Porto: Food, Fado, and Fun

 

It's hard to sum up our time in Porto. Our friend Monica made sure that we saw and experienced as much as we could in four days. I'll start with food. She took us to some very good restaurants in addition to the one we went to the first night. And Monica knows the people in all of them. 

Her friend Wanda (or Vanda) not only provided us with a savory lunch, she also was so warm that you felt almost instantly that you knew her. I also liked the humorous plate of the "Mona Lisa" that she displayed in the restaurant.

The window display of another restaurant featured a ham hock of the famous Portuguese ham, which everyone who is not a vegetarian or vegan should try. I wish I hadn't eaten so much for lunch that day, because I was not hungry when we arrived, but sampling Kevin's food convinced me I had made an error. The chef cut off the fine slivers of meat from the ham in the window!

One of the most special events was a fado performance. The female singer, Margarita, had a voice perfectly suited to this traditional music. Although fado is sometimes called mournful or melancholy, I think that's a misunderstanding. It's true that some of the tunes brought tears to both my eyes and Kevin's, but it seemed to me more nostalgic than melancholy. Yes, in looking back on our lives, there are sad and difficult times, but the music to me had me thinking back on both happy and sad moments of the past--really, the resonating moments of life. Margarita enjoined us to just "feel the music" and said that translating the lyrics, which the singer can change, will not really help you understand fado. But whether I translated it correctly or not, those were my feelings that night. It was extraordinary! (I have a video too, but it's too large to put on the blog.)

As for fun, our stay in Porto was certainly packed with fun. One day, Monica had to work in the morning, so we had a leisurely breakfast down by the Douro River. 

On that warm and bright morning, we thoroughly enjoyed sitting outside under an umbrella near the river and people-watching. To top it all off, a jazz saxophonist was playing. He was quite good, and I had to reward him with a couple of euros, for which he and I danced briefly together. As he took a break, he played a recording of "It's a Wonderful Life," and sitting there, drinking it all in, it certainly felt like a wonderful life.

Later, we joined Monica's tour. (I think I forgot to mention that Monica is a tour guide, but you know talented artists usually work at other jobs, too, and Monica's tours have to be among the best.) We experienced three hours of her animated tour where she balanced serious history and humor. Of course, I can't adequately summarize it all here, but we learned a great deal about Porto. 

Monica pointed out this greenery roof over shops below.
There are olive trees to commemorate the olive groves that grew there in the past.

 

Her tour included the buildings with traditional Portuguese tiles and some serious discussion of the Jewish Quarter where Jews were forced to live as far back as the 14th Century. After that, of course, came the Spanish Inquisition. Prejudice is old, and sadly, still with us today in many forms.

At the end of the tour, Monica had a photo taken of us all in the Sao Bento train station.

During the tour, Monica warned all of us that we could be disappointed if we visited the Livraria Lello bookstore, because it gets very crowded. Because J.K. Rowling often visited it and was supposedly inspired to "model" Hogwart's staircases after it, it has become a sensation. Now they make more money charging visitors to enter the shop than they do from books. I'm not particularly a Harry Potter fan, but I wanted to see it anyway, and Monica bought us tickets. It was a rip-off, just as she said! I don't know if I'm a sheep or a lemming. 

 

The bookshop was probably quite an enjoyable outing when J.K. Rowling came to visit, but not now, because there are simply too many people. The stained glass skylight graced the ceiling above the teeming tourists though, and it was pretty. We just had to laugh! I dubbed the bookstore the second-worst tourist trap I'd ever visited, which in itself made it worthwhile. (The first? The Trees of Mystery, just inside the California border from Oregon.)

Monica was not content to take us on her tour alone. On our last day, she paid for a tuk-tuk tour that took us all over the area, from downtown Porto to Vila Nova de Gaia, the city across the river, and out to Foz, which is on the Atlantic. 

We stopped off along the way too. One of the places featured a sort of sardine museum. We also visited the port warehouse of Taylor's, a lovely spot, though we did not sample the port. But we did drink port in Porto. 

And lest I forget, we also sampled some Cheesy Sheep (sheep-shaped cheese crackers).

We didn't stay for the sunset at Foz, but it is Monica's favorite place to view it, right on the Atlantic.

We celebrated our 57th anniversary in Porto. In fact, this trip is an anniversary gift itself. So what better way to wrap up our visit to Porto than an anniversary kiss? (By the way, I think I'll keep him.)