Porto! (2)

What I liked about Porto very much, more than about Lisboa (as I remember it from my last visit there) is the very typical, old material and structure of the building, somehow nice, but not the French kind of nice, not that light, artistic and playful, but with warmth and simplicity. As to me, in Porto I found out that I like this country and its people and the sound of the language a lot. It's a pity I did not find out before and it's another pity I did not study the language until now. Somehow it's amazing that already travelling for almost ten days in Iberia I still find something special and surprising on almost every spot I meet. After having had the drinks Helena had to leave since she didn't live in Porto and since I had my things in her car I needed to go with her. She took me to the bus station and at about midnight I was at Luanna's family's place again. Again we went to bed late, at about 4:00am. There is one thing that made me think about while I was with Helena yesterday: We have the European union, but I knew almost nothing about Portugal and I guess for others it is similiar. Couldn't that, shouldn't that be changed? And how? The European Union could start some program for a better intercultural exchange. I'd like to think about that. The next morning started late again, we accompanied Luanna's mother to the train station and went to organize some things while the sky was full of clouds. Later I went to the center to have a little sightseeing walk. While on the streets, I met by chance a German student couple who were Waldorf school pupils before as I was. We walked and talked for some time together, then they found themselves a restaurant for dinner while I searched for a restaurant called Santiago to have the best Francesinha at. The two put my attention on one thing in Porto I haven't realized that much before: Many buildings in the city, old, beautiful, interesting buildings even on touristic places were just empty getting more and more into bad condition. I met two girls on the way, German and Swedish, who were confused with their map. They wanted to meet up later in the evening at Ribeira for some drinks so they got my nr. Finally, with the help of Helena and a taxi driver, I found this restaurant and had a delicious Francesinha there, a sandwich filled with meat and bacon and baked with cheese and with a delicious spicy sauce. Afterwards I had a sweet Bolo de Chocolate, all together had calories enough for more than one week. I had a long phone call with Germany then where I could share thoughts and get important support from. I had a walk in the city thinking and finally went to Ribeira where there should be some bars. Then I could meet Helena again in a restaurant on the other side of the river. She was there having dinner with two friends. I joined them eating what they couldn't eat any more. After dinner Helena and I went back to Ribeira meeting the German friends from yesterday and some others who were with them. There were two Swedish girls among the others so extremely open minded in talking I was really amazed. Then all the others suddenly needed to leave to catch a train so that only Helena and I were left. I bought a cheap happy hour 0,5l Piña Colada which I drank far too fast so I felt its result in my brain and body soon. Helena had to leave and I stayed with all that alcohol in my blood blood in the crowd close to some Brasilian music, watching and feeling the crowd and being quite open to any developenemv from mine and the others' state. Well, it was nice dancing among all those well dancing people but at some time I felt like walking back home to Luanna's home, using the walk to rearrange my due to alcohol confused situation. Obviously it is due to this situation I didn't mind telling that I lost some fluid in the Douro river and that I felt much better after that. For once I went back to the crowd but the music and sale of alcohol was over so I tried to find Luanna's home all by feet. On the third day I already had the feeling to knew the city quite well enough to find what I wanted. I guessed it might be a 30 minutes walk. At 3:00am I left Ribeira after telling Luanna about my soon to expect arrival.

Per Mobiltelefon