The focus today has been recovering from last night’s bar and club hopping. It was a good night out but ended up being bigger than I expected.
Drinks in several squares.There was an astonishingly loud funfair happening in a park.
We started off with drinks around town and spent a while at this place where musicians arrived and started jamming at the bar.
We took a wander around the old town and stopped at a few places, eventually getting to Bloom, where a Eurovision party was happening the following night.
Unfortunately, we only got there at 4am and it closed at 4:45. I got outside quicker than Danny, Peter and Ash. I sat for a few minutes and then ended up texting them to say I was heading home. I don’t remember the last time I was out so late and I almost felt like I was going to keel over.
I made it to bed and didn’t hear the others get in a bit later. After sleeping in until 1pm I really had no idea how I’d adjust back to normal waking hours on return to regular holiday hours.
I took a trip back to the mall in the afternoon for food and some new underwear (thrilling stuff) after having a salad in the food court. After such a big night I did wander around in a bit of a daze and I was glad to get back to the apartment and find that we’d be watching Eurovision in the apartment.
I made pizzas, we drank wine, brought blankets to the couch and are now watching the votes come in. Personally I liked the Finnish entry best but it’s not looking good for them.
Tomorrow is the flight home and finally seeing Luke, hooray!
So, an ongoing theme of this trip to Galicia has been me playing second string to Daniel when it comes to meeting people. Galicians seem to feel some sort of kindred-spirit connection to Ireland and Australians are as good as chopped liver in comparison.
When discussing holiday nicknames ‘Chopper’ was even suggested as an option for me but I was not keen.
Last night we turned up at 9pm to a fancy restaurant called Benedita Elisa (because 9pm is when they open. WHEN THEY OPEN!!) and they couldn’t fit us in so we went for dinner to a place that one of the patrons at the bar had suggested the previous night.
The place we ended up going to was great, the helpful waiter had lots of recommendations for Galician dishes.
Satay beef and pork ribs. A very mild flavoured fish cake. The chips are freshly made everywhere.
We shared all the dishes and it was very enjoyable to discuss the flavours and which were our favourites.
Afterwards we walked into the old part of town to see the cathedral by night.
The centre was largely quiet but there were a few groups of musicians around and some pilgrims walking into town. The alleyways must look almost identical now to medieval times but probably smell a lot better.
After a walk around we went home to bed where I managed to spend hours getting to sleep despite having far less alcohol than the previous night.
We were all up and about by 11am (really getting into the Spanish lifestyle now) and spent the morning getting ready for our 2pm lunch booking at Bernadita Elisa.
This restaurant was a little more upscale than the previous night and we did the same – shared plates so we got to try many things on the menu.
Calf bikini with trumpets of death (a type of mushroom). Delicious and not as dramatic as the name suggests.Curry crispy rice with mango, sardines and roe.Carpaccio with pine nuts.Burrata salad
Just a few of the many dishes!
We each had such a small bite of the dishes so that we had room for dessert, which was nothing short of fabtastulous.
Ok, no more food photos, I promise.
A cross between creamy cheesecake and crème brûlée.
The bus station in Porto was very well equiped, clean and organised. Public transport really is a dream in Europe compared to Australia.
We bought snacks.
Four kinds in one! I don’t think we have this in Australia, correct me if I’m wrong.
Then got on the almost empty bus (the best kind) and it turned out we had the whole back row.
Time for some crossword puzzles and three hours to enjoy the views of the countryside.
The photos don’t do it justice, the whole way was lovely and green and dotted with little Portuguese villages, rivers and sea views. Here they mostly seem to grow their grape vines on head-height trellises, which seems very sensible.
Eventually we arrived back at the Santiago bus terminal, our third time here! We have now arrived in Santiago by plane, on foot and by bus and left by train so we’re really having a modern pilgrim experience.
The apartment is nice but the security features make me a bit worried about the neighbourhood.
Peter and Ash are arriving this afternoon so we went out to get some supplies. The local bakery was doing something unusual.
Carbon bread!Was actually delicious dipped in olive oil and salt. It did taste like carbon but … in a good way.
I just looked at the door and realised there’s another security feature.
Seems like it should be one or the other.
Looking forward to having other people to listen to Danny’s blister stories ;-).
First, a big hello to Kathy, Danny’s mother, who has been reading the blog and I’ve been shouting ‘HELLO’ to from the background most mornings while Danny is on the phone. Looking forward to meeting you again when we get to Ireland!
After staying up until 1am watching Ted Lasso (using our holiday time wisely, I know) we decided to have a lie in. Our only planned activity of the day wasn’t until 12:30.
To get across to the port house side of the river we walked down, down, down to the water level and crossed the lower level of Porto’s iconic bridge.
This was our first proper trip over to this side and it provided an excellent view of the side we were staying on. Hills might be an effort to navigate but hilly cities are much more scenic.
If we had thought the other side of the city was busy, this side was heaving – and on a Monday.
