Over in the Ribeira district of Porto, Portugal. We are with our new friend Aiden at a local restaurant waiting on our espressos and a Portuguese culinary classic - prego em pao. Its an every mans sort of food. Youve got a piece of flank, thin steak, with melted cheese in between two pieces of french bread, and a fried egg in there for good measure. They are available in Mozambique, too. But these sandwiches were delicious. There were lots of nice restaurants and cafes along the water. The Rio Douro flows out into the Atlantic Ocean and serves as wide channel. We found this restaurant that didnt have view of the water, so we each only paid 4 euro for our hearty sandwiches and strong espresso.
This trip has been so good. On Wednesday, Dallen and I woke up early for a run through the city. We ran along towards a bridge that looks like the golden gate bridge in San Francisco. A young lady who looked as though she was just getting back froma long night of partying encouraged us as we flew by with an "e isso ai!" - "thats it right there!". We continued on past graffiti, through hilly cobble stoned streets, and on our way, meandering back towards our hostel for our included breakfasts, we stumbled across the "Se da Estrela" and the "Jardim da Estrela" - Its a beautiful botanical garden. As we got back towards our hostel, we rushed past morning commuters, and picked up speed running downhill along a gorgeous promenade. It was one of those intense runners highs: music blastic, body pumping with blood, deep breathing, and the cool feeling of the air on my skin. All wrapped up into a comfortable sense of inspiration and big hopes for the future.
The rest of the day was pretty chill. I watched a bit of the European league championship soccer game. It was between Benfica - a Portuguese team and Sevilla - a Spanish team. Benfinca lost in penalty kicks. Unfortunately, it put all of the locals into a bad mood. Sorry for them, but I was fast asleep in my bunkbed before the game was over. I was well rested and ready to start the 3-hour train journey to Porto the next day.
We hopped on the train to Porto at 9:30 the next morning. It was a pleasant ride. We found the hostel and thats where we met our friend Aiden. Hes an American who is studying music in Berlin, Germany. Dallen has been able to practice a bit of his german language skills with him. Aiden has some time off to explore Europe over the next month. Hes talking about Madrid next and we may join him. Stay tuned to our later blog post to find out where we go next!
This afternoon we had a blast checking everything out. Wed wander and stop every few minutes to appreciate whatever attracted our attention (typical tourists). Doors, abandoned houses (there are lots of them!), gorgeous views, shops, small darkly lit restaurants, and street community scenes. WE found a cool, backalley neighborhood called Caldeiro. As we passed by we noticed little hole in the wall restaurants. A couple even had live d.j.s. It just seems like a good place - a tight knit community. We stopped into this place that had all this weird nostalgia-like stuff. It reminded me of things we could have found in an antique store somewhere in a Texas small-town. Although, it had a ping-pong table, couches for chillaxin, and a little counter bar that looked like a small town kitchen. The dishes were piled up in the back. WE bought some postcards of an animal dressed up in a suit and we left. They were closing shop for the night. Not its 10pm and were about to eat some more cheap food from a turkish restaurant. Fun!
These pictures will help give you an idea of what we saw.
-SD
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