Downhill to the Douro river

Porto is rather hilly, and we can see it in these two photos. 

See how the road goes downhill and then uphill again?

See how the windows become shorter and shorter as the road goes uphill?

We passed those on our way towards the Douro river, together with a few other sights.

Palácio da Bolsa (Bolsa Palace)

There was a queue of people waiting to go in. We didn't.

In the garden across the palace, there is a monument called Monumento ao Infante Dom Henrique. 

Parish Church of St. Nicholas

one of their famous trams

Then we reached this church which had a nice view over the river.

Church of Saint Francis

There was a fee to go in further, so we didn't. Instead, we snapped a bunch of photos with a view of the river. 

some big names across the river (take a good look, you will see their signs)

the famous Luis I Bridge that takes us across the Douro river

You can see the metro crossing the top of the bridge. If you look closely, you can even see people walking across! We wouldn't dare to cross that high up...but we did walk across the bottom level of the bridge, which is used by cars as well. We took care not to look around too much; it was scary looking down at the water...

looking up at the famous monastery, Mosteiro Santo Agostinho da Serra do Pilar

the view back after crossing the bridge

Next post, we will explore the area that we painstakingly crossed the bridge for!

Can someone explain Filipino food to me?

The other day we went to a Filipino eatery called ChicGirl Inasal. I had noticed it on the map, and reviews were very good, all saying that it was authentic Filipino food.

Five of us went there for lunch one Friday. The restaurant was empty when we arrived (a couple of other customers came in later while we were waiting for our food), and the sole employee (it seemed) took our order. After that, we waited a long long time for our food…we were saying that not only did they have only one employee, they must only have one stove in the kitchen… :P 

I ordered a grilled chicken with rice. The chicken is supposedly grilled Filipino style (aka with their spices?), and the set comes with soup as well. From the pictures on the menu, there are some vegetables on the side, and it turned out that those are pickled vegetables which are placed on every table. On the table, there is also a squeeze container containing sourish liquid with onions inside. We didn’t like the smell much, but I actually planned to try a little…and then I forgot until after I had finished my food.

pickled vegetables on the left, and the pinkish liquid (in the blue-topped container) is the one with onions inside

When my grilled chicken arrived, I felt it looked good (and it tastes good as well), but I had difficulty figuring out the "proper" way to eat it. :P 

the soup

For example, what is that yellow sauce? I tasted some, and it felt very oily. I tried putting some on the rice, but it did not seem to have much taste.

I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to squeeze the lime onto the chicken, into the yellow sauce, or…? Nor could I figure out whether I was supposed to dip the chilli into the sauce, or squeeze lime onto it, or…

In any case, I put some soup onto the rice because the rice was a little on the dry side, and I squeezed the lime onto the chicken.

My friend ordered chicken chop (actually three of them did, just with different side dishes. Why go to a Filipino place then? :P ), and when he requested chilli sauce, the sauce came with lime too. I guess they like lime in the Phillipines?

Rock-climbing experience: Mission accomplished!

Almost twenty-three years ago, I had my first experience of rock-climbing. We visited MFI (Malaysia France Institute) during our three-month French course at INTEC, and one of the experiences they let us try was rock-climbing. I remember it being an outdoor wall, and an instructor (or more than one?) taught us how belaying worked, and then let each one of us try climbing with a belayer.

I couldn’t get up; I remember being scared after I seemed to drop a bit and had to grab the wall. After the session, the instructor gestured toward me and remarked, “she could do it, but she was just scared”. I didn’t think much about it then, but years later, while conquering a few height fears (nothing extreme, just as in still feeling scared but managing it anyway), this came back to me. And I thought, what if I gave it another try?

My goal was not to scale a high wall… it was just to climb up a bit off the ground. Because physically I am not in bad shape; why wouldn’t I be able to climb? The only obstacle should be my fear of heights…

But rock-climbing is not a popular thing here…so this stayed a thought for many years. Rather recently Project Rock opened at IKEA Batu Kawan, and I started thinking of going there to give it a try. They even have low walls (they call it bouldering, climbing around two or three meters without a rope since there was a thick mattress underneath to break our fall).

And then I heard that they were going to open another branch at Bayana, near our office. Even better…so I decided to wait instead of going to IKEA. I mentioned it to a few friends, and they seemed rather interested too.

