Porto Parte Dous.

5/4/13

Hokai.  So.  Back to Porto.  Gotta wrap up this story so I can get back to talking about regular Lugo things.

I believe I left off at the end of Friday...

Saturday morning, we wrestled ourselves out of bed relatively early (especially after kinda sorta having gone on the hostel's pub crawl the night before, but mostly just going to bars).  Our French-Canadian friend Stef had decided to spend the day with us, and first on the agenda was the free walking tour offered by the hostel.  'Cause it was easy to see that Porto is a pretty place, but we wanted to learn something about it while we were there as well.  I had two things on my personal agenda: go inside the Lello & Irmão bookstore (because it looks like this inside), and buy some cheap new black flats (the pair I'd brought with me when I came over way back in October had finally bought it during the aforementioned pub crawl).  So, on our way to the bookstore, we stopped at a flea market that was pretty neat, and then went inside the bookstore.  You're not allowed to take photos in there; I managed to sneak one, but it's very blurry.  For a better view, you should look at the link above.  It is supposedly a place that inspired JK Rowling while writing Harry Potter!

Pretty flowers at the flea market; the orchids made me think of you, Gramma! :-)

And some fake flowers jeje.

Que colores!

I feel it's obvious even from the outside how this could have inspired a book about wizards.

And after that we fuimos a la Praça da Liberdade to meet up with the tour group.  The highlights of this tour were: going to a pastelería and learning how to order a pastel de nata and the equivalent of a café con leche in Portuguese, visiting a plaza where the revolution against the dictator Salazar supposedly started, seeing a bunch more students walking around in cloaks, visiting the lovely train station, and learning a bit about the history of the Ponte Luiz I.

Oh, also, we were ambushed by this group.  Apparently it was the International Day of Laughter.  We got lots of hugs and kisses and smiles and "bom dia!"s from these happy strangers :)

The plaza where the revolution debatably started.  Someone (wish I could remember his name...) made a speech and people gathered to here it (even though, under Salazar, congregating was illegal).

One of those was the pastel de nata I successfully ordered!  Along with a galão (café con leche). :D

Church with some really pretty tile.

This picture actually shows 2 churches-- one on the left, one on the right.  The two windows and door between them actually used to be a house!  Apparently you couldn't legally have two Catholic churches of different sects next to each other... funny people.

Inside the train station!  São Bento.

Apparently the blue tiles are associated with the monarchy, and the colored ones with the republic.

These scenes are supposed to depict the history of Portugal.  The Portuguese word for tile is "azulejo" (get it, 'cause they're mostly blue?).  And they're traditionally blue because the dye required to make this color came from far away and was super expensive (and therefore extremely hoighty-toighty).

Yet another group of wizards outside the train station.  (They were walking around like this all over the place.)

Cristine and I, on top of the Ponte Luiz.

We did some "off road" exploring on the other side. hehe.

And then did wine tasting, round 2!

Cornelius got a little drunk.

I finally tried bacalhau/bacalao (codfish) for lunch.  It was... salty.
(Which is apparently due to the fact that it is fished and preserved in like Norway or somewhere Scandinavian, and then shipped to Portugal... dunno why they decided to make it their national dish, but they're obsessed with it.)

Then we took a boat and a bottle of wine on the river with our friend Stef from the hostel :)

We saw all six bridges that cross the Douro.

On the way back to the hostel, these wizards (who I think were basically being hazed) performed a ridiculous song and dance for us (lots of stomping and booty-shaking).

And that night we set out with some people from the hostel to join the festivities!

And even got to meet and hang out with some students/Harry Potters! (mostly thanks to a Brazilian friend we'd made who told them I wanted a picture with them... hehe.)

And... I got to wear a cape.  For like a whole 30 minutes.  It was incredible. (This is the rest of the magic I was talking about haha.)

Whew!  Now you know basically everything.  It was a great weekend in a great place :)  I'd love to go back to Portugal someday... everyone in Porto said Lisboa is also amazing, and I'd love to see it!  Maybe by the time I go back I'll know some more Portuguese ;)

Also, holyyyyy cow I only have 5 more days left at my school.  Freak out!  Ay.  Wish me luck with job applications, and James&Sarah Euro Adventure planning! jaja.