Fall Break Part 1: Portugal

With midterms and papers complete, it was finally my Fall Break!!

I took off on a Wednesday for Porto, Portugal with my friend Nate.

First day in Porto, we obviously had to check out this bookstore which supposedly inspired JK Rowling to write Harry Potter. You had to pay to enter the bookstore. It was the weirdest/coolest book store I've seen. We are guessing she got her inspiration from the staircase.

We decided to do buy a tourist package that included a riverboat tour, a cable car-ski gondola type thing down to the waterfront and Porto wine tastings.

We had a little time before embarking on our tour so we went one of the most ornate churches I have ever seen . The entire thing, from head to toe, was covered in bronze statues. It was quite a sight.

From there we went to our riverboat tour, which took us up and down the river to see the 6 bridges of Porto. Post riverboat tour, we walked the top of the main bridge over to the other side of the town. That is where we took a cable car/gondola ride down to the riverside and the wine cellars.

FYI: Port wine is disgusting. But, hey had to try the local culture.

we walked across the top of this bridge, awesome views

After the wine tastings we sat for about an hour with some locals to see the sun set over the beautiful city of Porto.

It was nice to be in such a warm and relaxing place. The entire time we were there it averaged high 70s. Everything was really cheap too, which was nice.

The only thing I wasn’t a big fan of was the cuisine. They had this one sandwich called the Francesca....? Think a soggy grilled cheese with tofu and soy burger inside all sitting in a bowl of tomato soup. I feel nauseous just thinking about it. Anyways, not a fan. It was pretty difficult to find vegetarian food in Porto, but when I did find some, it was absolutely delicious.

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The next day we took a flight to Lisbon.

Our hostel in Lisbon was deemed the #3 hostel in Western Europe and #5 hostel in the world. It was really cool. It reminded me most of a CoOp back in Berkeley. The common room area looked like a jungle with a foosball and pool table in the center. We stayed in a dorm with two other people, though we did not seem them at all when we were there.

I really liked Lisbon. It was a little touristier than Porto was, but it had such fun atmosphere. It too was located right by the water, giving it a very beachy vibe. Cable cars weaved their way throughout the city neighborhoods and a Golden Gate Bridge could be seen in distance.

We only had about a day in Lisbon so we were unable to visit all the neighborhoods. The ones we did visit were called Belem, Bario Alto and Alfama.

Highlights included the Monastery, a famous Portuguese pastry place called Pasteis de Belem, and lunch in the old town neighborhood at a place that the hostel recommended. We think they guy might have been American, based off of the décor and music choices. Anyways, he served traditional Portuguese cuisine, and just by luck, we were able to snag a table. I had a delicious orange salad, and Migas de Broa that they whipped up for me once they found out that I was vegetarian. Both were unbelievable.

That night we decided to check out the nightlife. That was interesting. I would say in the span of 15 minutes we were offered cocaine 7 times. This was also the day before Halloween so some people were walking around with their faces painted like ghouls. It was interesting, but all in all a fun night.