Porto the 10-day

Our second stop on the 10 day break was Porto.

Lillian and I arrived together and first, because we were on an earlier flight than the others. We took the train into the city center. After a little bit of a directional issue, we found our AirBnb and met the housekeeper. The AirBnB was a chic apartment that could be featured in a home magazine. It had a fern wall, and big doors that overlooked a grassy space outdoors.

After settling in, Lillian and I went and walked around to find a spot for dinner. We got pretty hungry, so stopped at one of the first places we saw. On our way, we saw what we thought was a carnival store and a cocktail party in an appliance store.

We shared calamari to start. The calamari was ok, but the sauce it came with was amazing. I still don’t really know what it was, or how to describe it. It could’ve been like a garlicy aioli, but also not really. I also got a side salad and a burger. They were both tasty, and the waiter was quite accommodating. After dinner, we got cappuccinos with cinnamon (of course). We went into a grocery store nearby afterwards to pick up wine. On our way back we decided to stop in the carnival store. However, the carnival store was actually a sardine store I kid you not. Apparently, sardines are HUGE in portugal. There’s a day in the summer where everyone grills sardines, drinks, and hits people with plastic bats. It has something to do with a king, I think. I can’t quite remember why they do this, because I was too focused on the details of the day. They had sardines in containers for each year since they opened. The containers had important details about each year, and people born. We spent too much time in the sardine store.

Afterwards, I rushed back home to have a phone call with a recruiter. Once that phone call was over, the others had arrived from Seville except Brady (he was taking an overnight bus, because he forgot to buy a plane ticket). That night we went out to a bar around the corner. We might some people celebrating a birthday. They supported our night out. Very kind. Afterwards, we trekked to McDonald’s. On the way, we got separated from Lillian and Olivia, but Lauren and I pushed on. At McDonald’s, we realized that both of our phones were on 1%. We knew how to get to the AirBnb, but the others had the key to get into our 5th floor AirBnb in the back of a building (we couldn’t knock on the door). We rushed back, and kept calling the people inside. They didn’t answer. Soon enough, our phones died. Right before mine died though, I sent Tracey’s number to a friend in America. I told him to keep calling until she answered. During this time, we asked people on the street to borrow their phones. The only number I knew other than my parents (was not going to call them in this situation) was my brother. I called and texted him off multiple strangers phones with Portugese phone numbers. Luckily, my friend reached Tracey who woke up Lillian to let us in. Lauren and I were a little frustrated by how it all played out, but more in a joking way.

The next morning everyone woke up and got ready slowly. I popped out of bed and went to grab breakfast. I zoomed to a cute breakfast place to find there was a fire going on (literally), so I went a few doors down. I got some eggs and bacon to go and brought it back to the AirBnb. At this point, everyone was ready and leaving the apartment. They were going to have breakfast while I did an interview, which was considerate of them.

I worked on my interview assessment, and then they came back with Brady once it was done. Brady’s overnight bus was a miserable experience so him, and the others decided to nap. I wanted to see Porto, so I went out in the rain to explore. I went to the church on the corner of our street first. It was called the Clérigos Church and Tower. I wanted to go in the tower, but they only took cash which I shockingly (not really) did not have. I still explored the exquisite church. Afterwards, I went and looked around flying tiger. I am obsessed with this store, and this city is where my obsession started. I kept going to a cute boutique behind the sardine store. Everything turned out to be outrageously expensive, so I mosied on. I went to the train station with the famous blue tile next. Even as I was walking to the train station, I passed gorgeous tile everywhere. I love the color blue that is focused on in most of the tiles too. The train station was busy with people moving quickly to their next location. I stood in the middle of the hussle bussle and admired the remarkable blue tiles, and an exhibit featured as well. The exhibit was about power, which made me think when I read it. However, I had to read it a few times. After the train station, I continued on to the Porto sign passing more statues and tile along the way. I tried to google some of the statues, but it was raining so I didn’t linger long. Once at the Porto sign, I spoke with my mom on the phone for a little prior to having a stranger take my picture. Soon enough, my adventuring had come to an end.

I scurried back to the AirBnb to get ready for our Porto wine tour. We walked there from our apartment, and the cobblestone streets were extra slick from the rain. We passed more tiles on our walk there as well. We walked across the massive bridge too. Once at Porto, we wandered around a museum about Port wine before starting the tour. Lauren knew a lot about Port wine from her boyfriend, so it was interesting hearing her facts too. Port wine is stronger than other wines, and comes in Tawny or Ruby. The tour was a little dull I thought, but I was also quite hangry so I couldn’t focus much. After the tour, we had a tasting of the different port wines. Lillian accidentlly bought a cheaper package, with less wine, and everyone made fun of her. She wanted more wine. Luckily, a large group left their tasting with basically all of their wine still there. Brady hoped over and brought the glasses to our table to finish. No wine left behind! We sat next to a guy travelling alone, who happened to be from NOVA and went to VT. He was a little bit older, so we think he could have just gotten divorced. Olivia really liked him.

After the Porto Wine experience, it was FINALLLLY and I mean FINALLY time for dinner. We ended up just going right next store, because we were hungry and it had good reviews. The manager/co-owner (I can’t remember) lived in the US for a number of years, so he was able to relate to us at first. By the end, he was a little creepy/weird. However, the food was divine. Lillian and I shared all of our food. We started out with a cheesy bread, moving on to a chorizio dish, and finishing up with a beef rib. It had a scary name for it, but that is what it tasted like. After dinner, Lauren and Brady went back to the AirBnb. However, the rest of us wanted to explore some. We decided to climb to the walking part of the bridge. By climb, I mean walk up a very very very steep hill that it felt like climbing. Once at the top, we were hoping for a good view. Instead, it was covered in fog, which made it cool in a different way. We walked across the bridge, and found the Cathedral of Porto. We continued on meadering, but also hoping to head back. I ended up recognizing where we were from my explorations earlier. We were right by the train station. I showed the rest of the group the famous tile inside. I liked that I had seen the train station earlier, because at night it was completely empty. It was a good juxtaposition to compare the two times. We went home and to bed after the train station.

Our last day in Porto, Lillian and I woke up early to get tickets to the Livaria Levro bookstore. It was famous because of the strong ties to J.K. Rowling being inspired to write Harry Potter. While in line, we discovered there was a seperate line for tickets so Lillian whizzed over there. Once inside, there was a windy, inside out staircase right in the middle. The bottom floor mainly had classics in multiple languages, but the upstairs had other books. I flipped through one about restaurants in every city in the world, and another about speak easy’s. The restaurants recommended in Nashville were not the ones I would have recommended to be honest. Afterwards, Lillian, Olivia, Tracey and I grabbed a quick breakfast at the same place I had been the morning before. Once again, the delicious eggs. I also thought they had good toast, which I put cheese on.

Afterwards, we went to go souvenir shopping. I got some persevered salmon for my Dad and goodies at Flying Tiger too. After souviner shopping, we went to the Santa Ilfonzo and the Cathedral. I went up the cathedral tower myself, because the others didn’t want to pay. The breathtaking part of both of these for me was the blue tiles once again. I think that is my favorite part of Porto.

Before heading back to grab our bags, we ran into a costume store to get wigs for Halloween that evening in Lisbon! We ran back to the AirBnb, got our bags, grabbed food to go, and scurried to the bus station. On to Lisbon!