Olá! I arrived in Valencia last night after spending an excellent couple of days (including my birthday) in Porto, Portugal. I left Paris late on Tuesday night, after a fairly stressful 24 hours trying to get packed/get my box shipped home so it was nice to be able to chill out.
Our hostel was great, with a fantastic view of the cathedral, and the weather was amazing! I was staying there with my friends Ben, Alice and Molly but we happened to bump into two of Ben's friends in the street who ended up joining us.
The first morning we went to explore the old tower, which is 6 levels high and claims to be the tallest in Portugal. They must have a pretty strange definition of tower, coz it's pretty small. Luckily I'm used to climbing up stairs.
We had a bit of a wander through the town (it's really not that big, I can't believe that the second biggest city in Portugal has a population of 250,000). The cathedral was beautiful and I love all the houses covered in ceramic tiles.
From the top of the hill we had a nice view over the red-tiled roofs.
For lunch we stopped at a little cafe for sandwiches and I began my obsession with Portuguese tarts...
In the afternoon we did a short walking tour organised by the hostel, which took us past an incredibly old bookshop, many churches, the beautifully tiled train station and then down to the Douro river.
After the tour it was dinner time and Ben and I decided to be adventurous, as the local fish is supposed to be really good. Unfortunately this turned out to be a bit of disappointing as there was a lot more bone than fish.
The following day was my birthday, wooo and when I woke up my friends had bought me Portuguese tarts for brekkie! We then went in search of a beach. We were supposed to go to Vila do Conde, where there is an old aqueduct, which we saw from the metro, but somehow we missed the stop so ended up at Póvoa de Varzim. I was extremely happy to be on the sand, even if the water was ice cold.
We spent the day sun-baking, gotta get that European tan started!
That evening we went in search of Portuguese chicken and after asking at the hotel managed to track some down (at the all-inclusive price of 3 euro per person, a bit of a change from Paris).
After dinner it was time to hit the local street bar for some sangria!
I couldn't have asked for a better birthday!
The following day we took a bit of a trek across the river to the local Port-making houses (Porto is famous for Port wine). It was difficult to find but definitely worth it and they gave us free tastings. It's very sweet and actually reminded me of kosher wine.
The walk home was very hot, but we got a nice view of the whole city.
In the evening we decided to cook dinner at the hostel and then head out much later, as people normally start the party around 2am!
Saturday was my departure day so I ended with a delicious breakfast of chocolate Portuguese tarts (too good) and said my farewells before jumping on a plane to Valencia.
So now I am in Valencia and this afternoon I will be moving in with a Spanish host family for a week whilst I do an intensive language course! Hasta pronto!
Our hostel was great, with a fantastic view of the cathedral, and the weather was amazing! I was staying there with my friends Ben, Alice and Molly but we happened to bump into two of Ben's friends in the street who ended up joining us.
The first morning we went to explore the old tower, which is 6 levels high and claims to be the tallest in Portugal. They must have a pretty strange definition of tower, coz it's pretty small. Luckily I'm used to climbing up stairs.
We had a bit of a wander through the town (it's really not that big, I can't believe that the second biggest city in Portugal has a population of 250,000). The cathedral was beautiful and I love all the houses covered in ceramic tiles.
From the top of the hill we had a nice view over the red-tiled roofs.
For lunch we stopped at a little cafe for sandwiches and I began my obsession with Portuguese tarts...
In the afternoon we did a short walking tour organised by the hostel, which took us past an incredibly old bookshop, many churches, the beautifully tiled train station and then down to the Douro river.
After the tour it was dinner time and Ben and I decided to be adventurous, as the local fish is supposed to be really good. Unfortunately this turned out to be a bit of disappointing as there was a lot more bone than fish.
The following day was my birthday, wooo and when I woke up my friends had bought me Portuguese tarts for brekkie! We then went in search of a beach. We were supposed to go to Vila do Conde, where there is an old aqueduct, which we saw from the metro, but somehow we missed the stop so ended up at Póvoa de Varzim. I was extremely happy to be on the sand, even if the water was ice cold.
We spent the day sun-baking, gotta get that European tan started!
That evening we went in search of Portuguese chicken and after asking at the hotel managed to track some down (at the all-inclusive price of 3 euro per person, a bit of a change from Paris).
After dinner it was time to hit the local street bar for some sangria!
I couldn't have asked for a better birthday!
The following day we took a bit of a trek across the river to the local Port-making houses (Porto is famous for Port wine). It was difficult to find but definitely worth it and they gave us free tastings. It's very sweet and actually reminded me of kosher wine.
The walk home was very hot, but we got a nice view of the whole city.
In the evening we decided to cook dinner at the hostel and then head out much later, as people normally start the party around 2am!
Saturday was my departure day so I ended with a delicious breakfast of chocolate Portuguese tarts (too good) and said my farewells before jumping on a plane to Valencia.
So now I am in Valencia and this afternoon I will be moving in with a Spanish host family for a week whilst I do an intensive language course! Hasta pronto!
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