Porto Pt. 2

So, after basking in sunlight for the first time in months, wearing sandals, sunglasses and exposing barelegs for the first time in what feels like a century, trying an amazing new dish which I have been itching to have again, and enjoying the beautiful scenery, we ended our day in Porto by watching the sunset on the beach. Perfect day? I think so.

Nightlife in Porto:

Nightlife in Porto was really interesting. For one, there were no open container laws, so it was like one big party on the streets:

Another remarkable thing about nightlife in Porto is that a typical playlist for a club/bar in Porto is as follows:

•  "Pump up the Jam" - Technotronic (aka 'get your booty on the floor toniiiighttt, make my day')
• "It's Raining Men" - The Weather Girls
• "Mamma Mia" - Abba
• "Hit the Road Jack" - Ray Charles

I honestly wish I remembered more. It was just really old, cheesy American songs that everyone seemed to love and were singing along to, but not in an ironic way. I was fascinated by this. And these four songs were played both nights that I went out, and across different bars, so no, it wasn't just the bar I went to.

Also, people are so friendly in Porto! So friendly! They seem to love tourists.

 This is a picture of this old man who came to talk to my friends and me while we were sitting on a bench alongside the river. He just came over smiling, asking how we were enjoying our day, and just genuinely wanted to chat with us. He asked us if we knew how to get to the beach from where we were, and gave us directions and recommendations for seafood restaurants to go to for dinner.

Our last day in Porto was a Sunday, and unfortunately we hadn't foreseen this, but everything was closed!! Usually, there is very minimal daytime activity in Porto anyway, but it was literally a ghost town on the streets of Porto on Sunday. This was extra sad because we booked a late flight to maximize our time in Porto, even though we had our final exams on Monday and Tuesday morning... So it felt like somewhat of a waste to get back to our dorm at 11pm on a Sunday night when there wasn't even anything to do in the city that day. Oh well, while those next two days were kind of rough, I lived to tell the tale..

To end on a good note: here are some pictures of how adorable Porto is!

Porto, Portugal: The most amazing place ever :)

I loved Porto! I hate to say it, but deep down I think a big part of it was that it was the first time I was in direct sunlight for more than twenty minutes in the past two months, and it was in the high 60s/low 70s while I was there. It just made the city that much more enjoyable. But, in Porto's defense, it was indeed a really cute city regardless.

A lot of the buildings had tile work on the outside, which was interesting and very pretty. This is one of a church, but there was one area of the city that the majority of the apartments also had an entirely tile exterior.

Here's one of the apartments:

On our first day of exploring, we walked from our hostel to the Douro River, which is where a lot of the daytime activity takes place in the city. These next couple of pictures are from a bridge overlooking Porto.

The area of Porto around the river was really fun during the day. There were a lot of people sitting outside eating lunch along the river, which is what we did.

The one, absolutely, must do thing in Porto is get Francesinha. It is basically bread and cheese cooked in a gravy-like sauce, but the sauce is actually relatively spicy, not as bland as a gravy. (It actually also has a LOT of meat in it. Under the bread and cheese are different layers of ham and thin steak-like meats, but I just took them out because it was too amazing to miss out on and they do not understand 'sans carne.')  It is delicious. The deluxe version comes with an egg on top and with fries in the sauce. Even if you are just getting the regular version, you MUST get fries with it because it is soo good with the sauce.

Another reason Porto is amazing: there were tons of kitties!! Honestly, if I were a street kitty I would live in Porto too.

 

I will finish this post at a later date because my internet is horrendous at the moment. Wheee.

Tate Modern

This is from a few weeks ago, but Tate Modern is one of my favorite museums/art galleries in London, and they had a cool exhibit on the first floor.

My apologies for the hairballs in the third picture, but they do look really cool up close. These are sunflower seeds made from porcelain by a Chinese artist. There are over 150 million 'sunflower seeds' in the room. It is so insane, especially because they all look so realistic. When it was originally made, you could walk on them, but that got too out of hand so now its just for display.

When I went two years ago the display on the first floor was a jungle gym-esque exhibit that you could climb on. It was supposed to be some 'mind-breaking' modern art because it was 'so modern' that it was being created as you acted on it. Yeah...

Oxford, UK

I would highly recommend going to Oxford. It is really pretty and a very quaint city. All of the buildings are really old and charming.

