Porto, Portugal — Our Airbnb apartment is in the middle of the old city and is 200 years old with 14 foot ceilings. It is about 15 feet wide and 100 feet long with eight huge opening windows, each opening onto its own minuscule wrought iron balcony…I wouldn’t dare step out onto them for fear the iron bolts, also 200 years old, would call it a day. The apartment is quite elegant with its good paintings, wide-board wood floors and Asian antiques.
It belongs to Kurt and Teresa, Kurt being the brother of Kim, whose dog is the massive Standard Poodle, Oliver, and who is a regular visitor to Gone To The Dogs in Lake Oswego. Smallish world. Kurt is loquacious and gracious, an enthusiastic gourmand. He told us about the Prawn-Beer-Halls by the commercial harbor in Matosinhas where we ate last night, and the braziers out on the piers’ edge that grill the day’s catch over special charcoal that comes from Cuba. Only Cuban charcoal will do. As one strolls past the octopus being sliced to just the right thickness for their place on the grill and the immense prawns being split and drizzled with oil, the flavors and rich aromas of cooking seafood are mesmerizing. Tantalizing. Beckoning…we’re going to one of the grills for lunch today.
The youth of Porto all passed underneath our windows last night, most of them singing as they went, others, I believe, arguing the ontological position or the cosmological stance. They seemed to be shouting all at once or toward the later hours just making the universal grunts and clicks we all make when we’ve had enough to drink. They stopped well before 3:30 AM however and it went dead still.
It was still dead still when I went out for coffee this morning, but I found a little place that was open and also offered ham and cheese croissants. There was a gaggle of last night’s revelers at the doorway and true to expectations, they all seemed happy to greet me. It’s a good day already. When Norwegie wakes up, we’ll ride the little cartoon trolly all the way to the beach and maybe later we’ll rent a car and have a look at the countryside.
This place, this ancient Portugal, may become our home.
