Howdy everyone! Thanks for checking in to see what I’m up to! I will be posting little excerpts and pics as I mosey my way through this trip. If you want to talk to me I can respond via Whatsapp or Signal, or you can communicate through here! Woohoo! Eva on another continent!

I am coming to you live from a cafe in downtown Porto, where I am graciously sipping an americano (all espresso over here). It is well earned, as I did not sleep on the flight here but I DID manage to make all my transfers, navigate the metro system and get myself to this lovely graffiti-covered city. The area I’m in is extremely touristy, but when a girl needs caffeine, she gets it. There is a strange juxtaposition between the ancient architecture and the glass clad shops buttressing them, complete with tourists hastily following little red flags on sticks. The metro was a much better place to people watch, not to mention I got to see what the city gives way to on its outskirts- the airport is located up and out of town, and the train glides right alongside houses and shoddy developments, practically kissing them in places. Also worthy of note, every inch of Porto seems to be tagged- people rarely miss a blank surface to throw up (I took one picture of a larger stretch of graffiti, see below). My food just came! I will paste the notes I wrote earlier on the plane once my belly is full of eggs and scone 🙂

Last night-

Greetings from seat 20A of TAP Portugal flight number 232- I am sitting in the isle seat looking down the center line at lime green accents and touch screen TVS galore. The flight attendant plans to move me after take off- the airline accidentally split up a 4-unit family so I’m chilling here so that they can be next to each other. Briefly talked to the Dad (of two girls- I swear they were miniature Eva and Leah) and turns out they got a similar deal on the flight as I did.

Update- they moved me to a window seat next to a guy named Jaelyn who is going to Portugal to play basketball for an international team based in Alivo(?) And he just so happens to be from Staunton, Virginina AND graduated from none other than Miller school in 2018 (ahem, Helen and Brian will appreciate) Small damn world! I mentioned my frequent visits to crucible coffee and he was like, omg! No way! Anyhoo, we shot the shit for a while before the dude in front of me ~very passive aggressively~ turned around in his seat at the dulcet tones of my exclamations. I quieted after that. We were delivered a very scrumptious meal of lasagna, a side salad (iceberg lettuce + quarter tomato), a strange dessert square that I gave to Jaelyn cuz I was already pushing it with the lasagna (ya know, cheese), and a lil bread ball. After that we played around with our touch screen TVs, looking at the flight path and the computerized view from the cockpit. I made a stab at learning conversational Portuguese and passed on my acquired knowledge to Jaelyn, so now we can both say “thank you” and pronounce our “s” and “o” correctly- for example, Lagos would be “Lagoosh”. 

After a failed attempt at taking a nap, I decided to pick from the excellent collection of movies available on my little TV. I started A Clockwork Orange but then changed it because it’s the type of movie best watched on the privacy of your own laptop rather than displayed for the children sitting a row or two behind me. After watching several trailers, I decided on “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl”. I’m in the middle of it now, but stopped to write this quick update and also to note that the film has been altered. It’s kinda funny. They sub out certain words, kinda like the Chinese do with their films. It’s mostly swear words and sex references, but my favorite so far has been the replacement of “titties” with “Ta-ta’s”. Amazing.