After that Lunes de Aguas rant back to the serious business of the second half of my trip to Portugal.Day 4 - Oporto
After an early rise (Even earlier for Malargey as the clown forgot that Portugal has one hour less than Spain) we went downstairs to have breakfast which was all included in the price of the hostel. Credit really has to go to Léa for finding this hostel, it kind of reminded me of the Big Brother house, without the arseholes. With a big garden, a big open kitchen, living room etc, the only downside was that it was on a massive hill, but didn't really stop everyone thinking the hotel was excellent value for money and very well equipped. After Breakfast we headed down to the city for a morning stroll along the harbour, looking at all the boats. We then took the cliff lift (Reminded me of Saltburn....) up to where the Cathedral was, and as Tom, Em, and Léa went in Malargey and I sat outside in the sunshine thinking, 'once you've seen one, you've seen them all...', after that we went for another wander along a nice bridge where you could see th
e whole of the city from.
e whole of the city from. After all the wandering around the streets (with plentys of ups and downs) we were all pretty hungry and went to find somewhere to eat, which was pretty unevenftul. After lunch we went on a boat trip down the River which was really nice and some of the views were really nice, we basically had the boat to ourselves which made us enjoy it even more.
The girls then wanted to visit a Port factory, Port as in being the strong wine everyone seems to drink at Xmas (or we seemed to sell a mountain of it when I worked at Marks & Spencers over Xmas time. The factory was quite a treck away up a lot of windy roads where we nearly got hit by cars a few times but it was well worth the effort to get there. There was the poshest English guy I've ever met in my life as our tour guide but he was an absoloute machine when it came to Languages, speaking fluent English, Spanish, French and obvio
usly Portuguese, however I spotted some mistakes in his Spanish, but who am I to say when he switches so quickly between them all. We went on a tour of the factory showing us where all the wine is stored, explaining to us all the different types of port that they have, they also showed us information on where the grapes come from and how they are turned from grapes into Port wine. He also showed us around and explained about vintage years and when some are worth more than others, they also had some bottles from around 1930's which are obviously not drinkable now a days but it was wierd to think for how long they've been there. Of course the best part of the trip was the desgustación (the trying of the wines), the dude poured us some excellent and extremely expensive port which to be honest I c
ouldn't really appreciate as it just tasted so strong, and I felt a big tispy, the best part of this was that it was all free and we didn't have to pay a single euro. The walk back down the hill certainly did us the world of good in order to clear our heads....
usly Portuguese, however I spotted some mistakes in his Spanish, but who am I to say when he switches so quickly between them all. We went on a tour of the factory showing us where all the wine is stored, explaining to us all the different types of port that they have, they also showed us information on where the grapes come from and how they are turned from grapes into Port wine. He also showed us around and explained about vintage years and when some are worth more than others, they also had some bottles from around 1930's which are obviously not drinkable now a days but it was wierd to think for how long they've been there. Of course the best part of the trip was the desgustación (the trying of the wines), the dude poured us some excellent and extremely expensive port which to be honest I couldn't really appreciate as it just tasted so strong, and I felt a big tispy, the best part of this was that it was all free and we didn't have to pay a single euro. The walk back down the hill certainly did us the world of good in order to clear our heads....After the Port Tom and I thought lets sack the walking around off and lets chill out at the hostel, talking to random Americans meanwhile the girls went out to find some random place that I cant even remember. The night was pretty uneventful as everyone was pretty tired due to the excessive amount of walking we had done so it was pretty much dinner and bed.
Day 5 - Oporto/Vigo/Random Galician villages/Santiago
As the drive from Oporto to Santiago was quite far we decided to spend most of the Day in the city of Vigo, home of the mighty Celta Vigo. This was the first time I'd ever been to Galicia and it reminded me of the North York Moors (Malargey was puzzled why we kept saying...this reminds me of England...) but everything was just so green, as it rains so much.... so you can imagine my suprise when I came across an Orange tree in the middle of the city center, truly strange, considering all Spaniards w
ho dont live in Galicia speak of is a horrible accent, cold, and lots and lots of rain. However we managed to find a day when the sun was shining, which was the only day of good weather that we had in Galicia (how English do I sound keep talking about the weather) and having a wander down to the harbour and seeing some VERY nice boats (kind of reminded me of being in Mahon) and we then went for a drive along the coast road which was absoloutly lovely, some amazing beaches and some exceptional views, some of the best I've ever seen, made me think Vigo would be an excellent place to live if it wasn't for the crap weather.
ho dont live in Galicia speak of is a horrible accent, cold, and lots and lots of rain. However we managed to find a day when the sun was shining, which was the only day of good weather that we had in Galicia (how English do I sound keep talking about the weather) and having a wander down to the harbour and seeing some VERY nice boats (kind of reminded me of being in Mahon) and we then went for a drive along the coast road which was absoloutly lovely, some amazing beaches and some exceptional views, some of the best I've ever seen, made me think Vigo would be an excellent place to live if it wasn't for the crap weather. We then headed to Santiago which I have to say was pretty disappointing, I'd heard some fgood things about it but I didn't think it was all that great, the weather didn't help and the fact the hotel was so cold and I never got warm for about two days but besides that even if there had been amazing wea
ther I still wouldn't have been to keen on it, too many foreigners, not a lot to see, however, one thing that was great was without a shadow of a doubt the food, the first time I've ever eaten mussles and prawns properly which were both absoloutly georgous (thanks to Emilie for peeling my prawns) and I really enjoyed them. However I was thinking that I probably wont want to eat them back home as they wont be cooked in the same way or be as fresh as what they are in Spain....we shall see.
ther I still wouldn't have been to keen on it, too many foreigners, not a lot to see, however, one thing that was great was without a shadow of a doubt the food, the first time I've ever eaten mussles and prawns properly which were both absoloutly georgous (thanks to Emilie for peeling my prawns) and I really enjoyed them. However I was thinking that I probably wont want to eat them back home as they wont be cooked in the same way or be as fresh as what they are in Spain....we shall see. Unfortunatly we had to go home after visiting Santiago due to the fact that some friends of Malargeys who we were going to stay with in Asturias had to go home due to the poor weather (snow was forecast in the North of Spain) so come Saturday we packed up and came home, with everyone absoloutly cream crackered and me feeling as sick as a dog, then I was sick after Malargeys pasta dish which believe it or not, was top draw.
My hand is hurting from typing so much so I will update later on another trip we made last week to Toledo (Castilla La Mancha)
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