Porto is the second largest city in Portugal, located in the northwest part of the country. Situated along the Douro River, the city is known for its iconic bridges, blue-and-white tiled architecture, and, as the name suggests, Port wine.
As the last leg of our week-long February break from classes in France, we rode the train up from Lisbon, Portugal to Porto. The train pretty much traveled along the coast for most of the route, offering some nice views of the Portugese coastline. As with the rest of this Iberia trip, I was joined by my study abroad cohort friends: Alec, Jack, Kabir, Lilya, and Madison.
We were only in Porto for just over a day, arriving midday Saturday and leaving Sunday evening. But we sure made the most of it. Immediately upon arriving, the guys and I went to eat lunch at Casa Guedes, a place recommended to us by a Portugese friend Alec had met in class. I ordered the Francesinha Especial, a traditional Portugese sandwich that originated in Porto. The Francesinha consists of a combination of hot meats wrapped in layered bread and melted cheese, surrounded by a gravy-like sauce with a kick to it (called Molho de Francesinha), and in my case, topped with a fried egg (which makes it the "Especial" variation). Safe to say, it was incredibly tasty.
Following lunch, we walked back near the city center and came across the Catedral do Porto (Porto Cathedral). It was a small stone cathedral with a courtyard in front, and a man was out front singing and playing an instrument. The cathedral courtyard offered some nice views out over other parts of the city. Since most of Porto is built upon hilly terrain, the buildings and their red rooftops cascaded down along horizon.
Eventually we made our way down to the riverbank of the Rio Douro. We walked past the many restaurants that line the river up to the iconic Ponte Luiz I (Dom Luis I Bridge). The double-decker bridge towers over the river, connecting the city of Porto on the northern bank to Vila Nova de Gaia on the southern. We had signed up for a wine tour at our hostel earlier that day, so around mid-afternoon we met up with our tour guide under the bridge. He gave us a bit of history about the area before we joined him in walking across the lower level of the bridge to the other side of the river.
We stopped briefly to take some photos with the bridge and the Porto waterfront in the background, then continued on to the first wine cellar along the tour: a place called Cálem.
We were given a tour of their wine cellars, which filled with dozens of barrels of Port wine - some decades old. Along the tour, our guide shared the history of Port wine in the region, its different variations, how they are made, and what makes Port wine stand out from other wines. We then got to try a glass of each of their bottles available for taste testing.
Port wine is a sweet wine that is produced only in the Duoro Valley of northern Portugal. It has a high alcohol percentage and is typically served in a small glass with dessert. Port wine is split into three main varieties: ruby, tawny, and white. Ruby Port is dark and fruity, made from red grapes that are only aged for a few years. Tawny Port is also made from red grapes, but it is often aged much longer in smaller barrels and offers a lighter flavor profile than the ruby. Lastly, White Port is made exclusively from white grapes in the region and offers more of a citrusy flavor profile.
After a few glasses, we moved on to a couple other wine cellars, once again trying their bottles available for taste testing. By the end of the night, I'd say each of us had at least 7 (Port size) glasses of wine. We carried that momentum with a night walk through the city, climbing up what felt like hundreds of stairs to get from the riverbank back up to the hostel. The people in the hostel had organized a bar crawl that night, so of course we joined in and drank some more. I didn't really talk long to anyone outside our group, other than this kid we met who was also from Florida. But we did pass by this really cool looking McDonald's which I later found out is one of the most famous McDonald's restaurants in the world due to its unique architecture. Known as the Imperial McDonald's, this located was previously occupied by the Imperial Cafe for most of the 20th century. When the McDonald's replaced the Imperial Cafe, it retained many of the art deco style features of its predecessor, including chandeliers, stained-glass windows, and the large bronze eagle above the entryway.
We had some hours the next day before our flight back to Toulouse, so we explored more of the city north of the river. From the hostel, we walked to a small cafe for a quick breakfast. Just outside the cafe, an older man came up to us and tried to sell just the most massive brick of weed I've ever seen (not that I've seen very many) out in broad daylight. Wild start to the day, and very on par with the rest of our experiences in these large cities on the Iberian peninsula.
Snaking our way up through the streets, we passed by some construction, I saw a cool-looking church off in the distance, and we eventually came across a wide street with a large, open plaza down the middle. This was the Avenida dos Aliados, and at the other end of the street, the Porto City Hall building (Paços do Concelho in Portugese) rose high into the air. It was a pretty shitty day out, super overcast, and I have no idea why I was posing like this, but alas, we stopped to take some photos in front of the intricately designed municipality building. In front of the building, there was a small man-made pond and a statue of Portugese poet Almeida Garrett, who was born in Porto and become an important figure in the city's history. I only learned this in the last few minutes writing, and took the photo solely because I saw a seagull perched on his head and thought it was funny.
We spent a couple hours longer enjoying what the city streets had to offer before grabbing our bags and heading over to the airport. We boarded our 6pm Ryanair flight back to Toulouse, expecting to arrive around 9pm and get ready for class the next day. This was not the case. I was asleep, but there were supposedly some rain storms around Toulouse, and after circling for a while, they diverted us to Girona, Spain. Girona is a smaller city south of Barcelona, where Ryanair had a nearby hub. They have us disembark into what is one of the smallest airports I've ever been in. And the poor guy at the one food spot in the airport, who was getting ready to close down for the night, suddenly had dozens of passengers trying to buy his last few sandwiches from the counter.
Chaos ensues. No one knows what's going on. Suddenly there's word we'd be brought to Toulouse by bus. Everyone goes out to the bus pickup area, awaiting the fleet's arrival. That did not happen. About an hour after landing, the first bus arrived and it was a mob rush to get to the door. We all stayed back, away from the chaos, but I saw grown-ass dudes, who had to have been on some basketball team with how tall they were, pushing old ladies and kids aside to get onto this bus. Animal instincts kicked in - people were doing anything they could to get on. Around a half hour later, another two buses pull in, and this time we try out our luck. The guys and girls throw their bags under the bus, I'm hanging onto mine, they manage to squeeze their way in from the side of the crowd, saving some seats for the rest of us. Finally all 6 of us manage to get on, and as the dust settles, there's one too few saved. Poor Kabir, who did not manage to grab a seat, decided to stow away on the stairs at the middle of the bus.
I was in and out of sleep for most of the ride, still holding onto my large Osprey backpack and my small daypack. We stopped at the Spain-France border around 3am, and luckily they did not come on board to find stowaway Kabir sitting on the stairs. And we finally pulled into the Toulouse-Blagnac airport terminal at 4:30 in the morning. Safe to say, we did not make it to class the next day. For what started as a fun-filled week full of new adventures, the ending sure did not disappoint. In the moment, all we wanted to do was get back to our rooms and go to sleep. But now, looking back, I think this will go down as one of my craziest and most utterly chaotic travel experiences. I guess Porto was pretty cool too.
