Dreamy, dreamy Porto.
I took a weekend trip to meet up with Rob and Danielle at the tail end of their vacation through Portugal.
Robby caught a stomach bug right before I got there, so he was a bit sick the whole time, but he persisted through the days like a trooper.
We did a day food tour guided by a local woman named Mayumi who had great hair, amazing jewelry, and a robust knowledge of local history and food. I learned a lot of things that I’ll likely soon forget, but here are a few of them:
- Basically several staples of Portuguese food were developed out of a need for preservation (port wine, salted cod) so things could travel great distances from Portugal to England while there were tensions between England and France
- The Portuguese have 360 different ways to prepare salted cod.
- The domed roofs of several buildings were influenced by Arab culture, as were the tiles. The blue and white tiles were also influenced by Manchuria, but I can’t remember how (something about trade).
Mayumi brought us to a bunch of local spots – a grocer, a canned fish store, a recently revamped famous food market (apparently it had very recently been in a state of complete disrepair), a casual restaurant, and allegedly the best nata shop in town. For food we had cheese with marmalade (the local name for this pair is Romeo and Juliet and it used to be for royalty), some canned sardines (apparently my favourite?) and canned salted cod, a selection of cured meats (some from pigs that only eat acorns to get fatty), more cheeses with a pumpkin jam, a muscle, and then another cod dish involving fries, scrambled eggs, and parsley before finishing off with some cinnamon-sprinkled natas.
It somehow came up in conversation that Mayumi was a big fan of anime and Miyazaki movies, and she told us that the view of Porto from across the river inspired the landscape of the coastal town where Kiki settles down in Kiki’s Delivery Service.
In the evening, we went for dinner at a restaurant called Chama with a blind 6-course menu and it was really delicious – probably the best meal I had in the city. Throughout the trip I also finally got to try a francesinha and some grilled octopus.
The next day we visited the most beautiful bookstore in the world where I learned that The Little Prince is the 3rd most translated book in the whole world, right behind the Bible and the Quran. Naturally, I had to buy an edition specially made for and only available at that bookstore.
On my way out, a bookstore employee asked if I wanted to have my portrait taken as part of an art exhibit showcasing the diversity of Porto and other European cities. I got Robby and Danielle to do it with me and one by one sat in front of a camera in a van and each had one take for our portrait. They printed out blown-up versions of them and we got to pose with huge copies of our faces. I think I have crazy eyes in my picture, but everyone else seems to think I look handsome and kind.
In the evening, we walked across the bridge to the south side of the city, and as we were crossing, I looked back at the city and understood how Miyazaki could have been so inspired. The sprawling roofs of houses stacking up along the hills were beautiful and romantic. We had dinner and then watched the sun set into that incredible view.
It was a lovely trip, though I’m sad Robby’s illness kept us cooped up in the apartment for longer than we would’ve been. At least we got to watch the insane Ashley Madison docuseries on Netflix, and The Talented Mr. Ripley.
I’ll have to come back to Porto again – to eat more seafood, visit the beach, and experience the nightlife. The wonderful thing about living in Europe is that traveling everywhere is so easy. I traveled with just a backpack for the first time, and I’ve never felt more liberated.
