Eating and Exploring in Porto, Portugal

Our trip to Portugal this past fall was simply unforgettable; the country is brimming with vibrant color and oozing with charm. I left wishing we had booked a longer trip.

We concentrated most of our time in Porto and Lisbon, with a day trip to Sintra (and I plan to do separate posts for each of these stops as well as our layover day in Amsterdam soon).

This trip really began with a killer airfare deal to Amsterdam (when you see flights from Nashville to Amsterdam for $450 you don’t think, you just buy and work out the details later). While the Netherlands is definitely one of my bucket list places to visit, fall tends to be quite rainy there, so we searched around for somewhere a bit sunnier that would be a cheap and easy flight from Amsterdam.

I’ve wanted to go to Portugal for some time now, hearing nothing but amazing things from friends and acquaintances who’d been there (and I’ll admit, the lure of the Portuguese egg tarts was strong). And flights from Amsterdam to Portugal were direct and under $200 — it seemed like a no brainer to me. All in all we spent under $700/each for our airfare doing it this way; booking a flight directly from Nashville would have easily cost us $1,200-$1,400. I call that a win.

(We’ll definitely go back to Amsterdam at some point in the future, ideally in springtime. But this trip we opted to just spend a night on each end. I may post about our long layover at some point, as it’s a gorgeous city and I got some amazing photos despite being there less than 36 hours.)

Anyways. After a full day of exploring in Amsterdam, we hopped a flight and landed in Porto that evening, and spent the next two days and two nights eating, imbibing and exploring.

Portugal’s second-largest city after Lisbon, Porto (also called Oporto) lies along the Duoro river, its historical center (dating back to 300BC) was named an official UNESCO world heritage site in 1996.

Porto is best known for the fortified wine that bears its name (if you didn’t know that Port wine was born in Porto, here’s your lightbulb moment for the day), but this slightly grungy, endearingly charming city is so much more than that. Indeed Porto has a character that is all its own.

Wandering through the historic streets, at first glance all you see is color: gorgeous ceramic tiles in rich blues and greens, colorful doors and bold, expressive street art. But look a bit closer and you can’t help but notice the dilapidated buildings and crumbling facades. It’s the sort of beautiful decay that makes for stunning photos, sure, but it also leaves you feeling a bit melancholy. The numerous abandoned buildings are mainly a result of historically strict laws regarding rent control and historic preservation that meant landlords chose to abandon the buildings entirely rather than invest in any repairs or renovations. Additionally, Porto has faced a struggling economy that, unfortunately, cannot be bolstered by Port wine alone. Tourism certainly helps, but it also means that any renovations that are happening to these historic buildings are being done for tourists and short-term rentals rather than locals. Increasingly more and more people are leaving the city, lured by the cheap rents of the surrounding suburbs, and to larger and more vibrant cities like Lisbon.

Still, the fact that the historic city hasn’t experienced the same surge in redevelopment as many other major European cities isn’t all bad: as it means that the history is still intact, the public faces of the buildings still colorfully tiled even if the inside of the building is little more than a ruin. Incessantly optimistic graffiti and street art surprises you around every corner, turning the abandoned buildings into colorful canvases for original art.

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from Love and Olive Oil http://bit.ly/2GdnEH1