I am what people from the north would usually call "uma moura". It's just 200 miles from Lisbon (or something like that) and I'd never been there, until last Friday. Everyone knows about the usual nasty little comments on how the other part of the country is much worse than the other. Football is generally involved so I usually just tune out when talk of this sort starts.
They've even made one soap opera about the impossibility of love between people from Lisboa and Porto, which was cheesy, not to mention silly and totally not true. I bet one of the cobloggers agrees.
All this stuff was just bla bla bla to me all my life, but now I have to be honest. Although I maintain that most of it is decidedly stupid and pointless, Porto is not the same as Lisbon. I don't know if it's better or worse, I just spent two days there. But "uma moura" like me definitely gets the abroad feeling when in Porto. Just looking at the signs that say VCI and Circunvalação instead of 2ªCircular and Eixo Norte Sul make it feel like an alternative dimension to Lisbon, where everything is the same but slightly different.
You can go to a mall and choose between the 15 movies showing in different rooms, but the popcorn is (much) better and the midnight session is one hour later.
You can eat a burger for lunch just like you do at McDonald's in Lisbon, but they've had a classic equivalent for decades (decades?) that will make you feel full enough to skip dinner.
They have a river, but instead of nightclubs alongside it, they have something much classier. Wine cellars.
They have a sort of CCB, but the building is a ball instead of square-shaped. That's what the magical northern modifying lenses will do for you....
They have "a Foz", which is my hostess's favorite place to make fun of, so I guess it could very well be compared to "a linha" near lisbon, but with a little more tradition and declining aristocracy served on the side.
They have shopping in old streets, but the occasional villagelike store will show up more often. They have a Catholic University but it's uglier (this everyone must agree with).
They have a so-called main avenue as we do, but it's actually much more like a square, although old buildings are compulsory for so-called main avenues everywhere.
They have nice friendly people, two of which I met there in the weekend, but they have an accent that sounds honest and simple - and that makes a big difference.
They have aggressive looking birds, which will stare at you, as birds will. Well, I guess you can't get rid of that anywhere...
Oh, let's not forget, they have dogs on hi5.
They have a feel to the city. To get the feel, you take the Lisbon feel, make it a little older, a little spicier, a little rainier, and ta-rah. And that's how you get the modifying lenses I'm talking about.
They've even made one soap opera about the impossibility of love between people from Lisboa and Porto, which was cheesy, not to mention silly and totally not true. I bet one of the cobloggers agrees.
All this stuff was just bla bla bla to me all my life, but now I have to be honest. Although I maintain that most of it is decidedly stupid and pointless, Porto is not the same as Lisbon. I don't know if it's better or worse, I just spent two days there. But "uma moura" like me definitely gets the abroad feeling when in Porto. Just looking at the signs that say VCI and Circunvalação instead of 2ªCircular and Eixo Norte Sul make it feel like an alternative dimension to Lisbon, where everything is the same but slightly different.
You can go to a mall and choose between the 15 movies showing in different rooms, but the popcorn is (much) better and the midnight session is one hour later.
You can eat a burger for lunch just like you do at McDonald's in Lisbon, but they've had a classic equivalent for decades (decades?) that will make you feel full enough to skip dinner.
They have a river, but instead of nightclubs alongside it, they have something much classier. Wine cellars.
They have a sort of CCB, but the building is a ball instead of square-shaped. That's what the magical northern modifying lenses will do for you....
They have "a Foz", which is my hostess's favorite place to make fun of, so I guess it could very well be compared to "a linha" near lisbon, but with a little more tradition and declining aristocracy served on the side.
They have shopping in old streets, but the occasional villagelike store will show up more often. They have a Catholic University but it's uglier (this everyone must agree with).
They have a so-called main avenue as we do, but it's actually much more like a square, although old buildings are compulsory for so-called main avenues everywhere.
They have nice friendly people, two of which I met there in the weekend, but they have an accent that sounds honest and simple - and that makes a big difference.
They have aggressive looking birds, which will stare at you, as birds will. Well, I guess you can't get rid of that anywhere...
Oh, let's not forget, they have dogs on hi5.
They have a feel to the city. To get the feel, you take the Lisbon feel, make it a little older, a little spicier, a little rainier, and ta-rah. And that's how you get the modifying lenses I'm talking about.