Project Rock opened at Bayana Hub (a short distance away from Food Bayana) not long ago, and coincidentally another friend suddenly brought up the subject. He told us that there was a ladies’ night promotion on Wednesday nights (6-10pm), when ladies could get a buy 1 free 1 promotion. Also, they have a corporate discount, where three employees could enter for RM100. A day pass costs RM42 per person (we can go in and out on the same day), with an extra RM12 for rental of climbing shoes and harness. (The harness is for the high walls where belaying is needed.) So two ladies could enter for RM54.

We went there two weeks ago. My friend and I arrived earlier and went in first (another guy arrived even earlier than us, but he had to wait for the others to get the “three for RM100” promotion). They had someone there to give us an initial briefing. Getting us our shoes, he told us that climbing shoes needed to be a little tight, making our toes curved. And we could take them off while walking around, if they were uncomfortable. (yes, they were) Then he took us to the simplest bouldering route, where he explained the basic rules and how to fall down.

I didn’t know this, but it turns out that there are fixed starting points for bouldering routes. We have to start with our hands on the fixed points, and feet off the ground (on other points on the wall). To consider a route completed, we have to place both hands on the highest point and stay stable for three seconds. (he said we could ignore the 3-second rule here since it wasn’t a competition)

It turned out that having hands on low starting points made it a little more difficult to start (because we needed to pull ourselves up more). For some of these, I ignored the starting points and just started higher up… (not that I made it very far, since I am limited by height from the ground :P )

Anyway, after the briefing, the staff demonstrated the climb and the fall, then asked us to try one by one. My friend went first without any problems. Then I tried, and left the topmost two points untouched (climbed a bit down and then made the fall to the mattress). The height was still challenging for me…even though it wasn’t really very high, when looking up from the ground. :P 

But I already managed to climb a bit, which means I had fulfilled my whole purpose of going there. After that I did manage to get one point higher, and for another route I managed to reach the topmost point (though I can’t remember whether I only touched it with one hand or both hands…it was never my goal to challenge the actual rules anyway).

We also tried the auto-belaying wall, which my friends seemed to like a lot. I had never tried auto-belaying before, and somehow I found it really uncomfortable with the rope pulling me up. My friends actually said that the auto-belaying made climbing easier because the rope helped pull them up a bit, so they needed to use less strength.

(Psst…during the briefing, the staff told us that if we climbed to the top and didn’t dare to drop down, we could just yell out and they would come and help us down. No one had that problem when we were there though…not even me, because I didn’t climb up that high! Haha…)

I only climbed a little of the auto-belaying wall, then decided not to continue because of how uncomfortable it felt.

There was a bigger wall for manual belaying, but none of us tried that. That one needs someone with actual belaying skills, and most of us were first-timers. We didn’t ask to learn it, and the staff did not suggest to teach us either. :P 

There were quite a number of staff there, all climbers, it seems. I feel like the place is operated by a group of climbers. A great way to earn a living, if you ask me… you can hang around, be cashier or barista or cook (there is a small cafe there, sharing the same “island” as the rock-climbing entrance counter), and your hobby is right there whenever you want to take a break.

Here is the auto-belaying wall, with my two friends preparing to climb.

The auto-belaying ropes have to be attached to the flags at the bottom, because if they are not attached to anything (either the flags or us), they will go straight up to the top.

They reset the walls every month or so…updating the routes so that regular climbers won’t get bored, I guess.

While driving home after the session, I found that I couldn’t grip the steering wheel as usual; some parts of my palms were rubbed a little raw, so it hurt if they touched the steering wheel. I was using my palms and the tips of my fingers instead. 

It’s not very clear in the photo above, but if you look carefully, you can see that the parts of my palms behind my knuckles, and the first section of my fingers, are slightly redder. 

I expect that my friends had it worse, since they climbed a lot more than I did. Our most seasoned climber (who may have climbed the most that day as well) had band aids on his fingers the next day, and on the fingers that did not have band aids (aka they weren’t the worst), the skin had been rubbed off. He said that towards the end of the session, the skin had already come off, but he still kept on climbing...that probably explains why he could no longer reach the top of the auto-belaying wall. 

They had racks for us to put our belongings, and also shoe racks separately. And I spotted a Magikarp chalk bag! 

