DAY 6 - Porto (Who are we? PORTO)

We started our day with breakfast at Sabores da Invicta, where Scott unintentially ordered a contempory Francensinha sandwich (better known as a heart attack of a plate). This consisted of two layers of ham, two layers of steak, and two traditional Portugese sausages in a sandwich topped off with an egg and soaked in beer batter. Scott can confirm he did not finish the meal and that it was certainly not the best call before our walking tour. We met Zoe, Sean, Laura, Jez, and (our walking tour guide) at Largo Amor de Perdição. Andre was passionate about Portuguese history, whether it was ancient, modern, or dark, and often found himself talking longer than intended. Our tour consisted of Miradouro da Vitória (a scenic lookout over Porto), Torre dos Clérigos (a tower that we might climb that has a lookout view over the city), Livraria Lello (the world's most beautiful bookshop, which clearly used JK Rowlings name to build some popularity, despite her never having been there), Imperial McDonalds (a seriously fancy McDonalds), Porto São Bento (a beautiful train station which tells stories through its ceramic tiles), Luís I Bridge and the Porto Cathedral, amount a handful of other places. It is sad to see the impact Antonio de Oliveira Salazar (a dictator from less than 60 years ago) has on modern day Porto. We're still not sure JK Rowlings didn't base some of Harry Potter off of her time in Porto (think Salazar Slytherin). We then embarked on our mission to get our soccer tickets to the Rio Ave v Porto match at Estádio dos Arcos. After several messages and a 10min each way Uber trip (that somehow only cost £6 total) to Casa da Música, we successfully secured our tickets for the match. Travelling to the game involved confusion at the ticket machine, followed by a 1-hour train ride. Once at the stadium (if you can call a single stand with a capacity of 5,000 people a stadium), we waited in a mammoth line (thankfully, we got in just before kick off). The game itself delivered everything you'd expect and want from a European soccer match - emotion, passion, chanting, and profanity in a different language (Portugese). The game itself wasn't Portos best, but an equaliser and winner in extra time of the second half made for a great experience. After some concern, we luckily made the last train heading back to Porto with 10 minutes to spare. We're hoping to make the 7km walk to the beach tomorrow, bring on the Atlantic Ocean.Read more