What Happens After You've Checked Everything Off Your List?
After almost a month in Porto, we discovered the luxury of having no must-dos left.
One of the unexpected moments in slow travel is what happens after you’ve checked off all the things you wanted to make sure you saw, experienced, ate, or drank.
The viewpoints? Done.
The famous churches? Done.
The markets? Done.
The restaurants you bookmarked months before arriving? Mostly conquered.
At some point, you wake up and realize... there isn’t anything you have to do today. It’s surprisingly liberating.
In fact, we'd crossed off one of our last "must-try" restaurants just the day before with lunch at Voltaria, a tiny restaurant tucked down a narrow side street with just 4 or 5 indoor tables and 2 outdoor tables. We'd tried to eat there earlier in our stay, but the line stretched well beyond our patience. This time, we showed up right when they opened, and that turned out to be the magic trick.
We started with traditional Portuguese salt cod fritters, Pastéis de Bacalhau. They were delicious (not salty) little fish cakes.
Shawn ordered the pork cheeks braised in red wine sauce, so tender they barely required chewing. This should be your go-to order here; it was a flavor bomb.
I went with a classic Portuguese comfort dish: chicken rice with chorizo, the kind of meal that tastes like it could fix literally anything that might ail you. I was really enjoying this until I tasted Shawn’s food, and then I regretted not copying his order.
We'd spent weeks working our way through the places we'd researched before arriving in Porto, and with Voltaria now behind us, there wasn't much left on the checklist.
So today, we decided to embrace the ancient travel tradition of "let's just wing it", mostly.
The only thing we had scheduled: a beard trim (Shawn) and a manicure (me) in the morning. Our appointments were in different neighborhoods, so we walked separately. When I was done, I started to walk back towards our apartment, only to see Shawn walking towards me. I hadn't expected him to be there, and it was one of those small, thoughtful surprises. We had no plans, so we headed off together to see where the rest of the day would take us.
We decided to start out with a little snack and some coffee at our favorite Ukrainian restaurant, Story Brunch & Cocktails. By now, they probably recognize us as “those Americans who keep ordering the Syrnyky (cottage cheese pancakes).” Served with plain Greek yogurt and sour cherries, they’re light, fluffy and delicious!
From there, we walked down to the riverfront and decided to see the Monet & Klimt Immersive Experience at the Alfândega Porto Congress Centre. (Our hop-on, hop-off bus pass got us a discount here, too.) Instead of staring at paintings hanging quietly on a wall, you’re surrounded by them. Colors swirl across the walls, ceiling and floor, while music fills the room, making it feel like you’ve stepped inside the artists’ imaginations. The paintings themselves move and you can watch the artists strokes turn into images. It’s a completely different way to enjoy art, and a nice break from climbing yet another hill.
There is no way to capture it in photos, but I loved the experience.
They have a dinosaur experience too, but we didn’t stay for that. I think Shawn was a little disappointed.
Afterward, we walked just a short ways down the street to Porto’s hop-on, hop-off bus stop. Once onboard, we had absolutely no intention of hopping off anytime soon.
For nearly two hours, the bus carried us through Porto’s different neighborhoods, out to the Atlantic coast, and back into the city. The free audio guide shared descriptions of major sights and bits of history while we enjoyed the breeze on the top deck. No deciding where to go next.
Sometimes the best sightseeing is letting someone else do the navigating.
When we finally decided to hop off, we were definitely ready for a late lunch. We stopped at Sol e Sombra for bifanas, Portugal’s famous pork sandwiches.
Imagine thin slices of tender pork piled onto a soft roll with melted cheese, soaked in garlicky, savory pork juices. They’re served with chili oil, gloriously messy, ridiculously flavorful, and somehow just €3.50.
You will use an inordinate amount of napkins while eating this. In fact, they have a hand-washing station in the dining room for when you are done. I hate having messy hands, but this was worth it.
It was the cheapest meal we’ve had in Portugal and, quite possibly, the best value of the entire trip. Months from now, when someone asks what we remember most about Porto, there’s a 100% chance these sandwiches will make the list. Thank goodness we didn’t discover these earlier in our stay. I’m fairly certain I’d be returning home shaped like a bifana otherwise.
Speaking of… one of our strategies for making two months of incredible food feel sustainable (besides walking up approximately 47,000 hills) is limiting ourselves to one major restaurant meal a day, at least on average. The rest of the time, we keep things simple at the apartment: yogurt, deli meat, cheese, salads, fruit, a concerning amount of sugar-free wafer cookies we discovered during our first week in Portugal, and, of course, wine.
Sometimes we squeeze in a light breakfast or snack out in addition to our main meal, like we did today. But breakfast was mostly on the healthy side, so we decided we were okay with the restaurant daily double.
After lunch, we stopped in the grocery store next door for a few things before heading back to the bus stop.
The beauty of having a 48-hour hop-on, hop-off pass is that it doubles as transportation, so after grocery shopping we simply caught the next bus and rode it back toward our neighborhood.
Tonight’s agenda is wonderfully uneventful: Netflix and absolutely nowhere we need to be.