Week 6: Porto - First Impressions

What a lively and clean city, steeped in history. I love the cobblestone sidewalks, the beautiful, tiled buildings, and the large plazas. I am staying in the Fountainhas area about 5 minutes from the Douro river. It is near some elegant churches and historical landmarks, and the city has a fabulous network of trams, buses and  metro stations. 

I knew that Porto was hilly but I didn‘t think about the banks of the Douro being so steep. There are windy streets and unexpected staircases everywhere. The intermingling of old and new structures from many eras works well here and it does seem that older buildings are getting a facelift while crumbling structures are being torn down to make room for modern ones.

As I sat at a coffee shop people-watching today I saw more brown and black locals and tourists than I had seen in Italy. South and East Asians, Brazilians, Africans (perhaps from the former Portuguese colonies), along with the Spanish, French, Italians, Germans, Swiss and Brits that I expected to see. I noticed that there are more mixed-race couples here than I’ve seen in the other EU cities I have visited of late, with the exception of Zurich. It seems that Porto draws more French tourists, too, while Sicily draws more Spanish tourists. 

All the ex-pat YouTubers rave about Portugal being such a welcoming country and it is easy to see evidence of that here. The young man who made my tea shared that in Portugal they grow up learning Spanish, French and English in school. And it seems that they welcome tourists and residents from many places. In fact, Portugal has one of the easiest processes to obtain residency compared to all other EU countries, and ranks #14 in the Global Passport Index (above the USA).

In the evening, I found a plaza close to my flat where everyone gathers and it has been a fun place to bring a book and people-watch. All of the nearby restaurants put out their tables and both tourists and locals alike gather to catch up on the days events. I got a community feeling here. There isn't anything comparable to this in my suburb of Bay Park back home. The closest thing might be when people gather around the fountain at Balboa Park and hang out. But you don't have 10 restaurants nearby serving food and alcohol till 1 am!