Camino de Santiago (2022)
Inhalt/Content
Porto
Arriving in Porto, we first went to the cathedral to get our first stamps there. For this, we had to take the bus from the airport, which transported us across the city. We hadn’t eaten anything proper all day and were accordingly hungry, so it was good for us that shortly after getting off the train we found a shop that offered Pastel del Bacalhau. Neither of us knew exactly what it was, but it looked delicious. The seller was disappointed that we didn’t want port wine with it. Pastel del Bacalhau looks and tastes similar to a potato croquette. Our pastel also had a filling of aromatic cheese, which made it really delicious. Only later did we learn that Bacalhau is cod and therefore fish croquettes. After a brief refreshment, we continued to the cathedral. On the way, we caught a decent rain shower that should come again and again for the rest of the day. Hopefully, that won’t be the case on the Camino! Finally, we reached the cathedral and got our longed-for stamps. If you walk more than 100 km or more than 200 km by bike or horse, you get the so-called Compostela in Santiago, which is a document that testifies that you have made the pilgrimage. In order to prove that you have basically followed the rules, you have to show at least one, better even 2, stamps with the date every day. There are official credentials for this, the so-called pilgrim passes (Credencial del Peregrino). Only the official pilgrim passports are valid. If you are walking the Camino for the first time, then of course you don’t want to miss the Compostela at the end. There are also pilgrim hostels that can only be used with the appropriate pilgrim pass. In addition, pilgrim passports are great souvenirs, as some churches, cafes, and hostels have really nice stamps.
Now that we had our first stamp, we were officially pilgrims from then on. But since we were still in Porto, a big city, our path led us to a more conventional destination: our booked AirBnB. In fact, we already covered our first few meters on the Camino here, as we went from the cathedral to the accommodation via the Camino. Of course, Porto is generally a city geared towards tourism, even far away from the Camino de Santiago. So we were greeted in a very classic way with port wine and pastel de nata (a typical Portuguese puff pastry tart with a pudding filling). There was even Netflix. The woman who showed us around the accommodation was very friendly. We asked her directly for a few tips on what to do in Porto today (by now it was almost 5:00 p.m.) and shortly afterward she sent us a message with sights and tips for going out and eating. So we didn’t stay long in the accommodation but set out to see as much of the city as possible. It struck us that Porto was once a very beautiful city, but now many buildings were abandoned and partly in ruins. There was also a large number of homeless people on the streets. The Corona pandemic has certainly driven many people into poverty, not only in Portugal, but it seemed as if the problem with abandoned buildings and homelessness had existed for a long time. I’m wondering if it might be related to the 2010 financial crisis, but I haven’t found a clear answer. Nevertheless, it was interesting to walk through the streets of Porto and to get to know the city, even if the weather, as already reported, didn’t quite play along.
Finally, we put a restaurant tip from our hosts into practice and went to a small restaurant that served Pernil sandwiches. This is a Portuguese specialty: sandwiches with tenderly cooked pork shoulder. After a starter, our order came. We both had local cheeses on top of our sandwiches and I allowed myself the option of port-marinated onions. As the restaurant was very busy we had seats at the counter which in this case was actually pretty cool as we could see our order being prepared. A large chunk of meat was swimming in its own juice, slowly cooking. The chef cut thin slices from it, placed them on our buns, and finally poured some of the juice over them. And yes, what can I say? It was just as tasty as it sounds. In addition, Portugal is significantly cheaper than Germany, which made the whole thing really inexpensive. Full and satisfied we went back to our accommodation, where we watched some Netflix and finally went to sleep. Actually, it would have been wise to have a good rest before doing something like the Camino de Santiago. However, I hadn’t reckoned with the storefront across the street, which played non-stop promotional videos on a screen. The ad was about mental health, of all things. And so I felt exhausted when we set out for our first stage the next day.
