After a month in Spain and a nice two weeks in Italy, I decided to make a visit to Portugal. Originally, I had no idea what I wanted to do in the last leg of my trip, but my cousin had just moved to Portugal and she offered me a stay at her place in Lisbon. In all the years that I’ve dreamt and talked about Europe, Portugal never came to mind. It was always there, but I hadn’t really heard much about it, except for it being Cristiano Ronaldo’s home country. Who by the way, I’m not a huge fan of since he played for most of his career for Real Madrid, a big FC Barcelona rival. In my second week of living in Spain, I hadn’t even bought my ticket to Portugal or even planned what I would do there. So I brought my Fodor’s book of Portugal with me and tried to do a little bit of research when I could. After the first plane ticket was booked, I was committed.
Now, what I read, which wasn’t much, was quite interesting. Portugal has a different culture, language and history compared to what you normally hear about France, Italy or Spain. Two big popular foods: Fish and meat. A big one is codfish, which funny enough isn’t even Portuguese, they get it from Norway. But they love fish.
Portugal is also the oldest country in Europe, which is surprising to hear after all the history you learn in Middle School about France and Spain. To be completely honest, my favorite fact about this country, it’s the cheapest to spend in while in Europe. Not great for residents, but as a tourist, it helps if you’re on a low budget but still want to get that European vibe.
My trip actually began in Lisbon, but I will leave those anecdotes for another blog since it was broken up into pieces a bit for me…. More on that later. I’ll start with my trip to Porto, which by the way I would recommend staying for about 4-5 days. There’s so much do in this small city and nearby. Unfortunately, I only had two days, so I tried my best to cover all the bases I could.
When flying into Portugal you can land in either Lisbon or Porto, as they are the largest international cities in the country. I decided to fly into Lisbon, but I then took a morning bus to Porto. You can get there by train or car, but I decided I’d take a bus to see if I got any scenic views, plus it was the cheapest form of transportation. It took about 3 hours to get there, so not too long. I had a light breakfast so when I arrived, I was starving! Normally, my go to would be to have a pasta, but I couldn’t eat Italian food in Portugal. At least not within the first few days I was there. I checked into my hostel, which by the way was really nice, and then I looked for food. The hostel “front desk” recommended me a neighborhood nearby to look for some good food options (I say in quotation marks because you have to go through a bar to get to the actual hostel, so it’s not really at the front).
I had probably the best pork sandwich I’ve ever had. I ordered the “Pernil Com Queijo Da Serra” (oven roasted pork with Serra Cheese on bread) and a side of chips. It sounds very simple, but trust me when I say, that this was delicious. I wanted to eat this sandwich throughout my whole trip there, but I tried my best to not order it again because I had to try other meals.
After a tasty late lunch, I wandered the streets of Porto and realized I was late for many tours I had investigated. The sun was setting soon, and my cousin had recommended me to visit Jardim Do Morro. It’s basically a park with a hill across the river from the main city of Porto, but it was such a beautiful view. I bought some wine and listened to a guy sing in Portuguese some American songs I recognized. He was good, from the sound of his voice. I didn’t understand anything he was singing though. That was a good night. You know my favorite time of day is sunset.
After sunset, I walked over the bridge back to the main city and wandered through some main streets towards my hostel. I had spent a good 3 hours, and it was close to 9PM. I needed dinner. I knew I would be very hungry before going to bed so I figured I would eat soon. I ended up eating at an Argentinian restaurant and had a delicious steak with a very nice Malbec. I know, I know. I just said I couldn’t eat Italian, but in my defense, I still ate meat, which is another favorite food group of the Portuguese. I just had little time to research restaurants, and this place looked good and was still open.
The next day I took an uber to Cavas Ferreira. Within the little bit of research that I did prior to this trip, I also learned that Portugal is known for Port Wine, specifically Porto. So, I figured I might as well visit a cellar and learn about how it was made and how different it was from other wines. I had no idea that port wine is actually very sweet. A lot of people really like it and sometimes, the older the wine, the better it is. It all depends on the harvest and the year the harvest was made. I visited only one of the many Port wine makers in Porto. It was very interesting, and I got to have a tasting towards the end. To be completely honest, I don’t like port wine, and I learned that when I did the tasting. The best wine I preferred was their 20-year-old port wine, but sadly I didn’t finish any of the tasting samples. I got a headache and left.
If you are a lover of sweet wine, I do recommend checking these cellars out and doing a tour to learn about the history here. It is quite a treat!
For lunch, I took a walk in the eastern part of Porto and had a Francesinha, a traditional Portuguese sandwich, originally from Porto. It is made with bread, wet-cured ham, linguiça, fresh sausage, steak or roast meat, and covered with melted cheese and a hot and thick spiced tomato and beer sauce. I recommend it, next time you’re in Porto.
After lunch, I met up with a local free tour group that showed us around the main hotspots of Porto and the history behind the city. It was neat learning about residents accepting and feeding street cats to keep the rats out of the city, and about the importance of the Duoro River when it came to transporting Port Wine.
As always, I recommend looking up the free tours within any city you visit. Sometimes these are offered with your hostels or hotels. You can also find some good deals on Viator or Trip Advisor.
With a bit of daylight left in the day, I walked to the Igreja Do Carmo to do a little bit of a photoshoot. If you’re looking for some great IG style to add to your feed, I recommend taking pics at this place. It’s best to have a partner help take the pictures, but I had a selfie tripod with a remote control. So the below is what I could best do.
As evening was approaching, I decided to go back to my hostel to take a short break. I was staying in a co-ed room, but just so happened to be sharing the room with three other guys. I rarely saw them, but it was a new experience haha. I ended up chatting with one of my roommates who usually stays at the hostel we were at. He had been doing so for years and even told me about an old anecdote when he met his wife. Now his travels to Porto are primarily business related. Since he was technically a native, I asked for some food recommendations and he led me to a nearby restaurant, Zé Bota. He recommended me to eat the Bacalhau dish. It was really good. I’ve had a Peruvian version of codfish back home, but this was different and seasoned differently. I also ordered the house white wine to pair with!
Since it was my last night in Porto, after dinner I decided to head to the bars. They felt a bit touristy. I ended up at Alma Porto. The bartender made some good Pisco Sours, and I got the DJ to play some good Reggaeton jams. It was a good night!
The next morning, I went back to Lisbon for the next adventure. Can you guess where?
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