It's my life!: Exploring Porto

Sunday, July 03, 2022

Exploring Porto - Day 2

It was raining that morning. We were all ready to go out and explore Porto as early as 8am but had to go back to our apartment again when it started raining.

Sempat la berposing in the rain - this building was just a few meters away from our rented apartment. Lepas ambil gambar ni berlari masuk apartment balik haha.

When the rain stopped about an hour later, baru lah dapat keluar semula and explore the city of Porto.

First stop - Camara Municipal do Porto @ Porto City Hall.

This handsome looking building is located in a small square near the city centre where the Porto FC football club fan gather the night before to celebrate with their star players that won the National league cup. Beautiful architecture from the outside but we did not go in.

After taking pictures in front of the Porto City Hall, we walk down the road heading to the train station... and saw some attractive buildings that worth taking some shots.

Igreja de Santo Antonio dos Congregados @ Church of St Anthony's Congregation.

The blue and while tiles decoration is so pretty 🤩. Again, we just take pictures outside, did not go in.

Then we visited Estacao Ferroviaria de Porto @ Sao Bento Railway Station.

I was told that Porto has one of the most beautiful train stations in the world and true enough! Wow!! The architecture and tile interior of this station is just exquisite!

Those blue and white tiles again! So exquisite!

Didn't expect such a view in train station! Reminds of the metro in Moscow... pun lawa macam ni!

Love sangat!

Spent quite a while here just to appreciate the view!

Next - let's explore the rest of the city of Porto! Porto is all about charming hilly cobblestone streets and beautiful river views. When I say hilly... I meant really, really hilly! Penat okay jalan2 di Portugal ni. If you wanna come here, make sure you exercise a bit dulu ya... you need lotsa energy and stamina to explore this city on foot. Let's enjoy the pics...

Weather was super nice! 16-18C. Alhamdulillah, a beautiful day to walk around.

We later stopped by here to take picture at Jardim do Infante Dom Henrique. It was just a small garden with a statue of Prince Henry the Navigator, who Mr Google told me had braved the battering Atlantic in search of colonies for his beloved country, Portugal.

Continuing our exploration of Portal, we finally reached the beautiful Douro Riverside.

The view was spectacular! The magnificence Ponte de Dom Luis I bridge joins the areas of Porto and Gaia. We went under the bridge to cross the river so that we can enjoy the view from both sides.

By this time, all of us were super hungry. Pagi tu breakfast nasi goreng kot... (mama le masak, sape lagi... huhu), but after all the walk, memang tiring and hungry la kan. We googled for halal food and found this Moroccan restaurant. Now, the challenge is to go to the restaurant. We just crossed the bridge and the restaurant is apparently on the other side of the river haha. Using google map for direction, we were guided to go to the other side of the river via top of the bridge. And in order to reach the top of the bridge, we had to climb a super hillly road! I tell you... mongah acik manjek bukit tu... lol!

But to reach on top of the bridge and greeted with this view... priceless!!

I was still trying to catch my breath from the hike when I snapped these pics lol!

There were metros crossing this bridge. Should have used the metro kan! haiyaa....

Anyway, we finally found the Moroccan restaurant :)

Tangine - the Portuguese version.

Kebetulan, my eldest sis was in Morocco and she posted a few pics of Moroccan food in her IG. Kami pun dapat gak la merasa makan moroccan food - in the land of Portuguese lol!

Gendang genduti tali kecapi,

Kenyang perut senang hati :)

Okay... let's continue our journey to explore this beautiful town of Porto.

Next stop, Porto Cathedral (Se Catedral).

This big cathedral is the centre of Porto old city. The location is quite high on a hill or something.

We just stopped a while to take some pictures and enjoy the areas. Didn't go inside.

Beautiful views of Porto from up here.

Next, we need to go down the hill the the new city centre. As I told you earlier, this city is quite hilly. But so pretty! So we enjoyed the view all the way down....

Posing je.... the tram was not operating at that time.

Next destination was a beautiful bookstore that I wanted to see as I saw the pic while googling Porto.

Using google map, we were directed to climb these stairs...

Waduhhh... mongah laie acik tekau!!!

It was challenging I tell you... but alhamdulillah, we made it to the top!

Celebrating my success of climbing those stairs by drinking water... haha!

See those hilly path? I tell you... memang challenging jalan2 kat Portugal ni!

We finally found the bookstore!!

Lello & Irmao Bookstore.

Lonely Planet considered Lello & Irmao Bookstore as the third most beautiful library in the world!

And it was in my wish list to be able to see with my own eyes the interior of this library/bookstore!

Unfortunately the queue was sooooo long to get inside the bookstore 😭 And we do not wish to waste our previous time in Porto for just queueing to enter one bookstore. So mission fail 😭 !!

But let me share with your some of the pics of the bookshop interior that I got from Mr Google ya :

Cantik kan? Hai laaaa.... kena datang lagi ke Porto agaknya lepas ni? huhuuu...

We next, stopped by a dessert cafe untuk memujuk hati yang kecewa tak dapat masuk bookstore tu... huhu.

After all the hikes, we totally deserved those sweet desserts right? hehe..

Next destination Capela de Santa Catarina.

Covered in blue and white tiles, this church is located on a busy shopping streets in the center of the city. We didn't go inside. Such an iconic building!

Okay lah... time to go home. Kaki pun dah penat ni. On the way to our rented apartment, singgah jap sini. Ada orang tu dok meratip nak beli Porto FC jersey! Mahal siut... tapi sanggup keluar duit sendiri beli! Errr... tapi ayah kena bayarkan dulu... haha! Izzat oh izzat...