We hadn’t had an hour to relax from the long and difficult hike that we had just taken before I got a call from one of my co-workers. She and another co-worker who usually go back to their home towns on the weekends, decided to stay in Jávea this weekend. This was for two reasons: 1) because we weren’t going to have school Tuesday-Thursday of the following week and they decided to return home then, and 2) because of the local festival, la fiesta de Jesus de Nazaret, the town was going to have bull runs every night during the weekend.
If you aren’t familiar with the “Running of the Bulls” tradition in Spain, it is when a bull (or several bulls) is released into a closed off portion of a town square and local men (and many youngsters) run in front of the bull while teasing and taunting it the whole time. I have seen the bull running once in Jávea during another holiday that we had in January (I talk about it here). To me, the whole tradition is sad, crazy, funny and so many other things all at once. The sad part about it is that, in my opinion, it is a true form of animal torture. Not only do the Spanish people raise, capture, and mistreat these bulls only to be a part of Spanish entertainment but at the end of the Bull Run, they are also usually killed. The bull running tradition is crazy to me because I believe that, in some way or another, the young men who participate in this event do so only to display their Machismo, or excessive masculinity. But in my opinion, they are doing the exact opposite. The men usually stand in an open section of the square and tantalize the bulls and as soon as the bulls come their way, the guys make a run for it. To me, this is funny because it sort of makes the guys look like punks.
Although my friend and I were pretty exhausted from our hiking trip we decided that we just had to go see the bull running, not only because it’s such as huge part of Spanish culture but because it is certainly entertaining. The funny thing is that the only other time that my friend was in Jávea just so happened to be the only other weekend that the bulls were in town. We concluded that whenever she shows up, the bulls show up.
After getting dressed, we met one of my co-workers outside and walked with her to where the festivities were being held. It was located in the old town, very close to my piso. Once we had arrived we found my other co-worker, whose boyfriend had come to town, and we chatted with them and watched the Bull Run. It was as entertaining as usual.
When the first part of the Bull Run was over, my co-workers informed us that we had to come back at 11:00pm for the toros embolados, or "bulls with the flaming horns." This is when the men were going to place fire torches on the bulls’ horns. The idea of bulls running after men with fire attached to their horns sounded pretty dangerous, but also pretty awesome at the same time. We definitely knew that we were going to come back.
During the break that we had we decided to get something to eat. One of my co-workers had to return to her piso to do something, and she lived in the port area of town. She kindly volunteered to drop us off at the port since there are so many restaurants there. We took her up on her offer and eventually found a restaurant to eat at. We both ordered from the menu of the night, which is like the menú del dia, but for the evening. Many restaurants have menus at night as well, but they are generally more expensive. We shared bread and a bottle of wine. For my first plate I had lasagna with meat, spinach and cheese, it was really good. For my second plate I had a chicken and steak kebab with some vegetables. I also had an apple pie for dessert. Everything was delicious.
After eating we met my co-worker and headed back to the Bull Run. At this point we were very full of food and wine and I could hardly walk from the 6-hour hike that we had taken. Although I was a little tired, I was immediately awaken when I witnessed the placement of the fire torches on the bull’s horns. This was possibly the most dangerous part of it all. Before releasing the bull from the truck, about 10 men stood outside the truck holding ropes attached to the bull so that they would be able to control it. After the truck doors were opened, the bull tried to take off but was finally held in place by the men struggling to keep it there. Some of the guys even tried to jump on top of the bull to keep it in place, which was very funny. After having control over the bull, the fire torches were then placed on its horns. Then the bull was released and the bull running began again. This time, as the bull was running it kept trying to get rid of the flames. You could tell how annoyed it was. This also made the bull running quite dangerous. The men were more cautious of their movements and the audience was more attentive to the location of the bull at all times, so that they wouldn’t get hurt when the bull got close to the barricades.
After being extremely entertained by the bulls, all of us decided that we were tired and ready to go. Besides, there were still going to be several more runs all weekend. My co-worker and her boyfriend dropped us off at my piso, which was totally unnecessary because I lived so close, but I still appreciated it, especially since I had limited walking abilities. We definitely slept very well that night.
In the morning we had breakfast and my friend took her bus back to Alicante not too long afterwards. I had already concluded that I wasn’t doing anything that day. My whole body was extremely sore and my feet were so swollen that I could barely walk. I took some medicine, elevated my feet and relaxed the entire day.
What a great weekend in Jávea!
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