Porto has much more of a "city vibe" to it than Lisbon did in my opinion, despite it being a smaller city.  Very cool river town with great views and great food. 

Also HELLO they had a gondola just like the one from the World Famous San Diego Zoo perhaps you've heard of it. Here is grace pretending not to be annoyed by the number of times I mentioned the San Diego Zoo over the course of a 4 minute gondola ride. 

So you come to Porto, obviously you gotta drink the Port wine. It was an experience neither of us were particularly looking forward to, because, if you've ever tried it, Port is extremely sweet and syrupy.  we took a tour of Sandeman winery, and learned why Port is so sweet, and 20 percent ABV, and all of the history and such, but I don't remember any of the facts because I was busy trying to unscrew the spigot on the giant barrels cause that's what Gaston does in Beauty and the Beast. 

But we did our duty and tried the port.  We both agreed it was too sweet.

 


We were only in Porto for a couple days, and it pretty much rained the whole time we were there.  As a result we mostly relaxed, hung out and did some light sight-seeing.  We did go out on Friday night, because it's the weekend and we both get anxiety if we feel like we're missing a party. 

As you can see, the scene is rather indistinguishable  from that of Lisbon.   You go into a small bar, get a drink or two, and then walk out on the street to drink it.  For the most part, you are served in real glasses, which left me confused as to how these bars aren't hemorrhaging money on lost and broken glassware.  One of the great unsolved mysteries of Porto. 

We found something resembling a club, with a faint doofdoof coming from behind a bouncer.

Grace:  can we come in?

Bouncer:  Yes! she come in free!

Hal: Oh. how much does it cost for me

Bouncer:  You are also free.

Hal: Oh. What time do you start charging entry

Bouncer:  Everyone always free!

Hal:  This seems like an unnecessary hurdle

Bouncer:  ....que?

Hal:  Thank you for your time. 

So we get inside and OHMYGOD this place is horrible

They stamped our wrists...does pago mean cat?

We sort of stood at the bar and watched in horror/amusement as a very small population of hammered people danced sloppily to what can only be described as a hybrid techno-mariachi music.  10 minutes was plenty of time to officially determine we hated it. 

We went to another "club" after that, this one was actually pretty cool it was called Plano-B, which I think is Portuguese for "cat", and they had two dance rooms, one which was techno (empty) and the other which was 80's american jams (packed).  The 80's room was great, they played the ghostbusters theme.  I dont have any pictures of Plano-B because i was getting kind of drunk, and yelling the ghostbusters theme in Grace's face took precedence over recording the event for posterity. Apologies. 

After that we decided that we needed food and found a kebab place that had a disco light in front, which I gleefully christened "rave kebab".  It was not as good as Lisbon pizza Kebab, but, they had rave lights. So. I mean. There's that. 

Now we're in San Sebastian, and this is my favorite place ever.  It's a cute little beach town in the North of Spain (yay new country), and they have the most awesome tradition here, PINXOS!!

Now I know what you're thinking, what is the difference between pinxos and tapas?  That's a good question, I don't know.  I think Pinxos is Spanish for cat. 

You get a drink and a plate, and you fill the plate with whatever you want, and then they charge you for what you eat.  And there's a whole bar district where every street is lined with pinxos bars.  So you just go from place to place and drink and eat everything.  Melissa Daniel, I'm looking at you.  This is our heaven. 

We also rented a car called a "Skoda Spaceback" (I know, right) and drove way up into the countryside to go to a super fancy restaurant for lunch called Extebarri.  It was amaaazing.  The meal took four and a half hours.  It blew my mind.  Be sure to check out Grace's Blog for pictures of the food.  

The restaurant was on this really pretty farm up in the mountains.  

I met a cow. I named her Anabel. She hated me. 

The End