Dear International Living Reader,

I couldn’t visit Spain’s capital and not experience Las Ventas–Madrid’s Plaza de Toros. I had to go on my own, though; my husband refuses to have anything to do with bullfights and what he calls "butchers in fancy dress".

During summer, bullfights in Madrid’s Arabic-style bullring take place on Sundays, at 7 p.m. You can buy a ticket up to ten minutes before the start of the corrida, and also from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays at the ticket office. Prices range from 2.90 euro for a seat way up high in the sol (sun) to 86.40 euro down at the front in the sombra (shade).

Regardless of what happens elsewhere in Spain, a bullfight always starts on time. As my programa puts it: "It is important that you enter the Plaza about half an hour before the starting time…otherwise it would be very difficult to reach your seat until the first bull is killed, missing thus a nice part of the performance."

If you’re a bullfight virgin, hawkers come around with an English language "programa de toros" for four euro. It’s worth buying as it explains exactly what’s taking place–the ceremony of the keys…what happens during each tercio (the three distinct parts of a bullfight)…the role of the picadores and the banderilleros…and much else besides.

The Spanish have almost as many words for different bulls as the Inuit people apparently have for snow. A careto is a bull with a white face…a cardeno has black and white hair…a colorado is chestnut red…a lucero has a white patch on the forehead… an ojo de perdiz has a red ring around the eyes…a retinto is a reddish-yellow bull with black points to the hair…and an aino is completely matt black.

I bought a 25.60 euro ticket for a midway-up seat in the shade. Definitely rent a cushion for 1 euro, otherwise you’ll be sitting on hard stone. A young English couple–cushionless–started fidgeting beside me almost straight away. I don’t know why they were here because they didn’t have a clue. "The bull doesn’t actually get killed does it?" asked the girl. "Well, yes–you’re at a corrida," I replied. "And you’ll see it happen six times."

"Ooh, I don’t think we’ll like that," she said. They didn’t. They left after the first bull.

Steenie Harvey
Roving Euro-editor, International Living

P.S. If you feel you’re in need of a stiff drink after just one dead bull has been dragged out of the arena, avoid the bar called Cafeteria Cesar, across the main road outside Las Ventas. It’s a temple to bullfighting–mounted on the wall were two bulls’ heads from the June 8th fight during the San Isidro Feria (festival). A bull’s head looks hellish large close up and I wouldn’t have fancied facing either. Each was for sale (1,400 euro apiece), but I didn’t buy. I was sure my soft-hearted husband would have fits over the 5-euro poster of today’s fight which I plan to hang in the office.

P.P.S. Bullfight posters are collectors’ items. Needless to say, I don’t mean the junky tourist ones sold around Plaza Mayor where you can have your own name inserted on the program-I’m talking about the real thing. There’s a shop called Agustin on Calle de Rodas in the Madrid’s La Latina neighborhood where you can buy antique posters.