Today after another sleep in I went downstairs to get some breakfast and left Darren sleeping. At reception they gave me a ticket and I went down to the restaurant Galerias de Paris and gave it to them. I sat down and they brought me out a little tray with a juice, hot chocolate, toast, a roll and a little bowl of fruit. It was small but it was yummy. The plain bread roll was the best part, I don't know what type of bread it was but it was yum and a little sweet too. After breakfast I went across the road and picked up some takeaway juice to bring back for me and Darren, then I went up to wake him up. When we were ready we went out and walked up to get subway for lunch again, then went to try find the starting point for our Segway tour! We walked along past a train station that had some cool mosaics inside that we could see through the doors, but we didn't stop for a look. A bit further up the road we came to the bridge across the river and we knew we must be getting close, because the meeting place was on the edge of the river somewhere. So we walked past a big castle looking building and found a tourist information centre where we stopped for directions. The girl there told us we needed to go down heaps of stairs, then right left right! (Did I mention this is a crazily hilly city?) So we went out and started down the stairs. There were so many!! And so steep too! We got some pretty cool views over the area though! At one point we didn't know whether to go down the street or down more stairs, so we went down the stairs where we found a dead end, but we also found a super old square filled with those old school 'washing machines', like the tubs with a ridged panel for scrubbing! They looked awesome, getting lost is fun! Eventually we made out way back up around and down some cool little streets with some cool artwork of the famous Portuguese cock, and found our way to Praça de Ribeira, where the tour was starting from. We found a seat in the shade and got a cold drink there while we waited for the starting time. We watched them set up the segways then when it was almost time we went over and said hi. We were introduced to our guide, Virginia, then her and another guy gave us a bit of an insight into how the machine works and some safety information and that sort of thing, then we got a one on one lesson with them. I had been a little worried that I'd really suck at it, but it was actually quite easy after the first minute or two! For anyone who doesn't know what a Segway is, they're those crazy machines with two wheels that you stand between and a pole up to a handlebar, and they kind of look like they're going to tip over at any minute!! But they're actually very intuitive, once you find your balance, all you have to do is move your hips in to go forward and back to brake or go back. Then push the handlebar either side to turn (as opposed to turning it like a bike!). When the guy was sure I had it down he went on to the next person and I got to just ride around for a bit and get used to the machine. That was the fun bit! After zooming around the square for a bit we got a bit of a lesson on hills, where we had to go halfway down the boatramp that went into the river, stop, turn around and go back up! That was a little tricky but we got a couple of gos, then it was easier. Then it was time to go! We got in a line and segwayed our way out of the square and down one of the little streets. The other Segway guy stayed with us for the first bit to make sure we were fine, then we said goodbye and followed Virginia down the street. We rode around a bit, even riding along the tram tracks (apparently we're allowed on the tracks, road and everything!) We made our way around and up the street stopping once or twice to point out a building or landmark and make sure we were all ok, and getting on and off the road when the cars came up behind us or the tram was coming! We stopped at a lookout where we had a great view over some of Porto and the city across the river, Gaia. Then we kept going and rode up to the gardens we had visited before, where we were told a little history of the area, and told a few cool stories. The trees that I had thought were water storing, were actually just diseased, and students from the science faculty that used to be there had cured them so at a certain point up the trunk they had all started growing normally again, giving the big bulge effect at the bottom! We looked at a church with a massive tower and were told about the time a couple of guys had climbed the outside of it to the top, and sat and had a cup of tea and a cookie, and threw cookies out to the onlooking crowd to advertise their cookie brand! We then went through to the square there, were we got a bit of free time to Segway around, then were shown the skinniest building in Europe, which was literally just wider than your average door, and was built for the sole purpose of separating two churches, as they weren't allowed to build churches next to each other. Next we segwayed down by the Livraria Lello and by our street, down to the main avenue and up some busy streets to the Porto Markets. It was about mid afternoon by then, so it wasn't as happening as I'm sure it would have been earlier in the morning, but we got to wander around there and Darren and I got a cake and a flat peach to share, then met up with the others again for a drink at the cafe next door, where we ordered a beer each. After that we got to segway down some really busy pedestrian streets and down to the train station we had passed earlier. We got a description of the mosaics and then got to go in and check it out. It was very impressive! Next we went over to the big castle looking building we had passed, which was actually the cathedral and got a quick look in there. It was huge and the altars and decorations were so intricately carved and detailed, and the organ pipes looked cool too, sticking out of the side walls! We headed over to the bridge after that, which is like an icon for Porto, it's huge with two layers for traffic and a big arch between them. We were up the top, and we rode over actually on the metro lines! Crazy! We had some amazing views from the top of the bridge, (and I was able to take a few sneaky photos!), and when we got to the other side we got off the train tracks and a minute later a train came past from both directions!! We rode up a pretty steep hill, and up the top we came to an absolutely amazing view of Porto, the river and the bridge, it was amazing! And of course this is where my camera ran out of memory! Thank god for iPhones!! We got back on the segways and rode slowly back down this crazily steep hill, and crossed the bridge again from the lower crossing then went and finished up the tour at the company's office. We had a good chat to Virginia and the other guy there about places to go, things to see and places to eat, as well a swapping numbers with Virginia so we could try catch up at Oktoberfest! We told them of the place we were planning to go for dinner that night (the one where the guy Darren had met the other night, Joao, worked), and they had heard of this guy and apparently he is a pretty famous chef around here! We said goodbye to them and started off up the stairs to get back up into town. Seriously this staircase was never ending!! If you ever find yourselves wondering how Portuguese people can eat so much and stay so skinny, this must be why! And it was so hot too! We eventually made it up the stairs and walked around the streets for a while making our way to the restaurant, Patuá. It was still closed when we were there, but the guys out the front said it opened at 7.30, so we thought we might come back later. We started back to our hostel and stopped at a place called Cafe Laso for a snack and a cold drink to keep us going. After our garlic bread and chips we went back the the hostel. We met one of our roommates, Mendy, a surfer from Germany, and after a bit of a chat we arranged to go to dinner together. I got a bit of wifi while Darren had a shower and Mendy had a snooze, then Darren and I headed down to the Galerias de Paris down the road where we got a beer while we waited for Mendy. There was a trio there playing some Fado, which is the traditional Portuguese music and is supposed to be really heartfelt and sad. Mendy met us there and we had another drink with her while we listened to the music, then we walked up to Patuá. We went inside and Darren said hi to Joao then we went to sit outside because it was a bit hot inside. The service was quite slow, but our waitress was so friendly, so it almost didn't matter. You wouldn't want to be in a rush there! We got a bottle of wine which came out and had the coolest label ever! It was like a comic strip, and the waitress translated it for us, it was about searching for the truth in a bottle of wine. We had a long drawn out dinner of amazing food wine and desserts, and great company and conversation. When we were done, Joao came out for a chat with us, but got caught up talking to someone else, so we left him to it and headed back to the hostel to drop off the wine bottle, which I had kept for the label! We went for a drink at a pub across the road, but after just one, we were almost falling asleep as there wasn't much going on! So we went for a walk to the next street down and walked down looking at all the places. We picked one called The Wall, and went in to get a drink. I stood at the counter for literally fifteen minutes trying to get served and watching them serve people that had come in much later than me, it was such bad service! Eventually I had enough, and we left, went across the road to the Electric Rock Club where we got a drink instantly! We went down into the basement where they had their dance floor and met a couple of guys from Bordeaux that we had a chat with for a bit, then after a bit of a dance we had had enough so we left and went back to the hostel. We said goodbye to Mendy as she would be gone before we got up in the morning then went to bed.