Porto, Portugal

Sunday, May 8th

Today l began my journey to Porto. I left my hostel around 7:30 because google maps had said it was about an hour walk and I wanted to make sure I wasn't late for the train since it wasn't going to wait for me. Google maps obviously doesn't walk as fast as me though because I arrived at the train station at 8am. I was rather concerned about my bags on the train once it was time to board because there wasn't a luggage rack since it wasn't actually a Renfe train like I had expected. I really like Renfe so I was greatly disappointed with that. The train ticket was less than I had expected though so that's always good. I'm pretty sure the person gave me a youth discount which I thought you could only get if you had a certain card but I guess not. So my concern was very unfounded because there was a whole 2 other people in the train car I was in. I'm not really sure what was going on there because it seemed like they didn't have tickets but I don't know. 

So about an hour into the train ride, the train conductor person came around for tickets and told everyone that they would have to change trains at the next station. Now this was after we had entered Portugal and let me tell you, he did not speak Spanish or English. I had no clue what he was saying but luckily the people sitting with me translated. I did understand the train conductor saying that I don't speak anything, but I understood nothing else, so awkward. So we all changed trains, there wasn't an option on which train to change to so we successfully avoided that confusion. Then I arrived in Porto an hour later, which is about when I realized I was in a different time zone and that's why I hadn't arrived at the time I thought I would be arriving at. I took a taxi to my hostel around 10:30 thinking I wouldn't be able to check in for a while but I could at least leave my luggage there. Well, they let me check in a heck of a lot earlier than I figured they would which was really nice. The guy that checked me n even carried my luggage up the stairs (thank god cause that was going to be an impossible feat).

The hostel has a very cozy feel to it downstairs. There is a dog who follows people around so that's really cool. She seems to greatly enjoy follows people but not being petted. Trust me I've tried. But I wasn't really a big fan of the room when I was shown in. There was very very little space for the amount of people in there. It felt very crammed, which I am not a fan of. A cat was sleeping on one of the beds too which really shouldn't happen since some people could be allergic to cats. I hung out in the hostel for a couple hours since I had nothing better to do with my life. While I was spending time in this hostel I have definitely decided I do not like it. I'm sure people that actually want to interact with others like the hostel just fine. The bathroom you share with the whole floor and there is only one. The rooms as I've already said are extremely crammed. I mean sure most people don't come with huge bags, but there really isn't room to put much of anything. The ceiling of my room isn't symmetrical. Oh and since it's like an apartment building, there is barely any outlets so I don't get to charge shit basically. I wasn't given any keys or anything. You just have to be let into the apartment building hostel and then have free range. Anyone could technically walk in, I just walked in without anyone the wiser since it was a different worker who didn't know me. They don't seem to control it. 

Anyhoo, after a couple hours at the hostel, I went on a walking tour with "Porto Walkers". The tour was technically free but a tip is suggested since the tour guide makes a living giving these free tours. My guide was Pedro I believe. He's been doing the walking tours for a living for 4 years now so I would call him an expert. I'm pretty sure that's what the statue behind him said when he introduced himself as having the same name. Right as the tour was starting it completely downpours which was not a fun experience at all. We found shelter pretty quickly and then continued on once it stopped downpourimg. Pedro had a wealth of information to share with us. He talked a little about the nightlife before taking us to this tower. He says it was one of the tallest buildings in Porto for a long time. There is a story with the tower that a Galician man decided to climb the tower, but on the outside instead of by the 240some stairs on the inside. 100k people came to watch him climb and were making bets on where the poor man would fall since surely he would fall to his death. When he made it to the top everyone was in shock and didn't clap so he climbed even farther up to do a handstand on top of the cross. Everyone clapped then so he got out his biscuits and tea and drank/ate at the top. Once it was quiet again he started to throw papers down to the people in the shape of a biscuit and so goes the story of the first major marketing ploy.

After that he walked us by the Harry Potter bookstore, which I later went into for 3euro and was only slightly disappointed. It was cute and beautiful, but they are currently restoring it so there was scaffolding on the inside. It's an actual bookstore by the way, I bought an English book quite literally so I could have a book to bum around and read somewhere. I'll probably end up leaving it at one of the next hostels I go to once I'm done simply because I don't have space to spare.

 Then the tour guide gave us a long talk about the university plaza which isn't even known by its official name, people have to ask for the Lions fountain to find it. The university building was closed because it's being restored, one too many students fell off broken chairs. That's okay though because it's no longer the only Uni building. We were shown Sirius Black's house inspiration supposedly, or it just seems that way. Two priests of a popular church got in a fight so one of the priests built his own church right next door. The Vatican doesn't allow touching Catholic Churches though so the priest built his house between the two, which today is used as a warehouse. It's a very very small house he has and looks like Sirius's house would before the expansion. 

After the churches he talked about some other stuff until we made it to a cute little park. The trees on one path had huge trucks because they became infected with some disease. To fight that, people had cut off the branches and put healthy ones in its place so that's why the trees are still living. Then these laughing men statues were a gift from an rising Spanish artist. He died at a young age though and the laughing men are considered his last work. Pedro joked that they were laughing at the building across the street where the dictatorship dueled out "justice". Lady Justice is at the front of the building holding a sword and scales but the scales aren't ready to weigh anything since the dictatorship wouldn't have looked at both sides without bias. The sword had electrical tape on part of it so I like to think that the sword is only being held together by a quick tape job. Seems terrible I know. There was a lot more stories he told as he showed us the view of some random city, Gaia, on the other side of the river and walked us down near the river. An old man kidnapped us to share his knowledge about the old customs control and rice building. 

We were told about the graffiti now being street art that the governor encouraged in certain spots and discouraged doing at night. The scaffolding outside the Harry Potter bookstore was actually graffitied with an audience and in daylight so people could see the artist work. There were plenty of other stories he had to tell during the tour. I just don't feel like sharing them all. Once the tour was over, my new friend and I walked back to the start point before going our separate ways without learning each other's names or anything so that was probably a short friendship. I admit I then rewalked the walking tour we literally had just done so I could take the pictures I wanted to when I had decided I wasn't going to take pictures during the tour.

Monday May 9th

I took a real long time getting up today because why not take my time when I don't have much planned? Once I was ready I went to a cafe and was rather disappointed to find they didn't have hot chocolate. I had a cressant though and it was way too sweet and doughy to be a cressant. Then I went about my business for the day, which was going to the Crystal Palace gardens. They were are wonderful as was promised to me and the building that had replaced the crystal palace was as ugly as promised. I spent half my day there, which took an hour to find even though it was a 20 minute walk. I would post pictures but iPad ain't has any. After the palace I walked around a bit more before heading back to the hostel. Around 5 I started reading the first Harry Potter book and spent the rest of my afternoon reading on the balcony of my room, with the pouring rain as my music. I'm glad I came back when I did cause that's when it started raining for real. Tomorrow I get to decide to call up uber or walk the 30 mins with my bags to the train station. Hopefully it isn't raining.