Day 4 - 5/26/2003 - Day of the bull fight

Temperature: 26° C = 79° F
Weather: Sunny!
Location: Lisbon to Madrid

This morning, we had a few hours to spend in Lisbon before we had to leave for Madrid. We were pretty sore from yesterday’s “walking tour” we went on, but we had to enjoy Lisbon!

We found the “Elevator Santa Justa” which was this old landmark. It was this metallic tall structure with an old-fashioned elevator inside that you can take to the top. It gave us an opportunity to catch an overall view of the city.

We then walked over to a square overlooking the harbor. It was pretty, but I needed sunglasses. It was so bright out (and back home, I haven’t seen sun-light for months!) that I could barely open my eyes! As if on cue, a man appeared, selling sunglasses. He wanted to sell us “Ray Bans” designer sunglasses for 35 Euros. These were the cheapest-looking sunglasses I’ve ever seen! They were obviously fake. I said I would give him 5 Euros, and that’s it. We walked away to look at the water. It was a nice view of the Atlantic Ocean!

On the way back through the square, the same man offered me the sunglasses for 10 Euros. I was so desperate for sunglasses that I bought them. Then, like 5 seconds later, another sunglasses salesman offered me sunglasses! He turned to me and said, “You want some hash? Eh? It’s good, eh!” I said, “no,” and moved on. This would be the second trip to Europe where we were offered drugs!

We found the tram station (for tram 28) where we took the trolley (or tram car) to the “Costelo Sao Jorge” or “Saint George’s Castle.” The views were amazing! We could see the whole skyline from the ramparts we walked up. There was a street musician in classical clothing with tambourines on his knees, playing the recorder (or some other type of flute).

I got some more ice cream, which was gelato-style! =) Then we took the tram to the cathedral down the road. (I’m detecting a cathedral pattern here). We noticed a lot more beggars in this area. The church wasn’t as decorated or as big as some of the cathedrals I’ve seen, but it was still impressive.

After the church, we decided to take tram 28 around Lisbon to the train station. There were 2 problems with this plan:

1. We got on the tram in the wrong direction
2. We missed our stop =)

When we realized this, we got off the tram and took a cab to the train station to pick up our luggage. From the train station, we took an “Areobus” to the airport for our flight to Madrid.

We were scared we were running late, but when we got to the airport, we got through customs in 5 minutes! We had an hour to kill before boarding, so we found a little café in the airport, and ate there.

We said our good-byes to Lisbon and Portugal and boarded our plane. The plane was smaller, so it was a bumpier flight. We landed pretty hard, too.

To get on the metro in Madrid, we walked inside the airport for what seemed like a mile! It was a pretty straightforward subway system. We got the hang of it and left for our hotel. The subway car was packed! We barely fit! Hilary caught a guy with his hand in my bag, too! =( All he would have gotten was my Gillette shower gel, though. =) When I checked my bag, I noticed that nothing was missing.

We checked into our hotel to drop off our bags and then head out to the bull fight. In May, they have a whole month of bull-fighting festivals, so they get the best matadors and “kick it up a notch.” What we saw was a disgusting public display of animal cruelty. We entered a stadium filled to the brim with people! It looked like a gladiator arena.

Editor’s note: If you are squeamish towards animal cruelty, you might not want to read the rest of today’s entry. Click here to skip to day 5. If you wish to continue, read on below. Note that I didn't bring my camera to the bull-fight, so I have used pictures I found online that were similar to what I experienced.

The bull came out with energy and anger. He ran to the “warm-up matadors” dressed in pink and located on four sides of the round arena. He ran from one to another, each time going for the cloth he was holding and not the man. (Hilary and I were secretly routing for the bull). =)

When the crowed was warmed up, the horsemen came out with spears. Their horses were padded with a crude sort of armor. The bull charged the horseman and drove its horns into the horse’s flank armor. The man on the horse speared the bull on a target on the bull’s back and continued to repeated stab the bull in the same wound until blood was pouring down its neck.

Then, they brought in the warm-up matadors again, where they would get the bull to charge them. They side-stepped they charging giant at the last minute and put tassel-covered knives into it’s back. Now, the bull had not only bloody wounds, but tassels stuck in its back that would fling about in the air whenever the bull bucked or charged.

Now, the main event! The matador came out, dressed in gold sequins, with an over-confident stride. (Big deal! He was fighting a bull on it’s last legs. Try fighting it when it wasn’t bleeding to death). The matador waved his flag and sword at the bull and confused the bull into following the flag. He looked completely composed and in control of the bull.

Then the matador squared off against the bull, and (facing him) drove his sword straight through its back until only the handle of the sword was still showing. Then, he took another sword and removed the impaling sword from the bull. Blood poured from the wound. Then, he took a knife, brought the bull’s head down to the ground and stabbed it in the brain. The bull went limp and his tortured life was over.

We saw three bulls that evening. For the second, the crowd waved green flags and the bull was let to live. Eight white bulls came into the arena. The crowd cheered, and the bulls ran out into the pens to die another day. The third bull we saw seemed to be even more energetic and the matador (a different one dressed in silver sequins) didn’t seem as skilled, because the sword he used didn’t go into the back of the bull right away. He had to do that twice to get it in. Also, when he went to stab its brain, the bull lurched and started vomiting blood. Its legs went stiff and straightened out to its side. It looked like something went horribly wrong. The men around the dying bull held its head while sawing feverishly at the bull’s brain, trying to sever the brain enough to make the bull go limp.

We left after that and tried the MacDonald’s in Madrid before heading to bed. (We ate chicken that night). I know that cows and bulls are slaughtered every day for burgers and catcher’s mitts, but such a public display of torture and cruelty really affected me. They took a proud, strong animal (who even while dying could bury its horns into a horse and lift it off the ground 6 inches!) and handicapped, tortured, and killed the animal for sport.

After we got back, we found an internet café and emailed home. I had 278 mail messages. All but FIVE were junk mail. It took me 20 minutes to delete them all. Ridiculous!

More pictures from Day 4:

Look! A Castle!

Introduction Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10