Barcelona: Porto, Portugal

Last weekend, four girls and I took a trip to the town of Porto in Portugal. It is on the West coast; part of the town is along the river, while the other part is a port on the Atlantic Ocean (and of course the heart of the town lies on the landlocked city area in between).

We arrived so late on Friday night that we had to go straight to bed, but in the morning light we were able to see how adorable our hostel actually was and how cute the town of Porto is! The Spot Hostel was the best, they had a little breakfast each morning, it was clean, it was comfortable, the workers were so helpful and friendly, it had a bar downstairs for the nighttime, and the other customers became our friends and went out with us on Saturday night! We spent most of our first day walking around the town and absorbing the sites, places, and food. We also went to a free port wine tasting, I do not really like the taste or potency of port wine but we felt that we needed to do it because it is made in Porto.

After we showered and got ready, we went to a strange (but delicious) vegetarian restaurant we saw a flyer for and got tofu and vegetable dishes that were very, very good. We felt good eating something healthy after randomly eating treats all day long throughout Europe. After heading back to the hotel bar and planning our night out with other hostel patrons, we went to the same streets where we shopped and toured earlier in the day - except now they were filled with THOUSANDS of young people drinking, smoking, dancing, and going into bars and clubs. It was quite a scene.

We tired out pretty quickly, and when we decided to head home, my friend Koula and I went directly for one of the hot dog stands. These were not just any hot dogs, though, they were big dogs, in big buns, topped with mushrooms, corn, ketchup, mustard, and potato stick/fry things. Needless to say, these canceled out our vegan dinner...

Sunday was our day of departure, but we still took the time to walk around and climb the bell tower to the highest point in Porto. We also took an audio bus tour of the castle and ocean port region of the city. Although it was cold, the sites were amazing and we really enjoyed it.

Porto was a great city, made of cobblestones and hills (my legs hurt for day after returning from the trip) and I am so glad that I made it to Portugal while in Europe. Make sure to read the captions on the following photos to see some other cool things that happened while I was there! Also, if you have Facebook, I created a Portugal album with a lot more pictures.

Lobby of our hostel, it was the nicest hostel ever.

Ancient marketplace. There were two levels and it was in an old building. There were also bread, meat, candy, fruit, souvenir, and dessert stands.


One of the main streets of Porto. It was hilly absolutely EVERYWHERE!

Library where J.K. Rowling got her inspiration for the first Harry Potter Books! Believe it or not she was married to a Portuguese man and lived in Porto.

Walking down to the river for lunch.

We encountered this jumper on our walk over the bridge to the wine-tasting side of the river. He had a whole gang of young hoodlums that followed him and jumped into the river, too! I couldn't watch it was so high.