Week 9: People, Pins, Porto, and Pasteles de Nata

I’m officially two months in with two more to go! Time can slow down now.

This week’s blog starts with a wrap-up of last weekend.  I had a few more hours in England on Monday and in that time, I saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, walked to the London Eye and Big Ben, and enjoyed a nice brunch with my friend, Acadia. We actually saw the changing of the guard by lucky timing, but that made the experience even better. When I was leaving England to return to Barcelona I had two connecting flights with an hour between them that were with different airlines. I was a bit nervous about that already and then my first flight took off late. I became a bit panicked, especially because with these cheap flights you never know what will happen, but in the end, it all turned out fine and I made it home safely. With this and the traveling around England that we did the day before, I can say that I am getting very comfortable navigating various types of transportation. 

The next day, my roommates and I went bowling with our Brazilian neighbors and their friends. I love bowling so when they proposed this idea I was practically out the door ready to go. We had a blast and I’m enjoying building our friendship with them!

I had a special experience on Wednesday where I met a new friend to practice my Spanish. We were connected through my family friend’s cousin (a “six degrees of separation”  connection to say the least) and we had a wonderful time enjoying wine on a rooftop bar on Passeig de Gracia. It was a very cool experience to fully be only speaking Spanish for two hours. However, by the time I was done, I was looking forward to speaking to my roommates in English. Also, let’s just say as we approached the bottom of our wine bottle my Spanish was slowly slipping up. That night, we also went for drinks with our other Spanish friend! Remember the boy we met at Born Street Food and then went to the restaurant he works at? Well, his name is Pol and we hung out with him again. I am enjoying building friendships with the non-Americans that we meet. Hopefully, I meet plenty more! 

Porto highlights!

After class on Thursday, we were off to Porto, Portugal! Porto is an up-and-coming city because of its affordability, its location along the Douro River, and its port wine production. From a study abroad standpoint, it’s also a great place to go for just a weekend while still getting a lot done. It’s also the second largest city in Portugal, behind Lisbon. Also from a study abroad standpoint, Porto is much more affordable to get to and once in the city making it a better destination for us. 

Some other observations that I made about Porto were the many sardine-related souvenirs due to the large production and consumption of sardines from Porto. Many rooster-related souvenirs are also sold because of an old tale about a rooster proving the innocence of a man who was falsely convicted. Of course, the colorful buildings stand out but all with matching roofs, and the painted ceramic tiles are located throughout the city.

I stayed in my first hostel this weekend and it was a wonderful experience! Everyone kept telling me not to expect the same experience at other hostels. The Lost Inn was very comfortable because the beds had curtains and there were lockers for our belongings which made me feel safe. The hostel also provided free sangria, free walking tours, and a pub crawl that we could pay 15 euros to do (and we did it!). It was also a fun experience because a friend of mine from one of my classes and her friends stayed there this weekend so we had plenty of people to hang out with. 

We also did a wine tour!  My first ever. Porto has their own type of wine called Port wine. Port wine is very sweet because of where the grapes are grown and there are three main styles: Tawny, Ruby, and White, each with a few branching from them. The most popular though is the Ruby which is the most basic one. There are six types of Ruby Port. We did the “Tour & Taste Caves Cálem” tour. It was very interesting learning about how the wine is made and then learning the different strategies to get the wine to taste a certain way, tasting it and understanding the differences. Another interesting fact: Porto was elected The Best European Destination by the Best European Destinations Agency in 2017!

Another thing that Porto is known for is their pastel de nata. This is a super yummy pastry made with egg custard and puff pastry (and tastes best with cinnamon sprinkled on top). We met a woman who teaches how to make pastel de nata’s at a school and she recommended trying them from Castro. Her recommendation did not disappoint. Castro had the best ones that we tried because they were perfectly creamy and still warm. I don’t think they could be bad anywhere though. 

The rest of the weekend we did a lot of walking around and sightseeing. Porto is very scenic and has very old architecture dating back 200 years or so. One of the best sights was Library Lello, the library that inspired the staircase in Harry Potter. It was a beautiful library, however, it was very crowded. We also visited the famous train station, São Bento Railway Station. It is known for the azulejo tin-glazed ceramic tiles depicting Portugal’s history all along the walls.

Overall, our trip to Porto was very successful! From our stay to our sights, Porto couldn’t have impressed us more.