Porto- Portugal

Only a week after getting back from Venice, we were off overseas again. You gotta love living in London – only a 2 ½ hour flight and you’re in another country.

The Hotel was a metro ride and short walk away but we didn’t arrive till 11pm by which time I was absolutely starving. Being tired, hungry and therefore grumpy my first impression of Portugal as we walked the streets for almost an hour trying to find somewhere to eat, was not good. How could the 2nd biggest city in Portugal have no food shops open? Not even McDonalds! Finally we found a café/restaurant where we got toasted sandwhiches and hot chocolates. Unlike other European cities, Portugal obviously isn’t famed on hot chocolate. I almost laughed when they gave us a jug of hot milk and 2 sachets!
As we walked around the streets it became apparent that Portugal has its fair share of fruit loops, more so than our previous destinations. One lady went right up to a car stopped at an intersection and leaned through the passengers wound down window. When the driver took off she staggered towards us murmmering as she did so, like something out of Dawn of the Dead.
We set off the next morning to explore the city, full of old tiled buildings, churches and cobbled streets. The was an abundance of grey and it appeared quite drab and run down but still maintained some charm. I’m sure in its time, the city would have been quite stunning.
We hadn’t been out for long when it started pouring with rain. So what better way to shelter than to go shopping? Clothes stores here were so much cheaper than London and every 3rd shop was a shoe shop so after we were done we had to do some skilled packing to fit everything in our bag. The mall didn’t close till 11pm. I was up for some dancing at the nearby Brazillian dance club/bar but all that shopping had tired Warren out so it was an early night for us.
The next day we wondered around the city some more and thinking we could see a market in the distance we headed towards it only to find a bird market! There was one in Paris too. It’s a whole heap of birds chirping away in cages with them and all their associated parafanalia available for sale – cages, seeds, bells, etc. Weird.
From here we walked up the highest tower in Portugal, 288 stairs which provided a really cool view over the city.
Stopping for pictures along the way, we headed over the river to where all the Port cellars are. You can’t go all the way to Porto- home of Port and not learn something of the Port process. All the cellars were closed for lunch so we looked around for somewhere for lunch. Porky selected a homely and popular diner serving the local specialty of tripe and meats cooked over hot rocks. I had my doubts over this place but their food was really tasty and reasonably priced. We then headed to Sandilands for their Port tour but the next English tour wasn’t for ages so we stopped off at the next cellar where we got a private tour by a lady who rattled off a memorised speech with the enthusiasm of a dead fish. It was quite interesting learning of the process, though I think the group English tour at Sandilands would have been better.
I was keen to do more shopping but though we walked around the city searching, none of the shops were open. So we went back to the Hotel, picked up our backpack bulging with yesterdays shopping, and headed to the city clockhouse for a few quick night photos. For dinner we went where we knew would be open and we’d be spoilt for choice- the mall foodcourt. Yesterday I had my long awaited cannaloni and today they made me a pasta while you waited. You selectd the type of pasta you wanted the sauce and the topping while they cook it on the spot. Crazy but I had better Italian at a food court in Portugal than in a restaurant in Venice! Warren was brave and went authentic at a soup and meat place where the signs were in Portugese and the staff didn’t speak English. The bravery paid off as the food was really good! The good court in the Mall was really cool it reminded us of Las Vegas. There was a giant xmas tree and fairy lights all around. The surrounding walls were painted as colourful houses with balconies.
After dinner we begun our very long journey home. After another delayed Ryan Air flight where we were told if we didn’t make it to Stansted before it closed at 12, we would have to divert. We got there in time but being a non EU passport holder meant we had to wait in the longest immigration line I’d ever seen! So long, it wasn’t even a line, more a huge bunch of people crowding around, waiting to join the line. So we queued for a good hour and a half, then follow that with an hour and a half bus back to Victoria (no trains run at this time) and then 2 more night buses from Victoria to Putney. So we very wearily collapsed into bed at 4am! I’ll think twice before booking a 20pound flight at 9.50pm again! And yes, we did have to get up for work in a few hours time…