Porto

The next day i headed to rome by train to catch my flight to porto. Im pretty sure i took the wrong train there because i arrived in an hour rather than 3 hours, but i didnt get caught, and i was happy to have the extra time to get my thangs in order. Lucky accident! I was on my plane to porto in no time :)

I ended up at one of the best hostels of my whole trip, the spot hostel. Everyone who worked there was so so friendly, and i actually hung out with the staff quite a bit. The pub crawl was a no-go that night, so i headed out on the town with a bunch of dudes once their shifts were over. Id hit porto when carnival was on, which just means its party time and there are a tonne of people wearing costumes like it was halloween. Some of the bars were pretty fun, really good music etc. nice!

The next day i went sightseeing alone and stumbled upon a charity shop, where i picked up a few things including the tan print dress ive been wearing quite a bit. Next i went to try a "Francesinha" sandwich (translates to French lady), which is a triple decker sandwich with three kinds of meat, covered in cheese and a spicy sauce. I heard it was the most popular place to try them, but later found out its not the tastiest place. After lunch i wandered to Centro Português de Fotografia (Portuguese Photography Museum) which was alright, but id just missed an additional exhibit by 2 days. TG it was free entry. Then it was Torre dos Clerigos (Clerics' Tower), with 240-steps. They were in the middle of a live bell performance, starting with 'you are my sunshine' (one of my fave jams!) pretty good view of the city, too! Afterwards i checked out praca de lisboa, which is a cute outdoor shopping area with some fun shops and cafes. Keeping with the randomness of this trip, i spotted a guy named george who does walking tours and pub crawls (who had been part of the group the night before) and joined the tour fir the afternoon. George is a great tourguide, very chill, and the tour itself was really interesting. We ended up at a small funky mall where we had a bite to eat before i headed back to the hostel.

The next day was beautiful! I set out on foot and checked out the school of music building, then headed to Serralves (museum of contemporary art). The museum wasnt that expansive, but the gardens behind the museum were crazy big! So big there were cows there! Really beautiful and more impressive than the museum. So the museum was actually pretty far away, and when i was there i started having a stomach ache. I started walking back and began to feel pretty shitty. I thought maybe i was really hungry so i stopped at a restaurant and all i could have was a bit of soup and sprite. Somehow i trudged back to the hostel in the heat and went straight to bed. After a few hours i went to spew, then slept a bit longer. Not the most fun thing ever, surprisingly! It actually took a few days to feel normal again...i have no idea what happened.

One of the guys from the hostel invited me out for the next few days to go sightseeing around porto, cause im a princess, i guess? And he had a fricken car, so no more walking 4 me! Some things we saw/did included:

-cheese castle

-crystal palace

-the beach

-a tea house

-port wine tasting

-amazing views!

Note: Theres a pretty cool bookshop with an interesting spiral staircase called Livraria Lello, which is said to have inspired the bookstore in the Harry Potter movie. Had a very 'shakespeare and co' feel to it. 

On my last day in porto i went on a morning walking tour (weird order of things, i know), which secured my love for porto. The traditions are so interesting and fun, and the city is absolutely beautiful. Some of the university students choose to wear traditional robes and uniforms and seeing them makes you feel like youre in an HP movie actually. They say jk rowling took inspiration from porto for her books when she lived here. I need to go back to porto. Its so cool.