Luckily I took a photo when I did; almost immediately after that, the owner left with it. 

I didn’t mention it above, but chalk is used to dry the hands when they become sweaty from climbing. We could supposedly rent chalk for RM10, but they let my friend have one used pack for free. Not sure whether it was because there were in total ten of us; 4 girls and 6 guys.

Anyway, my friends who were first-timers seem all very happy with the experience, and they plan to go again… As for me, I don’t plan to try it again unless I don’t have to pay for it. It does not seem worth it to pay (even half price) to go and try to convince my brain that the height is not a problem…

I had a thought after the session; if we were a little sci-fi and the floor could go up with me as I climbed, keeping me just a foot off the ground at all times… I would probably be able to climb more. :P Since in that case, I would only be challenging my strength and not my fear of heights! 

Cute l’il gifts

One day I reached the office and found this chick on my desk.

Later my manager told us that he had placed it there, to wish his subordinates good luck for the new year. (It was the first week of the new year.)

Each of us received a different animal. I snapped a photo of my chick with the bee that XL received.

I was joking that my chick was the roundest one of them all, because my manager knew I needed a stress ball to squeeze. 

And then Snorlax received a round sheep as a free gift from one of his online purchases. He didn’t like it, so I said I wanted it.

Round like a ball, and very squishy too!

Just like that, I now have two "stress balls"! Haha…

But the cutest gift of all is a Pokemon figurine!

Who's that Pokemon?

That's Blastoise! But...

It's Pikachu!

ZY received a duplicate from a blind box and decided to put it up for adoption...luckily I heard of it; I immediately said that I would gladly adopt it!

Pikachu-Blastoise met his friend in a Charizard suit, and I couldn't resist making this little skit.

Venusaur 🗨️ Hey guys, let's go catch some Pikachu!

Pikachu and Pikachu 💭 Act natural, act natural...

The most famous bookstore in Porto

This is the view from our hotel room in Porto.

the sun is rising!

A pretty nice view, actually. The clock tower right opposite the road does not seem to be anything special, but on the left you can see the Torre dos Clérigos (Clérigos Tower).

Here is a night view:

The Clérigos Church is not far from our hotel… to reach it, you can see that there is a slope going downhill and then uphill.

This photo was taken one morning. The photos below were taken in the afternoon, when there was a rather glaring sun at the back of the church (and therefore a less lovely sky).

check out that slope...

There is this famous bookstore called Livraria Lello, the staircase of which supposedly inspired J.K. Rowling for her Harry Potter books. The name on the storefront is totally different, which made me confused; I thought I hadn’t found the store yet. But the long line of people waiting opposite its entrance indicated that something was interesting here…

Because you see, it is now so famous that we have to buy tickets to enter.

As you can read from the sign board, there is a fee of 10 euros to enter the store. It is discountable on the purchase of a book, which makes sense for those who want to enter to buy books. But if we just want to take a look around, the entrance fee is 10€!

Needless to say, we did not enter. :P 

We crossed this square when going from Livraria Lello to the Carmo Church. 

the fountain

There are actually two churches side by side: Igreja do Carmo and Igreja dos Carmelitas (Carmelitas Church).

Igreja dos Carmelitas on the left and Igreja do Carmo on the right

Portugal is so famous for sardines that there is a special store just to sell sardines. 

I remember that this road was quite narrow (was it due to construction?), so I couldn't get far enough back to take a good photo.

Inside, it is bright and circus-like. 

There are so many kinds of sardines and other canned seafood. (all the products were canned) They were very expensive though...the cheapest can was maybe 7 euros? We didn't buy any there...we managed to find cans for 2€+ and 3€+ in another shop and in the Bolhão Market.

This store has several branches; we saw it multiple times, in Lisbon as well. I can’t remember whether I have better photos of the store in Lisbon; I guess we will see when I start writing about Lisbon.

Ovos moles of Aveiro and a Portuguese meal

Let's continue visiting Aveiro! 

Venturing away from the canal, we visited a confectionery store called Confeitaria Peixinho. It calls itself the oldest shop selling ovos moles in Aveiro.

We bought an ovos moles (given that this name is in plural, aka “soft eggs”, I wonder whether one piece of this dessert should be called “ovo mole”? :P ) and another dessert that looked quite good. 

the barrel-shaped ovos moles

The shop actually had many shapes of ovos moles. We asked for one, and didn’t specify what shape we wanted, and they gave us this one. 

