We seem to have a knack for booking places with nearby construction, or maybe that is just normal for busy European centers. Woke up at 5:30am and had to close the window as the city started alive and was really up when the construction started at 7:30am, literally right outside our window. Im not so upset as the matress in the hostel was and Anne and I had sore hips and back. The kids seemed to love their bunk beds. In the end Im not sure the hostel experience was worth it but it was only for one night so no big deal. It was nice to be right downtown in the action when we went out though.
We bought tickets for a traditional boat ride on the canals and they informed us about the history of making salt used to preserve food in Portugal years ago. We saw the old fishing/ salt drying houses that are being gentrified and then the new section of town that had building shaped inspires by boats. Interesting tour but short and in the sun the whole time. Similar feel to Venice but nowhere near impressive. We met an interesting
After the boat we bought some flavored salt, and thought i saw sarsines with chocolate, but I misread the box- it was chocolate sardines which would be much tastier than sarsines with chocolate. The lady laughed at me and said- Horrivel! We also bough a ribbon and wrote a message on it and tied it to one of the bridges going over the canal- a thing oeople seemed to do. It was a cool effect and is much better than seeing rusty locks. We managed to find the one outdoor mall in town, how does Anne manage to do that, and they had all kinds of streamers as a sun shade/ roof. Really nice effect and looked cool. We grabbed some lunch and all felt like we had seen enough of the town, jumped in the car and were off to Porto. Right outside Aveiro we drove through some area burned by the dorest fires. The ground was scorces blaxk and the trees were charred or dried orange from the heat. It could have been worse but still looked bad. As we came into Porto things god busier again and
I already miss the quiet towns we left behind but know that Porto will be an amazing spot too. Luckily when we arrived we were able to early and rest our feet and take a nap. The Porto airbnb is amazing and has air conditioning too. The lady running it seems super friendly and helpful and it should help us get our bearings faster and maximize our time. Tonight we will see if our streak of construction continues. At the moment were so glad we are here for the next 4 nights!
Anne and I went out to get some groceries for the next few days here and I think we were a bit hungry. We spent 100 euros and had our arms full walking back to the apartment. Anne was happy because she found a cheap hair straightener. This heat has been making her hair do crazy things! When we got back to the apartment Anne made us a pasta supper and it was delicious. Time for bed!
