Thelma & Louise Head South

Thursday, February 17 I headed to the airport for my 7:40pm flight from Frankfurt into Madrid. I flew LAN airlines and learned that they serve wine and beer as options for your flight beverage, no extra charge. The flight attendant spoke little english so I felt awkward enough and opted for the Sprite, seeing as how there is no English/Spanish translation and with the guy sitting next to me as my translator even got ice. I had my half of a ham and cheese sandwich and a mini candy bar called "nuts" but didn't try it.

I got into Madrid around 11pm and had some time before Jaclyn got there so I sat outside of arrivals and people watched. I noticed the arrivals gate at airports is one of the happiest places on earth. Jaclyn showed up and we found each other despite the fact that I forgot to put her number in my phone and hers wasn't working (not that this would surprise anyone). We got to our hostel in Madrid around midnight just after a pit stop at McDonald's for cheeseburgers and Fanta.

Hostel in Madrid

View from our room

Breakfast of champions.

Hello, Portugal

We got up around 7am to catch our 9:30am flight from Madrid to Porto, Portugal. We had a quick breakfast at the airport- ham sandwich with cheese on the top with fresh squeezed orange juice.

We arrived in Porto around 9:30am due to the time difference and found our way into the city and to our hotel. Check in wasn’t till 1 so we left our bags and went to check out the area. 

First pictures of Porto

We walked down by the river and took a bunch of pictures on the bridge overlooking part of the old town and then attemped to head down to the rivers edge for lunch. We ended up getting completely lost in these little narrow side streets, it felt like we were in a movie.
 

We finally got all the way down and were in search for a little café to have lunch.  We ended up finding this little place just off the river where we had SO much food. We ordered our first beer in Portugal, Super Bock, which came with some bread and cheese. We also got a Portuguese style antipasto along with the main course, a francesinha (sp?) that was on every menu we saw so we figured we should try it. It was basically white bread with ham, steak, hot dogs and sausages and then cheese melted on top, fries on the side and this spicy tomato sauce poured over the whole thing…for once in my life I didn’t like something, it was gross.

 After lunch we started to head back to the hotel to check in, stopping in some souvenir shops and this French pastry place called La Boulandgerie de Paris for a fruit tart and some macaroons! 

 Later in the afternoon, we decided to be major tourists and sign up for a hop on hop off bus tour of Porto, which ended up being our best idea yet! We took the historical Porto tour just as it started to down pour and continued to for the next several hours.

For dinner we went to this really nice restaurant and again had so much food. It seemed that everywhere we went they give you tons of appetizers just for free. 

We had garlic bread, mushrooms and shellfish pate before we even ordered dinner.

I had shellfish soup and the “special salad”

We stopped at a little market to pick up some of the famous port wine to have with our pastries we had bought earlier.

Day 2 was suppose to rain too but we woke up and it was BEAUTIFUL outside! We went upstairs for breakfast, which was so good with all different kinds of breads and croissants, ham and cheese, cereal, yogurt…

We went down by the river again for a boat cruise down the Douro. It was the perfect weather and we were the first ones there so got the front seat haha. 

Just after the boat cruise we went to the Calem port wine cellar for a tour and tasting. 

We walked around the city for a bit and took some pictures before taking a Castle tour and later getting dropped off at the beach. It was so nice out! We went to the French place (same company, different store) to grab something for lunch.

 Quiche, Fanta and dessert  on the beach, couldn’t get any better.

We walked down and along the beach and saw all the palm trees…

Fishing boats…

We ended up walking for miles and miles not even realizing how far we had walked until our feet were killing. So, we stopped at a little street side vendor, grabbed a beer and sat on the river bank for a bit before finishing the rest of our walk back to the old town. We were so tired and had a 6:30am flight in the morning so we went straight back to the hotel and passed out.

Day 3

4:00am came way too soon and we headed to the airport to catch our flight back to Madrid. After getting into Madrid we took a 2 hr bus to Cuenca, the town where Jaclyn lives.

We stopped by her apartment and then went out for the day. Our first stop was (can’t remember the name) but it was a bar where we had cerveza con limon and tapas- paella, potatoes, and jamon. 

After we had enough fuel, we went to see the hanging houses, a famous part of Cuenca. We got a nice little workout in but the view from the top was worth it.

After lots of pictures we went back down the hill and met up with some of Jaclyn’s friends for more drinks and tapas then back to watch a movie at Corinna’s. I was exhausted from traveling and getting up so early so by the time we got back to the apartment I was ready to pass out. 

In the morning (Monday) Jaclyn had to get to school so we got up around 7 and called a cab, which started my daylong travel. I got to the bus station at 7:45 for my 8am bus from Cuenca-Madrid. Got to Madrid around 10 and hopped on the metro until about 11. Got to the airport at 11am and sat in McDonald’s until 1:15 when I checked in for my 3:15pm flight. Got into Frankfurt around 6pm and caught a train back to Hemsbach where Jeremy picked me up just after 8pm. Needless to say I was pooped after all the traveling so I had a quick bite to eat and went to bed.

It was such a good weekend! Porto was unlike any other city I’ve been to and I was glad to see Cuenca since you don’t often get outside the main cities. Despite the long days of traveling, I loved every minute of this trip and realize I still have so much I’d like to see, one place at a time. I got to see some amazing views and met some really great people. Cheers to another great trip!