I met a nice guy and girl on the metro ride in (both solo travelers as well) and we chatted and then helped each other get oriented off the metro. Walking out of the metro, there was a gorgeous tiled church right in front of me, so I poked around it for a minute, and it turned out to be Igreja dos Congregados, and then I walked next door to the metro stop to the train station where there is a tiled mural that outlines the history of Portugal.
First thing I saw out of the metro: Igreja dos congregados
Sao Bento Train Station
I pretty quickly and easily found the apartment where I was staying, but I had about half an hour to kill before check-in so I wandered 1 block down the hill to the riverfront and had a quick lunch (which included amazing, hand-cut, fresh, homemade chips/fries). After lunch, I walked back up and met the apartment owner who showed me inside, gave me a map, a few restaurant and other recommendations of things to see, and left me with a complimentary bottle of port (Porto, unsurprisingly with its name, is a huge producer of Port).
I got settled in, unpacked, figured out the heat in the apartment, and even took a very brief (30 minute) but MUCH needed and appreciated nap and then I headed out to explore Porto. By this time, it was afternoon, and I wasn't sure how early it would get dark and didn't want to get lost, so I figured a good bet would be to walk to the river and follow it for a ways, seeing some of the sights along the way.
View leaving my apartment
Only about 2 blocks from my apartment, I immediately came across a gorgeous church, Igreja de Sao Nicolau. I stopped in and found the church very peaceful and quiet, and not as ornate as so many churches in Europe (hard to believe when you see the picture, but true), and so I stopped and sat, and let myself reflect and remember a bit more. It was a really nice way to spend time.
Igreja de Sao Nicolau
From there, I wandered along the river, saw bits of the old city wall, and climbed up to a little overlook over the river and the city. I also saw a few pretty adorable dogs hanging out on balconies with the doors to the apartment open, watching me and other people pass by while the laundry dried.
Along the river
Old city wall
View from the point I climbed to
A cute door to nowhere... made me think of hobbits
Cute dog!
After climbing back down from the overlook, I walked roughly back in the general direction of my hotel. Along the way, I saw the outsides of S Pedro de Miragaia (another church) and Alfandega Nova, which is a transport and communications museum, as well as the World of Discovery which is a new interactive museum that goes through the history of Portugal. I actually would have loved to go into the museums, but both of them had hundreds of elementary and middle school kids outside of them and it just didn't feel worth it. I kept walking and once I reached Igreja de Sao Francisco I stopped to go in. I'd heard it was a must see, but I don't think anything could have prepared me for that much gold. Everything is gilded in gold. Everything. Pictures aren't allowed but a grabbed a photo off the internet to put on here so that y'all can see a bit of what I mean:
The outside of the church
The inside of the church...
By the time I came out of the church, it was dusk, so I wanded back along the river, but continued past my apartment in the opposite direction to see the Ponte Luis I (big bridge across the Duoro River). I ended up at the street level of the bridge, and the pedestrian level is at the top, so I started the climb and got up to the very top.
Porto at dusk- that's the Ponte Luis bridge in the picture
Porto at dusk- that's the Ponte Luis bridge in the picture
When I got to the top, I realized I was right near the cathedral and I wanted to see it before it closed for the evening, so instead of walking across the bridge, I headed in the opposite direction and took a look around the area and the cathedral. Even though I wasn't on the bridge, I was up on a hill that overlooks a great deal of the city and even though the pictures didn't turn out so great because it was dusk, the lights twinkling as the city was getting dark and looking down at it all was so incredibly beautiful
I turned back for a photo of the bridge as I went to explore the cathedral and surrounding area
Cute graffiti on the way to the cathedral
On the hill with the cathedral, overlooking Porto at dusk
The Porto Cathedral
View from the bridge
After walking across the bridge and back, I decided to head back to the apartment to freshen up and then head to find a place to eat. There were three 3 doors to unlock to get to my apartment: the door into the building, the door into the hallway for 2 apartments (one of them mine), and the door to the actual apartment. I got in the building fine, but then I could not get the door into the hallway unlocked. After about 10-15 minutes of wrestling with the jammed lock, I decided I would use the very poor internet reception in the stairwell to use skype to call the owners and see if they could do something. Despite very poor reception, I managed to communicate my problem and they promised someone would be over in 5-10 minutes. While waiting, I decided to continue to mess with the lock, and I managed to open it around the same time that someone came to look at it. The guy was super nice about it, though he seemed to think I just hadn't been turned the key hard enough, which, I promise was not the problem. Still, he'd come out after hours for honestly no reason and was really nice.
