Porto Port II
For our last day abroad we traced our steps from the walking tour, trying to see some of the city while it was a bit drier. We walked around the old prison, which had been converted into a photo gallery but left with all the rustic charm of a cell block. There was an exhibit of abandoned Madrid, and a 50 photo exhibit of 'human experience' which was really nice. On the top floor they had a massive collection of cameras, including some WWII spy cameras that could have been on Hogan's Heroes, hidden in cigarette boxes, gloves, pocket watches or just really small.
We had lunch at "The Parasite," so named because of all the students who would frequent it and the complaint of other patrons. The owners found it fitting to rename the restaurant after the less than complimentary name of their main clients. Also their paper place settings had sudoku and battleship on it so we played as we waited for our food. Steve won.
Sao Bento is the city's main train station and was constructed as a dream project by Jose Marques da Silva from designs he had made while a student. When his dream became a reality they entire city was impressed by this beautiful building - until the matter of actually buying a ticket came up. Being so concentrated on the majesty of the building, Jose had forgotten the ticket offices, bathroom and waiting areas which had to be added on later. The tiles around the building's interior show major historical moments in Portugal and the progression of transportation throughout the ages. It was here that Steve and I met Tasha and her brother Caleb with 3 boxes of Pastel de Natas (the pastries, Steve reminded me). They found my shoe situation quite amusing.
J.K. Rowling lived in Porto for a while before she started writing Harry Potter, teaching English, and so a couple places around the city claim to be inspiration for their magical counterparts. Once such place is the Letto Bookstore, one of TIME magazine's most beautiful bookstore's in the world. Our other place was the Majestic Cafe, the ideal place for a 1920 Gatesby party. There were mirror's lining the wall, a pianist playing in the corner, and an amazing cup of overpriced but delicious hot drinking chocolate.
For our actual meal we went to Santiago's for more Francizinas. We still had time before the show so we walked across the bridge to a beautiful lookout to see the city of Porto. We have discovered that it doesn't rain at night. Not a drop. This was the driest I've been for the last three days. From there we went to see a Portuguese Jon Bon Jovi Cover band - a sentence I never thought I'd be typing. It was weird hearing them switching between Portuguese and English. This band was a big fan of the all of a sudden cutting out and letting the crowd sing for a bit. Steve was less than impressed, "we paid to hear them sing, if I wanted to hear a bunch of amateurs singing I would have gone to karaoke."
