A bunch of us from the ISA group decided to go to Porto for the weekend, though some decided to go a little further to Aveira. We took the overnight bus and arrived in Porto at an appalling 5:30am. After realizing we had no idea where to go and thus walking was out of the question, we caught a cab. Luckily I had the sense to write down the address of the hotel because I thought communicating might be a little difficult. It was. This brings me to the first thing I learned about Portugal:
1. Portuguese is extremely difficult to understand. Portuguese looks like but does not sound like Spanish. Unlike other parts of Europe, NOT everyone in Portugal speaks English, or even Spanish. However, it is extremely cool sounding and I want to learn it.
The first cab we got inexplicably refused to take us to the hostel. He waved his arms a lot and pointed up the street, all while spewing rapid-fire Portuguese (contrary to the evidently popular Portuguese belief, understanding is not positively correlated with speed of speech). I took this to mean that our hostel was too close to warrant driving, so we started walking in the direction in which he was gesticulating. I was wrong; we were not close. Also, bus maps in general should more clearly mark where their readers are currently located. We had a very good idea of where our hostel was, but literally no clue as to where we were. Luckily, we found another cab and he got us to our hostel very quickly. Very quickly because:
2. The Portuguese drive extremely fast. Especially the taxis. Very fast and very jerky.
I laughed the whole ride because otherwise I would have had difficulty not screaming. Nevertheless, we got to our hostel safe and sound. No one answered our knock though. They were supposed to be expecting us at that hour, but apparently they were not. The sign said check-ins started at 8:00. So what were we going to do for 2 hours? Nothing was open. Some of the girls had to go to the bathroom, so we sauntered up the street to the metro station to try and find a bathroom. No bathrooms, but at least it was out of the cold and we could sit down. So there we sat and ate the bocadillos our senoras had packed for us and then napped a little bit.
I felt like a homeless person. I felt even more like a homeless person when the police came and kicked us out. They were extremely nice though, and actually let us use the staff bathroom. By that time it was after 7 so we went back to the hostel hoping they’d let us in. A guest let us in because the staff still wasn’t there, so we sat in the living area where I promptly fell asleep. I awoke to a young portuguese man standing over me and laughing, and the realization that there was no room for us at that hostel. There had a been a mistake in the bookings. Uh-oh. Not what you want to hear after what’s been the longest day of your life and it’s only 8:30 in the morning. Luckily, they called a nearby hostel that had room for us and we all moved there. It was called Oporto Sky, I believe, and it was really nice, so that worked out fine after a bit of frustration.
We went for lunch and met up in the afternoon to go to the beach. Porto is rather varied; where we were staying seemed a little dingy and strange, but down by the river is BEAUTIFUL. Tons of old world charm and colorful buildings. I loved it. I wish I could have taken more pictures there but my hands were full and we were in a hurry to catch the bus to the beach.
The trek down to and along the river was long, as was the bus ride, and the weather did not look promising. It was very gray - you can kind of tell in the above pictures. But we got to the beach and the heavens opened and the sun came out!! The beach was absolutely lovely and worth all of the pains of the morning.
And I am very proud of myself because I went from zero times in an ocean to two times in less than three months! These waves were a little bit big for me though, and I got nervous and didn’t stay in long. Not to mention the water was FREEZING. The wind was chilly too, but I didn’t mind because it was so nice to be out of the 85+ temperatures of Salamanca. But it was still warm, and I saw people surfing in real life for the first time ever.
I loved the beach so much, I even got in a picture for you all.
I’m a little bit burnt despite my efforts with my SPF 50. It was so nice though.
For dinner we went to this crazy restaurant called Pimenta y Chocolate (I think), a recommendation from our hostel. We knew it would be a bit expensive, but it sounded so cool we wanted to go anyway. Every meal served there has a hint of chocolate and a pepper in some way. I split a fondue with someone and it was well worth it. They even brought us these crazy good appetizers, and we had “tropical” sangria which was literally the most delicious drink ever. The prices weren’t as bad as we thought they would be, until we realized we were charged almost 30 bucks for the un-ordered appetizers. Boo. Still worth it though.
After that we were tired so we just went to bed and got up early to take the bus back this morning. I liked Porto a lot, but the smaller cities we were passing on our way home were so gorgeous I was about ready to quit Salamanca and the US altogether to up and move. These beautiful towns were all set on different plateaus in just stunning mountains. Probably tied with Switzerland and parts of Norway for favorite places I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately I couldn’t snag a single good picture from the bus. :(
In summary, Portugal is awesome. Sleeping in metro stations is not.
Coming Soon: update about Salamanca, since that is where I actually live.
EDIT: ok pictures seem to be not working super well, so check out my flickr account as well! http://www.flickr.com/photos/kjerstenwhiting/ and send me an email (whitingkl1@gcc.edu) or a facebook message if you're reading this/like the pics. :)
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