Travel: Exploring Porto, Portugal

Earlier this month, I took some days off and hopped on a flight to Porto, Portugal. My friend who used to live there 2 years ago was going for a visit and I decided to go with. We had a place to stay outside the city and rented a car to make moving around easy. Because I was only going to be away for 3 days, I packed light knowing I might find some lovely things in Porto which I'd want to buy and didn't want the luggage to be overweight. 

The first day was spent calmly. We had sushi for brunch because I was starving and then took my friend's dogs to the vet. While the dogs were being groomed, we drove to The Style Outlet in Vila do Conde to check out what's available. I was able to get myself a pair of Guess sunglasses which I love and think it was a complete steal for just €49. The rest of the day was spent resting and researching locations for the touristic trip I had planned for the next day.

On the second day, I picked up another friend from the airport and we headed into Porto. We decided to park the car and cover the city by foot, because it's a lot more interesting that way and things aren't so far from one another. We stopped by the Palacio da Bolsa and then headed for the Dom Luis I Bridge. On our way, we saw a few stands along the Ribeira and couldn't resist getting some new scarves and a few souvenirs. 

The view from Dom Luis Bridge was breathtaking. You can literally see all of Porto and its cute red roofs. We spent quite a while just taking in the view and making countless pictures to capture the beauty of it all. We still had a couple of hours before we headed back, so we stopped by the Se Cathedral which I must say it extremely tall and the ceilings are so high, something I haven't seen in a lot of Cathedrals. Lastly, we stopped by Avenida dos Aliados. In the very heart of the city, the white buildings are beautiful and definitely worth visiting.

On my last day in Porto, we heading off to the Jardins do Palacio de Cristal to see the view of the city, visit the romance garden and see if any peacocks felt like opening up to us. Finally, because the Cafe Majestic is so popular, we just had to stop by and check out the place the first book of Harry Potter was written. If you're thinking of where to go next, add Porto to your list, because it is definitely worth seeing.

Have you been in Porto? Please leave me your recommendations on where to visit next.