire the bull out by yelling "Toro" and "Ole" and flicking their fuschia capes in the bulls face. Once the bull starts to look like he's getting slightly tired the band strikes up and two men in lower body armour on horse-back come out with large spears. The third-string matadors distract the bull while these guys get into position on either side of the ring and then the bull is teased by the men on horseback so that the bull rages toward the horse (Don't worry Angie, the horses wore protective covering though it WAS definitely still disturbing, especially because they were blindfolded). The horse stands its ground against the bull while the guy on the horse proceeds to stab the bull a few times on it's back. Once they've got the bull bleeding (At this point you can see the blood glistening off of it's side) the band strikes up again and the men on horseback leave the ring. Then the second-string matadors enter the ring. There are three of them and they have these weird spear-like weapons that have a large, cotton part on them so that they don't stand straight off of the bulls back once they stick it with them... they just flop around and you can see them soak up the blood as the poor damn animal starts to bleed to death. Anyway, these second-string matadors each have a turn to jam these weapons into the bull's back. They do this by taunting the bull and then jumping up and out of it's way as they run toward it and it runs toward them. As they land them JAM them in. Not pretty. All the while, the first-string matadors are tiring the bull out by teasing him as we always see on t.v. and the movies... you know the move... "Toro" and they flick the cape at the bull, the bull charges at them and they lean slightly out of the way. The closer the matador gets to the bull, and the more times they can keep the bull going around them without it stopping, the more the crowd yells. After this the REAL matador strides cockily into the ring with his red cape and his sword. The third-string matadors distract the bull as he bows and moves to his position in the middle of the ring. They then get out of the way and allow him to do his thing. (At this point the bull is half dead so everything this matador does is just pathetic as far as I'm concerned... the first and second-string blokes do all the work!). The matador then shouts "Toro" and proceeds to flick his cape and move fluidly around the bull. The way he moves and his costume are much more impressive than what he is actually doing. As the bull gets more and more tired the matador gets cockier and cockier and starts to even turn his back on the bull to look at the crowd and bask in his popularity. (These matadors are like super-stars... they are treated like celebrities and women are DYING to sleep with them... beats me...). The third-string matadors enter the ring again to help the main matador bring the bull to a stand still while he attempts to stab this sword into the bulls back. Ideally the sword would stick in the bull about 1 1/2 feet deep if the matador does it correctly. (Unfortunately for the first 2 bulls the matadors had 3, 4, 5 tries before they actually stabbed it in deep enough. The third matador did it on the first try.) Once they successfully plant the sword into the bull they are given a second sword, this one has a T shape at the tip so that it REALLY does damage. Now the third-string matadors crowd around the bull and helps the main matador have the bull position his head low. The matador raises this sword, glinting in the fading sunlight, and brings it down into the back of the bulls skull with such force that the bull collapses immediately. The matador then turns to the crowd and puts an arm up, bows and walks out of the ring. As he is doing this, the bull is actually still alive, believe it or not, and someone, unbelievably takes a small dagger-like knife and stabs the bull in the brain and moves the dagger around to make sure it's dead. I know this because the first bull was killed directly in front of us. I had to close my eyes for most of the fight, but couldn't help but want to watch at the same time simply because it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Once the bull is dead the bring out a team of 4 horses that drag the bull around the ring before dragging it out of the ring. And then it's on to the next bull.... If it were up to me, the bull would be let loose in the ring with the main matador, he would have to tire it out himself and THEN he would go one on one.
We stayed for 3 of the 7 matches and then went to a Tapas bar for snacks and a few drinks, all the while discussing what we had seen and how pathetic it was that they have to do all this damage to the poor animal before it is finally put out of it's misery and the fact that the third-string matadors do a hell of a lot more work than the main matador as by the time he actually enters the ring the bull is half-dead..... unbelievable.
After the snacks... we ordered 2 drinks each (sangria) and 4 tapas (small plates with bite size snacks.. ie: 4 pieces of calamari, one skewer of beef) which all came to under €5, we were actually hungry so we found a traditional Spanish restaurant where we had Paella and a pitcher of sangria. Delicious. I had seafood Paella. Unbelievable... rice with mussels, shrimp, calamari, etc. To die for.
After dinner we headed back to the tapas bar for some cheap drinks and at about midnight we said our goodbyes and headed to bed.