This past weekend I decided to finally venture outside of my dear Spain. Before the rush of trips began, my roommates and I wanted to plan a trip all together. So all seven of us booked a flight to Porto, Portugal. Most people, when I told them I was going to Portugal, asked if I was going to Lisbon. Lisbon apparently is the more well-known city of Portugal. Being asked this multiple times made me nervous for my trip to Porto. In reality, I had no idea what to expect from Porto. My roommates and I had chosen this city primarily because we found a cheap flight to Porto through Ryanair (which is the cheapest airline you’ll find in Europe) and we wanted to visit Portugal. I found that Porto, like Cuenca, was a pleasant surprise. I fell in love with it.

Well, my roommates and I actually didn’t receive so great a welcome from Porto when it came to the weather. We arrived at the opportune time for the weather to be rainy and windy (I felt like I was stuck in a storm of some kind). Turns out this kind of weather is normal for Porto. Porto has a very temperamental weather where it changes between rain and sun multiple times a day (and this it did throughout my stay). Anyway, all seven of us together searched for our wine hostel (yes, I repeat, a wine hostel) and found it to be a cute, clean hostel with a winding staircase and each floor being named after a type of port wine (I actually highly recommend this hostel, check it out). Along the walls of the first floor were chalk boards listing some deals, one of them being an opportunity to try five different port wines for five euro (1. Tawny 2.White 3. Pink 4. Reserva 5. LBV). Having put all our bags in our hostel room, we decided to start tasting the wine until the free walking tour offered that afternoon began. Tiny half-filled glasses were poured with the wine of our choice and we clinked glasses, toasting to Portugal. Upon tasting the wine we discovered that port wine is much sweeter and richer than the wine we’re usually used to. Another thing we discovered is that two of these tiny glasses of wine were enough to make your brain start buzzing. This, we found out, is because port wine consists of 20% alcohol, more than just a typical glass of wine.

At 3:30 pm our young, enthusiastic tour guide, Marcus, came to pick us up and rounded up people from nearby hostels. I took the opportunity to walk up front to Marcus and ask about why most of the buildings in Porto were covered in tiles. He told me that originally Portugal was inspired by the south of Spain and that it became a trend to decorate buildings with tiles, or azulejos. When our tour officially started, it started pouring rain and we quickly discovered that we would have to get used to being wet and cold, and that our umbrellas would be blown inside out multiple times (insider’s tip: face the umbrella towards the wind and it will instantly fix it). But I learned some other things from the tour.

Apparently Porto influenced much of J.K. Rowling’s famous series, Harry Potter. It turns out Rowling lived in Porto for about two and a half years to teach English and married a Portuguese man. In Porto, there is a cafe called Majestic Cafe where Rowling wrote her first drafts of Harry Potter. There is also a bookstore, Livraria Lello, which is rumored to have inspired the majestic moving staircases at Hogwarts. The staircases at this bookstore are similarly majestic in the way they split and snake up to the next level, as if they were constantly moving and morphing. The bookstore doesn’t allow people to take photos inside (since everyone goes there to take pictures rather than buy books) but thankfully one of my roommates was able to sneak one on her phone.

Another fun Harry Potter fact is that the dark wizard of the four wizards who started Hogwarts, Salazar Slytherin, was influenced by the name of the Portuguese dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. Lastly, the capes that Harry Potter and his roommates wear at Hogwarts was influenced by the capes students had to wear at University of Porto for their uniform. I had absolutely no idea that I would be visiting the birth place of Harry Potter when coming to Porto (and I admit I have read all seven of the books, so I am a fan).

By nighttime, I decided that I liked the Portuguese. The guy who worked at the hostel and our tour guide Marcus gave me great first impressions of the Portuguese, but the Portuguese men I met at night further improved my judgement of them. Since it was stormy outside, some of my roommates and I ran to the closest bar we could find, a few doors down from my hostel. Inside, we found a large group of Portuguese men who were all friends. One of them instantly discovered that I was from California and was so excited he almost didn’t believe me. Then he exclaimed that he had always wanted to go to California. He proceeded to introduce me to all of his friends, who then all started singing the classic Beach Boys song, “I wish they all could be California girls…” I discovered that Portugal is much like Spain in that they stay up late. My new Portuguese friends and I went to a club called “We Love Porto” (how appropriate) which didn’t even open until 2 am! Overall, my first day of Porto was a very long and eventful one.