I've been in Porto for about 2 months now, and just joined the forum. Here's my contribution to the "data sheets" (based on Neil's guidelines):
Girls: 7-8. Dark hair, strong features, although people from northern Portugal tend to be slightly less Arab-featured than from the south, a little fairer. Mediterranean, port city, so people tend to eat well (diet is mostly fish) and stay in shape. Some pics pulled from couchsurfing:
(redacted due to anti spam error)
Sight seeing: Port wine tours, obviously, in Gaia, which is across the river Douro (no port wine houses are actually based in Porto). Rem Koolhaas's Casa da Musica, Clerigos tower, the bridges from Porto to Gaia, the amazing ceramic blue azulejos on the inside/outside of nearly every building, especially Sao Bento station. The contemporary art museum, Serralves, is good, free on Sunday until 2pm. Porto is an easy base for day trips to Guimaraes, Braga, or Coimbra. It's a great city to hear Fado, as well - Restaurante Adegio do Douro, on Rua do Ouro around 223 (past the huge white bridge) has good, free Fado Tuesday nights. A glass of wine is 50 cents, you can't go wrong. Meatlovers will dig francesinha, you can get it everywhere, the best is at Cervejeria Diu, R. Boavista 663. Sardinhas and other fish dishes are good at Mercado do Bolhao, which closes pretty early (1 or 2pm). Try vinho verde. Nothing is open on Sundays. Nearby Matosinhos is a great place to learn to surf, as well, except in the summer months when the sea is pretty dead. Classes are 15 euro/class including wetsuit (the Atlantic here will send your balls straight up into your stomach) and board, or you can rent a board/suit for 15 euros/2 hours at Godzilla surf school, among others.
Lodging: Furnished rooms w/ internet can be found for as low as 150 euro/month. Check couchsurfing subgroup for this, craigslist is totally dead. Plenty of hostels for 10 euro/night, decent hotels for around 50 (no experience with either of these).
Day Game Spots: Piolho square & its cafes have a ton of people - this is right by the University, there are always tons of students, faculty, and tourists around. Down by the Ribeira, the riverside, also is a good spot with tons of passers by. If you approach people near the train station you'll look like you're trying to sell hash (note: good place to buy hash).
Nightlife spots: Piolho square actually has an incredible amount of students hanging out and drinking at night, pretty amazing how far it stretches. It's a cool spot - you have your pick of bars/cafes to grab beer at, then go hang out/wander around the squares. The galerias de paris is also a great spot - a short, one block street, with about 20 bars/clubs, if you're watching your wallet you can get draft beer for 1 euro at the little cafe at the beginning of the street and come and go as you please in the bars. Cafe au lait often has good music, and there are often live shows here on Saturday nights, though the bands aren't to my taste. If you walk up Rua de Avis, there are also a bunch of decent bars with tons of people outside by the underpass - look for "Radio", the best of the bunch. All of these areas are a short walk from one another. The Ribeira is also totally packed with bars and people are pretty social there, lots of tourists as well. For upscale nightlife, try the Foz do Douro area (not my scene). Almost all bars downtown close early, 2am on weeknights, 4am on Fri/Sat. A small rock bar that stays open a little later (4 I think on weeknights) with really good music is Pherrugem, on Travessa do Ceidofeita. Same deal applies - tons of people hanging out down the street in front of the 1 euro/beer cafe as well.
Ease of approaching: You'll find plenty of small groups in any of the outdoor places. People are pretty friendly here, and you'll likely get approached on the street by random folks who aren't even panhandlers, just to joke around with you. A good amount of people can speak English, I think, almost everyone can understand decently spoken Spanish unless they are completely trashed, but it's pretty rude to not start at least with some basic portuguese. Boa tarde/boa noite should suffice. Outdoor areas are obviously standing up, real bars are standing up, people sit down in cafe/bars at night. Girls are flaky here, not really a problem though if you close the day you meet. Since the advent of Ryan air, there are also tons of tourists here from all over Europe who are looking to hang out.
Prices: Sim card 10 euro, internet on phone 25 euro/month for 2gb, sms 10 cents/calls 30 cents per minute. Typical cheap lunch or dinner 4 euro, lunch you can find nice meals with soup, wine, a main dish and coffee for that price. Grocery store prices are pretty cheap, as wages are extremely low here and in neighboring Spain since the crisis. Beer/wine is cheap, cocktails are 4 euros or more.
Logistics: Porto itself is easily walkable, though hilly. Everything is very close. For further areas, buses are 1.75 and the pristine, reliable, remarkable metro is 1.40/ride. Don't throw away your metro ticket, you're charged 50 cents for the card and can subsequently refill.
Overall pros and cons: Supposedly, it rains half the year. Otherwise, A+, worth buying a place here. Warning, if you learn to speak Portuguese here, Brazilians will think you're a fucking tool. It's a cool language, though, sounds kindof like a Russian mispronouncing Spanish. Good for jokes and bullshitting, for sure. The portuguese speak in a flat, robotic monotone in other languages, though, I'm not sure why – tonally, they're all over the place in their own. In case you couldn't tell, I'm a language fag.
Final thoughts: I was originally planning to just stay one month, then stay the other two in Lisbon, but it's hard to tear myself away. I'll be back next year, maybe to buy an apartment when we're closer to bottom and the euro falls apart.
