Blogs from Portugal, Europe - page 168

OK This is the life! Didn’t want to wake up this morning but had to be up for breakfast and ready for the bus for the tour of Porto at 9am (I know what it sounds like) Porto is just gorgeous. We had a tour missed getting a photo of this really funny sight of a dog leaning on the window sill of a very old apartment building in the sun. Of course here was yet another beautiful church this time Baroque. Then we got off the bus and did our own thing. We came back by funicular to the bottom and then walked along the river bank back to the boat in time for lunch. Porto is just lovely and not so many tourists. Then off to the port maker for the tour and class ... read more

Got off to a pretty slow start today for a couple reasons. For one we were up pretty late last night and two, I had to do laundry. So I dropped off a load downstairs and paid the hefty 7 euro fee. Not really sure how that is justified but there is no way I am wasting my time washing, drying and folding that stuff when I am on vacation. Spent the couple hours I had to kill waiting for the load to be done looking into future travel plans and sending out some couch surfing vibes to people along my route. Right now it looks like I will skip the south of Portugal (the Algarve) and just head to Andalucia with a possible stop in Madrid thrown in. For some reason the beaches of the ... read more

Quite an interesting day in Lisbon, albeit a good one. Got a little bit of the history of the country and city and then followed that up with a little taste of the current politics. I went on a walking tour of the old district of Lisbon in the morning. It was just a small group of us which was nice, pretty personal. We had our tour guide, Bernardo, a local around our age, myself, Adam the Australian from last night and two cool people from Brazil. It was pretty informal but we did get some good historical info to back up what we saw. Hit most of the main points in the city including a couple churches, some plazas, the castle on top of the hill and more. Certainly a good way to see the ... read more

So today is my day to explore Porto. Maria's friend that I met last night, Alberto, came to pick me up around 10am and from there we took a bus and a train south about 30 miles or so to Porto. The city is much larger and more beautiful than I thought. It sits on the ocean with the River Duoro (Golden River) running through it. The river used to be used to transport wine from the vineyards outside the city down to the centre area to be sold but now it simply divides Porto from V.N. Gaia, the city right across the river from Porto. I would get a bunch more historical tidbits from my tourguide Alberto the rest of the day (thanks Alberto!!!) The downtown area of Porto is fantastic, particularly along the river. ... read more

Portugal Bom, devido a uma falha técnica do site, a visita a Portugal vai ficar sem muitos detalhes. Segunda tentativa, vamos lá! =) Bom, dia 14 de maio (agora que me dei conta do tempão que faz que eu não escrevo!!!!) foi dia de festa aqui. Saí com a Tina e algumas amigas dela pro Atahualpa. Como sempre, barra libre - drink all you can - até as 2:30 da manha. Meu trem saía as 4:30, então ficamos lá ate ali pelas 3 da manhã. Antes de ir para casa paramos para comer kebab. Nunca tinha comido. É simplesmente uma delícia! Acho que vou viciar nisso! Ainda bem que tem algumas opções bem light como a que eu esco... read more