Once inside, it was late enough that I gave up on cleaning up and decided just to head out to dinner. I'd done my research and one of the best restaurants in Porto was about a block away from my apartment so I decided to head there to see if they had a table without a reservation. Unfortunately, they didn't, but the man was nice and let me make a reservation for the following evening. Instead, I wandered the neighborhood until I came across a place called Traca that looked promising. The food was quite good- I had bread with herbed butter that was already on each table, and then I ordered a vegetarian risotto for my main course and since it was Thanksgiving back home and I was on vacation, I also ordered dessert: a mango crumble with ice cream. It was a nice meal, though a bit lonely and sad to be eating alone when I knew the rest of my family was together, enjoying a good meal and even better memories.
After dinner I headed back to the apartment for some reading and relaxing and then headed to bed. Friday I woke up to drizzling rain. I was disappointed but determined not to let it ruin my time. First things first, I threw on some clothes headed a few blocks over to a shop to pick up some soap and deodorant, both of which I'd forgotten to pack. On the way home I grabbed a bit of bread and fruit for breakfast and then went back to the apartment to get ready for the day. When I got ready to head out, it was POURING but I quick check of radar showed that the storm should be over in about 20 minutes so I waited it out and sure enough it quickly stopped raining.
Leaving my apartment post rain storm- the stock exchange building.
I headed out for the morning and walked up to see Igreja de sto Ildefonso, yet another church, and actually my favorite from the outside. It was a gorgeous blue and white tile and set against the super blue sky was really beautiful.
Igreja de sto Ildefonso
Igreja de sto Ildefonso
From there I just wandered the area- it seems to be a huge shopping area and I browsed in and out of shops, finding a few wonderful Christmas gifts for people during my shopping. I also stumbled upon Capela das Almas de Santa Catarina which is yet another beautiful church. I snapped a picture of the outside, but when I went inside, it turns out they were having a service, so I quickly and quietly ducked out. While in the neighborhood, I also checked out Mercado de Bolhao, which I think is the oldest and largest market in Porto. It's covered, but not really indoors, and is very large. There are touristy shops selling all sorts of souvenirs, but also shops selling fresh seafood, sausages, fruits and veggies and little flower shops and bakeries scattered throughout. I took my time here since I love markets, but amazingly I didn't buy anything.
Capela das Almas de Santa Catarina
Mercado de Bolhao
Mercado de Bolhao
From the market, I wandered over to Pacos do Concelho (city hall) and from there to Igreja e torre dos clergios. It's possible to climb the tower for wonderful views of Porto, but I didn't feel like paying to go up... since Portois such a hilly city there are overlooks from multiple points and while they might not be exactly the same, it just didn't seem worth it.
City hall
The tower
After wandering around the tower a bit, a headed to lunch at a little cafe called Essencia that had been recommended to me. Vegetarianism isn't a very common thing at smaller cafes and restaurants, but thankfully they had one option on the menu and and it was good. The sun was shining and it was quite warm, so I ate outside, even shedding my light jacket for a bit. After lunch, I wandered to see two more churches, which are connected- Igreja dos Carmelitas and Igreja do Carmo- although beautiful, at this point I was starting to get churched out. I wanted to see the natural history museum, but most of it was being renovated. I later did research and realized I could have gone in the zoology wing, which is probably what I would have enjoyed to most anyway, but at the time, the main entrance was closed and there was construction everywhere, so I just continued on my way.
Fountain with joint churches in the background
I took a walk through a small but really cute park, complete with funky trees, and then I decided I would finally go see what I'd been waiting on: livraria lello. It's a famous bookstore in Porto, just absolutely breathtaking. No matter how old I get, I think I will always find something wonderful about bookstores- even plain ones or chain ones. But livraria lello is on another level. Photos aren't allowed inside, but I grabbed some of the advertising ones online and put them here so that everyone can appreciate just how gorgeous it is. Unfortunately, but understandably, they didn't have an English books section, so while I wandered for a bit, there wasn't really much I could browse. Still, I stayed for quite some time just soaking it all in.
