Will You Be My Porto Valentine?

Valentine's Day is quite well advertised in Porto, in many shops and restaurants, as a Day of Love.

About 9:30 we took metro to the João de Jesus stop at the El Corte Ingles department store for some shopping then meetup with expats in the restaurant: about 15 men at one table, and 25 women at another table! I met Ron, who started the group–I added my number to his whatsapp group. Also there was Bob and Victor, from church. A nice mix of newbies and old-time expats, discussing visas, property, and general topics. Barb met with the women. At noon we took the 903 bus many many stops west to Arabbiada Shopping Mall, for the long walk down narrow streets to the riverfront village of Afurada. We found the FCPorto Afurada restaurant! Cooking fresh fish over charcoal stoves outdoors – dourada and salmon, beer and wine and salad and bread, totaling $40.

Afurada is very picturesque fishing village, but completely remote from public transport. We walked along the riverfront a ways, then took a Bolt back home so that Barb could join her bible study group online at 3pm.

We went to Jazz at St.James, 8:30-10pm! performance by Brazilian duo: singer & guitarist/trumpeter (unnecessarily amplified), then wine & snacks afterwards – we helped clean up. Bolt car both ways, as the bus schedule is too unreliable.

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Riding the Bus often

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EUA: tanto estrago em tão pouco tempo

As part of my effort to learn about Portugal, both the country and the language, I'm subscribing to the centrist newspaper, O Publico . There are plenty of newspapers: conservative tabloids, and socialist and communist-sponsored daily papers; I find O Publico to be most sober, with consistently interesting columnists and opinion pieces, in addition to some local (Porto) news, with just enough sporting news to keep me chatting with the taxi driver. Today's opinion piece sums up, I think, European pundits' view of the U.S. government. As the title puts it: so much damage in so little time. I shudder at the rank incompetence and corrupt behavior, demonstrating a cynical attitude toward public service, showing indeed that the cruelty is the point. What scandal, what damage will be the tipping point to collapse this government? And what will it take to recover from the damage? Who will be able to trust the US government again, ever? Only ni...

Yikes! Russian Chocolate!

The other day we chanced upon a Slavic grocery store. We went inside, marveled at all the products from various eastern european countries, from Czechia to Poland to Yugoslavia to Russia to Kazakhstan. I grabbed a chocolate bar... and now I realize that it's Russian, imported via Germany. The ingredients list is written in Russian, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek; and a separate ingredients sticker pasted over it in German. No Portuguese or Spanish or English. Hmm. How did it get here? And what sort of sanctions are imposed on Russian confectioners? The chocolate itself is just okay, nothing special.

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