One city down, many more to go! This morning I left Porto and took the train to Lisbon. Porto was the perfect place to start my trip. It's a major city but not huge. There is plenty to see and do, but no real major tourist attractions. It's right on the river but with a little effort you can get to the beach. Porto is known for port wine and francesinha. Let me tell y'all right now, if you get the chance to try francesinha (especially in Porto), DO IT! Francesinha is a huge sandwich that's contains like four different kinds of meat and has a ton of cheese. It is then covered with a tomato-beer sauce/gravy and served with French fries (the girl I split it with is from Canada and called it a poutine sandwich). Sometimes, like at the place I tried it, it also has a fried egg on top. They are super rich and are typically around a thousand calories a sandwich. I did not actually drink port wine but I did have a pastry in port wine sauce that was fantastic. But, despite what my parents and sister think, I did do more than just eat food (I probably shouldn't have sent so many pictures of my meals...oops).
Most of my time in Porto was spent just wandering around. There are a lot of cool neighborhoods and areas in Porto. The metro system doesn't reach every main attraction so I did a ton of walking. On average I walked about 15,000 steps a day! If anyone decides to go to Porto (and I highly recommend you go there for at least a couple days if you ever end up in Portugal) there are a few things I'd recommend that you see or do.
1) Go to Serra do Pilar. It's a church in Vila Nova de Gaia, which is right across the river from Porto (it's super easy to get to). The church isn't the attraction (well, actually it is but not the one I'm talking about right now) but the lookout point is. It's a pretty steep hill to get there but boy oh boy are the views worth it. This is one of the, if not the, highest point in the Porto district and the views are incredible.
2) Walk along the river. I'm not going to lie to you, getting back up after walking along the river is the worst. There's a lot of stairs and steep hills, but the riverfront area on both the Porto side and the Vila Nova de Gaia side is very beautiful. It is full of cafes and stands of people selling homemade goods and it also has very beautiful views.
3) Go to Mercado do Bolhao. Rua Santa Caterina is one of the main streets in town, especially for shopping. I stayed in a hostel that was on a street right of Santa Caterina and the market was like a five minute walk away. I got my lunch there almost every day. It's really cheap (for instance, a ham & cheese sandwich on homemade bread, a small basket of strawberries, and a peach - all from different vendors - costs less than $3) and everything tasted delicious.
4) Visit Livraria Lello. It's considered to be one of the most beautiful bookstores in the world! It costs 3€ (about $4) to get in but if you buy a book they subtract the entrance free from the book's price. If you're a Harry Potter fan like me, you'll especially want to visit because this bookstore was part of the inspiration for Hogwarts (particularly the staircase). JK Rowling spent some time in Porto pre-Harry Potter and there are several places in the city that inspired her (you can also eat at the cafe where she first began writing the series!).
5) See the Sao Bento Railway Station. Just to clarify, this is different from the Sao Bento metro station (it's right across the street from the metro station). Azulejos are gorgeous blue and white tiles that Portugal is well known for. Well, almost the entirety of the foyer of the railway station is covered in those tiles. It's spectacular.
So those are the top five things I'd recommend seeing/doing in Porto. I uploaded some my pictures into my photo gallery on this site if you want yo check them out! I'm going to try to plan on posting after every city. I can't wait to see what Lisbon has in store for me!