Photo by Jose Paulo Andrade
From the bookstore, I decided just to wander a bit, and only a few blocks away I spotted some interesting graffiti and what looked like an adorable side street and decided to go check it out. As it turns out, the street led to yet another gorgeous church (Igreja Vitoria), but even more impressive, to an overlook of the city that was just breath-taking. Porto is such a pretty city and it was a nearly perfect day with unbelievable blue sky... I spent a long time just looking out over the city.
After that, I wandered back towards by apartment, stopping to pick up a few more Christmas gifts, as well as picking out a small souvenir for myself: hand painted little earrings!
By this time, it was dusk, and I decided to head back to my apartment and relax and then shower and get ready for my dinner reservation. After a bit of relaxing, I hopped in the shower and washed my hair and then got out, got dressed, and went to dry my hair. Almost immediately after turning the blowdryer on, it tripped a breaker and I lost all power in the apartment. I tried texting mom and dad, but shortly after losing electricity, the wi-fi went out for obvious reasons and no wi-fi meant no skyping and no i-messaging... my phone plan in England doesn't work in Porto so I was basically just stuck. I figured it wasn't a huge deal, I could figure it out. I found the fuse box and after a solid 10 minutes of flipping every switch and pressing every button, I was fighting down a feeling of panic that I had soaking wet hair, was sitting in the dark, and had a dinner reservation at a very nice place in about ten minutes. I finally admitted defeat and went and knocked on the neighbor's door. A few people around my age answered and one of the guys came over- read the little notice in portuguese, and then pressed two buttons at once and voila! Let there be light!
The fuse box
I thanked him profusely and not wanting to re-risk the blow-dryer, managed to get my hair into some sort of french twist, put on make-up, grab my purse, and get out the door. Dinner was at ODE, which is a slow food place that has only a tiny kitchen, no sort of microwave and is meant to be a home-like, welcoming environment. Everything is either locally sourced or comes from another region of portugal, and it's all organic. When you arrive, you have to knock on the door and it's small, so very few people are coming and going. When I arrived, I was welcomed and sat at a bar/counter type area (but made of gorgeous, finished wood) at the window. The owner was very concerned that this seat somehow didn't satisfy me or that since it wasn't an actual table that I might be bothered, but it was actually quite perfect. It overlooked the street and the river, with a perfect view of the bridge.
When I sat down I was brought a platter of all the starters to choose from and although I was tempted by all of the (non-meat) ones, I settled with just bread, 2 types of olive oil, in house made butter, and olives. I also decided to start with a port cocktail. I really, really dislike port, but I figured that I was in Porto and that maybe in cocktail form it would be better... I was right! It was tawny port, mixed with lime juice, fresh cranberries, and some sort of tonic water, and it was delicious. The lime and tonic freshened it and played down the sickly sweetness of port and it was delicious.
You order everything at once at ODE, so I settled on 3 more courses, an actual appetizer (which is separate from the small finger food starters) and decided on a salad with dried fruit, seeds, and fresh local cheese with a balsamic dressing. For my main, I had a vegetable phyllo type thing, that arrived with one of the best things I have ever eaten... it was a bit like a cross between thanksgiving stuffing and a muffin, flavoured with mushrooms and herbs, and in the shape of a muffin. Underneath it was a strawberry reduction sauce, and to me as an American, it was very much a play on Thanksgiving stuffing and cranberry sauce. For dessert, I went with chocolate lava cake served with a tangerine sorbet that had the most intense tangerine flavour I've ever had packed into a sorbet... it complemented the rich dark chocolate perfectly. Along with my main course, I ordered a glass of white wine, but the owner suggested a different pairing (still white) that would better match my meal and I'm glad I listened- it was an amazing glass of wine.
I was there for over three hours. The owner stopped to chat a few times and to check in, but I never felt bothered and definitely never rushed. The food and atmosphere were amazing, and I can say I truly just concentrated on enjoying the food. There are no pictures because I never wanted to ruin the peace or atmosphere by pulling out my phone... I was content to think my own thoughts and be alone with myself and just enjoy a delicious supper. While the meal was nearly 50 euros, I did eat starters, an appetizer, a main course, a dessert, and have a cocktail and a glass of wine (and a bottle of water since most restaurants in Porto won't serve the tap water... it's safe to drink but apparently not very palatable). It was my big splurge for the trip and it absolutely felt worth every euro.
