Alcala, Spain Fall 2007: Porto, Portugal

September 7-9

For my second weekend trip, 3 of my apartment mates and I took a flight to Porto, Portugal. We originally picked Porto because we wanted to go to Portugal and there were cheaper flights than for Lisbon. But, I am very glad I visited a place that was a little less thought of and more rare.

One of the first things we loved about Porto was the metro we took from the airport to the city center: It was outside, it was a short rail car, and the ride reminded me of a combination of a slowed-down Space Mountain and the San Diego Zoo Train Tour.

At first sight of historic Porto, we fell in love. The architecture and color palettes of the buildings seemed to have been preserved in their authenticity, untouched by modernization (at least more so than places like Madrid or Rome), and in a way you felt that you had walked into an old black and white photograph. The people there were charming (see picture of older gentleman below with pigeons) and kind, even though we didn't speak their language. The whole place seemed less of a culture shock than Spain actually.

Something that must be said about Porto, is that as a new comer it is slightly difficult to get oriented. The streets do not run in a ordered pattern, and even maps are not that helpful. We ended up getting directions (via hand motions and a partial game of shirades) . Some words in rang familiar to my knowledge of Spanish, but overall Spanish did not assist much in understanding people speaking to you. We found our place none-the-less.

Something we also quickly discovered about Porto is that everything seemed to be uphill. Clearly, we must have gone down sometimes, but it just always felt that we were trekking uphill.

The first day we did a lot of aimless wandering, the best way to see a city if you ask me. We walked down (for once) to the water: Rio Duoro. It was beautiful down there, and across the way were the wineries (Porto is known for Vinho Verde (Green Wine) and Port). With our aimless wandering we came across a lot of charming old book stores, some even with English volumes. I wish they had some with similarly ancient products for sale at home. Not only where their books but also old type writers, old records, old photographs, old maps and sketches by artists, and long forgotten or lost postcards sent from various locations.

Our second day there we began by going to the Mercado de Bolhao. This was an open air market that takes place 6 days a week. It sold various things including crafts, fruit, vegetables, a wide variety of olives, fresh bread, meat, nuts, spices, flowers, and (of course) live chickens. I saw one lady leave with a cardboard box, with air holes, live chicken inside. We bought and sampled one type of bread. It was cut from a huge round loaf, and was very dark (looked like Squaw). It had the hard crust of Sourdough but was very dense and smooth on the inside. It tasted like GrapeNuts in bread form, thus I liked it immensely. It was nice to try something local.

Next we took a long (LONG) walk along the Rio Duoro to get to a Dali Exhibit at the Palacio do Freixo. It was very interesting since it did not feature his Surrealism works at all, which is all I had known him to do. Instead there were sculptures (large and small) based on Greek Mythology or Don Quixote, sketches to illustrate various stories of folklore and poems, water color paintings, and a series of works made to illustrate Biblical passages. I especially enjoyed seeing the latter and did not realize Dali had had a religious rebirth later in life.

We caught a bus back (after much looking, discovered the bus stop was on a highway on-ramp, I guess common knowledge to the Portuguese) and got dinner at a cafe called "O Cacula" (very good). We had a long conversation with our waiter who told us about Portuguese history and differences in culture compared to Spain and the US.

After that we randomly met two Portuguese guys that were going to this concert/dance thing that featured a new type of music in Portugal: Drums 'n' Bass. Normally, I would be very wary of meeting guys randomly and going somewhere with them, but these boys were as nonthreatening as they get. Very nice, gentlemen-like almost, and sincere. The music was really very interesting. It was one DJ playing a sort of techno music, yet different in a way that is difficult to describe. Everyone was literally "dancing with themselves" with about a 1ft. radius around them. The dancing consisted basically of the following: flailing of limbs, bobbing of heads, swaying back and forth, and girls dancing with fanny packs. It was great and I loved the style of it all. Everyone just seemed to be in their own little world, the dancing was clean, and no one seemed to care what anyone else was doing around them.

We left at 3am, right when people were actually showing up (at 1am almost no one was there), so funny how things only start at this time in Spain and Portugal, and in the US all has closed down by then. We got a few hours rest and then headed back to Spain the next morning.

Porto was wonderful. I don't know what Lisbon is like, but I am kind of glad my first taste of Portugal was of sleeping and historic Porto.

HIGHLIGHT OF PORTO: Rummaging in the best old book stores ever and experiencing Drums 'n Bass with some locals.

1. Architecture of Porto