Porto day 3

Day three in Porto started off with a tour of a port cellar. We had picked one out (Ramos Pinto), but when we checked our decision with the hostel they laughed and said no. Apparently, they had a deal with Graham’s Port that people staying at our hostel got a free tour of the facilities. It was a looooong hike up to their facility; we had to get to the river, cross a rather narrow bridge (not actually that narrow, just feels like it when cars are breezing past you 2 feet away), head down river almost until the mouth, then up a hill (again, why don’t they like sidewalks in Europe?). Totally worth the hike, though.

Tasty port

We got a smart guide who Sean and I kinda bombarded him with questions (…okay, *I* kinda bombarded him with questions). Near the end of the tour he said, “It seems like we have some…curious people on the tour, so let me explain a bit more about how this actually works,” and gave a rather in-depth discussion of how the economics and aging of vintage port actually work. Anyway, after that, we had a tasting (which we were kind of surprised at, seeing as we didn’t pay a dime to get in), and got to see how different ages and types of port differed.

After the tour, Sean and I grabbed lunch and headed back to the hostel for a bit to wait for Anita. She got in, and we headed to the Crystal Palace, which wasn’t so much ‘crystal’ as ‘concrete,’ and wasn’t so much ‘palace’ as ‘old, empty stadium.’ It was probably gorgeous when the copper dome wasn’t tarnished and green and all the windows weren’t scummed up, but it was kinda underwhelming. The gardens were nice, though, and we saw a random flock of peacocks just wandering around.

Students singing

Anyway, it had been drizzling most of the day, and was starting to pick up, so we grabbed a table at a snack bar near the river and watched it rain for a bit. There was a group of University of Porto students singing nearby (capes and all), which was fun to watch. Especially when some girls started watching. Guys are the same world over: put a pretty girl nearby, and the antics and wild dancing start. Best we could figure, they go singing every Friday, then take whatever money they make and go drinking.

After that, we went for dinner, which was easily the best meal I’ve had so far. We went to a little restaurant called Brehnlas (maybe Brenlhas or Brelnahs; can’t remember where the ‘l’ and ‘h’ go). Tiny, tiny little place, but the food was excellent. I’ll detail what we ate later, but suffice it to say we ate like KINGS, and it was dirt cheap. I’m talking olives, three small plates, three ENORMOUS individual meals, wine, three desserts, and port to finish, and it cost 33 euro. Total. Not each. Total.

The restaurant staff was AWESOME, too. Our waiter came up and asked us for a photo, which confused us, til we realized we had been the only non-Portuguese people in the restaurant the entire night. Having a set of American and Australian tourists in the restaurant was probably a novelty. His daughter was adorable, and even posed for a photo with us. I’ll see if I can’t get a copy of that photo.

Anyway, after that, it was close to 1 a.m., so we just walked Anita to a cab stand, hugged goodbye, and called it a night.