Welcome back my dear followers. As I was saying last time, in October I went to a new place, Porto the second biggest city in Portugal (country nº 23). It was a short trip from Saturday early morning until Tuesday evening, nevertheless I made the most of it.
I arrived there and from minute one I was amazed. The airport is really big, clean and well organized. The directions around it were easy and clear. I got out and went straight to the underground station, which is actually outside. If you wanted you could even walk down the tracks but, of course, I wouldn’t recommend that.
I soon as I step on this city I just fall in love with it. Don’t know why really but it just happened. I took the metro to the hostel. I got off on the station that I was meant to. As soon as I got back out it was just breathe taking, the streets, the houses, the cathedral. I felt like I travelled back in time.
I didn’t follow the directions properly and I got lost =P. After asking around, I found this lovely, very modern hostel with welcoming staff that let me leave my things until it was check in time. So then I decided to go out and explore.
I went to have breakfast, had a coffee with a ham and cheese croissant for only €2.75, so cheap, fresh and good. After that I just wondered around. They’ve got a heritage tram, this old school tram that goes around the city and the driver is dressed accordingly with an old school hat.
I ended up on a long road full with shops and restaurants, Rua Santa Catarina. One thing that I like about Porto is that it’s on a hill so the streets are all up and down, I wouldn’t cycle but it’s a good walk, and, depending where you are standing, it gives you a nice view. I was at the top of the street so I could see a “sea” of people across the whole road. It was a Saturday, so it was a busy day.
After a while, before heading back to do check in, I decided to go for lunch. I wanted something small, I wasn’t hungry. I stopped in a small shop and read their menu, trying to find something new and local to try.
I found this dish that sounded good and it said it was a popular snack there. So I ordered a “francesinha”. As soon as they served it to me I realise this wasn’t going to be a light meal. Francesinha consist of two slices of bread filled with different types of meat, mine had sausage, ham, bacon and beef, it’s covered in melted cheese and it has a sauce on top. It comes with chips on the side and, usually, a fried egg on top. Lucky for me mine didn’t have that last part, if not I don’t think I would be able to walk afterwards.
I decided to go back to the hostel and finally check in. Oh my God!! This is the best hostel I’ve ever stayed, until now. I was surprised by the facilities, the price and everything that they offered. It had great reviews so I made the right decision when I chose to stay there. But I’ll talk more about the hostel later on.
Something else that the hostel offered was free tour guides around the city, they’ve got one in the morning and another one during the afternoon. So I thought it was a great idea to go and enjoy the day.
Our guide is called Daniela, she was going to take me and two other girls, Ornella, an Italian girl that recently graduated from university and was travelling around Portugal; and Ning, an Indonesian/Australian girl that was travelling around Europe for a few months.
We were going to go all around the “new” part of Porto. We went to the main spots, Avenida dos Aliados, the spectacular Rail station Sao Bento, the Clerigos Tower (which gives a great view from the top), Centro Portugues de Fotografia (built on an old prison), Capela das Almas (with an amazing façade). We saw the old hospital, a very impressive building, a very cold and old looking.
One of my favourite places is the gardens of the Crystal Palace. We arrived there at closing time so they almost didn’t let us in but we were able to enjoy this wonderful place for 10 minutes at least. It’s a big park, gardens everywhere, little corners with fountains. Then there is a place where you can get an amazing view of the river and the bridges, on the far end you can see the sea. We got there during sunset so the colours made everything look even more beautiful. The Crystal Palace was replace in 1956 for a huge dome pavilion where they held concerts and sports events.
We enjoyed a lovely afternoon, we stopped at some small markets in different places of the city. But by the end of the tour it was late and we were hungry. So we decided with girls to go try something new.
Daniela recommended us to go to Canelas do Coelho, a small restaurant that serves petiscos, some kind of tapas. We decided to share some octopus, cod, small ribs and some beef and pork, while we had some wine and caipirinhas (not really Portuguese, it’s Brazilian but it’s my favourite).
Ning was staying in another hostel so we agreed to meet back on the pub crawl that night. A pub crawl is where they take you out to different pubs/bars, usually 3 or 4, and then the night finishes in a nightclub where you can stay until closing. It also includes some drinks on each place or discount price, depending on the city and the company. For me this is a great, as I travel by myself I don’t like going to a nightclub alone. With the pub crawl I get to know new people and we all go out as a group.
At 11p.m. they picked us up, we were also joined by other people from the hostel like Gabriel, from Peru and his friends, Sebastian and Moritz from Germany. When we all got together we were a big group from different hostels, our receptionist João came with us too.
We first had some beers in some kind of park. You’ve got some bars but they were selling drinks outside. It was really crowded, a lot of local people, and it was so cheap. A beer for just €1.
After that we went to 2 more bars were we enjoyed some more drinks and good old music. The third place was really crowded and super hot but it was a great atmosphere. The third bar was my favourite but we had to leave and go to final destination. The nightclub was bigger than the other places that we’ve been. We continued to have fun, dance and have a couple more drinks. Cheap drinks, nice people, good music what else can you ask for??
We called it a night and went back to the hostel with Ornella, when I checked the time is was past 5 in the morning, time to go to bed.
This was just the beginning, a busy first day. Next time I’ll tell you how this trip ended and I still need to show you the awesome hostel I stayed at. So don’t put your backpack down just yet, we are still travelling.