We had booked an Airbnb port and cheese experience but we were a bit early so we went for a wander. We saw a famous rabbit.
And a tower painted all around with beautiful flowers.
I had booked the port and cheese tasting experience at a port house called Quevedo, through Airbnb experiences. It was only $30 and came with a talk on port and the history of the port house.
I am 90% certain that it was one of the same port houses luke and I visited last time we were here but the cheese was a nice addition and I got to refresh my knowledge of port.
We both agreed the white port was our favourite. I don’t think it’s available to Australia but I might try bringing some home from the uk.
For the rest of the afternoon we wandered around and sat a few different places. The first did a port and chocolate pairing.
The chocolates were excellent and locally produced.
After all the chocolate and cheese what I obviously needed was a large lunch. We found an Italian restaurant in a nice laneway and I ordered carbonara and Danny had pizza. But first they brought out tiny perfect little garlic breads.
Obviously we needed a litre of sangria too.
It was an absolutely stunning carbonara, served in a bowl that was lava-hot, but I realised halfway through that I had severely overestimated my capacity. I ate it all and refused to learn any kind of lesson from my experience.
Cafe view.
One thing Danny observed as we sat there was that not a single table in Spain or Portugal had been the slightest bit wobbly. At home about half of tables require extensive chocking with coasters or wadded-up serviettes, yet here they seem to have no problem setting up a table on a cobblestone street with a 20 degree slope.
We had a drink on the waterfront and listened to a busker for a while, then caught the cable car up to the top of the hill.
We went back to a little bar we had visited two nights previously. It was by a bus stop and looked like the kind of place frequented by locals. Six drinks and a bowl of chips were 24 euros – and the gin and tonics here are at least double the size of ones at home.
One the way home we crossed the top of the bridge and managed to be right on time for an absolutely spectacular sunset.
It was a popular spot.
After an afternoon of drinking and an early morning start, I went to bed early and made the most of our last night in our lovely apartment.
Thanks to Danny booking our accommodation in an epic location, we are really close to almost everything in Porto.
Our apartment is in that white building, behind it is the main cathedral and town square and it’s right beside the biggest bridge across the river.
We had an excellent sleep then I found a very Melbourne-style cafe for breakfast, but at about half the price of a Melbourne brunch.
Near us was a large table of people of various ages who were all spread out using various devices and tapping away. We thought they were all working independently. Just before we left they all stopped typing and started introducing themselves and talking about poetry. We tried to overhear when was going on but it was a bit mysterious.
Next stop: stained glass museum! As you can imagine, one of us was more excited about this that the other.
Danny wasn’t terribly keen, but it was only eight euros and literally backed onto our accommodation so if he wanted to go sit it out he could.
A nice surprise when we paid…
Art and port, a winning combination! Sure, it was 11am but it would have been rude to refuse.
The museum is very small but had some nice stained glass.
Tiffany!
Next, a quick break at the apartment to charge devices and do some puzzles with our feet up. I hadn’t known previously that we were both fans of word puzzles and this book I bought in Australia has been great entertainment.
Then we went for a walk and had a snack break with a view.
It was kind of a brioche-pizza-calzone mashup.
We wanted to do a bit of shopping today. We walked to a mall for a look around and I bought a book. Shopping centres really are the same all over the world.
I was very grateful that the mall bookshop had a couple of shelves of books in English and even a decent selection of fantasy and sci fi.
We went on a walk around town to see street art and other lovely sights.
Iconic Porto church.
I found a nice middle-aged-lady fashion store and bought a dress to wear if we go out to somewhere nice for dinner. While in the shop I met a couple of Kiwis who had been living in Mount Martha for the last ten years. it’s (relatively) just down the road from where I live so it seemed like quite a coincidence.
Next we walked through some markets where I bought strawberries. the strawberries we’ve had here have been really great.
Danny has been wanting some open shoes that would be more comfortable with his blisters.
Despite my encouragement he didn’t even try on this pair of fake-diamond-encrusted trainers (rude) and went for some Birkenstocks.
We made it to 10km and decided to have an afternoon rest and watch some Rick and Morty, during which Danny feel asleep and I started my book.
I’m coming to realise that this isn’t my most riveting blog entry but I’ve written too much to stop now!
Porto is a VERY hilly city and the walk to our restaurant for the evening was quite an ordeal. Worth it though, for views towards the sunset and feeling like we’d found a place where locals hang out.
I’d been reading up on local street artists and there was some work right by our spot.
Subtle but beautiful. Hazul luzer, a local artist.
We walked back to the apartment to get our laundry at 9pm. It turned out that the nearest laundromat was halfway back to the restaurant. Up and down hills again.
In the very new and clean laundromat we got talking to a couple from Melbourne and a couple from Turkey. We all agreed that the laundromat was the place to be on Monday nights.
We’d brought drinks, everyone agreed it was the right idea.
Here Comes The Planet 