I enjoyed Lisbon, but I loved Porto.
There was something in the air in Porto when I was there. Everything lined up, the city, the people, the food.
Free Cocktails and Walking Tours
It seems that hostels in Portugal enjoy encouraging guests to socialise with free alcohol – the hostel had a free cocktail hour for new guests every day. It worked too – I met people over the cocktails who became great travel buddies for the time we were all in Porto.
Having learnt from Lisbon, I did the walking tour on the first day. I joined the tour organised by the hostel because it was easy and required very little thinking or effort on my part. As a bonus, some of the people I had met at the cocktails were also on the tour, so we bonded! The tour itself was…not a great tour. Don’t get me wrong, the tour guide was delightful. She even gave us a little performance of Fado singing. But it was a very big group and she stopped at weird places. For example, we spent a lot of time outside the McDonalds. It’s a nice building, with historically significant murals inside and an interesting history but thirty minutes talking about it was excessive.
The tour wasn’t the best I’ve been on, but it wasn’t entirely a waste of time either. We did get the history of the beautiful São Bento train station, a stop by the cathedral and some excellent view points. Our guide also shared an excellent list of reccomendations for food and activities. Most importantly, i got what I mostwant from these walking tours – a sense for the city’s layout and vibes.
The adventures to be had
Porto really is a beautiful city, whether you’re walking along the river or through the cobbled city streets. It is also a great opportunity to build and tone calf muscles because holy moly, the hills! Want to go somewhere? Go uphill. Think you’re at the top? You’re wrong, you have further up to go. The views are worth it, but be prepared.
This was the first city where almost everywhere I went had cobblestones. It took some getting used to with the white cane. By the end of the first day, my wrist was feeling a bit jingly.
There is a lot to do in Porto, including a river cruise (too expensive for me), port wine tours (not my cup of tea) and partying (which was a lot of fun).
With my new hostel friends, I went out for a drink, and I was introduced to green wine. Green wine isn’t actually green, I vaguely remember being told its name has to do with the age of the grapes but I’ve done nothing to verify that. It is a Porto specialty though!
That one drink turned into a scavenger hunt for a bifana the tour guide had suggested. The place she suggested was closed by the time we were hungry, so we found another place someone in the group had heard of. For €3 I had the most amazing sandwich I’ve ever had – and ate it standing up at the counter. If you’re ever in Porto, this place is called Conga and should not be missed.
After dinner we returned to the hostel. This hostel had a massive courtyard with a bar and loads of tables – not necesarily helpful if you’re trying to meet people but great if you’ve already got a group. I pulled out my playing cards (I knew they’d come in handy!) and we all learnt a new card game. I rarely bother to play cards, but as it turns out, I’m not half bad. My skill may or may not have had something to do with me being the most sober person in the group by that point.
In the end, a handful of us decided to go dancing. It took us a while to get to the actual dancing, because right around the corner from the hotel, there was a party on the street.
To old connections and new friends
At the street party, I bumped into someone who had been on the Sintra tour with me. He wasn’t the first person from Lisbon I found in Porto. There was a Canadian accountant in my dorm in Lisbon who just so happened to be in my dorm in Porto as well. I also bumped into another Canadian on the street who was in my Lisbon dorm. That Canadian knew the Aussies I was with – they’d met in Seville. All these connections were a lot of fun.
Friendly help isn’t always welcome
One of the tour guide’s recommendations was a big daily market where you can find fresh fruit, fish and pastries at reasonable prices. My favourite was the fresh tropical fruit salads. I got one for breakfast and found a sunny spot near a busker to enjoy it.
On my way to the market, at a big traffic light close to the market, an elderly gentleman who didn’t speak a lick of English got concerned and decided I needed to be escorted across the street. He grabbed my elbow and didn’t let me go until he delivered me to the market – I managed to communicate where I wanted to go. I don’t like it when strangers grab me, even if the sentiment is good and kind. I didn’t want to be rude though and just let it slide. Besides, I would have walked up and down that street for a solid ten minutes before finding the market without his help.
Magic happens at sunset
My fondest memory of my time in Porto was the sunset from Jardim do Morro – technically in Gaia, the city across the river from Porto. It was spectacular to watch the sun set over the river. The company was great, with the Aussies and the Canadian accountant. We weren’t the only ones there. The entire hillside filled up with people. Everyone was chill, enjoying the warm evening air, the live music and the feeling of community. There was no urgency, no conflict, and for that hour, nothing to worry about as we all watched the sun sink low over the river. The applause was a fun touch but the calls for an encore were just weird…although I did go back the next evening with a new group.
After the sun had set, our little posse went to find dinner. Portuguese chicken in Porto is much better than Nando’s. The hour or so after the sun sets is generally my favourite time of day, because the lighting is exactly right and I can see so much more than at any other time of day. Walking to the restaurant was the only time I really saw and was able to appreciate the colourful buildings of Porto. It really is a beautiful city, and I’m glad I got to see that in its full glory, if only for a few minutes.
Food foraging is a tough game
On my last day, before getting the overnight bus to Bilbao, I decided to spend some time walking along the river on the Gaia side. This is where I had my first experience of what I’m calling Restaurant Stress. Up until this point I’d had almost every meal with other people or cooked it myself. There was always someone who’d heard of a good place, or who had strong opinions about what should be on the menu and I’d been happy to go with the group. But now I was by myself, and I had to eat something before heading back to the hostel for my bag and heading to the bus station. I have a history of fainting if I push myself too hard without sustenance and there was a massive hill to climb
It’s not that there weren’t options. There are a lot of restaurants on the waterfront in Gaia, but the sun was searingly bright, and the menus were in Portuguese. For every restaurant, I had to take a picture of the display menu, find a bit of shade so I could see my phone screen to try translate the menu. It was overwhelming and I basically couldn’t deal. I gave up. Luckily for my health, there was a little market happening which included a churro stand. That was enough to get me up the few hundred stairs up the hill. As of writing this, it’s been a few weeks since I was in Porto and the Restaurant Stress is still a real thing. Wherever I can, I find someone to eat with or get a supermarket salad.
I’ll be back
I haven’t covered everything I did in Porto, because a minute by minute recount of the river side walks, uber rides to the beach and the really tall triple bunk seems excessive. The important thing is that the vibes in Porto were amazing. I’m so glad for all the people I met there. I was feeling so good, I nearly got a tattoo at the parlour next to the hostel but the threat of getting an infection while still on the road stopped me.
I would go back to Porto for more sunsets and green wine in a heartbeat.
