Amigas no Porto (Girlfriends in Porto)

Today was a beautiful sunny day, complete with shopping (for sunglasses first off), walking in this fabulous city, coffee, grilled fish by the river, 30-year-old port to celebrate AC's 30th birthday (the port is an average age, blended from several harvests, her 30th birthdate is likewise kind of an average, since the actual day is Feb 29 and won't occur for another 2 years . . . ), good cheese and bread and bread baked with choriço, beer, crazy ornate coffee shops and close curved-ceilinged granite bars, and now coin-op internet, counting down inexorably.

Tomorrow AC heads home, her first European tour as a singer over. S and I move on to Lisbon, where we'll stay with friends and discover the charms of the Portuguese capital. I only stayed there one day years ago, and so I don't really have a good foundation to stand on when I say I didn't like it as much as Porto, so I'm going with an open mind and new eyes (S's) this time around.

I can't say I'm sorry that our travel will be by train.

*Update* I need to add that we also purchased a pitch pipe--the two things AC lost in her 10-day, 7 concert, 4 city, 3 country, 2 continent tour were the sunglasses and the pitch pipe. I will say this about instrument stores the world over: They're full of electric guitars, drums, and rock-and-roll nerds. These, a short-haired guitar-player type and a long haired head-banger type were flustered to be serving three hot American chicks, particularly when their machine wouldn't take AC's card and she had to pay cash instead, and then they didn't have change and had to run out and get some, and then they dropped it on the floor. We found the entire episode entertaining, however, and the pitch pipe was cheaper than in the US.