International Cosmo-Blogging Volume II: O Fim

I've been back in Denver for a week now, and while I still haven't unpacked my suitcase, I thought I would post the last of my pictures from my fabulous trip to the Azores two weeks ago. Although the weather was less than perfect for most of time I was there, we did manage to make it to the beach in Praia da Vitoria for a few hours on Thursday, where I picked up a rockin' sunburn.

The water was a little cold....
....but it was beautiful and a lot of fun. I hadn't been to the beach in a long, long time.

One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was going to a street bull fight later that night. My mom's landlord's family had a piece of property on the street where it was being held. We were seated up in kind of roof garden, so we were able to have a great, but completely safe, place to watch from.

Basically, they take some rowdy bulls, about six guys try to hold on to it with a rope and they let it go in the street. Then all the macho (and usually a little drunk) guys run up and taunt it, to try to get it to chase them. There were four different bulls used, and the whole thing took a couple hours.

While I'm sure PETA isn't a fan of these events, it's not like the Spanish-style arena bull fights where the bull is killed. With an Azorean street bull fight, you go hoping to see some guys get their asses kicked and everyone is rooting for the bulls. Someone actually did get trampled, and while I think he may have been milking it a little bit, an ambulence came and took him away. But I guess that's what you get when you run up to an angry bull and poke it with an umbrella!


And that's about it! Thanks for the wonderful trip, Mommy - you're the best! I'm already hoping can make it a twice-in-a-lifetime experience and come back next year....