Portugal: The Douro river in Porto

My first impression of Oporto (Porto in Portuguese) was that it´s an old, respectable and nice city. It might not be the most beautiful city you´ve seen since many of the fasades of the houses are in bad shape. But Porto has an intersting history, old fascinating and beautiful buildings and last but not least: it´s from here the real Port Wine comes from.

The river Douro resques a lot. It gives the city breathing space and separates Porto from the nearby city Vila Nova de Gaia. If you stand on the Gaia side you will see a Oporto in a different light and also the other way around. There are bridges between the two cities and you can easily walk over to the other side in a couple of minutes.

I found people in Oporto very friendly and helpful! The older ones don´t speak much English but younger ones often speak some or quite a good English. As a Finn I felt it was easy to get along with the people I met there but also with people in Portugal generally.

Maybe Finns and Portugues generally have more in common than the Finns and the Spannish?