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Well I arrived in Porto slightly more prepared and I even got a map off Victor the day before so I knew where I was going, and with my legs still in a sorry state from my frantic race to the bus station I just took it easy finding my next place. Up and down a few hills later and the long way around the park as I read the map wrong I got there and had to wait a while for my room to be ready again but as soon as it was I jumped in and had another sleep, man this travelling game is exhausting!
That arvo I went for a wander and found some pretty sights and nice views out over the city. One of the best place was on top of the main city bridge where they have put in a metro line and a pedestrian walk way. Even though Porto is a bit of an old dirty city in parts the view from the bridge was quite spectacular. You can see down the river with all the old port houses on the left, there are tons and tons scattered over the hill side with their name stencilled on their roofs and on the right is the city of Porto rising steeply from the river's edge. The riverside seems to always be alive with some activity or areas to dine or people just hanging out, it all has quite a nice jolly feel to it even with the old crumbling city with everyone's washing strewn from the windows, looming over them.
That night I was talking to my roommate and I told her I was going to go on a scenic train trip the next day up the Duro valley and she said she was interested so we organised to depart 9 the next morning. We got to the station earlier than we expected so we managed to get the earlier train, well it did involve some frantic ticket buying and a run to the train but it was better than waiting 45mins till the next one. So we boarded the train with what seemed half of Portugal (we found out after that that was the train all the tour groups used in the morning, and it usually isn't that busy) unfortunately the whole point of the train trip was to see the beautiful scenery of the Duro valley, and what I dint know was that scenery only starts about an hour and a quarter into the two hour trip, so I felt a bit ripped off. The bit we did see however was very pretty but I thought there was going to be a lot more. At the other end there wasn't much to see either as I hadn't taken into consideration that it was Sunday and pretty much everything was shut. So we had a quick look around and a bite to eat and went back to Porto on the next train an hour and a half later.
Back in town we went down to the riverside and crossed the bottom bridge and wandered around Braxia where all the port houses are. We wandered around town to find Croft as we heard that there we could do a free tasting and tour, as most places charge. Up behind all the others and around the corner and another corner and asking three people later we found it and sampled some ports and went on a tour of the port cellar and learnt a bit about the production process which was all pretty interesting, there was definitely more to it than I realised.
After that we were both exhausted so we trekked back up the steep hill to the hostel, and that was the day done and dusted. Packing up once again and get ready for my trip the next day back to Spain!
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