Plucky Survivors See Europe Day 60: Porto

I had a fun, interesting night.  I struck up a conversation with a guy, coincidentally named Ricardo, who works at a local restaurant.  He is fluent in five languages, including English, and he told me a lot about Portugal, not to feel guilty for not being able to learn Portuguese because it’s a very hard language, Fado music, and much more. 

We wound up closing the restaurant and then went for drink at nearby Fabrik, one of the few LGBTQ bars in the city.  I had been there around 8pm and was literally the only person in the place.  By the return visit, at around midnight, it seemed very busy to me with a lot of people to navigate around in the small bar and dancefloor area, however Ricardo said, “It’s not very busy – eh… it’s early.”

It was great to talk to a local and have a human connection, something that I think I’ve mentioned in previous posts has been difficult with the language barrier.

Because of the lateness and the drinks, I slept later today than I had intended.

My first destination of the day was Livraria Lello, the famous bookstore I tried to go to yesterday.  I splurged on the “Gemma” ticket, a VIP experience with a guide who provides history in the main part of the store.  My guide was Susana, who has worked at the store for nearly 30 years and knew, well, everything.

It was founded in 1906 by two brothers who wanted to build a temple to the written word.  The interior is breathtaking, with the appearance of a gothic church, all dark wood and stained glass.  Fun fact – most of it, including the dramatic staircase in the center, is not wood.  It’s concrete and plaster painted to look like wood. 

For a long time, they were “just” a bookstore.  Then the tourist boom started around 2006 and suddenly they had lines of people trying to get in.  It would be so crowded that it was impossible to move.  This is when they started charging admission, for the general ticket about 15 Euros now.  They didn’t want to do it, but it was the only way to control the crowds and you can apply that toward the purchase of certain books in the store.

After exploring the main floor, Susana took me down to the basement that contains all of their treasures.  This is where they used to keep their inventory and when they redid it, they kept he original walls and floors so you can see where the shelves and stools used to be. 

The stuff they had down there was incredible – first editions of “Alice in Wonderland,” “1984,” and “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” to name a few; rare manuscripts and letters, including one written by a young Robert Zimmerman (aka Bob Dylan) to a friend that is mostly about a girl, Barb, that he likes and how he is considering changing his name to Willie Freel; celebrity collections including all of Amy Winehouse’s books (ranging from Salinger to salacious celeb bios) and a copy of “Moby Dick” once owed by Jim Morrison – and gifted with a note inside the cover to Pamela.

After the Gemma room, you get to explore the rest of the store on your own.

It’s a fascinating experience and one I highly recommend if you can swing the ticket price of about $115.  For that you get the roughly hour-long guided tour – in my case a private one, because I was the only person who had bought the ticket for that time slot – and the ticket price can be applied to the purchase of any of the books for sale in their collection or from their publishing arm.  I wanted something from the collection, but then she showed me some prices – I think the cheapest thing I saw was 70,000 Euros, so even with the 100 Euro credit, it was still a little out of my price range.

From there I walked to the Bolhao district, which involves very steep hills but not as steep as Lisbon.  I snapped a few photos on the way of various monuments and pretty buildings.

My destination was Mercado do Bolhao, yes another fresh food and eatery extravaganza.  This one was heavier on the seafood and snacks (cold cuts, cheeses, etc.) so I didn’t find anything I wanted to eat but still had a good time wandering up and down through the stalls.  There was a little bit of everything food wise plus flowers, clothing, handmade jewelry, and more.

I decided to move on to the next stop on my itinerary, Rua de Santa Catarina, a (mostly) pedestrian street with shops and cafes all along the way.  A lot of the pictures I had seen of the street led me to believe it was much prettier than it actually was.  It was fine, just nothing terribly special and I still couldn’t find anything I wanted to eat.

 I wandered around a bit more and found some more pretty buildings to take pictures of.  The use of ceramic tiles on the outside of buildings, especially (but not limited to) churches, is very cool.

Some emergency Googling led me to nearby Wilson Café, a funky little restaurant with eclectic vintage décor (old TVs and radios), airliner seats at some of the tables, and old celebrity photos on the tabletops.  I had the Wilson sandwich, grilled chicken, bacon (which is more like what we know as Canadian bacon), egg, cheese, and their special sauce on a squishy soft roll.  It was fantastic – 10 out of 10.

After that, some more wandering and a couple more photos.  I found a street – don’t know the name of it now, sorry – that was lined with vintage and designer lighting stores.  I took a photo of one that was incredibly cool, but I didn’t stay long because I felt my credit cards itching and I didn’t know if I could afford to ship what I wanted.

My last stop of the day was CC Bombarda, a small indoor mall that is filled with offbeat, creative, artsy stores selling fashion, jewelry, art, and more.  It’s worth a wander through if you’re in the area but really not worth going out of your way for.

Tomorrow, I intend to explore more of Porto including the Ribeira neighborhood down by the river’s edge.  This part of town has much steeper hills that I plan to walk down and then get a taxi back up.  Tomorrow night is one of the things I’m most excited about – a show that I literally changed a big chunk of my itinerary for to see – Helder Guimaraes’ “A Time for Magic.”  Cannot wait.