Day 4: Porto

Danni woke early, it had been freezing cold during the night. On top of that, a draught entered through the partly rotting window frame. There was no question: something had to be done to arrange some extra blankets. First of all we were faced with a different challenge. As Romy’s phone had decided to stay in France with her Vodafone number, she was now left with only TMN, her secondary number, and hardly any contacts. Therefore a message was left on msn and an emergency email was sent for people to get in touch with us.

Since we had arrived only the night before, we had no food but our leftovers – and Natalia’s orginal Spanish almond nougat. As we didn’t know what to expect, we decided to try the plain one first. It was wrapped tightly, the plastic fitting like a rather oily skin.

Hum… it was indeed rather rich – and sticky.

Holding it out between two fingers and switching hands once in a while, you could only ever have tiny amounts at a time - with the appropriate pack of tissues or napkins.


Nougat was nice, but we decided that breakfast needed to be somewhat more substantial. So Romy took Danni to one of her favourites just around the corner – Café Eça near Praça Velasquez. That was also the time for a lesson on Portuguese place names. Its official name, Praça Francisco Sá Carneiro is reserved only for maps and road signs, the locals stick to a plain “Velasquez”. Another example is the “Rotunda da Boavista” – out in the streets, nobody has heard of “Praça Mouzinho Albuquerque”.

However, we did not care much about place names as we sat in the cosy Café Eça with some torradas and Danni’s first ever Compal manga – a mango juice that should become her special favourite. Our waiter was delighted to have the chance to practice his impressive English and readily agreed to take our photo.

After breakfast, we set out to see some of the city. We walked the Avenida Fernão de Magalhães right down to Campo 24 de Agosto, and then turned towards the centre. Romy quickly walked two Spanish tourists, who had asked for the way, until Via Catarina, and then we continued towards Aliados.

At first Danni was slightly surprised when she heard that our first sight was to be a train station of all things.

However, São Bento soon convinced her with its own charm, not least because of the beautiful Azulejos depicting important scenes of Portuguese history.

As we walked back towards Aliados, we stopped to take a picture of Danni and the newspaper boy.

The „Avenida dos Aliados“ is one of the most important and most impressive spots in Porto. Coming from São Bento, we looked up to the city hall, flanked by huge houses, many of them containing banks.

We then continued towards the „Torre dos Clérigos”, the highest church tower in Portugal (Cheaters – they build it on a hill to make it look even higher).

After passing the Lions’ Fountain and having a quick look at the fassade of Hospital Santo António, we reached the little park at Cordoaria. Danni was fascinated by the colourful houses. Narrow and high, they seem to be leaning against each other so as not to fall.

It was then, that Romy’s desperate attempt to get in touch with her friends began to work. Sofia sent a text, saying that she was looking forward to meeting us. However, Romy was so thrilled that she never read the message until the end. Thus it completely escaped her that Sofia wasn’t able to be with us that day but that she would try to be with us in the beginning of the week. Luckily Sofia called and prevented further misunderstandings. On the phone we arranged for her to organise a meeting in Piolho on Tuesday. Not easy, after all Romy hadn’t been speaking Portuguese for a month and you could see her concentrating hard to get back into it.

In the meantime, Danni was looking around a bit. In Cordoaria, there are several sculptures of laughing men. They just sit there, laughing at the onlooker until they seem to fall off.

Of course we couldn't resist joining them!

Hum, one at a time is fair enough, but wouldn’t it be so much nicer to have both of us up there at the same time?!

Cutting across to Clérigos, we continued in the direction of Ribeira. It was then that another Sofia called, a great friend Romy had already spent Christmas with. She was thrilled to know that we had already arrived and agreed to meet us later in Boavista. But for the time being we continued descending the enormous stairs leading down almost to the riverfront, and we enjoyed a nice view on the Cathedral and some of the other churches in the area.

We walked past the Palácio da Bolsa and the market, passing the Infante Dom Henrique pointing South, then past his birthplace, always towards the river.

Alongside narrow streets we continued towards “Praça da Ribeira”.


Then we reached the place with the fountain shaped like a cube. It was, of course, another chance for Danni to see the colourful tiled houses she liked so much: red, green, yellow and white.


By that time it was high time to get to the river. Romy had promised ocean in Porto and we were going to take the tram along the river until the point where it enters the sea. So we continued for a while along the river Douro. However, we soon left the UNESCO Cultural World Heritage area, easily seen in the increasing decay.

As we walked along, there was one thing that crept back into our minds: The freezing cold inside the house. Cursing her missing phone, Romy called home for the number of another friend. Walking up and down, she rang Carlos, a proven and tested provider of warm blankets for Romy-guests. He agreed, saying that he would come straight after fetching a couch surfer from the coach station.

However, by then our initial plan of seeing the ocean was changed in favour of a coffee with Sofia and the prospect of some blankets. We were now heading for Boavista, always along the river.

On our way we also passed a beautiful set of Azulejos depicting figures of Portuguese history, among them the above mentioned Henry the Navigator.

Eventually it was time to leave the river. Walking up the Rua Dom Pedro V, Romy showed Danni the student house she had stayed in during her first month in Porto. After that we quickly stopped in the Shopping Cidade do Porto to buy some water because our extensive walking had left us quite thirsty. Even better, as the café Romy had wanted to go to was closed on Sundays. Without more ado we called Sofia and changed our plans. So Danni also got to see the second flat Romy had lived in.

On the corner of Rua Nossa Senhora da Fátima we settled for a nice coffee with Sofia in “Porto Rico”. Afterwards she walked us to the Metro station and we went home – only to find that Carlos had already arrived. He had brought us some nice warm blankets. Together with his friend Patricija, all four of us sat down to some of Natalia's nice Spanish wine and a snack Danni miraculously improvised from nowhere as we had not yet managed to go shopping.