portuguese

Perfectly peaceful Porto…

I’ve been to Porto a few times before, so this trip I simply wanted to chill out and enjoy the various neighbourhoods of Porto. Nevertheless, there was one thing on my list that I simply had to see: The Lello & Irmão Bookstore! Seeing as though I’m a huge Harry Potter fan, I just had to see it. BOY WAS IT AWESOME! The only thing was that there were too many people in here, this was all the time… Our Airbnb was close by, so we’d always have to go past the book store when going into town, we’d peek inside to see if it was full, sometimes we wouldn’t even have to peek given the huge line out front… In any case, it was still awesome – you should definitely check it out!

We hung out along the river Douro quite alot, and the night shots are taken on the city side of the river. On one of the days that we were just walking around, we crossed the Ponte Luis I bridge and there was a young man preparing to jump off the bridge and into the water. He was gathering a crowd before doing so…. he was fine. We then crossed the bridge and saw a whole bunch of people jumping into the water (disclaimer it was boiling hot!!). There was even a group of men dressed up in weird outfits, continuously jumping into the water – it was actually quite funny!

We stayed in an Airbnb on Rua de Cedofeita, our hosts were really nice and the apartment itself was bright and spacious. Great location as it was where the locals mainly lived, so there was also local bakeries and grocery stores. The end of the street towards the city was pedestrianised and was a shopping street.

In terms of food, we found amazing restaurants on Rua das Taipas. The first one we discovered was called Tia Orlanda, which was food from Mozambique. The staff were amazing and the restaurant was VERY FULL! it seemed as though alot of people had booked prior to coming for dinner, we were lucky that there was one table for two. The food was simply amazing, plus it was cheap! The second place we discovered was at the bottom of the street (I can’t recall the name) but we had fish and rice – was amazing! We sat at the back, outside, where we had a view of Porto – truly amazing! I would definitely recommend exploring this street as the restaurants were cheap yet also really good!

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When a Portoan meets a Gondomarian…

I went to Porto in the first week of July to attend my friend Dani’s wedding. She is from a town of Porto called Gondomar and Joel is from Porto itself – hence when a Portoan met a Gondomarian…

It was a beautiful day: the sky was bright blue and the sun was shining – perfect day for a wedding!

The ceremony was held in the gardens of the reception venue with rows of white chairs with a gazebo at the end, and a red carpet through the middle of the chairs. Dani walked down the aisle, looking absolutely stunning, and met Joel at the gazebo. The civil ceremony was performed, a kiss sealed the wedding and husband and wife walked down the aisle whilst guests fluttered the potpourri over their heads.

We then made our way over to the lounges for drinks and nibbles. The venue was absolute class! I felt like I was in LA, white leather lounges were scattered all around the gardens with a pool in the centre of the main outdoor area. It was such a sight!

As the sun came down, we were ushered into the reception lounge and we all took our seats. There were multiple courses, we ate and ate and ate some more! Really late into the evening, we were asked to stand around the pool while the bride and groom cut the cake. We were also each given a white balloon with a twinkling light inside. We all released them at the same time – it was such a sight!

We all then danced the night away….

It was a really enjoyable wedding, I wish my friends Dani and Joel a life full of happiness together….