My friend Samuel was in the midst of his own grand tour, of the European rather than the Southeast Asian, continent for the past month or so. We coordinated so that I could catch him in Paris just after my own return and offer him, his friend Reid, and his brother Mitchell a place to stay. In return, he'd take me and Nicolas along with them on the next leg of their journey: Coimbra, Portugal, just in time for their annual festival, the Queima das Fitas. Much to our surprise, after months of planning, Samuel's Portuguese friend reneged on the offer, and the house we'd planned to crash slipped through our fingers just a few days before our departure. We found ourselves in an awkward situation.
Making the most of the situation, Nicolas and I reserved an inexpensive room by the beach via Airbnb. Making the most of the situation was a theme that would sandwich this journey, but we'll return to that at the end. For now, the city of Porto was spread before us, and we were thrilled to climb its hills, enjoy its riverside views, and sample its rich selection of port wine. And as luck would have it, I've just this week met a new colleague in Denmark who hails from Porto and is himself a collector of port wine. Sounds like I've got a new friend. :) [NB: I'm cheating a little: I'm writing this post about a week and a half after the time stamp.]
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| Bem-vindo ao Porto : Welcome to Porto |
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| Sé do Porto : the Porto Cathedral, whose origins can be traced back to the 12th century, though it has since undergone many renovations and alterations in architectural style. Site of the baptism of Prince Henry the Navigator and the marriage of King John I to Princess Phillipa of Lancaster, England. (Have no idea who these people are, but apparently they were notable historic figures who have passed through these walls. |
But back on topic, Porto, it turns out, is a charming city. Though travel sites seem to consistently rave about Lisbon and give this more northern Portuguese city little afterthought, we were surprisingly impressed. We found bountiful, delicious, and inexpensive food almost everywhere we went. We had afternoon snacks at the Armazém do Caffè, twice. We discovered a trendy counter culture, complete with people abandoning the euro in favor of using their own local currency (though this is far from the norm). It turns out that they too make delicious (most vegetarian) food. And even these blasé Parisians were impressed by our desserts along the riverfront at Taberninha do Manel, where we celebrated Samuel's (and Nicolas's belated) birthday(s).
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| Desserts along the riverfront at Taberninha do Manel |
While I am confident that this city boasts a rich history which is totally worth exploring (to which Samuel and friends can attest), Nicolas and I did little more than wander and relax, enjoying our mini vacation before our impending separation once I am off in Denmark and he is stuck behind wrapping up the school year with classrooms of kids who are thoroughly done learning.
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| Nicolas and me during our little pod ride over the city with Samuel, Reid, and Mitchell |
Although we'd gone separate ways, Nicolas and I managed to cross paths with Samuel, Mitchell, and Reid on a couple of occasions. On one such occasion, we tested out the little glass pods that took us up over the city to a fantastic viewing point.
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| We made it to the top! Reid, Nicolas, me, Mitchell, and Samuel at the end of our pod ride up over the city. |
And we of course couldn't do Porto without some proper port wine tasting. We were caught off guard when offered white and rose port wines-- who knew they came in variants other than red? And even red isn't so simple: We learned that a "ruby" port is a red only stored in metal barrels whereas a "tawny" is a red ages in wooden casks, producing what I personally find to be the best results after about ten years of aging. We had quite the educational little session on our last evening at a little place called The Wine Box.
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| When in Porto, port wine's the way to go. And after this weekend, I'll take a 10-year tawny reserve any day. |
Our final day had been allotted for beach time, but that all soon changed. During our port wine tasting the night prior, Nicolas had received a funny little alert from Google calendars informing us of our flight cancelation, even though we'd already done our online check-in. Without any email notification from the airline, we figured we'd let the notification slide until the following morning. It was then that we understood that we were at the end of a massive ten-day airline strike. After hours of dropped phone calls, we grabbed a quick lunch and made our way to the airport to see what could be done. The answer, it seemed, was fairly little. There was no making it to Paris that night.
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| The time it took to take this shot was about all that we managed to spend at the beach, even though it was just around the corner from our Airbnb home for the weekend. |
Creative thinkers that we are, we refused to accept that the best possible route home was a flight the following day from Porto to Madrid, a three-hour layover (just enough time to not be able to get out and see the city), and then a 6pm arrival in Paris. And arguing got us somewhere: we were placed on a late evening flight to Lisbon to bring us back to Paris via direct flight the following day, shaving three hours off the return time. Not much, but something, right? And suddenly our trip to Portugal had become a multi-city adventure! Now that's what I call making the most of an unfortunate situation.
We found ourselves the cutest, highly-rated, affordable bed and breakfast for a comfy night's stay, complete with complimentary slippers, bathrobes, tea, and a warm reception even at 11pm. It's called the
Typical Lisbon Guest House, and I feel very lucky to have had the chance to stay here!
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| The Typical Lisbon Guest House, a high point in our re-routing fiasco on the way home from Porto |
And we braved a 6am alarm clock in order to do a mini power-tour of downtown before breakfast time. Nicolas, loaded down with his schoolwork, was a real trooper throughout the situation.
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| As much of Lisbon as can be squeezed into an hour, more or less. |
I think Portugal may be worth a return trip, just maybe next time on an airline other than TAP. ;)
