Seville

At 14.30 hrs, we got into a taxi at Seville Santa Justa station after a very pleasant 300kmph six-hour train ride from Barcelona.

Bb: Calle Flandes, number X, please.
Taxi Driver (TD): Where’s that?
Bb (after a quizzical look to Dd): Have you got GPS?
TD (with a shrug) pulls out a phone from the mess in his glove pocket and plugs it in. About five minutes later we move off, hopefully. 15 minutes later, driving down a broad boulevard lined with many café terraces…
Bb: What’s the name of this street?
TD: Can’t remember. Look at the street signs on the corners of the buildings.
He soon stopped on a corner and gave us directions to walk to our apartment, saying it was too complicated to actually drive there! It turned out we were only four minutes away, and he probably saved us money on the metre!

Later, I decided, spontaneously, to go to a bullfight in La Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla, where I first attended one 44 years ago, as an impressionable, twenty-year old, budding writer. I know they are very controversial but, nevertheless, it’s fascinating to see the strength of the tradition in one of its heartlands, still being passed down generation to generation. The torero shown here is Mariscal Ruiz, whose great grandfather and all the male line since have been in the ring. The activity has been banned in Barcelona, but it’s hard to see it going from Andalucía any time soon.

This shot has echoes of the one I was awarded Blip of the Week for in 2010. A quiet moment with a certain intensity, just before the matador enters the arena. As then, I’d rather not have a debate about bullfighting here, but rather see this as a ‘moment in time’ capture within a cultural tradition alien to, and very likely unsupported by, most of us.

PS
Here’s link to the Blip of the week shot for the record.
Bb

https://www.blipfoto.com/entry/674587