Portugal is probably my favourite country I have visited in all of Europe. The people are genuinely friendly and always have all the time in the world to help ignorant tourists such as myself. The food is divine, especially if you are partial to seafood, and comes in generous portions at a very affordable price. The landscape is rich and varied, from spectacular coastlines to dramatic mountains, dotted with countless sleepy, charming villages. Getting around is easy too, with a well connected road network covering this long and narrow country.
They are a traditional bunch the Portuguese and I witnessed the long running tradition of ‘achada’ near the town of Ericeira, which was basically humans surrounding a bull or cow and making it very angry. Yes, it was horribly cruel, but they don’t kill the animals like they do in Spain, they just aggravate it for hours on end. I got some photos of this tradition here on the blog for you to see. You will see the cow actually did hit it’s target and get some well earnt revenge on a young local. Another picture sees several men harassing the cow after it had struck the ‘brave’ lad. Take note of the man at the rear of the cow holding the tail - he served us our dinner (crumbed bacalhao) 30 minutes later, wearing that same apron. Hope he cleaned his hands atleast.
