Obrigado, Oporto

Porto.





This is the small tale of a group of strangers brought together by Super Bock (Portuguese Beer), a poetic hostel, and salsa dancing.

I begin my adventure after a rough night sleep in London Stansted airport (hells waiting room) feeling like Tom Hanks in The Terminal, but hotter. I arrive, finally, at Porto airport in the morning. Its modern vibe impressed me, the heat made me smile instantly. Sweden had me appreciating a real summer.

The light rail Metro took me to São Bento station, where I was sweating, lost, and confused with the locals who (even the guy in the "tourism" booth) didnt speak any to much english. People were also attempting to sell me hash. Ah. A place with some character. Noticing already the beautiul tiles covering a lot of the cute buildings.



I finally locate the hostel (Oporto Poets II), very cute, very old and charming. felt traditional, but had the things (like free net) that one wants. defniatly recommend it to anyone. The cute small chick at the desk got me a coke and gave me the lo-down on everything. I chilled outside (took of my winter shoes) and just simply enjoyed the heat.



At this stage I noticed a girl reading a book to my left. She had medium brown hair, and looked pretty finnish. She ended up being one of my roomies, a (suprise suprise) finnish chick named Tiina. Yes it is spelt with two 'i's. She introduced herself and we had a good old scandy chat.



So fast forward a bit and ive become friends with the whole hostel. And old south african guy, now living in Phillip Island, An awsomely fun german lesbian couple, 3 guys from melbourne (and very melbourne guys too), and ofcourse Tiina. We decided to hit some clubs and ended up wasted on the street smoking Hash (which i now discover has been "de-criminalized" in Portugal) and an old granny tried (and succeeded) to steal my beer and a fag.



We had our own share of drama too. Sam (not me, one of the other melbourne boys) hooked up with Tiina :O and then Josh (wearing a shitty hat in the above photo) ran off, in his usual way, and came back at like 6 in the morning with news that he had hooked in with a Portuguese chick. and did a little victory dance.



Next day met another batch of people. Hot american (LA Maria), some concited canadians, and a really comical brit who was like Harry Potter meets Kevin Rudd. Took them all out for a good night, and ofcourse theres a huge salsa festival taking over the streets. great! so we embarraed ourselves infront of locals and got a bit tipsy on Super Bock (or just the bock and it lovingly became)

I extended my stay for 1 more night (worth it) and i was also texting Per like 400 times a day and planning my return to Copenhagen at this stage.

y favourite moment from this trip was me in the kitchen (cooking squid pasta and drinking port) having Maria, the super sexy chinese babe from LA, come up to me, hug me and say "Aiight babe, were just going out for dinner but we'll be home soon, see you." It made the 3 nights I spent thier feel like a year, and the best year. like a really homely place. I hope we all meet again. And if not, we'll always have Oporto.

The next day we headed to the beach for sexy tanning. I love you Porto.