A Weekend in Porto

Well, let me first say that for a weekend trip, Porto has a HANDFUL of fun travel stories and memories. Everyone knows about Lisbon, but we decided to head to Porto because it was both easier and cheaper for us to get there, and I'm so happy that we did. My travel book described the three main cities in Portugal saying that Braga prays, Lisbon shows off, and Porto works. Although I've obviously only seen Porto, I think that the book has a pretty accurate description. Porto is an old city, with so much character, and although they have the tour busses, and super touristy antique trains (what tacky American tourists would ever take that...) it's clear that tourism is not what defines Porto. For lack of a better description, it just seemed like a very real city. A quick note before describing the weekend, I forgot my camera in Coruña, so any picture you see has been taken from google image, or maybe a friend's album on facebook.

Our means of transportation to Porto was by coach bus on Friday morning. We had already bought our round-trip tickets earlier in the week, so all we had to do was get to the station before the bus pulled out at 9:30. Elena and I met up early to grab some raisin bread and coffee, and headed to the local bus stop which would then bring us to the bus station. We were calling James and Arinelli to make sure that they were awake. We had all gone out the night before, but those two had decided to stay out later than Elena and I. Finally we were able to get a hold of Arinelli and she said to go ahead, and she would take a taxi there. James never picked up, and by the time we were boarding onto the coach bus we had logged about 10 missed calls to him.
Around noontime I got a text saying, F*** I'm stupid, and a question about when he could catch another bus. Luckily there was another bus on Saturday, but he had to buy another ticket. Anyways, back to our ride down! The trip was pretty long, about 5 hours sitting on the bus. I had a surreal moment when a movie came onto the TV near the end of the ride. We were in Portugal, had just left Spain a few hours ago, watching a Jackie Chan movie in English, with Portuguese subtitles. A strange mix of things to take in for sure. The bus ride was long, but it was pretty to see the country-side. That is of course when I wasn't sleeping.
We finally got into Porto, and I had read on the hostel website that to get there we should take Bus Line 200 to Plaza de Libertad. So we got to the bus stop, and got onto bus 200. We were watching the entire time for the stop, until we realized that we had got to the end of the line. In a mix of Spanish and English we asked the Portuguese bus driver if we were near the Plaza. He basically gave us that "oh boy" look, and told us that it was in the center of town and that we should get off the bus and then get back on when it heads back. So we did just that, and kept our eyes out for the stop that we needed. Next thing we know, we see the words "fim da linea." Translation? End of the line. Turns out that Plaza de Libertad isn't a stop on bus line 200! So we had spent a good hour riding the ENTIRE bus line. We then just hailed a taxi, and 5 euros later we were there.

