Bery vila nova de Gaia

My wonderful hosts Joana and Mara
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28.10.06

Long journey and went straight to Carol’s house where I met many of Joana’s close friends mainly from uni and who were on the whole incredibly beautiful Portuguese models who also did biology which was good as (if this was actually important) they might actually understand what I did in my PhD…lol!! They made a nice carbonara spaghetti concoction and I was impressed that they waited for us as it was already 11pm, but I was quick to learnt that this was in fact normal, if not slightly early, time to have the evening meal…anyway, I thought I was nice that they waited…

it turned out to be a “Portuguese inquisition”

Gaia from Porto w/ Eiffel bridge
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luckily, some of her guy friends turned up and the conversation turned to sex for a few hours and this was interrupted by my attempts to pronounced Portuguese swearwords properly and being taught masterfully by the adorable Mara the numbers 1-20, who also translated a whole night of conversation for me – bless her! They also spent a long time trying to learn why I wouldn’t teach them swearwords in Chinese or why I was slightly embarrassed to talk about sex in such detail…and they were very curious and inquisitive…in impressive English and one girl in particular was trying her best…though like many, the difference between a "beach" and a "bitch" was not phonetically evident :P and the drink poured freely and we started looking at silly videos on youtube before deciding that we should now head to a club at 4am…madness, but I was up for it and surprisingly not so tired…but slightly smelly with all the walking I had done…

Beauty at night
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We stood outside in the chilly early morning now arguing on which of the 2 Porto clubs we could go to…Act or some other club, one was more expensive and apparently had a bunch of posers in! so Mara, braving the back pain then drove in her coralla half of us as the group split so that I was left with the girls again, wthe car becoming a second home for me during the weekend, into Porto and when we got to the door they were charging way over the odds as was the other club, so we gave up and instead went to see the river front which was really stunning in the night lights, with the Eiffel bridge and dimly lit port factories…on the way back to carol’s flat, the girls abused the turtle hanging down from the car ceiling as a microphone so that the whole car screamed the Mariah Carey classic “cant live” as it came on the radio – hilarious. Sat around a bit in the car and then finally arrived at Joana’s house and ever so quietly crept through the dark, got ready for bed meeting the cute family dog Zuky on the way in, good enough not to bark :P

Looking out at Gaia..
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It was an early morning as I had to go to school…or Joana’s Saturday English class that is!! So, I was invited to go along to see where she learnt the great language , but not after meeting mum and she was already preparing a delicious fish meal by the looks of it! And after my first in-car experience with Joana, who she tells me actually fell asleep in a driving lesson :S… (im definitely dead for saying that) drove around a bit, very hot day and saw Gaia with its trams and hills and it looked pretty modern.

a stunning sunset
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So class was cool, it turned out to be a “Portuguese inquisition”, where I sat at the front of class and every kid took turns to ask me some questions in English :P its hilarious how I find myself in these situations, but what was even better was that Joana had notified them that I was studying for a PhD in neuroscience at Cambridge, so they all looked at me like some sort of freak, especially as I was the first Chinese person most of them had seen and definitely the first one that spoke with a Cockney accent lol!! It was fun in the end. And I left to get flowers for the parents with this funny florist who insisted on speaking to me in Portuguese even though Joana told her I didn’t understand.

wondrin porto at night
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Had gorgeous meal and met the smiley sister who hasn’t changed since we met in Cambridge… family meal with wine and port and lots of other stuff, great effort, felt so welcome… the bacalhau salgado, or salted dried cod, was absolutely delicious and the opening soup and numerous desserts and cakes exquisite!! It felt that they were trying to feed all traditional foods in one sitting!! The meal was polished off with wine, some fine vintage port (Joana’s dad had worked in one of the top port factories, so was best to advised!!), and coffee course.

at joana's home
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For some reason the dog went crazy during the lunch, so we took it for a walk even though we were totally stuffed with food and drink!!

Mara was again very generous and gave me and Joana a driving tour of Porto and Gaia and it was yet another gorgeous day :P took in some random sites like a cathedral and watched some local dancing before driving out to the coast line to watch a beautiful sunset in a cloudless sky! Perfection.  Except for the millions of insects sharing the experience, though plenty of ladybirds to please Joana! At dusk, we strolled and laughed and sang and sat on a bench to eat some roasted nuts…it was just lovely. Later, we went on to the equally romantic place up near the Eiffel bridge, where apparently a lot of people have sex in their cars lol!! But it was a lovely view of the docks at nightime.

me and a "Francesinha"!
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After visiting another of Joana’s pretty friends, who was also an opera singer with a huge dog, we went back to change for the night out! Today was Porto vs. sporting Lisbon, a big game and everyone was glued to the TV and you could hear the excitement in the warm night atmosphere! The girls took ages but looked absolutely amazing for their efforts and I felt a bit under prepared as i instead spent my time packing my luggage…

Another culinary delight not to be missed in Porto is the “Francesinha”, which literally is little French, consists of 2 slices of toasts filled with ham, choriszo, sausage meat and a steak, all sealed with a thick layer of cheese!! And coated with a chilli sauce served with chips. Completely overindulgent and unhealthy!! But well worth the wait as we drove around for ages and all the restaurants serving were busy even though it was already close to midnight! Finally picked one and had to go on a waiting list so was starving by the time I got it, and of course I couldn’t finish it as it was SO heavy lol!!!

Expensive club was expensive, but we instead went to this random one with random rooms with different rooms. Had a few drinks and danced with some random people and sat in a comfy sofa and got had time to talk to Mara and then went home where Joana fell asleep in the kitchen!!

29.10.06

Rudely awoken by the girls…had to have lunch with the family and was the last to get up…of course Joana had been up after next to no sleep to do her hair and pick her belt!! Being Sunday, a lot of the traditional Portuguese restaurants were still closed so we had to explore before we arrived at a restaurant which had rabbit hutches outside and we were squeezed into a cosy table in front of some pumpkins. Lovely location, and we had some chourizo which was lit in front of us and let to roast away, thought the couple beside us did not know what they were doing and burnt theirs! Got some delicious seafood to eat and I consumed an entire bass fish, which was just wonderful, and a nice salad and even got to taste some nice octopus…completely stuffed again!

Burnt off the calories by going on a Porto river cruise, which was fun with every one staring, but we took advantage by taking some posing pictures!! Then, the Mara tour continued as she took me to an actual beach (in late October) and had a coke and ice cream as it was crazily hot enough still… absolutely hilarious the extent to which people stopped what they were doing just to stare at me lol, so we took the piss a bit with that which was funny.

Got back to wind down and finish packing and get photos before I was to receive a really excellent gift from the Dad, a vintage bottle of Sandeman Port!! The people here are so welcoming and generous I felt embarrassed by what I got them, but ill bring something better when I return!

Porto airport is pretty nice and modern, and it was pretty uneventful though the security checks were pretty stringent, checking every piece of electrical equipment to make sure it was what it was…so they had to watch some photos, make a call from my phone and listen to my iPod!! Back on the sardine can that is ryanair surrounded by crying babies whom would set each other off in a chorus of wailing. Great I thought. After such a gloriously warm and sunny day, I was greeted in England by a face full of rain and cold midnight temperatures, which I was more expecting at this time of year. But nevertheless back safely. So there’s a happy ending.