Portugal's (short-lived) Celebration

Here are a few photos of the celebration in Lisbon after Portugal's heartstopping win against England. Unfortunately, the team went on to lose a squeaker to France in the semifinals (with some questionable officiating, we might add) and then lost the 3rd place game to the home team Germans. But hey, fourth place in the world for a small country like Portugal? Not too shabby...

The celebrations were wonderful to see, not least because they appeared to be completely spontaneous and the product of sheer joy and excitement. Videos to follow, perhaps soon, perhaps after things calm down at the Menagerie (mid August?)...


The videos will give a better sense of the tremendous din of car horns...

Eventually, inevitably, some kids jumped in the fountain..

Here, Daniela and her mom pose in front of a cow painted with the team uniforms and kicking a ball-- Lisbon is currently having one of the increasingly common urban art installations, where various artists paint some object (cows, in this case, pandas when I lived in DC) in various ways.