Day One in Lovely Porto

So, here we are in beautiful Porto after just a six hour flight- it really didn’t seem long at all. We flew TAP Portugal, which was nothing special.. service was okay, the food was nothing special at all and the coffee was worse than United- if that was possible… this coffee was watered down and luke warm… I just don’t get what the problem is with these airlines, they can’t even serve a proper cup of coffee. The good news is I had a delicious cup of espresso topped with whipped cream at the Porto airport. It was a small airport and we could smell the salty, ocean air as soon as we disembarked the plane. We made our way out of the airport and caught and cab and 10 minutes later we were at the apartments we rented. As we are quite a few people, I managed to find four apartments in the same building overlooking the ocean. They are beautiful, filled with sunlight and across the street from the beach. Some people in the family are beach goers… I like to explore and walk around so not sure if I will be sitting on the beach for very long. We unpacked and ventured out for a snack as it was still early, around 9 am and we were hungry. We found a place called Tavi (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g189180-d790485-Reviews-Tavi_Confeitaria-Porto_Porto_District_Northern_Portugal.html), which was overlooking the ocean… so we walked in and got a table and ordered coffee and some mushroom and bacon croquettes as well as a turnip green and game meat pie. I have eaten croquettes before, many times but never tried mushroom and bacon ones.. they were yum and so was the turnip green pie… A good start to the trip so far… After returning back to the aparment, most people took a siesta… I couldn’t so I worked on this blog post and enjoyed the surroundings. After a while some of the other family arrived and we headed for lunch. We walked out and found a hole in the wall called Cafe Concha (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g800271-d5587815-Reviews-Pastelaria_Snack_Bar_Concha_Lda-Sao_Martinho_do_Porto_Alcobaca_Leiria_District_Ce.html), it smelled delicious outside and there was no menu inside… perfect! Most of us ordered fish, I had the most delicious plate of sardines- yum! Some people had salmon which was great as well!
All the food was yummy… we walked out and found a store selling and sampling port. I tasted some white port for the first time and boy was it delicious! We immediately bought some to take home. The rest of the day was more walking around and enjoying the beautiful city and enjoying a delicious, fancy meal at a place called Cafeina (http://www.cafeina.pt/en/), which our apartment owners recommended. It was a lovely space and the food was yummy. I couldn’t take a good enough photo as it was quite dark. The restaurant menu had mostly fish and seafood. We had some delicious salads and I ate stuffed octopus with delicious shrimp. The dinner was amazing and the first day was a success! Looking forward to the rest of the vacation…