Today was when we’d be heading out up north, to the second city of Porto. Our train wasn’t scheduled to depart until the afternoon, so that gave us a few hours to kill. Harkening back to the first day, we decided to visit the house of Portugal’s first Nobel Prize winner, the writer José Saramago.

Having successfully killed an hour, we made the twenty-minute trek over to the train station that would take us to the other side of the country. We’d bought our tickets in advance, so we were just able to go in and find the track we’d be departing from; it literally was in front of us, so that took care of that. We had plenty of time on our hands, so we walked around and bought covers for our phones in the little market on the premises. However, once we boarded, the issue was figuring out which car we were in: they weren’t obviously marked, and the outside numbers were a bit deceptive. As such, we realized that we were in the wrong one when we tried talking to people we thought were sitting our seats. In our defense as well, it wasn’t just used confused by things, and about half an hour into the trip a man thought we were in his seats as well. No matter, things got sorted out and we spent the rest of the journey just taking it easy. The train’s conductor came back I want to say about halfway through to scan every passenger’s ticket, and he told us that we needed to make a change in Porto (which we already knew about) to a different platform in order to reach the center. I’d say that I was pleasantly surprised by the train trip itself, since I’d read some unflattering reviews of service. Having excellent free WiFi didn’t hurt as well, and we bought tickets to a destination for the next day. Once within Porto city limits, making the change of platform to the suburban train was a cinch-it was the last stop so we didn’t have to think at all about it. Before we knew it, we had arrived at the São Bento railway station, raring to explore!

By now it was late afternoon and we wanted to drop our stuff off at the hotel. Getting there was slightly complicated by the fact that there was construction going on right outside the station, meaning we had to take a detour of a few minutes to get out, but it wasn’t too bad in the least. On our way, we stopped by the local tourist information center to pick up a map and get reoriented. Turns out that things were incredibly easy to get to the hotel, albeit we’d be walking uphill. As with the train station, there was some construction going on in a side square, so we had to walk around even more, but eventually we managed to walk up the winding residential streets to find our small hotel. This hotel was empty when we got there, and we had to actually input a code to enter as the reception was closed after noon every day. We found our room, which overlooked the street, and spent a few minutes freshening up before heading out to get acquainted with the neighborhood. Immediately, we noticed the Torre dos Clérigos on our right, and while it looked tempting, we opted to walk around instead of heading inside. We walked along down the road before noticing the gorgeous baroque Carmo church. Who wouldn’t? After all, the sides were covered in the phenomenal azulejo tiles! We took the time to snap a few pictures, since they were even more remarkable compared to what we saw in the railway.

We’d exhausted the sights in this neighborhood, so it was my mom who suggested going the opposite way to check out the bridge we’d seen from the train. Getting down to the Luis I Bridge was very easy, as we literally were walking downhill all the way pretty much with a straight shot. Not that it wasn’t hard to see, but we knew we were there via all the people crowded on the bridge, taking pictures. Before I talk about the bridge itself, one unique thing was that a tram line ran through the middle, so from time-to-time pedestrians had to peter off to the side to let it pass. I’m also surprised how well the engineering held up, because I’d have been antsy to hop on the tram knowing it went over a bridge of that height. What about the bridge then? There was enough room to walk by, but if two people were walking side-by-side it didn’t leave much, if any, room for somebody to pass them. This wasn’t an issue for the most part, but if you were in a hurry, it was a bit obnoxious, especially as how some fellow pedestrians seemingly didn’t notice who was around them. I also admit that even as someone who normally isn’t afraid of heights, I scurried across as fast as possible. I stopped to take some phenomenal pictures as the view was incredible, but I didn’t want to linger especially since the bridge’s material didn’t look like it was the absolute strongest one. Before I knew it, I was on the other side, which enabled me to get a better look at the city. Having taken a needed breather on terra firma, I made the reverse trek which thankfully was more devoid of pedestrians; my mom shortly followed. Satisfied with the time spent there, we now set out to get dinner: fortunately, we’d have plenty of options around the hotel.

The one blessing of staying in a primarily-residential area was that we had our pick of culinary options. We did want something Portuguese, but by then we weren’t as picky due to simply needing food. On the way there the first time, we passed by not one but two ramen places, and we opted for the first one. While we could’ve definitely had more local food, we weren’t in the mood to think too deeply about things, as well as this place (https://bugaramenportugal.pt/) being pretty highly rated in Google. It was worth it too, and even being skeptical about how the Portuguese did Japanese food, we both enjoyed a pleasant, warm meal. I did like the anime-inspired décor, which was a nice contrast from the more traditional ones we’d been seeing. Plus, I even had a chance to try to Brazilian drink Guaraná Antarctica! Done with our meal, we headed back to the hotel to crash for the night. Not a bad way to end our travel day!