Portugal 3 - Bullfighting & Faro

I should probably start off by stating that I'm neither a bloodthirsty neanderthal nor a tree-hugging vegan hippie.  I guess I'm somewhere in between (but likely closer to the neanderthal side I admit).  So I was a bit apprehensive when I was deciding on whether to buy tickets to the bullfight.  What swayed me was the fact that in Portugal, they don't actually kill the bull (in Spain, the matador plunges a spear into the heart of the bull and it dies in the arena in front of everybody).  As Barcelona recently banned bullfighting, and Mexico City is considering a ban, I figured it's only a matter of time before it's outlawed around the world and I decided to see it before I judged it.  I'll talk about it a bit more below, but I will say that I'm glad I went.

Hilariously cheerful art around Lisbon

This street art is more hilarious, but maybe less cheerful...

Marketing works - I was almost convinced to eat here because of this thing lol

A lot of pomp and pageantry before the bullfight.

In Portugal, the bullfight is conducted by a cavaleiros mounted on a specially trained horse.  It's really something incredible to watch the horse standing there as it's being charged by an angry bull, waiting for the rider to give the input to direct the horse.  I will say that it's very sad for the bull, because the cavaleiros sticks darts in the bull's back as it charges.  It obviously hurts the bull because you can see it bleeding.

However, they let the bull get his revenge!  I really enjoyed this part.  You get to see the courage from the forcados, who are 8 young men responsible for letting the bull charge them.  Why do they do this?  Well, all 8 guys push together to stop the bull.  Once the bull is stopped in it's tracks, they hold it for a few seconds to help the bull calm down.  Because of this, they are able to bring the bull out of the arena (because otherwise, what are you going to do with an enraged bull?)

And at the end, they bring out a bunch of female cows in heat to entice the bull to follow them out of the arena.  I'm not kidding, you can't make this shit up.  The bull's pretty tired at this point (from, you know, the bullfight) so I'm not sure what he's planning to do, but good for him in any case!

Portugal 2 - Belem

I will always remember Belem for the egg tarts!  Belem, or Santa Maria de Belem, as it's formally known, was the launching point for the Portuguese exploration ships during Portugal's age of glory (er...  not sure if "glory" is the right word, but they did colonize Brazil and a few other places, I suppose).  Belem is pretty small but it's covered with monuments and other historical buildings that I found fascinating.

Because in Portugal, egg tarts come in a fancy paper tube/box.

What's this?  Tea time?  How nice...  (hahaha I was playing mahjong on my phone while I was waiting for my food & tea to arrive because I'm THAT Asian)

The kitchen where they make those magical Portuguese tarts (Pasteis de Belem)

The Monument to the Discoveries, celebrating Portugal's seafaring history.

Ponte 25 de Abril, designed by the same architect who designed the Golden Gate Bridge (obviously he didn't stray too far from the original).  If you look at the big tower thing on the right side of the picture, that is the Cristo Rei, similar to the famous statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro.

A fine example of azulejo, or paintings on ceramic tiles, Portugal's contribution to the world of art

St Jerome and his lion companion.  Boy, you sure do see a lot of St Jerome around Europe...

hehehe, a history of the Christian faith in Portuguese (and with hilarious cartoon pictures)

What a great day for a walk in the park!

Apparently Lisbon is a city of tolerance!  I suppose they put up with Christiano Ronaldo's whining and diving, so they must be pretty tolerant hahaha

Portugal 1 - Lisbon

Portugal is probably one of the least-visited countries in Western Europe.  The economy here is not quite as strong as it is in most of the other Western European nations and it's a little less developed too.  Of course, the flip side of that is that prices are lower so it's a cheaper destination to visit.  I'm going to ruin the surprise here - it's awesome!  Well worth visiting :)

What I did:

• October 1, 2012 - Late flight in from Barcelona
• October 2, 2012 - Explored all of central Lisbon (it's actually kind of a small city, as far as major European cities go), tried (unsuccessfully) to get Champions League tickets for SL Benfica v. FC Barcelona :(
• October 3, 2012 - Took a day trip out to Belem, a suburb (?) of Lisbon
• October 4, 2012 - Wandered around the Alfama area (the oldest part of town), went to see a bullfight (I figured this might be my only chance ever...  sorry!)
• October 5, 2012 - Travel by bus to Faro (because the train workers were on strike, of course)
• October 6, 2012 - Chill out at my hostel in Faro because I was so sick I didn't feel like doing anything :(
• October 7, 2012 - Stupidly early flight out to London Heathrow, followed a few hours later by my flight back home to YVR (I never actually left LHR, and that was a looooong and unpleasant day)

Highlights:

• Food - Did not see this one coming!  Portuguese cuisine is perfect for somebody like me.  So much meat...  Beef and chicken and beef and chicken!  Oh it was so good...  The Portuguese food that I'm used to eating back home is Nando's chicken, but the food here in Lisbon was so much better!  And the Portuguese tarts in Belem are ridiculous, I ate 4 right off the bat!  I ended up sitting inside and ordering more too, lol.
• The views around the city - Lisbon, Belem, and Faro are all gorgeous.  I'll definitely have to come back next time (and hopefully not be sick!).

awwww yiss!!!

