Last night was one of the top 10 horrible sleeping nights EVER on a trip. Turns out Porto is a party town, and we are in the heart of it. We went to sleep with the door cracked open to let in fresh air, which John insisted was nice and necessary to keep us from being stuffy. I then proceeded to spend the next 6 hours trying to sleep while dreaming of the street party going on at the foot of our building, four floors down. It might as well been IN our room. At some point I closed the door, but it really made no difference. It's like the narrow streets, stone walls and tall buildings created an echo chamber and everything. was amplified. Horrible. They party all night too, and then the garbage trucks and morning traffic starts, so basically it's a seamless wall off noise. Sometimes the noises of a city can be soothing and create a white background noise. This was not that.
John and I did a little work at the coffee shop across the street in the morning but per the rules of Portugal, it didn't open until 9 a.m. because if you are partying until 5 a.m. than you'd not care at all that it opened at 9:00 a.m. We came to the coffee shop because our internet was so.....darn......slow. Isn't it insane to think that the "slow" internet was actually "fast" internet not all that long ago? I don't remember being as annoyed by it then.
We rallied everyone except for Ava, who was on her own timeline, and we went out into the world to find food and adventure. We strolled around with Romeo begging for waffles for about 30 minutes until we found a brunch place that had pancakes, and he begrudgingly agreed to eat there. I had my first acai bowl ever. I don't eat dairy so I didn't even realize there was an acai bowl out there for me, but this one was made with a. tea smoothie base which tasted like they had blended black tea with bananas and it was surprisingly good. Our little brunch place was on this street with the coolest art installation. There were criss-crossing neon nylon ropes strung tight so that they vibrated with the tiniest bit of wind. The result was this sensation of a vibrating canopy over our head--when you looked out it was like the air was vibrating with color. Very cool idea.
Ava eventually joined us at the restaurant, by way of the miracle that is google maps and cell phones.
We then headed toward the river, but first detoured to the Lello bookstore which is suppose to be amazing (supposedly one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world,) It was probably 12:30 p.m. by this time, and we approached the bookstore and there was a small line of maybe 10 people in front of the door stretching across the sidewalk. We paused and considered whether we should wait in the line (it's a 5 euro charge per person to get into the bookstore and then you get a credit toward whatever you buy). THEN a clerk informed us that in fact we weren't at the END of the line, the end of the line was across the street and all the way down the block. No bookstore for us. At least we all share a mutual hatred for long lines. We don't agree on a lot, but all of us were good on this one.
We headed toward the river which is bustling and vibrant, with loads of restaurants and street vendors. Two people needing a bathroom was an excuse to stop at a cafe and have wine and lemonade (yes, the lemonade was the same price as the wine.) We spent forever talking to manager of the boutique hotel that the cafe sat in who spoke perfect English (5+ years of schooling in England), and he got us excited to do the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage someday. He had done it with his 12 year old son. To be an official pilgrim you have to walk 100 km and he said it was a piece of cake in 5 days. It sounds like an amazing thing to do. The littles bought overpriced balloon swords from a street guy and played while dodging people cruising back and forth.
We headed across the river and came across the bridge jumpers. Basically two young guys in wet suits standing at the top of this bridge railing with an ominous drop and quite a current. For money they will jump. Their accomplice is at the side collecting money, and when they get the requested amount of money they finally do it. They will call out to let you know how close they are getting--to the crowd of probably 50-75 people. "4 more euros...now 2 more euros." You get so sick of waiting so eventually someone pops for the 2 more euros (like us), so you can get on with it. They jumped into the water, and it's fairly anticlimactic. Ava thought they were going to do flips and twists like a professional diver. Nope. They went feet first like an unemployed kid making summer cash that wanted to avoid being paralyzed.
Along the river are vendors selling all sorts of stuff...mostly tourist driven. After another hour we stopped yet again for an espresso, and afternoon toast. Not before we stopped for street popcorn. We really are just on a big food tour. Finally after all that we headed home, weaving back the way we came and hiking up the hilling city. It's like Lisbon--very hilly. We saw some cool things like a street vendor with two beautiful Silke chickens that sat on top of his piano accordion as he played. They didn't quite dance, but they were pretty. John and I bought these necklaces from an artisan on the street that took the Portuguese coin (she did different things with coins from all over the world), and she made them into two puzzle half. The coin has two heads, what might be a woman kissing a man, or a man kissing a woman. They are fairly androgynous actually, but one might look slightly more feminine. Anyway, the coin is bigger--perhaps just a bit smaller than a silver dollar, and the way she separate the two half is quite intricate and they fit together perfectly. The coin has something about "love's embrace" written on it, and so John and I got matching "besties" necklaces. That's what it reminds me--of those necklaces that kids buy for each other, two half that fit together to be a whole.
For dinner we went to the number 4 restaurant on trip advisor in all Porto according totem, which happens to be a burger place called "Curb". The picture with the sort of grubby door and two little red signs on either side--that's the restaurant. It can't be bigger then 500 square feet total. You only have to read the reviews for a few minutes before you are dying to go there. People claiming it's the best burger they've had in their ENTIRE life.
We arrived 3 minutes before 7 p.m and there was already a crowd waiting for it to open. Within a minute of the place opening every table was full. Burgers and fries, that's it. Nothing crazy, maybe 4 varieties of burgers, one arugula salad, and basic fries. Everyone agreed though it was pretty fantastic. Lucia was freaking out initially because she didn't want a burger. She demanded to go home, we said no (it seemed safe but the area was also a tiny bit sketchy and the way home a tiny bit confusing). There was an annoying 15 minutes while she was the worst kid in the world, and then she got over it (sort of). She's moody and horrible right now....hormonally not the best time of the month for her if you know what I mean.
We crawled back home up more hills, fed Gia (who doesn't eat burgers), got the kids to bed, and then John and I headed BACK down the hills to a port bar recommended by our boutique hotel manager friend from earlier today. We tasted six ports and were schooled on all things port. We tried white port, vintage ports, and LBV ports (that's late barrel vintage for all you not in the port know). My favorite two were the dry white, and the 20 year tawny. We figured while we were in the city of port, we might as well learn something about it. To be fair, I was so tired from the last night of crappy sleep I could have just gone to bed and scrapped it, but John rallied me, and even though I wanted to be sleeping at 10:30, I was drinking Port and I was very glad because it turned out to be great.
11:30 p.m. on a Sunday night we are climbing the hills home, and people were everywhere. Bars, restaurants, on the streets...everywhere. It feels vibrant and alive. We really like this city. I know we are leaving a day early due to the "whole picture" being less than optimal, but it's a fantastic city that would warrant more time for sure.
Signed, ME {lv}
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