Dont Root for the Bull!

Benidorm Spain

August 23rd, 2008

One of the first ports I had the pleasure of visiting was a city in Spain with long sandy beaches, British pubs, bull fighting and a Burger King.

We pulled-in to the port, well, we didn’t actually “pull-in” - the USS Forrestal was a little too large to pull up to their dock so we anchored just off shore and rode liberty boats to and from the fleet landing. Amazingly enough the process of getting all of us Sailors to and from the shore was pretty efficient and the liberty boat was like an old Disney E-Ticket ride, life was good.

It was almost noon Benidorm time when I hit the Spanish shores for the first time, I was hungry. Back in the early 1980’s Americas fast food industry hadn’t yet invaded every corner of the planet like it has today and Burger King, that little slice of home, was on my list of a must visit location. But not on this day, my first day in Spain - today was going to be something authentic - today was going to be paella!

My paella came in what looked like a deep dish pizza pan, mussels and scallops laid on top of a brilliantly cooked yellow rice and was served to me at a table that overlooked the beach - I swear I thought I could even speak the language after the first bite, I had arrived!

One of the other must visit locations was the bull fighting arena, some of us wanted to see this Latin sport in real life. Remember, most of us had only seen Bugs Bunny attempt the sport so a real life participation was intriguing.

I think we spent about $25 for a seat near the front, there was about 8 of us as I recall. Grouped together, we were ready to do some yelling support for our player on the field. We learned some valuable lessons on this day. First bull fighting is a gruesome sport, the bull gets hacked up pretty good even before the Matador enters the ring - the bull is truly the underdog. Lesson two, DON’T ROOT for the underdog while at a bull fight in Spain! Those Spaniards somehow take it as an insult… Anyway, back to the port visit.

My first Guinness Stout was drawn in a pub just off the beach. Guinness is the perfect food. I will stop here and save beers of the world for another post. I better get some additional research in… It is Saturday… OK, that’s it, post over - until next time…