Hello dear readers! I am writing to you right now from the delightful little patio of our Airbnb in Porto. My apologies for missing the last couple of days of posts – I have to say I’ve moved a bit into vacation mode so I’ve been a little bit more lax about my writing practice. However, I did just want to share a little bit about Porto so far, since it is truly a delightful place.
The view from the patio of our Airbnb.
We arrived here on Friday, after about a three-and-a-half-hour train ride from Lisbon. The train was overall uneventful except for some brief moments of boisterousness from a family that included a grandma, uncle, two small children, one tween, and two very distracted parents. Though we were scheduled to arrive in São Bento train station, which is beautifully covered in azulejos, after a transfer from Campanha (pronounced by the train conductor as “campan-yaaaaa” in a very cartoon villain like voice) that arrived later than expected, we decided to take an Uber straight to our Airbnb on Rua da Belomonte. Classically, we discovered once we arrived that we happen to be staying where the medieval Jewish quarter was located (more on that soon).
Kicking back on the train.
Beautiful São Bento station.
From there, we walked around the winding and hilly streets of our neighborhood before heading to services at the Porto Synagogue, named Synagogue Kadoorie Mekor Haim, located in the neighborhood of Lordelo do Ouro e Massarelos. The services were a bit more Orthodox than my preference and observance level dictates, but the inside of the synagogue itself was gorgeous, tiled in azulejos and gilded letters, and offered an interesting counterpoints to my experience in the much less ornate Lisboa synagogue. For example, though both services were more on the Orthodox side of things, the rabbi in Lisboa gave a brief drash in English whereas the rabbi in Porto did not give a drash and his announcements were given in rapid, French-accented Hebrew. I found it interesting that the assumption was that every person in the congregation would understand this. I was lucky to find a buddy for services in an older woman from the States who said she and her husband travel to Porto every for six months on a transatlantic ship. She, like I, found the services more Orthodox than our personal practices, but she said that in Porto, the choice is between this synagogue or nothing. Overall, I found it a much more welcoming community than the one in Lisbon, differences in observance aside.
The outside of the Porto synagogue, all I could capture since I had to turn my phone off before entering.
From the synagogue, we headed back to our neighborhood, where in a few short hours the streets came alive with young people. Porto has the vibe of a university town much more than Lisbon, and this was palpable as we found a bar to sit at and have dinner across from a miradouro that also acted as a stage for the band performing a mix of Bowie, Arctic Monkeys, and Stevie Wonder covers. So far, I’ve found that there’s a lot more music on the streets of Porto than Lisbon. It has the sort of magical, half-hidden vibe that I experienced when I lived in Granada – like you can tell the city has delightful, surprising things to reveal to you but it won’t tell you when they will appear. Perhaps it’s the magical Douro river that traverses the city, or perhaps it’s the romance of a medieval port city-turned-university town. Whatever the case, even from our first day here I have felt that Porto is very special. There’s more to share about what we did on Saturday (including a tour of a sardine factory!!), but I will save that for another post. Until then!
A beautiful view from the miradouro near our house.
A sweet shot of us + the view :)