Thanksgiving weekend in Portugal

Coasting along in the Cantabrian Bay

One of my classes learning about betting and winning money. :)

Last weekend was a long weekend here too, but not due to the history of Pilgrims arriving to settle in North America, nor did it involve turkey and giving thanks. Nope, it was Spanish National Day, which didn't amount to much celebration in the country except military parades in Madrid and a big do in Zaragoza for their patron saint, Pilar. which is also celebrated Oct 12.

So to give thanks for a much-needed long weekend (which wasn't long enough...), I left the country. :) I set off early Saturday morning on the train and then took another bus to Ruben's town and had lunch with him and his family. Then we set off westward bound and crossed over to Portugal--without any fanfare nor sightings of customs officers begging to see my passport. How strange. There is a border with a control booth, but the ones that I have seen in my two trips into Portugal thus far seem long-abandoned.....

We arrived into Porto on Saturday evening and checked into the HI hostel there, which seemed relatively quiet. Then we headed out into town to explore and see what this coastal town had to offer. Over the two days, I have concluded that Porto is a place of:

beach football games

cycling along the coastal path

fishing (without buckets or anything for the catch)

surfing

bridges (there are 6 in total)

Also, it is a town of dangerous dogs, as we witnessed one chase and maul the other to death in the middle of a square, in amongst the chairs and tables, while various people tried to separate them with metal chairs, throwing water, pulling on its tail.

But nothing. In the end, no one knows or saw what happened to the victim, as the owner pulled the killer off and we saw no remains of any murder.....apparently the owner will get fined for letting this type of dog off-leash and unmuzzled. Yikes.

Beautiful stretch of beaches, with lots of greenspace, palm trees and gorgeous views out into the Atlantic. And oof was it hot! I don't know what the official reading was, but I would estimate that it was high 20s/low 30s--and crazy people were wearing jeans and long-sleeved shirts while I was scorching in my summer wear!!

That day, I had a ride-along pet for a while, as you can see here.....

It decided to hitch a ride and so I put it on my arm for a bit and then it took a liking to keeping an eye (or both eyes??) on the time..

Porto of course is famous for its Port (how creative...) and so we walked across one of the bridges to Gaia, the town across the river, and checked out the various bodegas. They had tours but unfortunately we didn't get to go because of time constraints and limited offerings of tour times. We did enjoy seeing the life out along the water--entertainment and people just chilling out in the sun. And of course we enjoyed yummy seafood meals on the Atlantic coast!

View of Porto from Gaia

Along the water's edge in Gaia, Porto in the background

Sunday night we went back to Benavente and hung out with Ruben's family again, as I had to return back to Santander on Monday in order to get organized for work again on Tuesday. If we had more time, we would've explored further down the coast to Lisbon, but we'll save that for another adventure. :)

This work week was only 3 days but it has felt way longer than that...it has been difficult, doing lots of planning, homework (for our online course to teach young learners) and organizing logistic things like getting textbooks and such. That is still not completed because of some issues with the publisher, and so photocopying pages for all the students is another thing to be dealt with. So we are all very happy to have the weekend before us again!

Michelle arrived on Wednesday night and has been wandering around the city, checking out the beaches and seaside, and exploring different areas while I've been at work. Luckily the weather has been sunny, though chilly due the wind and the lower temperatures (compared to last week) but it has been nice. This weekend we're going to do some sightseeing locally, as I haven't had much chance to do that either!