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Published: October 21st 2017
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"Located along the Douro river estuary in Northern Portugal, Porto is one of the oldest European centers, and its historical core was proclaimed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996. The western part of its urban area extends to the coastline of the Atlantic Ocean. Its settlement dates back many centuries, when it was an outpost of the Roman Empire. Its combined Celtic-Latin name, Portus Cale, has been referred to as the origin of the name "Portugal", based on transliteration and oral evolution from Latin. In Portuguese, the name of the city is spelled with a definite article ("o Porto"; English: the port). Consequently, its English name evolved from a misinterpretation of the oral pronunciation and referred to as Oporto in modern literature and by many speakers. In 2014 and 2017, Porto was elected The Best European Destination by the Best European Destinations Agency." Wikipedia
We left Sagres early in the morning on Friday, taking the local bus to Lagos, where we had an hour wait for the bus to Lisboa. That trip took about 4.5 hours, with several stops along the way. We changed buses in Lisboa, and headed north again.
Our route took us through areas devastated by the recent forest fires,
and we saw some places that were still smoldering. Miles and miles of forest along the highway were blackened, and we could see where the fires reached the edges of towns.
The bus lost its air conditioning about halfway into the three hour trip, and we were saved from the heat by a couple of passengers who opened the escape hatch and let fresh air in!
Once in Porto, it was an easy two stop Metro ride to our apartment, where Diego greeted us. He is about 30 and has done several similar redevelop projects around Europe. This building has seven units of different sizes, in a remodeled 200 year old building. We are in a studio for only $48/night. It is very quiet, except for the squeaky floorboards in the unit above us, for which he apologized in advance, and will be fixing in November.
He recommended a restaurant almost across the street, where we had a delightful dinner after doing the grocery shopping. The place, Antunes, is a classic neighborhood eatery, packed on the weekends, with friendly and efficient service and good food.
We tried to find the flea market on Saturday morning, but
finally discovered that it had moved to a location on the edge of town a few years ago...Our search took us down to the waterfront, and then up the longest set of stairs I've ever climbed..They wound around and up, thorough buildings and courtyards, right up to the Cathedral! After visiting the Cathedral, we took some side streets and ended up in a very sketchy neighborhood, from which we discretely but quickly exited!
We walked home through the narrow streets, had brunch, and then headed back out to explore. The streets here are more medieval, with older buildings than Lisboa, since Porto was not as devastated by the 1775 earthquake. On each street we walked, many of the buildings were abandoned, with a least one renovation project every few blocks.
We will have dinner tonight at a vegan restaurant/vinyl record shop we passed this afternoon...
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