'sup braaaah?'

there were 12 of us.

reza&yasmin, kash&lydia, wani&aiman, farah&lehin, nokman siblings ali and syaima, atiq and yours truly.


(awu, it was like couple getaway with some of us being extras.. hehe just kidding!)

im gonna keep this short and simple because i dont wanna bore u and i dont wanna lose track of what im saying anyway.

Day One
arrived at Oporto (2nd biggest city in Portugal after Lisbon) before 9pm. still daylight.


got slightly lost trying to find our hostel, but we managed. we discovered that oporto was uber hilly. loads of walking ups and downs. i remember looking at the aerial view before landing and thinking 'bebukit bukit juaaa!'

not complaining tho. turun naik bukit was sufficient exercise for moi, who broke her portion-control diet and went on a portugeuse egg tart overload after the first bite. read: at least three egg tarts per day.

our place was called the andarilho oporto hostel which sat right smack in the centre of town (near santa cantarina, which is THE shopping haven in porto) so of course was lovely jubbly. the staff spoke perfect english, and believe me, its difficult to find an english speaking local (imagine the many hand gestures needed to convey that we needed fish and chips). after venturing out for dinner, the girls got into bed for an early night while the guys had some 'guy talk'.

Day Two
the downside of living right in town? u get woken up by traffic! no heavy traffic per say, but we had our windows open since the night was so warm and come morning, every truck and bus driving past the hostel can be heard loud and clear.

breakfast was provided and the hostel had the yummiest buns ive ever had! it took us a while to get our bearings because we discovered portugal is NOT as straightforward as italy.


kinda wandered around for a good 40mins before getting on the bus we need to get. first stop of the day was the crystal palace, where they have peacocks, geese and a roster(!) roaming freely. didnt really see what the big deal was about about the palace other than looking like a big dome. but we were all excited so it didnt reli matter haha. plus we got to see an amazing view of the river and porto from the palace garden, a preview of the next day.


the ladies. and one very confused guy.


the fellas


Clerigos Tower was next where we had to climb 225 steps to get to the top. some ppl were chicken tho and didnt go up all the way. okay that was harsh. chicken or too unfit to climb 225 steps =p it was the highest point in oporto so we used it to our advantage - to look for our next destination, Se Cathedral. Se Cathedral had amazing architecture but we didnt stay long because we had to stay quiet.

after walking down what felt like hundreds of steps (porto is just loaded with steps! that, or climbing up a steep hill/road) we finally arrived at my favourite place in porto, the ribeira aka the river! we killed two birds with one stone because we came to the part of the river where Ponte de Dom Luis was, another place we wanted to see.


Ponte de Luis. no, not atiq's sexy back. its the bridge behind him.


now heres the best part (baru jua day two... haha). we took a 55minute boat ride (got a discount too. psl kami lawa haha) and the ride was brilliant! most of the tourist attractions were near the river so we basically saw loads of stuff. the weather was yummy (about 30degrees) and the wind was blowing in our faces. my only complain was that the wind made my tudong biut. haha but shapa jua kan liat tudong ku when theres porto to see?


last pitstop was casa de musica, a place of cool architecture (something abt the material and whatnot). made by a dutch one plg, not portuguese. but it was lawa nevertheless. the things is, we were all reli knackered and hungry at this point, so most of us just sat on the stairs waiting for the photogs to finish clicking away (and also waiting for said photogs to start taking pictures of us!)



Day Three


a whole day dedicated to the beach! but daylight hours were long (being summer) so we decided to stop by this football stadium which i dont know the name but it had a panther statute like the bullring in birmingham (birmingham or liverpool?).

then we went to the museum of modern art, which reputedly has an awesome garden. unfortunately it was close because 10th june was their national day. so we only got to see the art inside the building. it was a bit boring but i did see an andy warhol original.. and i had the yummiest portuguese tarts at the museum's cafe too!




arrived at the beach, i made sure everyone has sunscreen on (keluar my big sister side, making sure everyone was sufficiently covered. i was like 'telinga sudah? leher sudah?' haha) and settled down to read my summer book (on loan from lydia), Chasing Harry Winston. but something about the beach makes u lazy. after seeing about half of us fall asleep on the plastic mat the we stole from the oceanfront restaurant, i dozed off...



only to be woken by droplets of rain! hancurs harapan kan liat sunset at the beach. but i tink maybe the couples were more upset =p so we took cover at a lil cafe (where i had more portuguese tarts) and decided to call it a day.

the heat and lack of sleep got to me tho and despite telling everyone to stay up late and hang out in the garden (cause it was our final night in porto), i was the first one to tidur. but now i tink if i didnt sleep early, i prolly wudve gotten a temperature. i recovered next day tho because it was...

Day Three
SHOPPING DAY!

i dont dare list out what i've bought coz i know my mum reads my blog. but i can safely say for sure, i didnt spend as much as i expected.. or as much as i wanted. the group split up for the shopping trip so i was pretty much on my own. our flight back was at 9.30pm so we came back at 5 and left the hostel at 6pm (note: there was no check out time. we asked what time did we have to check out and the guy said 'what time do u want to check out?). i guzzled on more portuguese tarts at the hostel (i texted both kash and syaima for tarts because i got back early to pack. mcm forwarded msg sja anie wah!)

got to the airport and got myself another tart. hee. diet to the max out the window.

arrived in stanstead before midnight but the immigration line was crazy! we all missed our respective trains and buses back to central london. but thats another story.

thanx to everyone who made the trip happen. ppl may say 12 people sounds ramai but we managed =) everyone contributed to the trip in their own way and i wudnt want it any other way. i got to bond with awesome girls and the guys.. well, they're guys. haha.

all the pictures are from yasmin. hope she doesnt mind. silly me thought i lost my camera's battery when all along it was in my camera.. i had it in the other way round.. and somehow i thought the battery compartment was empty so i didnt have my camera in porto.

anyway, check out rezzykin's blog for videos on porto. brilliant quality and he captured our trip on camera pretty well.

bah im out. this is the longest time ive ever spent trying to write a post. slalunya i just type and post without editing. short and simple tia karang!

much love,
be'ah xxx

p/s farah is the girl who coined the phrase 'wassup braaah?' yang aku tepakai brabis. bekos it is funny. banar.