Lisbon: More Than Just a Cow Parade

The sidewalks! They're amazing...these little angular stones, each black or white one carefully laid to create beautiful patterns. The amount of work involved is obvious.

Fish. If you like eating cod, you'll be in heaven.

The bullfight. Portuguese bullfights are much different than Spanish bullfights, and after seeing both, I would say more interesting. Check it out.

Quick Tips:

Sete Rios, where buses tend to come in from other cities, is a long way from the rest of town. You'll want to take the subway. Conveniently, the bus, train, and metro stations are all right there at Sete Rios.

Try the cherry brandy at a stand downtown.

Try the cod, even if you don't like fish. I'm not a big seafood fan, but I enjoyed all my cod meals.

Best Way To Get Around:

I'm inclined to walk, but even I ended up on the metro and the bus several times. Of course, we were chasing the cows all over town, so maybe you won't have as much need to cover as much ground. Use the metro (0,70 euro per ride) to get to your general location and walk.

I happened to be in Lisbon during The Cow Parade: all throughout the city were these cows, all decorated differently, each with its own theme and name. Naturally, I was beyond delighted. We journeyed around the city, hopping on buses solely to visit the grazing spots of more cows.

My friend, a Lisbon native, tells me that sometimes the cows get damaged, and they are taken to the art cow hospital. The art cow hospital.

The Cow Parade. I hope you're in Lisbon before they take them down.

Castelo de Sao Jorge
9:00-9:00 pm (summer)
9:00-6:00 pm (winter)
Admission: 3,00 euros, 1,50 euros for students

This was...okay. It was fun to walk through, but there just wasn't that much to see. It does, however, offer fantastic views of Lisbon, so it's worth it just for that. It's also fun to hear comments like, "This is the lowest railing I've ever seen!" Indeed, the railing was low. Might be easy to topple over the edge. Exercise caution.

The castle dates from the 11th century, so if you're into old things, this is worth a stop.

I attended my first-ever bullfight on the evening of July 6. My 25,00 euro ticket was the most expensive of the cheap tickets (I think the cheapest was about 20,00), and it provided an excellent seat. Although I'd never thought of bullfighting as a Portuguese tradition, I learned that it is, indeed. It's much different from the Spanish version: for starters, the Portuguese cavaleiros don't kill the bull (it isn't allowed) and they fight on horseback.

In the ring with the cavaleiros are a few matador-like people (which we'll call mini-matadors, for lack of a better term) with pink capes (as opposed to red ones..."capes" again for lack of the proper term). They distract the bull on occasion when things look a little sketchy, or draw it back over to toward the cavaleiro if it gets sidetracked.

At this particular bullfight, there were two cavaleiros -- Joao Moura and his son, Joao Moura, Jr. -- and one Spanish matador -- Enrique Ponce.

We started with Joao Moura the elder. He rode out, the bull was released, and the fun began. He started by letting the bull chase him a bit, always dancing around him. Then he would back away from the bull, face it, and raise his spear. The bull and the horse run toward each other, the cavaleiro fakes right and goes left, driving the spear into the bull's back.

Applause, applause, and we do it all again, for a total of five or six spears.

If you're thinking of those poor horses, little worry: for Portuguese bullfights, covers are placed over the bull's horns, so they're not sharp. Not that a creature like that still can't do some damage...but anyway.

(See "Bullfight, Part II" for the rest of the story.)

(Continued from "Bullfight, Part I")


The cavaleiro exits the ring, and eight guys (we'll call them crazies, which may in fact be the correct term) in brown costumes enter. One of them places a funny elf-like hat on his head and approaches the bull, strutting all the way. When the bull charges, the guy in the hat jumps on its head. Six other men dogpile the bull's head, and the eighth guy grabs its tail. The bull is rendered useless at this point, and stands there. All at once, the seven guys jump off, leaving the eighth guy holding a bull's tail. He holds tightly and tries to get the bull to chase him in a circle -- to chase its own tail. The guy essentially water skis on the dirt behind it. Then he jumps off. End of story.

They get the bull out of the ring, and the cavaleiro comes back in, along with a couple of the mini-matadors and the crazy who wore the elf hat. They walk around the ring, accepting applause and flowers. People will also throw their coats, hats, and even shoes for the cavaleiro to pick up and throw back.

Then came Junior, only 17 years old. He did a fine job, and the crowd loved him.

Then Enrique had his turn. Apparently, he is a very popular matador, judging by the line of people wanting his autograph after the fight. He started out with a pink cape, working with some of the mini-matadors. A couple of times, one of the mini-matadors would take two spears and go out there, capeless, to stick them in the bull’s back. He waits for the bull to charge, then sort of jumps to the side and sticks them in. It looks almost impossible to me, but they make it work.

The matador is given his red cape, and he starts working with the bull on his own. At the end, instead of getting a sword, he is given a spear. He goes through the stabbing motion, but the bull is not killed as it would be if we had been in Spain.

The entire show was then repeated – each cavaleiro and matador did their thing twice. It lasted about three hours.

I'm not terribly faint of heart. I grew up on a ranch. I've seen a lot.

But I also like animals. I don't especially like to see them hurt. So how does someone like me end up enjoying a bullfight?

First of all, my heart doesn't bleed nearly as much as the bull does. I don't hunt, but I don't have anything against those who do. I giggle at PETA most of the time. But I worried before I got to the area that the bullfight would be too gruesome for me.

It's not so bad. Every bull I saw in the ring was black (and my Lisbon friend confirmed that that is usually the case), so the blood is hard to see. It's a little shocking at first, to watch that spear sink into the creature's body, but you get used to it. It's not like the bull screams in agony or anything. He takes it like a man.

Remind yourself that it's just a sport, a tradition, and enjoy.

Please note that the bull is put down by a veterinarian after the fight.

Museu Calonste Gulbenkian
Tuesday-Sunday 10:00-5:45 pm
Closed Monday
Admission: 3,00 euros, students free

During my stay in Lisbon, this was the only museum I wanted to see that happened to be open (others I cared about were closed for various oddball reasons, renovations and the like). It's definitely a worthwhile stop. It's amazing to realize that everything you see once belonged to a single person.

The entire collection was once a man's personal collection. There are paintings (including Rubens, Monet, Manet, Rembrandt, and Renoir), sculptures, furniture, tapestries, pottery, glass, and jewelry.

Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian was a rich man from Turkey who felt most at home in Portugal. When he died, he left his entire art collection to the museum that now bears his name.

The museum includes computer touch screens that allow you to see what Gulbenkian's home looked like, as well as provide you with history and other information.

You can take a 45-minute train ride to Sintra, the heavily touristed town nearby. And no-wonder it's beautiful.

Unfortunately, I don't have much to report for you, because the easy-access castle was closed on the day we were there, and we weren't ambitious enough to make it up the hill to the other, more expensive anyway, castle.

So, maybe go if you have some time, and if you check ahead of time to make sure the things you want to see are open.