Livraria Lello

I am about to make a bunch of you jealous.

A and I visited the famous Livraria Lello while in Porto.

For those of you that don’t know, it is supposed to be where JK Rowling had inspiration for the Harry Potter series.

As a disclaimer I am not a Harry Potter fan; I have only read one of the books and seen probably 1.5 of the movies. However I can appreciate the significance of this bookstore and also be in awe of the inside, even if it was uncomfortably crowded.

There is a ticket system to get in (fee can be used toward book purchases) and a long wait so it didn’t get too crowded inside. However even with the ticket and queuing it was still uncomfortably crowded inside. I think if I was a huge fan I might be annoyed, or maybe not. I wandered around to take a couple photos then told my friend I would meet her outside. It was too much for me. Perhaps try a visit when it first opens?

A couple days later I went by myself to another JK Rowling spot, The Majestic Cafe (it was closed on the first day we attempted to go).

The Majestic Cafe is one of the regular hangout spots for Rowling when she lived in Porto.

It is at Majestic that I finally tried the local dish Francesinha that I read about before my visit. I have to say I really wasn’t a fan. It was too rich for me and tasted a little like chef Boyyardee. The waitress noticed I didn’t even come close to finishing it. I told her it was too rich for me and she replied “we need the calories because of all the uphill walking in town”. That’s cute but I’ll get my calories elsewhere :).

Fado

I admit I am a slacker when it comes to preparing my itinerary during my travels but I one thing I was sure I wanted to see is live Fado in Portugal.

Fado originated in 1800’s Lisbon. It usually is a singer with acoustic guitar players. The music is slow and played in a dark restaurant.

I booked reservations ahead of time at Povo Lisboa. The reservation was for approximately 2 hours but I think we stayed longer; we witnessed 3 performances.

The restaurant happened to be on the same pink street we were on the night before.

Inside is intimate. We were lucky with our reservation and had a central and upfront table.

Orders for food and drink are taken as soon as possible because there is no service during performances.

We ordered some appetizers to share and a bottle of wine. I was sure to order a cheese plate. The soft cheese on the platter was pretty much magical.

Soon after we get our food the singer and guitar players come out. The singer sings slow Portuguese songs with her passionate voice. She is smartly dressed in a glitter dress but is wearing white tennis shoes, I am assuming for comfort. She has already impressed me.

I am very happy with the performance. Below is a small excerpt (didn’t want to video tape the whole thing.

A week later when I returned to Lisboa and stopped into Coracao de Alfama for another performance. Here I caught the tail in of a male singer but the later sets again had a very powerful female singer. It was too dark to good photos but here is the restaurant in between breaks.

Another morning I happened to walk by this famous Fado singers wall. It is a great tradition I was happy to view during my visit.

Lisbon Day 2: Belém

Today we take the bus to Belém because it is a little far to walk.

First it is time for lunch, especially Portuguese roasted chicken. It is the best. A finds us a great place nearby to try.

After lunch of course it is time for dessert. We head over to Pastéis de Belém. We try their wonderful custard desserts.

We both ended up buying six, which probably wasn’t the best idea. But I finished them over the next couple days: ate them in the morning and as a train snack.

After our dessert we walked over to the Jerónimos Monastery.

Lit candle for my mom

We soon discover we are where Vasco da Gama the explorer is buried.

Rope with different knots

We have Fado reservations for the evening so we return to closer to the main part of town. While we wait we watch tourist boats in the harbor. I ended up taking this boat about a week later when I was traveling alone again. It was quite fun.

Now it is off to Fado. I’ll dedicate a post to this later. Bye!

Lisbon Day 1: Land of the tiles

I have arrived in Lisbon. This is exciting for two reasons: One is I have been wanting to visit Portugal for a while and two is my friend A is meeting me for a couple days. I am happy for the companionship so I’ll try to be on my best behavior for the next few days 😉

My arrival is less than glamorous. I am not a fan of the Lisbon airport. I’ll dedicate a post to that later.

Lisbon is a pretty big city with lots of hills which we soon discover. We leave the hotel to wander around soon after my arrival.

Before I mention our day can I just show you how creepy our hotel is. Don’t get me wrong, it is nice and it was nice to have a big window but with the black out shades it got scary dark in the place.

We start wandering around and I think we are trying to find this cute wine bar. We end up finding a famous street. Luckily we are going downhill but the stones prove to be very slippery for us. We almost fell a few times on the way down. We got to see the famous Elevador da Glória.

I imagine that on a rainy day one would slide down by butt.

I am already a fan of different tile designs but Portugal is where I start my obsession with tiles.

Eventually we find the pink street that has our pink bar. It is empty so we decide to get a bite to eat first.

After our so-so dinner it is time for our drink at the pink bar. I get an old fashioned and am not deterred by the sexist advertising. After a long travel day we call it an early night.

Bilbao Aste Nagusia

When I first arrive in Bilbao I notice preparation for some sort of festival. I have a hard time finding information on it and my hotel isn’t too helpful.

After some research I find this link Euskoguide and Wikipedia.

There is a big party planned and it is happening a couple days after I leave. I contemplated changing my travel plans to stay for the festival. However I already pre-paid for many things and am looking forward to my upcoming plans. I do plan on coming back to Bilbao for another night before flying out for Spain but I believe my hotel reservations are at an airport hotel far from the action.

I am pleasantly surprised to find my final Bilbao hotel is about a mile from the festivities and I am able to participate after all.

Walking around town I notice booths are being set up in pieces, mostly from scratch. People hang by harnesses to attach the metal structures that would later form the booths.

A combination of plastic coverings and wood panels are assembled. On the wood panels the artwork is hand painted.

Many of the booths seem to be political in nature but it is hard to tell because most of it is Basque, a local language for the region.

It doesn’t matter if it is somewhat political; it looks like everyone wants to have fun and the group is very inclusive with all ages, races, genders as participants. Seems like my kind of crowd, even if I can’t understand much.

The festival mascot

If you order a drink they give you a string to help you hold onto your drink cup.

I spent a good amount of time watching this band do their sound check. I got bored and walked on. When I got back there was a huge screen blocking the stage. Not sure if they ever performed.

This punk band was great. I could only get a side view because they were so popular.

I walked around for a little more and decided to start walking back to my hotel to plan for my flight the next day. As I walk back I catch a fireworks display.

What an wonderful impromptu day in Bilbao!

Crowds thrashed to these guys as well