Day 6 - Thursday 3 September 2015
We had stayed up late the night before so we set our alarm to wake up. We had to catch the train from Lisbon to Porto so we had to pack up our things and made our way to the train station. Our host said we could catch the metro to the train station but our suitcases were so heavy we decided to catch a taxi instead. Taxi's are not that expensive here (well compared to Perth anyway) so for the sake of a few dollars, it saved a lot of stress. It was hard enough just getting our bags to the main street where we could flag down a taxi.
We made our way to the train station and asked directions from a security guard about where to find our platform.
The train arrived within a few minutes and we were off. A train guard came through the carriage shortly after we left and told us we were sitting in the wrong area, apparently we were sitting in the first class section so we had to pay him an extra amount to stay there or we had to move.
The train ride took around 3 hours but it went fairly quickly. There was wifi on the train so we could keep ourselves occupied.
Once we arrived we got a taxi and made our way to our new home for the next few days. Already we could see Porto (which we learned was pronounced Port-u) was incredibly beautiful. Lots of old buildings & hilly windy streets.
We arrived at the apartment but no one was there so we went down the road to a cafe and got some beers.
I saw a lady go into the building so we rang the bell again and our host was there. She apologised as she had sent me a message to say the apartment wouldn't be ready for another hour. I hadn't got it as I only have reception when I have wifi. We left our bags with her and went for a walk. We didn't want to go too far from where we were staying so found a little diner and had a drink. Jazz was hungry so ordered some food. The people in the restaurant didn't speak very much English so Jazz pointed to a picture of a hot dog as that seemed like the easiest option. A few minutes later a man brought out a sandwich covered in sauce. We weren't really sure what it was but gave it a try. It was two slices of white bread with ham, sausage & cheese inside and some kind of yummy slightly spicy sauce on the outside. It was warm so the cheese was melted. It was actually delicious and we demolished it very quickly.
We made our way back to the apartment and our host Marta showed us into the apartment. It was very tiny, but had everything we needed. The bed fold up into the cupboard because it is really just one main room and a small bathroom. Marta said she owned the whole building. She spent a few minutes talking to us about Porto and showing us things on the map she got for us.
We unpacked a few things and put some washing on and decided to go to the supermarket so we could get some supplies. We used the map but it was very confusing. All of the streets are at odd angles and the map didn't seem entirely accurate. We managed to find the supermarket anyway and carried a few things home.
Jazz had read that a great place to view the city was Ponte de Dom Luis Bridge so we wanted to go there. We had to ask some men for directions but managed to find it and the view was spectacular. It was a bridge for trains but people walk all over it and just move out of the way when the trains come. We could see these cable cars on the other side going down so we caught one from the top of the bridge to the ground level where all the port wineries were.
We went to a winery called Quavejo (or something..) and tasted some port and had another one of those delicious sandwiches.
The sun was going down and we wanted to get some dinner. We used the wifi to look up some restaurants on Trip advisor. After going to a few not so good places in Lisbon we wanted to go somewhere that we knew would be good. All of the restaurants were back on the other side of the bridge so we took note of a few places we wanted to go and headed back over. We first tried the restaurant that was number one on trip adviser but they were fully booked. We went to a little place called Port Quay Wine Bar. It was a tiny little place but the staff were friendly so we took a seat and ask the man to recommend some wine for us. So far we have been loving all the Portuguese wines. We ordered tapas items - cheese, jamon, chorizo, sardines, olives, bread & oil. Everything was delicious! We stayed for quite a while and were so surprised when we went to pay just how cheap it was.
We jumped in a taxi and got him to drop us home. We probably could have walked but we hadn't figured our way around yet so felt like this was safer.