Since it was pretty chilly and cloudy, and Megan's eye was really bothering her, we decided to go back to the hostel and change out of our beach clothes. We realized that there was another woman who will be staying in our room now. We were a little disappointed about that, because the past couple nights we've been lucky enough to be alone in the room, but hey, it's a hostel, and we paid for beds in the room for 6. We spent the afternoon shopping around the streets of Porto. Megan and Hayley liked the clothing stores, but I was more interested in the artisan stands they had in the streets. I bought this really great little leather purse studded with coins from countries all around the world. I love it! I also got a leather bracelet that says 'Emilia'. That's the translation of Emily in Spanish, and apparently Portuguese as well!! I really love hand-crafted things :)
Megan and Hayley wanted to go back down by the river, but I wanted to go back by some of the stands we had walked past. Also, my stomach was bothering me a little...I think it was the the Francesinha from the night before haha. I stopped in a baby store too, just so that I could look at some Portuguese baby clothes for my best friend Kimmie, who is expecting!! But we don't know whether it's a boy or girl yet, so I didn't buy anything.
I headed back to the hostel alone. Sometimes it's nice to walk around by myself and just think. It's very peaceful, and I don't get a lot of alone time anyway here, ordinarily. When I got back to the hostel I checked my email and facebook. I've been communicating with my Mom about what we're going to do when she comes to visit after the program is over :) I went upstairs and got in my bed. I tried to take a nap, but mostly I just lay there. It was a nice rest anyway though. I got up after about an hour because someone came in the door, and I realized it was not Megan and Hayley, but one of the hostel guys showing an very attractive male twenty-something his bed in the room. That was my cue to get up and wash the mascara off my face...
Megan and Hayley came back around 7, and we sat around talking until 8. The hostel was serving and authentic Portuguese dinner for only 5 euros, which is a pretty good deal for all you can eat! The food was delicious! It was a lot like red beans and rice. I think there were several kinds of pork in the beans, like chorizo and ham. I also paid another euro for a glass of red wine, which was really tasty (and they refilled for me for free!). We met our new roommate. His name is Ezra, and he is traveling around writing a food blog because he wants to open a restaurant with his brother back home (Seattle). He seems pretty nice.
After dinner, we went inside for a little bit because it's been getting pretty chilly at night. We planned on hot, beachy weather, so we didn't bring any warm clothes! Around 11pm, one of the guys from the hostel walked a group of us over to an annual festival that they were having. It's basically like a 40-hour-straight art exhibition/outdoor concert, with alcohol and food vendors. I would have liked to see more of the art (what we saw was based on a really interesting concept about the temporality of shadows), but most of the group wanted to go outside to the concert. We stayed out there and just hung out until about 3am. We met some pretty interesting people: a girl from Melbourne, Australia, a guy from Argentina, but living in London, a guy from Connecticut, but living in London, and Ezra was there too. It was a pretty fun night, but we didn't get back until almost 4am, which is a lot later than I am used to staying up!!
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