🌫️🍷 Porto

I remembered it felt like waking into a memory that wasn’t mine 😍 narrow streets slick with last night’s rain, tiled façades glinting in soft morning light ✨ In the morning I’d drink milky coffee from a tiny glass and eat pão com manteiga at the café downstairs, 💰 €2.10, standing at the counter like everyone else ☕🥖. The old man beside me nodded once and tapped the newspaper 📰 I didn’t need to understand the headline 😆 🏞️🎒 I spent hours just walking. Down to the river, across the Dom Luís I Bridge with the wind in my coat and a tram sliding past behind me 🚋🌉. On the Vila Nova de Gaia side, I didn’t tour the port cellars. I sat on the stone steps with a €3 sandwich 🥪 from a kiosk, watching the boats rock gently like they were waiting for another century ⛵🍇. There was street music: a boy with a violin, a woman singing in Fado tones that cracked a little on the high notes. She looked straight through me when she sang. I gave her €1 and felt like I owed more 🎶 🌆🕯️ Evenings were golden and cheap in the best way. I found a taberna near Rua das Flores, wood tables, warm wine, caldo verde in a chipped ceramic bowl for €4 🥣🍷. Locals came and went without looking at the menu. After dinner I climbed the hill to Sé Cathedral ⛪️ just to watch the city flicker, church bells 🔔 echoing off rooftops, clotheslines catching the last of the sun, teenagers passing a speaker between them like a shared heartbeat 🏙️🎶. I stayed out until the wind bit my sleeves. Porto, like all the best places, made you feel rich without asking you to be. #europeonbudget #budget #travel