Eating a whole chicken like a boss!

Can't Miss:  Portuguese Food!!!

 

Apparently this is the Portuguese way of making a steak - you grill it, drop a fried egg on it, and serve it with fries.  I'm taking notes, this was fantastic!

Barcelona Part 3 - Exploring the city

I think this is the building for the Archdiocese of Barcelona.  I thought the artwork was kinda neat :)

This is the Museum of the Archdiocese of Barcelona.  Antoni Gaudi designed the doors (he was a very devout Catholic).

An example of the artwork inside the Barcelona Cathedral.  Honestly, the church buildings in this city were amazing!

Leaving Barcelona was pretty sad for me.  I had such a great time seeing the sights and meeting new people!  But I definitely made the most of my time in this city, especially over the last few days!

One of our first sights on the Walking Tour was...  a replica of the statue of David (reminder - the original was by Michaelangelo and is in Florence) staring down on us.  Why?  I have no idea!

The flag with the red and yellow stripes is the flag of Catalan, the area that Barcelona is a part of.  The blue triangle with the white star makes it the Catalan flag of independence.  Given recent political developments...  Let's just say the next time I come to Barcelona, I may need to take another train to get into Spain :P

What I did: 

• September 30, 2012 - Barcelona Cathedral, free walking tour with Travel Bar, dinner and a night out with some new friends ;)
• October 1, 2012 - Free bike tour with Travel Bar (noticing a theme?), flight to Lisbon

La Rambla

More of La Rambla!

Highlights:

• Travel Bar Walking Tour - OK, I have to give a shout out for the Travel Bar Walking Tour and Chris G., our awesome Aussie tour guide!  This dude was probably the best tour guide I've ever had!  He was very cool and had such a huge wealth of knowledge about Barcelona and Catalonia.  His insights definitely helped me enjoy Barca even more.
• The folks I met on the Travel Bar Walking Tour - Yup, lots of good people here!  Had a great time hanging out, having a few drinks, and singing on stage at an Irish karaoke bar!  :)

Lowlights:

• Leaving :(

More paella lol

Can't Miss:  My man Chris G. and the Travel Bar Free Walking Tour!!!

 

That was a wicked bike!

At least, that's what I thought at first...  Riding around Barcelona on it was somewhat less awesome, lol!  But we did get lucky with the weather, because it ended up being a gorgeous, fantastic day for a bike ride around the city :)

Barcelona Part 2 - How to cook (and eat) Paella

Mercat de Sant Josep, just off of La Rambla

On this day, me and Kelven split up and each went our separate ways.  It was a crummy rainy day, which was surprising because I've never heard anybody talk about relentless rain like this in Barcelona before!  But in any case, it's all good.  I went to the market which was...  colourful...  and much different from what I expected a European market to be (see pictures below).  The paella cooking class was fairly disappointing in terms of the "cooking class" part because it was more of a cooking demonstration (ie, the guy does the cooking up front and you don't actually get your hands dirty).  However, they provided us with all the sangria that we wanted which was probably foolish on their part and made the night a lot more enjoyable for us!  :D

Lots of 1 Euro juice stands

At least they warn you it "sucs" lol (actually, I do know that sucs means that the juice is "sweet" in Spanish hahaha)

That's a lot of mutherf***ing eggs!  Also, a little creepy with the chicken dolls around...  Like they're happy that you're eating their offspring...

What I did:

• September 29, 2012 - Wandered around Barcelona (it was kind of a miserable rainy day), went around the Mercat de Sant Josep / La Boqueria, joined a Paella cooking class

Holy crap, by the size of that salmon head that fish is big enough to eat her!  That is, if she hadn't already cut it up lol

I tried some of the jamon iberico (basically the highest grade "ham" that you can find in Spain).  So fatty and rich...  oh yeah...  :D

Soo good :D

Yup, those are skinned rabbits.  Graphic eh?  Oops, I guess I should have warned you.  Sorry!  Was crazy to see this though, I felt like I was in Asia!  In hindsight, maybe I should have tried some rabbit while I was in Barcelona!

Highlights:

• The food markets - I visited a few other ones while I was in Barcelona, but Mercat de Sant Josep was the best (in my opinion) and definitely the largest.  It's so interesting to wander around there because I feel like you learn a lot about a culture from seeing where they get their food!  Also, I really like food...  hahaha
• The sangria drinking class - Oops, I mean the paella cooking class.  Met a bunch of cool American girls (umm...  from Chicago, going to school in St. Louis, doing exchange programs in Spain and France...  if I recall correctly), some Aussies & Kiwis, and an Austrian who will appear (hilariously) in a few of my photos below.

In his defence, he really put in a lot of effort explaining what he was doing and even providing back stories on paella!

Lowlights:

• The "cooking" portion of the cooking class!  But they made up for it with the "drinking" part so I forgive them hahaha.

Representing my Canucks!

Making new friends!  That's Babsi (Austrian) in the middle and Camilla (Australian) on the right

Can't Miss:  Chilling with new friends over a few pitchers of sangria!  :P

 

Long story short, Babsi had a few too many and ended up behind the bar.  Thought the Austrians could handle their booze???

Well, the bartender wasn't impressed but at least he was amused!