oporto

Impressions of Oporto:

Cute boy at the airport tourist information booth with short brown hair, green eyes, blue wide-striped sweater. I asked for a map and bought 2 metro tickets, thanked him for the change and began to walk away. He had to call me back because I'd forgotten to wait for the tickets. I was embarrassed, but glad to extend my interaction with him for a few more minutes.

On the metro (clean, new, small) into the city, we passed by greenery--little gardens, grape and morning glory vines, trees and shrubs of all kinds--and brightly painted and tiled houses.

The people looked just like Spaniards, but in my estimation they were much more willing to speak English (or French or Spanish) and to offer a smile as a sign of friendliness. Leslie disagreed with me about the smiling because she doesn't think that madrileños don't smile at strangers. The people of Oporto also took their time to explain things to us, e.g. the menus.

The buildings were mostly 3- and 4-storey affairs made of stone and plaster, some faced with colored tiles, topped with red tile roofs. No brick buildings, which was a very welcome change from Madrid. Wrought iron gates and handrails painted in bright colors. Some rusty corrugated metal siding on the buildings. Building colors tend toward green, red, light blue, yellow and natural grey.

Sometimes the breeze next to the river smelled slightly salty, and once it smelled like rotting seafood.

In general I thought Oporto very pretty. Even the run-down and dilapidated parts. It was a wonderful place to vacation, but I wouldn't live there. I'd have the same problem knowing what to do with myself as I have in Madrid. The city was too relaxed, too happy to do nothing all day. There was no forward-moving energy, just a contented stagnancy.

The Oporto airport rocked. On top of being new and pleasant to look at, they had foozball(sp?) over by the vending machines and free Internet access all around the airport. Also, there was a kick-ass sign in the bathroom that told you not to throw, among other things, needles, t-shirts, underwear or shoes in the toilet. Fantastic.

To see the rest of my photos from Oporto, click on the title of this blog entry or copy and paste this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=40408&l=e0593&id=595126014