Further adventures in Portuguese perplexity

Wed, the sun came out! We both jumped out of bed early in the morning, full of enthusiasm... ok not quite. Nevertheless we thought we'd try to see Ribeira and the terracotta roofs washed in sunshine instead of rain for a change. A quick hop on our favourite form of transport so far, the funicular, and indeed Ribeira is a different place in the sunshine.

This time we even ventured off the main tourist path of the riverfront and up some windy stairs and along sidestreets. The Lonely Planet describes this area as 'surprisingly ungentrified' and they're not wrong. What makes me laugh is that everyone hangs their washing up outside with no embarrassment whatsoever. One household it appears had only washed one pair of underpants and there it was on display for all the tourists with their cameras.

Spot the underwear

Whilst wandering we came across a little old lady barbecuing sardines outside her front door. She very helpfully proferred un-asked for directions back to the river, not a word of which we understood, but we thanked her politely and found our way back to the riverside.

Now this is where we discovered a whole new world of ice tea and vending machines - 'press' a 'button' and the nice man inside the makeshift vending machine will drop a can of exotic fruits ice tea. Big crowd, lots of laughing. Marketing genius.

Other highlights from the day include a visit to Cafeteira da Bolhau (that might not be exactly how you spell it) - a beaux-arts deli/cafe very close to our hotel, full of locals, where the friendly waitress did a Popeye impression to convey 'spinach soup'. We're pretty sure that's not what it was, though. Like the Cafe Majestic should be - traditional, established, but real. You have to get there early though - lunch is their main meal, if you want a light tea or cake / coffee / port on your way home from work - 7.30 is the latest you can get there. And they will mop the floor around you, adding the aroma of bleach to your dining experience. We liked it so much, we went back on Thursday.

Thursday, after being kept awake by a combination of howling dogs and howling people (allegedly singing), we got lazy and hopped in a taxi to a new part of town for us (uphill) - Cordoaria. The main thing of note here is a lovely park, which according to the official sign is where historically, the cord warners gathered. Once again, our English let us down. We had heard rumour of a vegetarian restaurant, which we did find - and it had closed down. Not much call for it here, I suppose. We still managed a nice lunch with Nothing Fried, then ventured into the Centre for Portuguese Photography. This building used to be a prison, and they've left the bars and the gates in. For some reason, they've also left a couple of guards. Only a handful of people in there, all acting guilty, shifting feet, whispering, we were quite convinced we would get locked in. We didn't linger long but made our way out to sunshine and boys playing football, and saw a gathering of cord warners taking place in the garden. Well, I don't know if they were cord warners but what else would they be doing there?

Over apple ice tea (which turned out to be apple juice) we both agreed this is our least favourite part of Porto so far - not just because of the prison, there's also the Jewish quarter and something a little depressing about it all. Not to mention worrying about what the cord warners are up to these days. The one bright spot is the sculptures in the garden - men on benches laughing, men falling off benches laughing. Perhaps the artist agreed the whole place needed a lift.

Oh, and one last word to any readers who are professors and are having streets named after them in Porto - don't get too excited. They'll change the names before long and all the maps will be wrong.