In search of nature

One of the peons (assistant matadors), clearly too long stood at the bar. This is a tall, broad-shouldered and red-cheeked man, who can not get my Montero (hat) to sit on his head. Reeling, runs along the fence, and entertains the audience with jokes. But I was not attracted to tourist attractions. I came here to write. Do not come here - go to Valencia, where one of the biggest arenas of Spain and the famous museum tavromahii. ... And here I am on the road. Nature and settlements do not are particularly picturesque. Some uncertain terrain, dotted with patches of gardens. Perhaps the time of the year to blame for the fact that the green color seems faded and dull. Suddenly, just before most of Valencia, the landscape is changing. Locality something similar in the south-east Asia. If we entered a door separating the dry from the hammam steam Finnish: depression begins around Albufera - one of the few natural lakes in Spain. The terrain is flat, smooth, even, as if hot air melted all the irregularities. In terrible stuffiness of rice fields go to the men and women are seen only from afar yellow hat. What rich colors! Beyond the lake, reflected in the water blond highlights oily, stretched white city. Of the thick shaggy green peep small, reed-roofed houses, a doorway tightened mosquito nets. Slightly away from the water, where the soil is slightly drier, pitched their branches of huge trees and lush crowns. Latin sails - just shark fins against the sky, boats themselves have not yet seen. Resting on the shore of the workers - thin, unshaven man in the eyes of painful brilliance, his head tied with a handkerchief, hand held sickles. Who chews the reed, who drinks water from a small skins. Near the boat is waiting with a thick slanted mast. After resting, the men raised a powerful yard with a triangular sail and settle on the bottom of the boat. Salty sea breeze gets to work, the two are at the helm and the boat, rustling, gliding through the reeds. It's about local places told Blasco Ibanez in their harsh realistic novels, "The Cursed Earth" and "Reed and silt. And now, watching an unhealthy locality, and hard-working people, it is impossible not to recall the Ibanez ... The club bullfighters at Valencia is full of people, not just those who need me. Well, let's take the bull by the horns. Near the station is Plaza de Toros, there are going to all those who have nothing better to do on stage, kids of all ages play in the bullfight. My companion goes to the museum and almost immediately returned to the company of two men: the gatekeeper, and a young guy with the arm in a sling. Finally! Yes, the guy with the bandaged hand agrees to pose, but the owner requests the costumes for hire such an amount that I pale. To top it all turns out that the guy was not a matador. It turns out I was asked to write a substitute in another's feathers ... New contacts, suggestions, frustrations ... The more I lose heart, the harder it becomes to find the nature, the more I become capricious. In desperation, settle in the most expensive hotel Valencia. City dominated the infernal heat. Sweat, nerves stretched to the limit. There can be no worse, and I'm waiting fracture. And suddenly - a new hope! I enter the studio to pay, where two elderly cutter, each at his desk, quickly are operating fine and scissors. Here is a nice cool, dim light. The material is dark, opaque, mirrors reflect multiple operating cutters. They are brothers, both of matadors, studio designed to provide them with old age. Look at me questioningly. Living eyes resemble a squirrel, and the second is kept strictly. No, no, I'm not a suit. I wanted a teacher matadors Graner showed me the Valencian school. Suddenly a hoarse voice, man, with a squirrel eyes says that he - Graner, but the school is, alas, closed. Want to see a real bullfight, sir, go to Albacete, the city of sharp knives. On Sunday I'll be there to act as banderilleros - says Graner. Quickly weighed all the circumstances, I agree and propose to take him back and forth to my car. ... Albacete. Center, several blocks of tall buildings, though surrounded by countryside. The city is famous for its knives and a large number of bullfighting - as many as eight hundred people!