PORTO

Our train left San Sebastian at 10:30pm and arrived in Lisbon at 10;30am (11:30am Spanish time). It was a relatively painless ride as we slept for the majority of it and thank god the issue I had faced the previous afternoon did not rear itself (literally) once during the ride!

Once in Lisbon, we still had another 3 hour train ride north to get us to Porto and after a horrible walk uphill with our 25kg suitcases, we finally arrived at the Porto Poets Hostel.  Aside from the hill aspect, it was in a super location, had a great common room, really helpful staff and had plenty of activities on offer.

At the mouth of the Douro River, the hilly city of Porto presents a jumble of narrow medieval alleyways, extravagant baroque churches, wide boulevards and pretty squares.  We were pretty keen to get out and see it for ourselves, so we settled in quickly and then walked around our part of town to familiarize ourselves with the area and then went back to the hostel for a few superbocks!

We put out names down for dinner that night, a local dish of meat and blackbeans with rice and green cabbage.  It was actually pretty nice and great value for 8euro including unlimited wine.  We met some nice people from all over the world (NZ, Korea, Russia) and then went out to the main bar district for a few cocktails, but we were home relatively early, around midnight.

The next day was Sunday, so alot of things were closed, but the bird from our hostel told us we should visit the Casa de Seralves, a contemporary art museum, which was free on Sundays.  We took her word that we would really enjoy it, but unfortunately it was a complete waste of time, what a total crock of shit it was!  In fact it was so boring, that we have now included contemporary art museums on our black list, meaning we will never visit one again, no matter how good it supposedly is!

the best thing about the exhibition was one that was done by primary school kids!

The museum was situated in the Parque de Fundacao and this was a pretty beautiful place, so at least all was not lost on the visit.

Lucikily we still had a fair bit of the day left, so we got back on the bus and in no time we were down at the Douro River where alot of the Porto action was.  This river frontage district is a World Heritage site and with Vila Nova de Gaia (the headquarters of the major port manufacturers) on the other side of the river, it really is a great place.

Looking at a map of Porto, you do not realise how hilly it is, but once you get down to river level and look up at the huge bridges that cross the river, you really get an appreciation for it.

The most famous of the 6 bridges is the Ponte Luis I which connects Porto with Villa Nova de Gaia, where all the Port caves are located.  The metal arch bridge is 172m long and at the time of its construction in 1886, it was the longest of its type in the world.  Looking at it you kind of think it looks like the Eiffel tower and funnily enough it was actually built by Teophile Seyrig, a apartner of Gustave Eiffel.

After lunch, we crossed the Luis bridge over the bottom level and took a 50minute boat ride which cruised up and down the Douro River, crossing under each of the 6 bridges.  It was a perfect way to see the beautiful city of Porto from a different angle and well worth the 10 euro we paid for the ticket, as that also gave us free entry and tastings at one of the famous port caves.

not our boat, but we were on one basically exactly the same

The earliest evidence of Croft as a port shipper dates from 1588, making it the first ever recorded shipment of port wine.

We were given a tour through the company´s caves (cellars) and it was amazing to see so many barrels of port ageing.  Although alot of the port produced in Porto is aged in the Douro Valley, about 100km east of Porto, Croft and other traditional port houses prefer to mature their wines in their cool dark lodges at Porto where the climate ensures that they will age slowly and "harmoniously".

After the tour we had the chance to try the different varieties of port, including white, ruby, rose and tawny.  All of them were so different, but equally delicious and now I dont know whether I prefer limoncello or port after a meal.  I think I´ll go with limoncello before dinner and then port after dinner, sorry liver!

That night we went out for dinner to a local butcher/restaruant that had been reccommended to us by one of the workers at our hostel.  It was an absolute meat smorgasbord and although we thought we hadn't ordered that much, we had plenty left over that we couldnt finish!  We asked for a doggy bag as we thought it would be a nice idea to give it to the nearby bums in the street, but when it came down to the crunch, we backed out as we werent exactly sure whether or not they actually were bums after all  haha.

Afterwards we went to the Galeria de Paris, a really cool decorated bar with toys, thermoses, old phones and other assorted memorabilia lining its walls.  It also had tango dancing on upstairs and although our cocktails were pretty strong, we werent drunk enough to go up and give it a try!

Next morning we had to organize bus tickets for our next stop, Salamanca.  The bus stop was a solid 3km away, so we got up reasonably early and ran there.  On the way back we stopped off at a park close to home for a bit of crossfit exercise and then slowly trudged back home to shower and get on with the rest of the day.

We didnt have much planned, instead we were just going to walk and see what was out there.

Liberdade (Liberty) square

Bolhao Market - giant barrells of olives

We hadn't eaten breakfast so we bought a fair amount of fruit from the market, stopped for a coffee at a nearby cafe and then found the main shopping area.  Zara, H&M, United Colours of Beneton, Massimo Dutti, Intimissimi and other shops were all on the agenda, and by the end we had both made purchases which always puts us in a good mood!

Lunch was an expensive affair at the famous Cafe Majestic.  It was an amazingly decorated building and the food was really good, so we were happy to cough up a few extra euros.  The cafe is connected to the history of the Porto of the 20s and was where the "intellectual elite" would meet to discuss ideas and as we also consider ourselves to be intellectually elite, it was the perfect pit stop!  

We continued walking after lunch and headed in the direction of the Porto Cathedral, however along the way we strumbled upon the Ireja de Santo Ildefonso, a beautiful church all decked out in the blue and white tiles which are present on many buildings around the city.

