OLÁ FROM OPORTO, PORTUGAL.

Oporto is truly one of the few destinations I have been to that has not been ruined by tourism. The streets are clean and the locals are friendly and the spirit is light, everyone is up for a chat and willing to help where help is needed, to me this felt foreign. I think I have been ruined by my upbringing in a society where price could be put on the air you breath and the carbon you exhale, where a helping hand is no longer a favour but a service that is paid for and driven by an ulterior motive.

On our first night in Porto I was a little frightened, only because I wasn't use to having people wondering and lounging on path ways of the ambient lit streets. In the shadows of the dimly lit church silently stood students from an all girls college dressed up in what appears to be Quidditch uniform from Harry Potter’s Hogwarts School of Magic and holding paddles… unusual and frightening to the foreigner... I was quite intrigued but I thought I would be best to not ask and move along.

Porto’s city centre is filled with grand architecture stemming from the medieval ages, Roman and Renaissance era and so forth… It is breathtakingly beautiful especially when you are standing atop the Dom Luís Bridge at sunset and seeing the cascade of rays over the terracotta roofs of the town – Also a great place to make friends, who ever said the French were an angry bunch didn’t meet the same people I did. The city is tiled with murals and decorative porcelain tiles ranging from cobalt blue ink paintings on tiles that decorate the churches and monasteries of the town to Goyard like prints that cover the residential buildings

If the key to your heart is food and wine then be prepared to surrender your heart. There are two things Oporto is famous for and that is port wine and the francesinha!

Francesinha, otherwise interpreted as little Frenchie or Frenchie. She is meaty (steak, ham, sausage similiar to chipolata, chorizo, eggs), saucy (tomato, beer, port, bacon and peri-peri) and will make you melt like cheese under the grill (loads of cheese). Served with a side of fries, for those who have had or will have the pleasure of meeting her you would either love her or hate her. Personally for me I couldn’t get enough of her, over my 2 nights stay in Oporto we were to meet again 4 times!

I will try not let my obsession with Francesinha overshadow the amazing port wine that comes from this region! I am no wine connoisseur but the subtle, sweet, fruity and full bodied taste of the local port could be enjoyed at room temperature, chilled or my favorite over a fresh slice of pineapple!

All in all there isn’t enough that I can say about Porto that will do it justice, if you don’t believe me you will just have to go see it yourself.

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RYANAIR TO PORTUGAL!

For those of you who are familiar with RYANAIR here's something for you to laugh at... Ryanair so far is leading the score board my worst flight experience.... EVER. 
Not because the staff was rude or abrupt, they were pleasant to say the least. I understand Ryanair is a budget airline and probably has a minimalist approach but seriously... the lack of communication and punctuality by the airline and let's face it their clientele (You don't see the Queen flying Ryanair now do you?) and we have a disaster just waiting to happen.

My journey began on Thursday evening after a stressful day sleeping on the couch I made my way out to Liverpool street station, where I had agreed earlier to meet up with my friends to head to Stansted airport.
Upon arrival to the airport we scurried along to check in as we were flying with Ryanair (reliable for making a buck from anything as my friend Dave found out the hard way on an earlier trip) we had arrived 40minutes earlier than the required check-in time, only to find out our flight was conveniently delayed. 

Fast forward 1.5 hours and we are now finally lined up like a heard of cattle to board our flight it took us 30minutes before we actually started moving to get on the aircraft, at this stage you could hear the annoyance of our fellow passengers, not verbally but from the heaving, panting and sighs coming from along the line.

Once we were all on board and our luggage was all stowed away safely above our head, nothing happened... For 35minutes we were expected to sit in a cabin with no air-conditioning, no water and severely humidity and the worst part was not one word was said from the captain.... It was only after a very fiery passenger started hollering abuse at the flight attendants and then turning on fellow passengers - probably from delirium triggered by the lack of oxygen on board the aircraft - that the captain finally made an announcement to inform us that aircraft was struck by lightning on an earlier fight and assured us the flight will commence shortly. The flight did not commence shortly even after several other promises.  But lets just say we arrived safely in Porto ( or Oporto to the locals) at 12.40 am when we were suppose to have been there at 8.20pm!

Overall Ryanair from my experience is very consistent, consistently late and our flight home from Lisboa to Stansted was so late that we ended up walking home from Liverpool station at 3.30am... for an airline that is meant to be saving us money it is not doing a very good job because our time wasted wast worth more than the actual flight itself.

First photo

Second Photo - 20mins later

Third Photo - 40mins later 
Just Kidding, but it was a very long wait...