Festivals Rock and Saudades in the Woods
It's been a busy two weeks!
Hello friends!
Happy Summer Solstice! The city of Porto is alive with activity. We’re taking advantage of every opportunity. Here’s what we got up to these past two weeks:
Primavera Sound rocked our world
Hiking in Gerês gives us saudades
Vegan picnic & more quick hits
What are we waiting for?
Primavera Sound Rocked Our World
We love live music, but as we age up and out of the cool kids set, we tend to avoid huge, hours-long, multi-stage festival affairs. They’re usually an unfriendly mix of long lines, overflowing porta-potties, and ripoff-level food/drink.
In the interest of being open-minded to our new home, we decided to attend a huge music festival (~65,000 people) - Primavera Sound. It didn’t hurt that Kendrick Lamar, Anderson .paak, Fred Again, and some other favorite artists were set to perform.
To our wonderful surprise, it was the most well-organized music fest either of us have ever been to.
40+ food vendors, mostly local, offered a surprising array of vegan eats and stayed open until the wee hours. Beer bars were everywhere, negating long lines, and there were even guys wandering through the crowd with rocket packs dispensing Super Bock for a 1€ premium. So convenient!
The stage setup was favorable, with plenty of room to get close or hang back. And the sound on the main stage was spectacular.
Our Portuguese friends told us that this festival is one of the pride points of the city. It’s well-served by transit and close in, making it easy to get there and back (and it’s only a 45-min walk from our front door!). There’s room to breathe, and it’s low difficulty and high reward, so people of all ages can enjoy it.
Our highlights and lowlights:
There was monsoon-level rain the first night, so we hid in the beer tent and then danced in the downpour to an incredible Kendrick Lamar set.
Fred Again completely rocked our socks off, and we were able to introduce our local friends to new tunes, all while dancing in a second day of downpours.
For night three, My Morning Jacket, St. Vincent, and Central Cee all served up great sets, and the Pet Shop Boys proved they still have it after all these years.
Night four was the nicest, weather-wise, but New Order was a dud as the lead singer’s voice is shot… it’s always a gamble seeing an aging band.
The biggest surprise was that the fest didn’t start until 5 pm and went until 6 am some mornings. That’s an intense schedule. Often the headliners were going until 3 am!
Primavera Sound renewed our faith in festivals. We can’t wait to attend again in 2024. Who’s joining us?
Saudades in Gerês
Hilary had the idea that we should take turns planning a “date weekend” each month, so we always have something fun on the calendar, and we’re continually motivated to get out and explore our new home.
I went first, planning a weekend of forest bathing in Parque Nacional Peneda-Gerês. This protected area sits up on the Galician (Spanish) border in the north of Portugal and runs along a mountain range.
It’s about an hour from Porto on the toll road, but of course, we took the scenic route. The main highlights are lakes, waterfalls, thermes, Roman ruins, and wildlife.
One of the things we miss most about the Pacific NW is hiking in the woods. Our city parks are awesome but they don’t replace the great outdoors. So it was a welcome, nostalgic feeling (Saudades) to get into the trees, mountains, and waterfalls for a long weekend.
The weather cooperated spectacularly - it was warm and sunny but not too hot. We spent our first afternoon on the beach of the local reservoir, swimming and sunning.
The next day we hiked an old Roman road (complete with actual Roman signposts) from the Spanish border down through the woods and over to a spectacular waterfall with an emerald pool. We spent an hour or two swimming, sunning, and relaxing. The environment was very much “Oregon” with streams, fresh-water springs, moss, ferns, and tons of water.
The following day we embarked on a 7.5-mile out-and-back (don’t believe the length on AllTrails, I tracked it as 7.5!) up a deep canyon in a different corner of the park. The climate was much more “California Sierras”, and we were rewarded with another emerald-pool waterfall at the end of the trail, where we swam and had lunch before hiking back out.
We stayed in Rio Caldo at São Bento da Porta Aberta, an interesting locale of religious distinction. There has been a hermitage here since the 1600s and it’s now a place of pilgrimage.
Weird religious ceremonies are not our bag, but we did go check out the church complex and saw tons of people show up for Sunday mass.
Our time in the woods/mountains filled a big hole in our hearts, and helped us confirm that we chose wisely with Northern Portugal - the things we love are so close.
Vegan Picnic & Quick Hits
Hilary finally hosted her vegan picnic in the park, and it was a great success. She planned it for the Sunday after Primavera Sound, so despite being exhausted from four late nights of festival-going, we were able to enjoy a sunny, warm spring afternoon eating vegan treats; playing badminton, volleyball, and frisbee; and listening to a violin/guitar jam session.
Porto Craft Beer Fest took place last week, and we attended the opening day to check it out. It was a great setup, with tons of local Portuguese beers as well as options from around Europe. It was a lot like a beer fest back in Portland, in that it was full of dudes my size with beards speaking English and drinking IPAs. We met some new expat friends and expanded our circle.
Pandinha the foster cat is still at our place, and to our unfortunate surprise, he picked up a ringworm infection during his last stint at the shelter. So now the poor guy is quarantined to one room while Hilary manages the situation, which involves constant cleaning, applying medication, etc. She’s working double-time to get him healthy so he can get adopted.
What are you up to this week?
Need some jams for your next park picnic or backyard BBQ? Here’s my playlist for summertime hangs.
Those waterfall and swimming pictures were just magical. I wouldn’t mind me some IPAs, my favorite beers.