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!