Girls: 7-8. Dark hair, strong features, although people from northern Portugal tend to be slightly less Arab-featured than from the south, a little fairer. Mediterranean, port city, so people tend to eat well (diet is mostly fish) and stay in shape. Some pics pulled from couchsurfing:
(redacted due to anti spam error)
Sight seeing: Port wine tours, obviously, in Gaia, which is across the river Douro (no port wine houses are actually based in Porto). Rem Koolhaas's Casa da Musica, Clerigos tower, the bridges from Porto to Gaia, the amazing ceramic blue azulejos on the inside/outside of nearly every building, especially Sao Bento station. The contemporary art museum, Serralves, is good, free on Sunday until 2pm. Porto is an easy base for day trips to Guimaraes, Braga, or Coimbra. It's a great city to hear Fado, as well - Restaurante Adegio do Douro, on Rua do Ouro around 223 (past the huge white bridge) has good, free Fado Tuesday nights. A glass of wine is 50 cents, you can't go wrong. Meatlovers will dig francesinha, you can get it everywhere, the best is at Cervejeria Diu, R. Boavista 663. Sardinhas and other fish dishes are good at Mercado do Bolhao, which closes pretty early (1 or 2pm). Try vinho verde. Nothing is open on Sundays. Nearby Matosinhos is a great place to learn to surf, as well, except in the summer months when the sea is pretty dead. Classes are 15 euro/class including wetsuit (the Atlantic here will send your balls straight up into your stomach) and board, or you can rent a board/suit for 15 euros/2 hours at Godzilla surf school, among others.
Lodging: Furnished rooms w/ internet can be found for as low as 150 euro/month. Check couchsurfing subgroup for this, craigslist is totally dead. Plenty of hostels for 10 euro/night, decent hotels for around 50 (no experience with either of these).
Day Game Spots: Piolho square & its cafes have a ton of people - this is right by the University, there are always tons of students, faculty, and tourists around. Down by the Ribeira, the riverside, also is a good spot with tons of passers by. If you approach people near the train station you'll look like you're trying to sell hash (note: good place to buy hash).
Nightlife spots: Piolho square actually has an incredible amount of students hanging out and drinking at night, pretty amazing how far it stretches. It's a cool spot - you have your pick of bars/cafes to grab beer at, then go hang out/wander around the squares. The galerias de paris is also a great spot - a short, one block street, with about 20 bars/clubs, if you're watching your wallet you can get draft beer for 1 euro at the little cafe at the beginning of the street and come and go as you please in the bars. Cafe au lait often has good music, and there are often live shows here on Saturday nights, though the bands aren't to my taste. If you walk up Rua de Avis, there are also a bunch of decent bars with tons of people outside by the underpass - look for "Radio", the best of the bunch. All of these areas are a short walk from one another. The Ribeira is also totally packed with bars and people are pretty social there, lots of tourists as well. For upscale nightlife, try the Foz do Douro area (not my scene). Almost all bars downtown close early, 2am on weeknights, 4am on Fri/Sat. A small rock bar that stays open a little later (4 I think on weeknights) with really good music is Pherrugem, on Travessa do Ceidofeita. Same deal applies - tons of people hanging out down the street in front of the 1 euro/beer cafe as well.
Ease of approaching: You'll find plenty of small groups in any of the outdoor places. People are pretty friendly here, and you'll likely get approached on the street by random folks who aren't even panhandlers, just to joke around with you. A good amount of people can speak English, I think, almost everyone can understand decently spoken Spanish unless they are completely trashed, but it's pretty rude to not start at least with some basic portuguese. Boa tarde/boa noite should suffice. Outdoor areas are obviously standing up, real bars are standing up, people sit down in cafe/bars at night. Girls are flaky here, not really a problem though if you close the day you meet. Since the advent of Ryan air, there are also tons of tourists here from all over Europe who are looking to hang out.
Prices: Sim card 10 euro, internet on phone 25 euro/month for 2gb, sms 10 cents/calls 30 cents per minute. Typical cheap lunch or dinner 4 euro, lunch you can find nice meals with soup, wine, a main dish and coffee for that price. Grocery store prices are pretty cheap, as wages are extremely low here and in neighboring Spain since the crisis. Beer/wine is cheap, cocktails are 4 euros or more.
Logistics: Porto itself is easily walkable, though hilly. Everything is very close. For further areas, buses are 1.75 and the pristine, reliable, remarkable metro is 1.40/ride. Don't throw away your metro ticket, you're charged 50 cents for the card and can subsequently refill.
Overall pros and cons: Supposedly, it rains half the year. Otherwise, A+, worth buying a place here. Warning, if you learn to speak Portuguese here, Brazilians will think you're a fucking tool. It's a cool language, though, sounds kindof like a Russian mispronouncing Spanish. Good for jokes and bullshitting, for sure. The portuguese speak in a flat, robotic monotone in other languages, though, I'm not sure why – tonally, they're all over the place in their own. In case you couldn't tell, I'm a language fag.
Final thoughts: I was originally planning to just stay one month, then stay the other two in Lisbon, but it's hard to tear myself away. I'll be back next year, maybe to buy an apartment when we're closer to bottom and the euro falls apart.
![[Image: 8601656_l_791ffd48160a55e6c8a914add3360963.jpg]](http://s3.amazonaws.com/images.couchsurfing.us/DXWAFSK/8601656_l_791ffd48160a55e6c8a914add3360963.jpg)
![[Image: 8999701_l_83ab961dbecedd14ae3024bb3bd65c85.jpg]](http://s3.amazonaws.com/images.couchsurfing.us/FLQYCA0/8999701_l_83ab961dbecedd14ae3024bb3bd65c85.jpg)
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