1) You wouldn't be bothered by a wee drop of rain in November.
2) ...and buildings covered with ornate tiles really turn you on.
3) You've brought sensible shoes for a few hills (though, if I'm honest, there's more than enough places to buy shoes here)
4) You are totally okay with shitehawks (I mean even worse than Belfast)
4) I wasn't joking about the rain.
5) Your idea of a great time is cruising up and down a river and drinking buckets of Portuguese fortified wine.
6) Wasn't joking about the tiled buildings either.
7) You have a partner with an empty suitcase.
8) Bottles of Super Bock for a Euro sounds just about right (also note : the Francesinha, Porto's version of the croque monsieur, is a bit of a filthy three-way between bread, assorted meats, and a spicy honey-mustard sauce. Sort of. Take yourself to Rua da Santa Catarina, go to Bufete Fase, award-winning tiny eatery. If its bunged, the pizza place two doors down is good too).
9) The idea of spending a few hours in the Alvares Cabral Guesthouse, reading a book, listening to the rain, drinking a delicious bottle of Port, and generally properly relaxing makes a good antidote to rushing around trying to find cover and shoes and trousers and hot dogs.
10) Sitting in this cafe, watching Champions League games and drinking bottles of Super Bock for €1.10, and enjoying a hefty dose of local company makes you excited (you can also get a francesinha in here. You can get them bloody everywhere. And every single one of them is different. And they should be about €5 a go).
11) When you aren't eating big sandwiches or hot dogs or fish, you drink small coffees and eat a lot of patisserie. And I really do mean a lot. Do it. It's so outrageously cheap. Staying in Porto for three days was so cheap I virtually saved money by being there. Going out in Porto is cheaper than staying at home here.
PORTO. Firstly, it's the most gloriously decadent / crumbling city you'll ever visit. The architecture is unique, the Douro is barely a scratch through the middle of a valley that you don't even have to go anywhere near. Porto barely has a city centre, more is a series of neighbourhoods interconnected through the public transport, so you could live within your area and find very little reason to leave. All the little cafes and shops you could want exist on your doorstep. The occasional supermarket looms out at you, but you'll find yourself eating what I assume is Portuguese produce at bargain basement prices. In fact, everything we encountered in Porto was cheap, except when you went into a shop that was more obviously importing products, then the prices were higher. Having said that, where you stayed Portuguese, your options were more limited, the standard six fast food dishes in every cafe, the same local beer, the same fruit and vegetables in every corner shop).
The other interesting big about Porto (and Gaia, on the south side of the river, although they virtually comprise the same city now) is how huge it is. The coast is a short bus / metro journey away, the north of the city sprawls away, and although we walked and walked, we covered little outside of what could be considered downtown Porto (between Rua da Santa Catarina, Rue de Cedofeita, and the Rio Douro). The Estadio do Dragao is a short trip on the Metro away from Trinidad station, Matosinhos is the other direction, and our fruitless attempt to visit Braga was thwarted by striking train workers (ah social upheaval! I wish that had occurred to me before we went.)
The best bit about Porto? Belfast to Faro with Easyjet = £25. Faro to Porto with Ryanair = €21. Internal European flights are just great (the equivalent train journey takes 7hrs for €42).
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