porto and tour guide toby

So my first day in Portugal was not exactly the warm, beach-like weather I had been hoping for. However, it was filled with interesting portugeese food, lots of sights, a port house tour and a lot of rain! We are not exactly fans of Port but since we were in PORTO we decided to explore some of the port houses and it was a great experience. I know my dad is going to be jealous, but I did pick him up a little treat! It was cold and wet and we were very relieved to have super tour guide toby to lead us around so that we were not aimlessly wandering in the rain. He, I must say, is a proficent map reader and was invaluable to our tour. Also, because we speak not a word of Portugese. Although we are learning to say sorry and thank you, which have become essentials. On tuesday we decided to go out for traditional portugese food at a small little restaurant in downtown Porto. I felt like we were actually in a Portugese family kitchen as our chefs and servers were two parents and a son, the walls were covered with beautiful traditional portugese tiles, the tv was on and tuned into the Porto football game and our dinner came out in metal pots! Since we could not read the menu and the staff could not speak any english, Toby and his Brazilian roomate Daniel oredered for us. There were five of us and we ordered four dishes to share. Well, when the food came out we quickly learned that we could have easily only ordered TWO meals. We had enough food to feed both football teams that were playing on tv that night. Everything was going swimmingly until Daniel noticed something unusual in his dish. He asked all of us what we thought it was, first Kate thought it might be a screw, and then we discovered that it was in fact a CATERPILLAR. Yummmmm. I was the first, and only to suggest that perhaps Portugese people need a little extra protein? So, luckily Daniel speaks Portugese of course and he dealt with it. The portugese mama came over and was absolutely shocked. She said since they opened the place ten years ago this has never happened. At one point she went to the back and brought out a huge frozen fish to explain the process they use to cook their meals. She took off two meals from our bill, which was actually nice since we were treating everyone! Poor Daniel is scarred for life though and I do not know if he will be able to eat out in Porto for a while.

Our next day in Porto was very lovely. The weather was amazing and we took it easy because Toby, being the german drillmaster that he is had worn us out the night before. We just wandered around and ate a lovely lunch on the water in front of all of the Port houses in Villa Nova de Gaia which is directly accross the river from Porto. The setup is similar to Dartmouth and Halifax and they even have the same saying in Porto as they do to Halifax that "The best thing about Gaia/Dartmouth is the view of Porto/Halifax! We hung out at the beach before going to the grocery store with our official portugese translator, Daniel to buy things to make dinner for the night. We really wanted to make Toby and his lovely roomates a traditional Canadian meal but we were stumped at what we could make and what we would find ingredients for so we settled on Ann Milligans famous pasta! We also tried to make them Ceasars, which we think are indigenous to Canada but since we didnt have Clamato, they were not as awesome as they could have been. But luckily we had bottles of wine (which cost 1.50). The rest of the evening was spent with Matcheks family (one of tobys roomates) who came from Poland to visit. His Dad was showing us photos of his trip to Africa and it was fun to see all of his kids translating for him. Kate and Sarah decided to stay in for the night and I went out with Toby and his friends. They took me to this huge square in the middle of the city where students were drinking beer and a port-like drink. There were hundreds of students in black capes, which is apparently what upperclass people wear on a daily basis and all of the "frosh" were in yellow shirts. It was like Mount A frosh week as all of the younger students were performing embarassing tasks and doing huge group cheers. That is how I had the opportunity to turn down my first (of many?) marriage proposal on my first night here because an upperclass student told a frosh he had to ask me. Now, we are in Lisbon and are in a beautiful hostel....Toby is joining us for the weekend with a bunch of his friends from school and Sarahs two friends from her cottage will also be in Lisbon so I am sure it will prove to be quite fun! Adeus!!