Words can´t express how beautiful this city is, at least not my words. It is completely different to Lisboa, people who i´ve spoken to share that thought, yet I´m unable to put my finger on what the main differences are. It could be that Porto feels more like a large village, whereas Lisbon is more of a city and has some of the drawbacks a big city has. Porto on the other hand, is outstanding from whichever angle you take.
It may be a bit windier and colder here than mid-Portugal, but that doesn´t distract from the scenery and architecture.
Yesterday´s hostel was amazing. It had a roof terrace and some amazing views.. I may go back there after tonight. The people there were all really friendly and later that evening I went to see some of them playing some a Folk jam in an Irish Pub. They were really good, and seemed to have been playing together for years, but had only just met.
One of the people who lived next to the hostel was a young guy who had his own architecture studio. He knows about that row of flats in Sheffield (I forget the name... near Ponds Forge) that are incredibly ugly, but because they´re listed they won´t be knocked down.
Now then, as promised i have a small treat... i have a few photos uploaded, you´ll have to forgive the size as I can´t change that... so in no particular order - enjoy.
Today I ate a proper Portugeuse dish - Francesinha. A hearty dish of two slices of bread, bacon, sausage, steak... covered in cheese and in some kind of gravy. It was brutally good, if i bit heartattack inducing.
I´m still getting used to the whole meal-buying process in Portugal though. Before your main dish arrives they put lots of little starters on your table (bread, nibbles, etc) and if you so much as breath on them they charge you 2€ a pop. I sent 3 of them back, assuming the additional chips were part of the meal, but then got stung at the end. It doesn´t help when it feels like you´ve just trod on their kitten if you ask for them to be taken away.
Meanwhile, as it is my birthday on Thursday (24 - argh), I´ve decided to splash out and go to a Metal Festival near here. It´s not that expensive really (65€ for 3 days) and camping is free. I´m going to head out now and see if they still have tickets available.
Bye for now.