I had been in charge of finding and booking the hostel, and the website made it look really nice so I was excited to see it. Thankfully the pictures weren't deceiving! It was an old restored house, with beautiful hardwood floors, and the entire place was kept really clean. It was also family run, and everyone who worked there was really friendly and helpful. We dropped our stuff off, and asked the girl at the front desk where we could go to get food. We followed her directions and found ourselves in this hole in the wall place on a small side street. The only choice we could make was whether we wanted pork or fish, and we ended up being two and two. There was no written menu, so we had no idea how much it would cost, but we were all hungry so we just went with it. Three of us got a delicious soup, and quickly ate up the bread that the waiter/owner/man with a HUGE mustache put on the table for us. Our main dishes came which consisted of a huge platter of a pork chop/2 pieces of fish, french fries, and rice. We also got a jug of wine which provided us each about delicious 2.5 glasses. So how much did this feast cost us? 19 euros (aka $25) for the four of us. That delicious jug of wine that we were all raving about? 1 euro. 25 cents each. Crazy! We walked around a little bit more, but I wasn't feeling very well so we then decided to head back to the hostel and take a little nap. We all got up around 8 and then decided to walk around more before heading to dinner! We walked down the river, and checked out that area before decided on a restaurant. They had seating outside with blankets on all the chairs, and those big space heaters. The food was delicious, I had steak with some mushroom/tomato sauce on top, or something like that. It was a little pricey, but given the ambiance, and being that it was our first night there, it was worth it.
That night when we got back to the hostel we met our two roommates, a couple from Canada. They had just graduated from Grad School and were doing 6 months of just exploring. They had no real plan of where to go, how to get there or where to stay, they were just doing quintessential backpacking. They both seemed really sweet too, so we didn't have to deal with anything to sketchy. Before going to bed the girl told us that she's been told that she sleep talks, which I didn't really think to be a big problem. I told her that it would make things more exciting. Little did I know that when this girl said sleep talk, she meant 5 minute, full on coherent conversations in both French and English, about every hour. She also shouted. A lot. I somehow still managed to get some sleep though.
The next morning we woke up and had breakfast at the hostel since they offer free breakfast. It was the same delicious chocolate cereal that the Amsterdam hostel had, plus they had bread, jam, butter, coffee and tea. We then headed off to the tourist office where we bought a package deal of  the train with the guided tour that goes around the city of porto, and access into a port wine house. Let's just say that the train ride was a bit of a letdown. It was SO bumpy, like shoulda taken a dramamine bumpy, and not very informative. After getting off that we all took a deep breath, and thanked God that it wasn't much longer, or else we might have all started vomiting. We then made our way down the city, and crossed the bridge to the other side of the river where all of the wine houses were. We got to the one that we had bought the ticket for, and were given a free tasting glass of white port wine. I wasn't really a fan give that it was so sweet, and it seemed like a high alcohol content. We then took a tour of the wine "caves" where the tour guide only spoke Portuguese. That was interesting. We got every few words, and a phrase every now and then.
After the tasting we decided to explore that side of the river. There were tons of wine houses or "bodegas" lined up along the river, and up in the neighborhoods too. We then set off on a mission to find lunch. I really wanted to try a sandwich that I saw was typical of Porto called a francesinha which is a sandwich with steak, ham, and a spicy sausage covered in melted cheese, with a fried egg on top, and drenched in a tomato sauce. I'm obviously a health-food freak you know. Anyways, the sandwich was delicious, and I may or may not have finished the entire thing.
At this point James had arrived, and he had wanted to do some wine tasting. Kelsey and Arinelli decided to go walk around and take some pictures, so Elena and I went with James. We decided to go into this place that claimed to be the oldest port house in Porto. They didn't have any tours or anything, just tasting, but that was fine with us. Since I wasn't a big fan of the port wine, I just decided to try 2 different white wines. Elena tried a red and a white, and James got 3 different port wines. Little did we know that this "testing" consisted of full glasses of wine. Not just a little droplet to put on your tongue and then spit out. I'm not saying we were complaining... just surprised. The tasting also consisted of giving us chocolate too, and I am not exaggerating when I say that it might have been the best chocolate ever. Mmm. SO good!

After that we were sufficiently stuffed, so we decided to keep walking and exploring the city. It was fun to walk by the river, and just all hang out together. While there might not be any super-famous sites to see in Porto, it's a beautiful city to just explore around. After walking around for a few hours, we headed back to the hostel just to relax. James, Kelsey and I played a couple riveting games of Uno. After hanging around for a bit we started to talk about what we wanted to do for dinner. James really wanted to eat at a restaurant on the river like we had the night before, since he hadn't been, so we agreed on that. We went to a different spot but the food was just as good. The only annoying thing was that they put appetizers on our table as soon as we sat down, only to find out when we received our bill that we had been charged for them. So that added on an unexpected 6 euros. After dinner we headed to a bar where we all got a beer. The Porto nightlife just wasn't like Spain, and we ended up calling it a pretty early night and heading back to the hostel. The next morning we packed up, and did a little exploring near the bus station, and then loaded onto the coach bus and settled in for the 5 hour drive. It was a really fun and relaxing trip. Portugal had a great vibe, and hopefully I'll be able to check out Lisbon before the years over!
Spanish word of the post: Albondigas = meatballs! This may seem like a random word to teach you, but there's a little story behind it. The word for thank you in Portuguese is obrigada. At one point during the trip Elena turned to me and asked what the word for thank you was, because all she could think was albondigas. We then continued to say albondigas at every point where you would say thank you. We also imagined someone just saying "Oh meatballs, meatballs so much!!" in English. Clearly we're very easily amused!
Sorry this post was so long! Ones about trips always turn into mini-novels. Shorter life-updates are to come!!