Future Professions and Lisbon

On Saturday we went to see a Portuguese bull fight in a neighboring town! It was so much fun! There was a lot of a lot of ceremony that went with the bull fight, which isn't so much a fight as it is a dance. What we think of as a typical bull fight is the guy with the cape waving at the bull and jumping out of his way. While this is a part of it, it is a small part. The biggest part of the bull fight involves the Pantalones who ride on horseback while attempting to jab the bull with an arrowhead attached to a brightly decorated poll. The idea is to get the arrow in the bulls back right near the target on it's back. This will not kill the bull, only make it upset from the pain. While he is ridding and while he changes horses, the bull is distracted or guided around by the Bandarilheiros, who are the guys with the capes. After he has finished his round the Forcados come out. This is a really exciting point in the bull fight because now 8 unarmed, unprotected guys come out to stop the bull using only their strength! They line up and the first guy provokes the bull to charge at him and he runs at the bull catching it by the horns and holding onto his head. The next guy behind him needs to hold onto him , and not fall down while the next five swarm at the bull's head and side in an attempt to immobilize him as quickly as possible. The last guy in line goes to the bulls tail and grabs a hold of it and doesn't let go. Then once the bull quits moving the other 7 quickly let go and move away and he holds onto the tail of the bull while the bull tries to get his tail and turns in a circle. It looks like a dog chasing its tail with a guy hanging on! After that, to get the bull out of the arena, they bring out a bunch of cattle and two cattle herders who move the bull and the cattle. There is one other way in which the Forcados immobilize the bull. This way is definitely harder, and more dangerous. This procedure is carried out with only two Forcados who sneak up on the bull using the cattle to hide behind. One grabs the head and the other grabs the tail. Each bull fight takes about twenty minutes to a half hour and there were seven bulls for that day. After each bull was finished, the Pantalone would walk around the arena saluting the crowd, and if the first Forcado did well, he would join him. The crowd would show their appreciation for him by throwing him a hat or a sweater, which he would catch and throw back. If they thought that he was really great, they would throw him flowers, which he kept. I threw a hat to one of the guys, unluckily he never caught it because the wind caught it about halfway there and blew it sideways. But he saluted and bowed to me to acknowledge my effort! I did get the hat back don't worry! The people in the crowd throw it back up to it's rightful owner. After watching the bull fighting, I have officially taken it off my list of future professions.
On Sunday, we drove into Lisbon from Evora to see the capital city. Lisbon is beautiful and has great history. Since we were at a port as we walked near the river we could see sailboats coming in and out of the bay and up and down the river. In order to see as much of Lisbon as we possibly could, we got tickets for the "Hop-on Hop-off" buses that take you around the city and tell you all about it. When we did our "Hop-off" we stopped near the bay to see the Tour de Bellem, Monument to the Discoveries and the National Palace. The Tour de Bellem used to defend the King and the city back in the 1500's when they built it. Originally it was built in the middle of the river so they could attack ships. Now, due to erosion and land shifting, the Tour de Bellem is on the right bank of the river! As we drove through the city we learned about the history of the city and how it came to be set up. In the 14th century there was a huge earthquake that brought the city to ruins. It was then quickly rebuilt so that another earthquake would not cause that much damage again. This is why the buildings in the city center of Lisbon look so similar, they were essentially built on an assembly line so that the city could be rebuilt very quickly. This time the city was built on a grid pattern instead of how it was before, without much organization. All the preexisting structures were taken down, except for a part of the old cathedral which remains standing amidst the new structures as a reminder of what had happened.