There are no buses from Santiago de Compostela so a five hour bus ride is required to take us across the borders to Porto, Portugal.
After having had a quick breakfast at the backpacker, we walked to the bus station 10 mins away. The bus was actually late, there were many people waiting to get on. One group of the travelers appears to be scouts from Portugal.
This was one of the strangest bus rides as the driver would stop nearly every hour for holier stops. This is the first time this has happened before, perhaps a company policy for those buses which do not have in built toilets? Or the bus driver was a very heavy chain smoker!
Strangely enough the bus was not late in arriving at our destination. Not surprisingly there was again no custom for us to pass through. Our passport was only checked for names when we purchased our bus tickets.
Lucky for us we have just escaped from the rain in Spain to the sun in Portugal.
We found our hotel very close to the bus terminal. This time we are staying in a four star hotel, Hotel Ipanema Porto.
My room. A queen single!
For those who are wondering, the hotel is booked on a special deal, we have not suddenly won lotto! However I did feel strange walking into the hotel all sweaty and scraggy with a backpack when the other people are arriving in taxis.
The hotel was very comfortable, but a bit far from central city, so we took a taxi into town.
taxis here is cheaper than NZ, a taxi ride for four is about the same as that for the bus tickets.
Porto the city centre.
We saw a family/neighborhood having a party. There was live music and singer, food galore and dancing!
Porto is the second largest city in Portugal, therefore it is not possible to walk the whole city like some of the smaller townships we have visited, like London, we brought a tour buss pass. 13 euros for two days is perfect for us to get out and about.
As we were looking, we say this shoe polisher. Perhaps because we no longer see these people around, I was quite surprised by him. I didn't realize this profession still existed anywhere.
We brought some sandwiches for a late lunch and to try out some Portuguese Nata.
It is very different from the ones in Macau. The pastry is harder, with a more solid sugary custard. There is also a lot more burnt sugar on the Nata. I personally prefer the ones from Macau.
Today we decided to take the bus all the way around the city first to see which place we would like to visit. Here are a few photos of the city.
This is the town hall.
The University of Porto.
Beautiful tiles of Portugal
The tower of the Church Torre dos Clerigos can be climbed to the top via 225 steps!
We saw this man collapsed at a pedestrian crossing. The man appears to still be moving but unable to get up. The other people is standing around him to protect him from the on coming traffic. I'm assuming there was a first aider there as he appears to have been placed into a recovery position.
This is the Monument a Guerra Peninsular. The bus was driving quite fast and there was many trees surrounding the monument, this was my best shot.
Next we reached the longest street in Porto, Avenida da Bonavista. It is 1 km long and leads from the city centre to the Fort of Franciso Xavier and a beautiful coast.
Most of the houses here are quite fancy compare to other parts of town, I guess it is one of the most expensive location.
Look! They allow parking in the middle of the road!
The coast.
Following the coastline, we are taken to the Famous Ribeira and Gaia, where Port wine is made. Lining the rivers are the wine cellars of famous Port wine makers!
These were boats that used to transport barrels wines out, each wine cellar has at least one moored on the river bank.
The whole bus ride was 1.5 hours, by this time we were all quite hungry. Something good about the Portugal meal times is that it is not as late as in Spain where dinner do not typically start u till 9.
I think some of us are a little sick of pasta, we saw three Chinese Restaurant on our bus ride so we decided to eat at one of them.
We chatted with the waiter who was on a working visa in Porto. He explained to us that there is no Chinese vegetable at all in Porto, therefore most of the meals is made with Portuguese food materials.
He saw that our Chinese was fluent and he was curious why that was, turns out the Chinese community in Porto is very small, most of the Chinese children here find it difficult to learn to even speak the language. I have always taken my bi-lingual ability for granted, as it was so normal for me, turns out this is not the case for all immigrants.
For dessert we headed back up the road to MacDonalds, yes! Portugal has Magnum McFlurry, with the extra flavor of Chocolate Brownie Magnum as well!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:R. do Campo Alegre,Oporto,Portugal
No comments:
Post a Comment