The ovos moles was not very good. The outer white “skin” was thin and seemed to be quite dry (like dried egg white? Haha). And the filling was a simple eggy custard, rather solid. Like the filling of some cream puffs in Malaysia, which I don't like. :P

The other dessert, on the other hand, was really good. We had no idea what it was…but now that I am researching, I saw on Google Maps that someone took a photo of this in the shop, with its name. It is called ninhos de ovos moles (nests of soft eggs). So I guess the eggy custard is the same thing, just that the custard was softer than the one in the basic ovos moles, and the pastry (nest) around it also tastes better than the basic white skin of ovos moles. If I were to go to Aveiro again, this would be on my must-eat list.

the yummy nest of ovos moles

Some souvenir shops actually sell ovos moles sealed in boxes, as souvenirs. But we didn’t buy any, because I think the expiry date was about one or two weeks away, too soon for us at the beginning of our two-week trip!

Close by Confeitaria Peixinho, there is a church and the District Council of Aveiro (the town hall, basically?). 

Igreja da Misericórdia de Aveiro (Church of Aveiro's Mercy)

Câmara Municipal de Aveiro (District Council of Aveiro)

On the square in front of the town hall, there is a monument to José Estevão Coelho de Magalhães, whoever that is. Behind it is the Aveiro public library.

There is also a Cathedral of Aveiro that tourist guides say we should visit, but seeing as it was a little out of the way, we skipped that.

After all that walking, we looked for a good place to have lunch. It was to be our first proper meal in a Portuguese restaurant!

Using Google Maps, we decided to go to O Legado da Ria. (psst…I had huge difficulty finding back this restaurant, because I hadn't saved it, and digging out their receipt, it has another name on it. Luckily the road name was correct…but it took clicking on many shops in that area before I managed to find this)

We ordered two Portuguese specialties: grilled sardines and codfish gratin. 

grilled sardines, 15€

bacalhau gratin, 24€

This is their special; they call it bacalhau à Legado da Ria on their menu. 

Bacalhau is the name for cod in Portuguese, and there are many Portuguese dishes with cod. In Porto we had already tried codfish cakes, and we were to try at least another cod dish later.

salad that came with one of the dishes...I've forgotten which. Maybe the sardines?

The main thing to note is that the codfish gratin dish was HUGE. The sardines were an okay size (not small but not unexpected), and in the photo above, you can see the gratin dish beside it, at the far end of the table. The two dishes made up the length of the table, which is a normal-sized square table for two.

We were initially shocked and thought they had mistakenly given us a double portion of codfish gratin (the menu had single and double portions), but we realized that no, since the sardines were a single portion, this gratin was not double the portion of the sardines.

So…codfish is really cheap there, huh. :P At this price, with the huge piece of fish under all those potatoes, this dish is cheaper than what we would have paid in Malaysia for it, with currency conversion taken into account.

See how thick the fish fillet is…

And the potatoes were so crispy! I didn’t expect them to be so crispy since they are cut quite thick. They were so yummy that I ate quite a lot of them (I picked out all of those that didn’t get soggy), even though the portions of fish were already so big. The potatoes that came with the sardines actually tasted very good as well (well seasoned and with just the correct firmness in texture), but I had to give up on them because the crispy potatoes were better.

But the codfish was actually a little tough. Besides that, the taste was good.

This portion on my plate is to show more of the cheese, which does not look very clear in the other photos. 

After this meal, we no longer dared to order one dish each in a restaurant. We would share one dish, or order a main and a side. The huge portions make Portugal rather cheap food-wise. 

Also, we noticed that everyone was drinking wine, even though it was a weekday lunch. I had heard that we could ask for tap water, and that’s what we did. The waitress took a moment to understand (I guess it is not a common request!), and we felt very much like the odd one out, with other tables not just drinking wine but ordering more and more. So later on in other restaurants, we would order a drink to share. 

To return to Porto, we walked along the main road back to the train station. The road had a number of department stores, but not being into shopping, we didn’t enter any of them. To end this post, let me leave you with another view of Aveiro’s train station, from outside this time.

It looks so pretty! This is why an article said that it was a must to visit the train station of Aveiro, even if we were not taking the train there.