If you walk around Porto long enough, you will see beautiful houses covered in colorful glazed tiles, next to dilapidated uninhabited houses on the brink of falling apart, next to empty plots of land where houses once stood, as suggested by the ruins and debris on the ground, next to gated houses with beautiful gardens, next to facades covered with scaffolding that no worker has climbed for a long time. Porto is like that – full of surprises. It is gritty, messy, sometimes smelly, but at the same time, charming, different and beautiful. This city does not care what you think of it but lives its authentic life, for which you can love it – or leave it. Continue reading “Porto. Period.”