(Molly) McGulliver's Travels: PORTUGAL!!!!

When we landed in Porto all of the Portuguese passengers started clapping … woo yeah, that’s when I knew I’d enjoy these people and their culture!

First we called a pensione from the airport (12 euros each for a double room – insanely good!) and then took a bus into the city. It was actually colder and rainier than we’d hoped for – and really the whole point of coming to Portugal was for HOT, sun, and beaches! And we were informed that it had been, unseasonably, raining daily for the past month … yiiikes. But our pensione was great/clean/cheap, located on a little square in the middle of the old city. First we went to a little café/resto to have the “prato do dia” – dish of the day – which all places offers for lunch; it’s a solid serving of fish or meat with veggies/fries/salad – all for about 4 euros. And this is where I tried my first Portuguese beer – Sagras Bohemia … a delightful amber concoction … that costs about 70 cents a bottle. Espresso was 55 cents, cappuccino about 65 cents … food prices were seriously about a third of what they are in France. So we picked a great place to end our travels, since we’re running out of money after 7 months. A solid lunch/dinner with drinks cost about 6-7 euros each. And, dang, the Portuguese can eat! That night we wanted to go down to the waterfront area where the cool cafés are, but we got totally lost – and drenched with rain – on the way. We stopped in a tiny bar and had Sagres for an all-trip low of 65 cents per bottles. Ultimately we found a small, empty restaurant for a short dinner, then took a cab home.

The next day in Porto was a lot more interesting. We walked all over the city – which is made of tons of tiny, cobblestoned streets that rise up into hilly neighborhoods off of the river in the center. I think we stopped in about 20 different cheap souvenir shops (purely based on the low prices, I was drawn to all of the Portuguese football apparel, hats, flags, ceramics, etc). We lucked into experiencing one of the most interesting/authentic lunches I’ve had in Europe. We stuck our heads into a tiny restaurant full of locals, and an old Portuguese woman immediately invited us, in French, to sit with her. She was 79 years old, had spent 25 years working in Paris, and essentially shared her life story with us … all the while kidding around & cussing (in French, since they couldn’t understand her) at her lifelong friends scattered around the restaurant. It was priceless … and the food was delightful – I had a super-fresh piece of white fish, vegetable soup (soup is HUGE in Portugal), red wine, and a dessert of cold, cooked, angel-hair pasta sprinkled with cream & cinnamon (strange but good). And we each paid five euros – incroyable. After lunch we toured the area of town with the port-wine caves & tasting houses, which are built underground across the river. We took a short tour of the Sandeman port caves and tasted two varieties of port – including white port, which I’ve never had before and would be excellent as a chilled, summer apéritif. All in all, Porto was a great town to visit.

View of Porto's Riverside .... awesome Van Gogh Sagras beer glasses