I stayed in Lisboa one more day and drove through rain up to Porto with my roommate Ricardo, a Porto resident. He was very generous and proud of his city; we went out to eat, drove to the hostel, got me checked-in, hit the tourism office for maps and info, went to a travel agency and arranged a trip to Madeira, and then drove back to the hostel, all the while he helped me communicate with people in Portuguese and gave me an guided tour of his home city. At the end, I had to force money on him for gas.
I have to say that my first impressions of Porto have been very positive. I am told that the Port wineries are within walking distance of the old town, and have free samples! Things just keep getting better.
One negative is that I cannot get online with my own computer at the hostel so I have to go to the shopping center to upload anything. That means that I have to find it again (we stopped there briefly to check wi-fi access) and take a bus or two quite a way to get there.
I am going to Madeira from Wednesday to Friday. It is a two hour plane ride to the island and includes airport shuttles, hotel, breakfasts, and was only $300 for everything. It is good to travel in the off season.
In the massively tourist laden Lisboa, I was only able to identify maybe half a dozen American couples. According to Ricardo and others, Americans don’t go to Portugal much, particularly after 9/11. Ricardo says he only sees two or three Americans a year in Porto. I have yet to understand why this is. I know that my impression of Portugal before I came was that it would be much poorer than it is. People here may be less well off than others in Europe, but they are not burdened by the endemic poverty that cripples countries like Mexico. Overall, Portugal is doing well.