Statues of scientists/philosophers from outside the History of Science Museum:

The most beautiful sight was Christ's Church. The entire grounds that the church is on is really worth seeing:

This is the actual church:

And, if the outside isn't enticing enough, inside was used for the setting of the Grand Hall in Hogwarts for the Harry Potter movies!!!!

Note: unfortunately I didn't actually go in/take this picture :(

Oxford Castle:

I went to a cute pub for lunch, called the Turf Tavern which was clearly the hotspot for Oxford University professors. I sat next to a table of four, and I mentioned I was studying in London and they asked me what I was reading, to which I replied, "..Um, nothing at the moment..." and was faced with dumbfounded stares. I later found out that that meant what subject was I studying, oops. 

I also went into the Orpheum Museum which was pretty good, presumably because it is funded by Oxford University.

Prague, Czech Republic

I went to Prague the first weekend in February and the weather was beautiful.

There was quite a bit of graffiti again, but this time it was pretty. The buildings were absolutely beautiful and really interesting. Most of the pictures I took were of the buildings. 

The best decision we made while in Prague was to pay the five or so euro to climb to the top of the Astronomical Clock Tower in the city center. The view was breathtaking, here are some of the pictures from that:

The walking tour I went on was probably a close second. The one I went on was more anecdotal Czech history than actual history so it was really interesting.

For example, this statue was recently made and it is supposed to represent Hitler and Stalin peeing on the Czech Republic (the pond is in the shape of the country). You can actually move the guys mid section so the stream moves too. 

And these are locks that people put on the railing of a footbridge when they get married in Prague, and throw the key into the stream. These are all only from the past few years:

This is Prague Castle. They started making it in the 14th century or so, and didn't get very far, and this part was finished in the past century, which is why it looks so modern, but it is based on Gothic Architecture, so it is really interesting.

That little nub on the right side of the castle is the older part that was constructed during the 14th century.

This is another really cool statue.

We went to a really cool market, as well.

This is a shot from the Charles Bridge:

Prague was really nice, but I guess I was let down a tiny bit because I had heard from a ton of people how it was the absolute best city to visit in Europe, so of course I came with high expectations. It was definitely beautiful though.

It took me a while to post this because this past week I had my finals, but more posts are soon to come on my trip to Porto, Portugal and Bristol, UK!

Brussels - Visit to EU Parliament + Waffles

I am studying the UK's relationship with the EU for my Political Science class, so we went on a trip to Brussels, Belgium to visit the EU headquarters. Here are some of the highlights.

1)  First Impressions: It is a very dirty and somewhat ugly city at first glance. There is graffiti EVERYWHERE. And not even cool, interesting graffiti, it was poorly done, un-artistic graffiti.

Once we ventured into some of the sightseeing destinations, such as the main one - The Grand Place - it was more likeable.

2) Chocolate - It IS as good as you've heard. It is really good and not too sweet.

One thing I really liked about Brussels is that although their main tourist attractions are chocolate and waffles, they weren't too "in your face" about it. In Venice, they are notorious for blown glass and gelato, so every single store sells either one or the other, which is really annoying, but this wasn't the case in Brussels. There were a couple of streets that had a lot of chocolate shops and a few waffle stands, but it wasn't overwhelming.

Also, possibly because of their affinity for chocolate, Belgian shops were particularly well decorated for Valentine's Day:

3) Waffles - The basic waffles come with just powdered sugar for 1 euro, but the traditional tourist waffles come with a massive glob of whipped cream, and possibly dark chocolate or fancier toppings such as nuts or fruit.

4)  A lesser known Belgian food:  Fries with mayo. Sounds - and looks - gross, but definitely my favorite. Note: apparently Belgian is known for having excellent meat and seafood (particularly kebab and mussels), but I can not attest for that...

5) The EU Parliament!!!! As a temporary Brit, I shouldn't have been as excited to visit the EU because apparently most British people do not want to be part of the EU, but... I thought it was pretty cool to be there.

Outside:

6) The city at night:

Note the graffiti, and it was ugly in person, I promise.

Brussels by day:

7) The final sight - So, we kept seeing touristy memorabilia with pictures of a peeing naked baby on it, but we were really confused because we hadn't heard of that sight and by the end of our last day we hadn't come across it in person. This of course became the last sight we wanted to find, and it was funny because of how insignificant it seemed, although of course it is pretty bold to have a peeing baby as a public statue.

It is actually pretty small:

Overall, I had a good time and I am glad I went, but I would not recommend going out of your way to go there. If you do, it can easily be done in 1-2 days.