When traveling from Aberdeen the chances are you need to fly to London first. This trip was no exception, well it’s not strictly true you can fly from edinburger but London is way cheaper and I’m …. Thrifty. So the game plan was to fly down to heathrow from Aberdeen on the Wednesday evening, get a bus transfer to Gatwick then in the morning fly out to Porto.
Being the chea…..thrifty man I am I usually just kip in the airport but on this occasion I went full grown up. In March as a birthday present to myself I got a hotel in Gatwick. I know I pushed the boat right out. So was looking forward to some ok kip.
Anyway back to the first hand timeline of events. Lauren was nice enough to run me over to the airport in Aberdeen even tho like the sacrificial lamb to the slaughter she would hit rush hour traffic getting home. Anyway after the sad goodbyes and see you in 10 days chat I got turfed out on a side road away from the airport due to Aberdeen wanting a quid to do a proper drop off and me being to thrifty to carry cash and Lauren only having 50p. But hey I’m about to walk across Portugal, if I can’t make it 500m to the airport we will be in trouble.
You will be pleased to hear I survived. Usual chat with hiking bags and they have to be taken to the unusual bagage bit due to the straps. You press the doorbell and some shrek looking dude snatches your bag off you and throws it on belt and before you have time to say thanks, the shutter is back down.
On to my next pet hate, the security scanning bit, and my complaint is not against the staff, no it’s the bumblefucks that seem to have no concept of how to empty their shit into a tray. You can literally see the wheels whiring in their brains as they forget what pocket they put everything in the world in. It is really not difficult, all the metal shit in the tray. oh and may as well take your shoes/boots off, the second you think your safe is the second they ask you anyway.
I need not of done the hurry up and wait tactic as the flight was delayed 30 mins. That aside it was a pleasant enough flight and being the sensible bloke I am gave myself an hour until my bus transfer giving me time to charge my phone and munch some grub.
After a rather moist drive over I arrived and soon found the Bloc hotel. I have to say my expectations were not huge but was pleasantly surprised. Double bed, huge TV, aircon and sound proofed rooms controlled by a tablet. Was in geek heaven and I rate this room a 5/5 it was even fun to shower where you literally soaked the whole bathroom.
Today’s flight however was on time, got to the gate and all seemed well until they declared we will be running 30 mins late. Well least I will be at my destination. So I get off the plane and the worry is over I have my bag, it has not disappeared (my biggest fear). Losing luggage would suck but before a Camino you would be properly screwed. So here I am in Portugal.
Now this should probably be the time I come clean and admit I know little to fuck all Portuguese and will be much more at home in Spain. But I will do the standard Brit abroad stuff and point and shout while Google translating everything until I get the hang of it. So went to the metro machines and it is translated to English so no problems there. I get off in the right place and just walked out and saw a hill so assumed my luck isn’t that good so walked up over the hill and my guess was right I could see the cathedral. Well what is there to say about Porto. It’s is dripping in really stunning buildings, architecture and generally sun warmed roofs and bridges. You can litterally walk in any direction round a corner and you will see a building that makes everything else at home look like a shit hole. Yes it’s old and some would say a bit tatty and run down but it’s something to behold. Please don’t take my pictures or word for it tho get your arse out here and look for yourself, you will not be disappointed.
So today’s plan is to find the cathedral. Go get my pilgrims passport and then find the first yellow arrow. I had soon located all of the above so went in search for my hotel room. I soon found this but my room was not ready but I was able to leave my bag. Armed with a map I walked around for a few hours. Found the book shop everyone goes on about and its true it was epic.
After that I got some grub and a beer and sent obligatory fuck you all back in the office post to Facebook. Then I got on the open top bus and toured the city for a couple of hours.
Anyway enough about me being a tourist on to the photos… Tomorrow I start walking.
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