Settling and Exploring

 We had a down day on Sunday, did some laundry and other chores.  Our washing machine is nice, a modern compact European apartment style.  There are fewer dryers in Portugal, though, since electricity is expensive (correction: see this post).  We used our drying rack on the terrace.

Monday we took the metro light rail for the first time.  It's a nice modern system, trains run every 10 minutes or so and are very punctual and comfortable, but it's a little noisy.  We went into downtown Porto, walked around a few blocks, and had some lunch.  Downtown Porto is pretty cosmopolitan, but also shows its centuries of history.  You see English all over, and it's hard to find a place where it isn't spoken.  Lunch was at a restaurant called Beher, which raises and sells its own Iberian ham.  This is a rich delicacy, shaved thin, which the Portuguese and the Spanish are quite proud of.  (Each of theirs is better than the other one, of course.)  Gerrit had ovos rotos ("broken eggs"), sunnyside up with Iberian ham shavings over thin french fries, and Pat had an Iberian ham chorizo omelet with salad greens.  The soup was creamy squash with perhaps corn, and German beer to drink.

The famous Portuguese tiles were visible all over, including on the walls of the corner church on the right.  The paving was interesting and beautiful too: mostly small white and black flat-topped stones in mosaic patterns on the plazas and sidewalks (see above and left).  The stones have become smooth after millions of footsteps over time, so we're told it can be slippery when wet (and we believe it).

We're still trying to get our TV delivered, but Gerrit is having a wonderful old-fashioned telephone experience in the meantime.  He called the store twice last Friday with no answer (which is better than being dumped into a phone menu), so we went there in person.  We needed a few things anyway, you see.  There was still no contact after a few days, so Gerrit tried calling the store again on Tuesday.  A pleasant human being answered the phone!  An English-speaking human being, no less.  She transferred him to the TV department where a sales guy again simply answered the phone.  He had to check something so he put Gerrit on hold.  Silence!  No crappy hold music!  No one telling him how important his call was to them!  No advertising!  The sales guy came back shortly and they began working the problem.  Gerrit confirms that this was much more pleasant while experiencing normal blood pressure, and the TV should be here on Friday.  

With the TV installed we can get WiFi, internet, TV, and our new Portuguese phone numbers, since they're all bundled together.  This in turn will let us update billing with the electric and water utilities, and upgrade our account status with the bank.  It's all a complicated game of dominoes.

And, dear reader, they sell sex toys in grocery stores here.  The ads are right there next to the produce, meat, and household goods.  It's enough to make a puritanical American blush!

We found a new grocery/variety store nearby on Wednesday (today) called Continente, a little like Fred Meyer, so we're definitely good in the food and consumer items departments.  (For the record, we did not shop for sex toys.)  They have a great meat and fish department and a nice section dedicated to Portuguese wines, so there is plenty of exploring to do there.  Pat found that they carry actual name brand Tupperware, so she will be stocking up once our situation is a little more stable.

(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click in the black outside a photo when you're done.)

Home