After the tightest layover possible (25 minutes from one plane landing to the next taking off, including customs), I made it to Portugal! When I first arrived, I was feeling a bit nervous. Tired from not really sleeping at all during the overnight flight and in a country where I knew not a single person I was wondering what I had gotten myself into. Two or three months is a long time to travel alone. I was beginning to doubt the position I had put myself in.
I spent the afternoon I arrived walking around Porto, a city in northern Portugal. It was Saturday and the city was full of energy. The squares and cafes were packed with people. After walking around for a few hours, I grabbed a beer and some food and sat along the river as the sun set. While it was the nicest dinner view I’d had in months, I couldn’t help feeling that it would be nice to share this experience with someone else. Starting to feel the effects of jet lag, I headed back to the hostel.
My feelings were amplified at the hostel, when I was sharing a room with an entire French bachelor party, none of whom spoke English. I had signed up for the pub crawl which met at 10 pm, and left the hostel at midnight. Feeling very tired, and not sure If there would be anyone to meet, I was starting to convince myself that I should just go to bed instead. Knowing I would regret not checking it out, I decided I would have a 45 minute nap and then go down for 10pm. My plan was to check it out, not drink too much and then go to bed before 2pm. I am not sure who I was fooling with the plan, because the exact opposite happened.
I went down at 10pm for the free shot the hostel offers. When I went to the bar it was the bachelor party plus two others. We chatted for a bit, and more people began to trickle in. Soon there was a big group of us and my worries about not meeting anyone went out the door.
The Porto football team had just won the league the evening, and the bar street was packed. The pub crawl had three stops. At the second stop everyone was dancing, but still a tad timid. I went to buy a tequila shot for myself and a Dutch guy. When I realized they were only two euros, I decided I would buy around for the group I was hanging with. Well, the rest is history. I can’t say exactly how many, but I can say a lot of tequila shots were had. Enough that we were buying double rounds and the bar ran out of limes…. We ended up staying out until 5am.
I spent the next day hanging out with everyone I had met. We went on a boat tour, sat in the square drinking beers and watched the sunset. It was a pretty chill day (wonder why) but it was exactly what I had felt was missing the day before. It was a diverse group and interesting to chat about life in different parts of the world. This was a great start to my trip, and squashed all of the doubts I was having.
Porto is an amazing city, and I was pleasantly surprised with it. The city is extremely picturesque, perched atop cliffs along the river. It was the weekend and the big football match was on so the city was full of energy but had a chiller atmosphere than some of the bigger European cities. I really enjoyed just being in the city.
I am now in the surf town of Ericeria, on the coast of Portugal. I am going to spend a few days here surfing and slowing down, getting in the travel mindset. As I am writing this I am sipping on an espresso at a cafe in the main square. Life’s good.
– Mitch