After dinner I was stuffed and sleepy- I practically waddled back to my apartment, put on a movie, and then hit the hay.
Saturday I got up, grabbed breakfast at a little cafe, and then jumped on Porto's historic tram no. 1 that follows the river out to the beach. The tram was insanely crowded... there seemed to be some sort of family reunion or maybe church group, but there had to be 30 or so of them, plus other smaller groups/individuals, and when I say tram... I mean one single tram car. I was packed in the back corner so i couldn't see much of the ride, but when I got to the beach, it was not really what I'd imagined. There was more of a "beach" than I'd really expected, and even the rocky part was not really the cliff like landscape that I'd imagined. That said, it was no less beautiful, and the water was not like beach water that I am used to... it wasnt rolling waves, it was more of a pounding torrent against the wave breakers and shores... much more powerful than anything I am used to seeing at the beach... whether the gulf, the U.S. Atlantic, the Caribbean, or the Mediterranean.
Tram 1 after we arrived at the beach
Walking along the coast
Huge spray from the wave breakers... and it was a calm day!
So powerful looking
Gorgeous
Adorable dog was playing fetch and jumping waves
On my map it looked like there was a park (actually the largest park in Portugal) only a mile or two away, right along the beach, and I decided it would be really nice to see. I started walking... and kept walking, and walking and walking. Forty minutes later I thought I must be close so I looked at a nearby street name so I could figure out where I was on the map... I was about 1/4 of the way there... apparently the scale on that side of the map was much, much smaller than I'd realized (I'd been using the other side which was a closer view of Porto the city.) At that point, I decided that 2.5 hours of walking (one way) to see this park (and likely walk around it) probably just wasn't worth it, and I decided to find a spot along the beach to read instead. I found a nice bench looking out over the water and stayed for a couple of hours just enjoying my book (which while good, was research based... I miss the days when I had the luxury of reading for pleasure!)
From there, I walked back to the tram (seeing a few more cute spots along the way) and headed back into town.
Tram back into town
Once I got off the tram, I did a bit more wandering. I stopped for lunch and also wandered the arts/craft market that had popped up on the river front about a block from my apartment. It seemed to largely be all the same stuff and very touristy, so I didn't buy anything, but it was really nice to wander and look at jewelry and embroidery and different types of port. Right before sunset I headed back to the apartment and I sat on my balcony with a glass of wine and watched a beautiful sunset. That night was low-key, a quick dinner, packing, some more reading... and that was pretty much it.
Sunday was a travel day- I left the apartment around 9AM and I think I got home around 7PM... not much time for anything else. I am slowly getting caught up, and I'll blog about my time since Porto in the next few days.
Lastly, for those curious why the title of my blog posts have been a bit... odd, lately, I'll explain. For graduation weekend (for the one year program people a few weeks ago), I wanted to pay some sort of tiny tribute to all we learned as a group and to reference things we all struggled through and now laugh about... Bruno Latour, a philosopher/sociologist/social scientist was one of the core authors for our course and once of his books (which we read plenty from) is entitled "Reassembling the Social"- hence, the perfect title for a post about a reunion. Then last week, it seemed like life had been rather routine, but that still has value... or so says Kathleen Stewart- another author I've read some of for NSEP (an anthropologist at UT Austin). And then this week, when writing about such a short trip, I was reminded of a phrase from an essay we read last year by D.W. Meinig (which was in a collection by Anderson and Braun) which says that people who travel often don't really pay attention to knowing a place... they just frantically collect localities. In other words, as travel broadens, we become more and more likely to use it as a commodit to be displayed. I think that's recently become more of a common way of approaching travel, maybe not consciously, but even how people refer to trip... for instance, it would not be uncommon for someone to say they have "done" Portugal after a 3 days trip to Porto.
I'm having way too much fun connecting academic articles/titles/references to my blog posts to stop doing it... but know that is where they are coming from, and if you ever want to know what I'm referencing (because it sounds cool or interesting or you are just curious or really any reason), just ask!
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