Hi there,
When we were in the Algarve, we planned to spend a week on vacation in some city in the north of Portugal. As at the end of June we had to go to Valencia to do some paperwork, we decided to spend a week in Porto to celebrate my birthday while sightseeing. Thus, we organized a quick vacation from June 19 to 25.
I organized the clothes for those 5 days based on the fact that it was going to be the same temperature as in the Algarve. Then Diego told me that in Porto the temperatures were lower, even though it was summer. I left the same outfits, but we always wore a light sweater because it wasn’t cold as such and, in fact, when you must spend all day walking, it’s better that it’s not oppressively hot.
When we were on the uber to the lodging, everything I saw before reaching the center looked a lot like Caracas to me. In fact, we went through an amusement park that had a worm just like the one in Bimbolandia (A park in Caracas).
When I told Diego, he replied that since he hadn’t been in a city for so long, it didn’t remind him of anything. And it’s true because we hadn’t set foot in a big city for almost six months.
The first thing is that the stay at the Airbnb was perfect since fortunately we did not have any problems.
Porto is not too big and we covered it in a whole day; we walked a little more than 20 kilometers.
We had a gray day and at the end of the afternoon the sun came out a little. We went through everything and the only thing we didn’t visit was the Livraria Lello because you had to book online and even so, there were huge queues. Nor could you arrive early to take advantage and visit without people because it opened at 10 am.
The two days we were in Porto touring around, we had lunch at a restaurant called Da Terra Vegetariano. It’s a vegan all you can eat, and I loved it. They had wonderful and super elaborate dishes. We tried the kombucha here on my birthday.
We also found a vegan donut stand called Duh! Veganduts. We only went once because they weren’t open every day and the donuts were delicious.
The following days we went to see other cities by train:
Braga
It took us around two hours and when we got there, it was raining. We put on our raincoats, we began to walk and as soon as we could, we bought an umbrella in a Chinese store. Imagine the mess to take the photos.
We had rain all morning and in the afternoon things got better.
Here we had lunch at a wonderful vegan restaurant called Gosto Superior and we fell in love because the food was divine, the desserts were crazy, and it was cheap.
The city is very small so around two in the afternoon we were already returning to the train station.
Coimbra
This is one of the most famous cities in Portugal and it was a must for us. We moved the day of the visit so that we could have some sunshine and we left the rain to Braga. Only the one-way trip by train cost us 13 euros per person.
Initially we had planned to do Coimbra and Aveiro on the same day, but then we saw that it was not going to be enough.
The university area is very large and interesting. Also, what I liked the most is that there are many parks, and the city feels green. We went to the Miradouro do Penedo da Saudade, which I found super curious because it was full of tombstones referring to studies or stories of lovers.
The river area is also beautiful and ideal for relaxing and reading a bit.
Here we had lunch at a vegan restaurant called O Burrito and I expected it to be like the vegan restaurant in Faro, but it was the worst restaurant we ate in all of Portugal. The nachos were weird fried doughs, and the burritos were so-so; plus, it wasn’t cheap.
Aveiro
As soon as we arrived, we looked for a bathroom and I went in alone because we only had a 50-cent coin. When I got out, I saw that Diego had also entered and it turns out that the lady who cleaned the bathrooms had gone to the trouble of going to change his bill so that he had coins. Once again, we were pleasantly surprised at the politeness and hospitality of the Portuguese.
This city was the one I liked the least because there were two streets and nothing special. There the typical tourist thing is to take a tour through the canals in some colorful boats.
We had the option of going to the beach area, but we ruled it out because there was no public transport to get there and because the beaches were ugly like the ones you can find in Valencia.
So, we finished seeing what little there was in the city and went to have lunch at Da Terra Vegetariano which was right next to the station. There I fell in love with some red fruit shots with cardamom seeds and piri piri.
As always when we took the train, I saw a super nice beach area with a wooden path, and as it was barely noon, we looked on the map to visit that place.
What I saw was an area that was between Espinho and Granja.
So, we took the train back to Espinho. In this area it was very windy and even cold (although it was sunny). A curious fact is that on the beaches of Portugal everyone has wind screens.
We toured the area and took the wooden path. It was a journey of several kilometers seeing only dunes, sea and almost no construction. Although when we arrived at Granja, the wind had me crazy, it was worth the trip.
The last day we stayed in Porto, we walked 10 kilometers from our accommodation to Praia de Matosinhos and that area seemed great to live in, much better than the center. In addition, there was a very good atmosphere with all the people exercising.
This entire area is rocky, so it could also be said that there are natural pools. I was horrified at how people sunbathed, and they had a skin color that looked like they had been painted with cocoa powder.
Porto’s center and part of the beach area are beautiful, the rest is an old town and the decay and neglect in many parts was noticeable.
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