Adventure 11 // Porto Portugal — Happily Curated Chaos

Length of stay: 7 nights

Accommodations: Apartment on the edge of city center

Travel Time: Porto (OPO) via Miami International Airport (MIA) w/layover in Madrid 9.5 hours

Goal: Find a home, look for the good and bad

Family Friendly: ★★★

Have you ever been someplace where everything just clicks? It's like a place was created specifically for you and all your out-of-the-box ways? That's what Porto was for us. It was like a magic filter was instantly put on life and everything was just the way we wanted it to be. Affordable, well prepared fresh vegan food - check! Easy to navigate, walk and clean streets - check! Kind people who didn't pee on toilet seats (nadda one!), helped you out of kindness, and treated you like a person - check! It was the best week we have had in a long, long time - and we were all sick! Atlas even threw up all over the bed on day one, but let's skip the mucus filled parts of our adventure and get right into the GOODS!

First off, Porto is beautiful! The buildings are mind blowing and lots of the interiors are new and fresh and clean, while keeping with nods to the past. I really enjoyed every establishment we went into, from the old book store to cafe's to junk stores. It reminds me of old Williamsburg, Brooklyn meets France. this makes wandering around such a delight. You can't help but gaze at the seagulls flying around the tops of these building adorned with tile, statues, and ornate details. the sidewalks are less opulent than Lisbon, but you still get those typical Portuguese patterns all around town.

Next great thing? If you are a vegan, Porto is your place. You can get a full blown all you can eat vegan buffet that's super high end for about $8 - and you have lots of places to chose from. I'll get into the nitty gritty details of where and what we ate, but know it's good. I was rarely disappointed. We found it hard to splurge because no matter where we ate, the highest bill for two adults and a child was 55 euros. trust me, we tried. Juice is freshly squeezed, meals are well crafted and fresh fresh fresh and service was great.

We rented a car for the day and drove to Bragga and were equally amazed with the charm and ease. We found the cutest vegan place and explored the whole town with ease.

It really hit us with this trip that in just three months we will be world schooling and getting ready to move to this amazing city. It's been such a long path to get here, over two years in the making! People are constantly asking us how and when, and there are so many moving parts, It's hard to know the real answers, but we will keep you posted.

For now we ant to share some stand out places we were lucky enough to get to between being sick and house hunting.