sun 25 dec 2011 10:11:34 — hotel pestana porto
cormorants
before the sun rose this morning i figured a way to use a rubber band to fasten my mini tripod to a spike on the corner of my balcony railing. so i've got the gopro now taking a timelapse sequence of the daybreak over the river and hill buildings on both shores. i'll let it run until the sun is on the houses by the river front (it needs to clear the opposite hill).
in the middle of last night there were four or five people hanging around out in the cold in the square for a few hours. not sure if they were waiting for someone or didn't have any place to go. one of them had a dog.
i woke early again, and at around 07.30 there were hundreds of long-necked black birds swarming, eventually settling in the river and then floating swiftly downstream again. i think they call em cormorants. corvo marinho appears to be the portugués, ie marine crow.
how to say my room number, 402, in portugues: quatro zero dois (something like that, one of the breakfast ladies told me). the two breakfast ladies gave me some more coffee to bring to my room. they're nice people. only bad part about the breakfast room has been the annoying american-style christmas pop music. i'm hoping that will end with the holiday.
yesterday vera at the front desk told me i could buy bread at a place just up the hill, a bakery called rocinha, so i walked up there and (with a bit of pointing and the word 'pao') bought a nice and quite big loaf of bread for ... as it turns out, one euro. there wouldn't be much else to eat that day because it was christmas eve. unless i wanted to go for the christmas dinner for eur 43 at another hotel a short cab ride away. really wasn't up for that, so i just hung around and snacked on bread and drank coffee. that was fine indeed.
not sure what's up for today, but the guy at the o cais bar next door said they would be open tonight. so maybe i'll go over there for something to eat. i think the chalkboard said they do francesinha, which is supposed to be a porto specialty, joana told me. and one of these days i also need to try the vinho do porto.