Saturday

my portuguese family weekend @ Porto

At one of the miradouros in center of Porto.
while this weekend stuck in home, because of the trains strikes and because of the autumn virus which have somehow found me, now is the space and time to share my last weeks great story of how I was thrown into the awesome portuguese family weekend.
It all started with my will to spend the last weekend in Porto, as just traveling for my friday event with the Business Angels would be no fun at all. As with no certain plans, nor certain place to stay at, nor any other agenda for the weekend, at some point I was already considering to skip the weekend there and stay around Lisbon...but then out of nowhere just some days before the other friday to come an old friend writes me telling that he`s coming home from Germany for the weekend to visit his family in Porto and if i want to spend some fun times in Porto for the weekend. A big coincidence or maybe a sign, that i did need to travel for Porto the last weekend.
So yeah, as told before, then friday I reached Porto by the afternoon, just the perfect for joining the conference...after the conference I had some fun times in a local fair trade shop, making some company of other EVS Volunteers, as was supposed to crash by their house meantime also filling up my time, as my dear friend and host for the weekend was able to meet me just around midnight. So friday at Porto gave me the chance to meet other EVS volunteers there, i managed to get to know the local fair trade shop, an amazing place for their project. As well, the friday brought me chance to meet up with other of my friends from Porto, that i`ve not seen for ages, like year or so, a great chat and nice meeting up once again after such a long time, should do it more often, he he.
As before the midnight, i also had wonderful times of re-practicing my latvian speaking skills, as in the small world happens, then one of the volunteers living in Porto is just from Latvia, thank you for the very Latvian evening and the super tasty dark bread. Did not realize how much i missed it.
If the other time when I was hosting my this weeks host, he did arrive super late, and i had to freeze in the city of Ljubljana, then this time, knowing portuguese and timings, i did not hurry that much to reach the meeting point by the exact hour...a bit was my surprise, he was there the perfect timing, and yeah, i was running late. Germany and timing really change sometimes people, don`t they?
To celebrate our get to meet up again, in-spite of being very late and both of us tired from this day travelings, we stopped by one of the most common Caipirinha places in Porto, just next to the ocean. Even the strong wind, nor the cold weather was not the obstacle to reach our destination. If heard of the place before, then this was my first time here and it was just great...and i`m sure in the summer the bar must to be amazing. A great discovery.
By later it was time to go home. If before I was told, that i will have the privilege to have apartment on my own, just brought the idea that his parents won`t be home, then when being on the spot, i realized that its indeed all apartment on my own...as they live in the other one just across the corridor. strange, but fun.
by the saturday morning, well, more like around the lunch time, it was the time to meet up with friends family. I was happy to share of my routes, and once again have the opportunity to explain and to find the difference between Latvia and Lithuania, and more over my super complicated nationality...as in portuguese language its completely other name than in english, so yeah, all these stories are mostly because of the strange translations all in all, happy after all to find the right spot in Europe. Other than that, i did had the chance to practice my portuguese language skills...was a fun times and a cool challenge for me...turn out better than i could think of, well at least most of times, i could find the ways to express myself in portuguese. Last but not least, have to say, i`m really not used to portuguese family lunches, eating so much, crazy. On the other hand the food is so delicious that you just cannot stop eating. And more than everything, the portuguese tradition says, that its very impolite not to finish your dish...so you better do it always. Not to tell that on sunday the family lunch had more guests, it was bigger and more loud, and again a lot of delicious food to be eaten. I wonder if i will have the talents and skills one day to be a great chief of some of the delicious dishes myself.
Other than that, not only sightseeing was up for our agenda, passing the wine cellars and having a glass of the Porto wine, but also discovered some nice handcrafs and design ideas thanks to friends of friend...and as its a traditional in Porto, then Francizinha has also a check in my list of the weekend things. This time in one of the most famous places for this very traditional Porto dish...and the restaurant serves like six or more types of them, crazy, really.
II had a really amazing times, great and warm moments. Thank you for the nice family weekend and a lot of fun and portuguese language. It was just perfect.
A big hug,
S.

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