In the nick of time

Interviews, scenic shots and sweeping drone views filled up the memory of my camera, and loaded with information about this great opportunity for investors, we headed off to the office for some more interviews, stopping off at a local eatery for the prato do dia.

Work finished, we met up with fellow YouTuber, Josh from his channel Expats Everywhere. He lives in Porto and was a wonderful guide, joining us for a chat and an after-work drink at a great bar that we would never have found without him. It was on top of a shopping mall but LIFT Rooftop did not disappoint.

The evening light was waning and with a flight taking off at 21:50, Josh suggested what turned into a supercool local’s experience at Terraplana Café, where the barman mixed us up a legendary cocktail. But as our pizzas took some time, we had to shuffle them into boxes and Uber over to the airport.

Out of breath and brushing off pizza crumbs (the pizzas were supreme), we rushed through the security lines and looked at the electronic noticeboard. Gate info 21:15 it said. We had made it! Half an hour later we looked again; the flight was delayed. Then again, and again. Little did we know, but my cousin, a pilot, had detected an electrical anomaly on the plane and called for a replacement. They hadn’t been able to ready the aircraft in time and the new flight was scheduled for 05:55. We accepted defeat and managed to find the last two chairs in the airport for a hugely uncomfortable four hours. Travel… it couldn’t be simpler.

So you see, it is easy to get up to Porto for a day trip from the Algarve. You can have an amazing experience, like we did, but as always with travel plans, don’t expect it to go as smoothly as planned, and if it does, rejoice! If it doesn’t, deal with it in a humane and reasonable manner – many people didn’t on our trip.