Although the Porto Cathedral is one of the most important monuments in all of Portugal, it is really quite a dull looking building.  However there is documentation to support its initial construction in the 5th and 6th centuries, so I guess you cant expect much!

We contiuned on walking towards the river and decided this time to walk accross the top level of the Luis bridge.  It was actually quite scary as at no time did we feel like it was really sturdy, especially when the trams whizzed past us without much warning.

The walk was worth it though as the views back over the river to the old town of Porto were really stunning and there was a nice park where we sat and gave our feet a rest.

That night we again put our names down for the dinner provided by the hostel as we were both super keen to try the local pork dish.  Unfortunately the "betty boop soup" was basically a puree of beetroot and after a few mouthfulls I had to stop for fear of inducing another squirtathon!

This time the dinner was in the hostel garden, which was a nice change and again we met some nice people, especially the bird from Belgium who I have forgotten her name, but she had plenty of good info for us about our next few months of travelling.

After breakfast the next morning we visited one of Porto's most visited shops, Lello & Irmao, or more commonly known as the Harry Potter Bookshop.

The store usually makes the various lists of the top 10 most beautiful bookstores in the world.  It opened in 1906 and features stunning art deco woodwork, a stained glass ceiling and ornate shelving with a dramatic staircase up the centre of the store.  The reason it is known as the Harry Potter bookstore is because it was used for the Hogwarts library scenes in the movies....pretty cool!

Afterwards we climbed the 225 stairs of the Torre dos Clerigos and were rewarded for our efforts with the best panorama of the city.

looking down towards the Douro River

the main bar area of Porto

We then had to race back to our hostel because we had signed up to go on a Fado tour with some others from our hostel.  Fado is a Portuguese music genre, characterised by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the life of the poor.

The music itself was really painful, but the experience as a whole was a lot of fun.  We were taken to the most local of bars where every Tuesday afternoon, all the oldies would gather to play cards and many of them would take turns in getting up to sing their own Fado.

The highlight for me was the local Portuguese drink we were served, a kind of shandy, but instead of just mixing beer and soda water, they also added white wine.  It sounds disgusting, and at first I thought it smelled like 36a Drake Street the day after a big party, but after 2 jugs, I must have liked it!

After about an hour of listening to all these old fogies sing sad songs, we had had enough and politely excused ourselves through the throng of wrinkly skin and hearing aids.  The bus ride back into town took us along the river and gave us a chance to look at some of Porto's weird and wacky buildings, including the thinnest building I have ever seen!

Anna had a bit of a nap back at the hostel and I had a few beers with a few guys at the hostel and then about 8pm, we went down to the river for a bottle of wine before dinner.

I can't help but get up close and personal with my favourite seagulls

We went to a restaurant called A-Grade that Lonely Planet gave its top choice rating to and we had also been told to go there by some friends we made in San Sebastian.  It was a smorgasbord of meat and salad and was absolutely delicious.  The couple sitting on the table with us were from Helsinki in Finland and we got on so well with them that we spoke about random stuff for ages.  

beautiful night to walk home

The next day was a big travel day, a 7+ hour bus ride from Porto to Salamanca in Spain.  Unfortunately our bus ride was only about 5 hours..................

The bus arrived at the Portugal/Spain border and came to a halt as 2 Spanish policeman hopped on board to check everyones passports before letting the bus through.  We thought nothing of it and continued watching Entourage on the laptop until the policeman arrived at our seats.
My passport was checked first and after what seemed like a few minutes, it was handed back to me with no issue.  Unfortunately the same can't be said for Anna's passport and they ordered her to get off the bus, collect her luggage and stay in Portugal.  Obviously this meant I had to do the same!

We were so confused and did not know what was going on.  I was having a hard time controlling myself, but as they spoke no English there was no point in getting angry.

Basically, my Italian working holiday visa is valid for one year, until March 2013 and gives me 90 days of travel within the other Euro countries. Unfortunately, Anna's Italian study visa was only valid until the 1st August, the same day we were trying to cross the border, what are the fucking odds!!

It was our impression that once Anna's study visa expired, she was then entitled to a further 90 days travel under the 'schengen agreement' but it seems as though these 90 days also include the time she was in Italy.  What a crock of shit!

So anwyay, Anna was escorted back to the Portuguese police station by car, whilst I had to walk.  After 2-3 hours of waiting, Anna was finally given her passport back and told that she had 20 days to leave Portugal and the 'Schengen area' (which includes all Euro countries).

Obviously this was not an appropriate outcome as we still have at least 4 months left of our trip to go!  So after leaving the police station, we walked a few hundred metres to the town of Villa Formosa, to try and find some wifi internet and check the train timetables.

Villa Formosa train station

This town was an absolute dive, the sort of one you would see on a Hollywood movie where all the inhabitants are inbreds, it was disgusting.  We had another anxious 3 hours of waiting at the train station, before sneaking onto a train that was bound for Salamanca in Spain, where we had a hostel booked for the following 3 nights.  

Without buying a ticket (we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves!), we amazingly snuck onto the train, stowed our luggage in the back carriage and went straight to the bar and made some friends to make it look like we had been there for a while.  It was another anxious 2 hours, which included hiding in the toilets and evading the ticket inspector, but miraculously we arrived at Salamanca at almost 1am without a hiccup.

A stressful day, but at least we had bought another 3 weeks in Spain.  We have been told that it is pretty uncommon for there to be passport checks when crossing a border with two countries that both belong to the Euro, so it seems as if we were just plain unlucky.  We are due to cross the Spain/France border on the 18th August, so fingers crossed, it would be devastating to say the least if our trip was cut short.