When we last saw our plucky protagonists, they had passed out back at the hotel after an overly busy, overly ambitious day of trying to do everything at once.
WEDNESDAY, we set some simpler goals for ourselves. Our biggest mission for the day was to take the metro from our stop (Marquês, pronounced “MARKsh”) down to El Corte Inglés, the big department store over the river in Vila Nova de Gaia. It’s probably only 15 minutes by metro to Corte Inglés, and the stop is right outside their door.
“Vila Nova” literally means new town, but in this case, it means the new town founded by the Romans to differentiate it from the indigenous settlement on the north side of the Douro. New, right … Gaia is where all the famous Port wine houses have their warehouses and tasting rooms.
It’s a quick 10-minute walk from the apartment to Marquês. The station is located adjacent to a sweet little park with a fountain, surrounded by some lovely old buildings – plus, about eight coffee and pastry spots.
As I’ve said before, the metro system in Porto is great. There are six lines, five of which run parallel through most of the city. We live closest to the one perpendicular line, which means we have a straight shot to the Ribeira and Gaia, but either have to transfer or walk to a slightly farther away station for other trips.
European department stores tend to be giganormous, and Corte Inglés is no exception. There are seven levels above ground – normal clothes, housewares, electronics, etc., the stuff you’d see in the US. But, there is also a full-sized hypermarket with fresh bakery, cheese, charcuterie, meat, fish, vegetables, plus all the regular grocery store stuff, PLUS a special gourmet market area with the better cheese and cured meats, PLUS a huge wine and liquor department – PLUS PLUS a food court.
Then, there are four more smaller levels below that, with hardware, stationary, pet supplies, flowers, a travel agency, and a few other odds and ends.
Our big goal on this day was sheets and towels. Towels are simple, but sheets are a little more complicated due to the differences in US and European sizes. There are actually a lot more sizes available over here, although our bed is a fairly standard 160x200cm – about the same size as a Queen. But, with the combination of mattress and pad, the depth varies on fitted sheets, too … anyways, we were lucky enough to have a young lady helping us who spoke English, and we were able to put together a good stack of stuff.
We looked at some other household items, too, but we were feeling overwhelmed again, so we decided to call it done and just take the swag back to the apartment. Rather than hauling it on the metro, we opted for an Uber – did I tell you how cheap and easy Uber is in the city? Our most expensive trip so far, which was over a half-hour in peak pricing, was about 20€, and most rides have been less than 5€.
Wednesday afternoon is when I think Kathi lectured me about slowing down, and we took her advice – we gave ourselves the rest of the day off, then wandered down to the Ribeira district in the late afternoon to stroll around, poke our heads into a couple of shops, and eventually have an early dinner of sangria and petiscos (the Portuguese equivalent of tapas).
I’ll eventually do separate articles just about cured meats and cheeses, but let me state for the record that the presunto (prosciutto-type ham), the sausages like linguiça, chouriço and alheiras, and the hundreds of different cheeses are all amazing.
THURSDAY was another day to practice being low-key. After breakfast at the hotel, we took a walk. You know that cool church in the background of the view from our living room? That is the Igreja da Lapa, a moderately famous church. It houses the heart of Pedro IV (who was also Pedro I of Brasil) – he’s the one who brought the monarchy back to Portugal after the Napoleonic wars.
There’s also a huge and wonderful cemetery that is the final resting place of many Portuguese artists and authors. It’s been explained to us that taking pictures in a cemetery is disrespectful, so you’ll just have to imagine what some of these monuments look like.
After that, we went over to the apartment to meet with some representatives from Vodafone, who we chose for internet service. Yes, they came to us … Alina the realtor’s boyfriend either works for or used to work for Vodafone, and he arranged for someone who spoke English to come by and explain things.
And here’s another difference for you: we have unlimited voice and data on two mobile phones, 170 cable channels, and 200/100 fiber-optic internet with ethernet connections in every room, plus a high-speed wireless router, all as part of one package. Cost? 95€ per month, which is about what I paid for one phone in the US!
Also, on Thursday, Luis with the dining set called and asked if he could deliver our table and chairs. Since we were there, we told him to come on down!
Thursday evening, we ate a typical Portuguese dinner at another local place. You can pretty much count on always getting potatoes and vegetable (often cabbage) with a protein of your choice, and you can pretty much count on it being A) very good, and B) too much food. I had some scabbard fish, and Kristie got grilled pork – FOUR big slices of pork loin! Needless to say, that was lunch the next day, too.
FRIDAY was mattress day – IKEA showed up as advertised and within the delivery window. Since we didn’t have the bed frame until Saturday, we just stood everything up in the corner for the moment.
We had already decided to stay in the hotel for a few more days, rather than just sleep on the mattress on the floor – some more Kathi advice, wait until we had things a little more settled before we tried living in the new lodgings.
SATURDAY was the big IKEA shipment of stuff from Tuesday’s extravaganza. They actually called us to ask if they could deliver early, which we figured was a win. Two guys showed up with box after box of things which then needed assembly …Now, it’s a warm day, and there is no air conditioner in the apartment. Kristie and I put together the sofa, the armchair, and the bedframe, plus put away dishes, glasses, and a lot of other sundry items before collapsing into huge puddles of perspiration. It became abundantly clear that another chore was to get fans!
Saturday also saw our first delivery from Amazon.es – the Spanish site delivers to Portugal as well. This was a little funny; I got a call from the delivery guy at the door to the building, so I buzzed him in. Since the elevator is right outside our front door, I opened it up in anticipation. The elevator arrives, but no-one gets off – then the door closes.
“That’s weird,” I thought. “Maybe I misunderstood. I better go down and check.” So, I press the button for the elevator – the door opens, and there’s my package. Evidently, this is how it works – the delivery man just puts it in the elevator, sends it to your floor, and splits. I don’t know if this is a COVID thing, but we had it repeat with a second shipment, so I guess it’s the way it goes.
Since we had expended so much energy during the day, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner at Tabua Rasa, a place we have eaten at in the past. This is another restaurant that specializes in small producer cheeses, cured meats, and preserved fish and shellfish.
Yes, that’s right – artisanal canned food! Portugal has a love affair with tinned stuff, which comes in all kinds of different varieties, and there are restaurants that specialize in serving it (typically with some extra prep and a salad or something to accompany it).
Dinner was fantastic, made even better by the owner of the restaurant, Carolina. Even though it had been over a year since we had last visited, she remembered us and made a big fuss over us. She even gave us her personal contact information and told us to call her if there was anything we needed while settling in – translation, help finding things, whatever.
We’ve encountered this type of welcoming attitude time and time again in Portugal. Even Daniel, the owner of one of our corner coffee spots, has encouraged us to ask him for anything we need help with. “We have four hands here – let us know if you have something to carry.” Sure, the expectation is that we’ll be patronizing his place, but it’s really one of the things we love so much about the country – the people are amazing.
SUNDAY saw us back at Corte Inglés for a high-powered Dyson fan – a very worthwhile investment – plus a few more household items. We even carted it all back on the metro and the few blocks from the station to the apartment, just like normal people!
Sunday dinner saw us at a popular pizza restaurant over by Clérigos Tower. We were lucky, because we didn’t have reservations and they were turning people away. We were doubly lucky in that our waitress was a gal from Arizona who’s been living here for about a year and a half. We had a great time talking to her – and once again, got offers to help with anything we needed.
Next Episode – Hello, bureaucracy! Business and banking complications