Sao Joao
The biggest event in Porto for us by far was the evening of Sao Joao. The travel gods were definitely smiling down on us for this one because the dates we chose to go to Porto were randomly assigned based on the length of time we wanted to be in other locations along our trip. Luckily for us, our three night, two full day tour of Porto happened to land on one of their largest national holidays, Sao Joao.
This one night event is in celebration of Sao Joao the patron saint of love (aka St. John) and features these funny plastic hammer that make a whistle noise when you hit people with them. No one is quite sure where the tradition came from (based on a quick google search) but it started with large garlic stems with flowers and some time in the 20th century a plastic factory owner started selling the hammers. They were so fun and so successful that they've been around ever since. The plastic light up bows we're wearing I suspect are completely tourist traps but we were more than happy to be trapped (or at least I was and Grant was nice to me) and they were a fun addition. There are tons of people all over the streets (especially in old town Porto) running around bopping each other on the head with the little hammers. Most of the restaurants close early or offer special "Sao Joao" menus with limited offerings and many break out grills to grill meats and fish on the street. The number of grills on the street is impressive, mixed with alcohol vendors, beer stations, trinket sellers, hammer vendors, and thousands of tourists and locals on the streets Porto turns into one huge city party.
Grant and I had an amazing time being part of that wonderful and jostling crowd. The atmosphere was only of joy and a couple drunks, more as the night went on. But it wasn't a bar scene, children were everywhere, and locals and tourists alike were running around hitting each other with these funny little hammers. It's one of those rare times where everyone around you (and I mean everyone) is actually having a good time and enjoying themselves and even more miraculously, interacting with one another. It starts out small at the beginning of the night with just a few people who know what's going on doing it to their friends until at the end of the night its a ruckus of little wheezing hammers through the night as everyone hits everyone and all the people on the street are your temporary friends.
Grant got super into it and we shared a single red and blue hammer to match our red and blue outfits. He was probably even more into it than I was running around hitting people, leaning down for the more optimistic kids who tried to reach up and bop him at 6'2". It was tons of fun and a night unlike any other. Towards the end of the night we laid down on some grass in a square and watched the people passing by and counted the lanterns in the sky.
Lanterns! Yes, amazingly just like in Thailand (and more and more around the world though I do think the true cultural origins are in Thailand) they had those paper thin lanterns to light up and send up into the sky. Here's a picture of Grant and I trying really, really hard to do it but ours sadly lit up in a brilliant mid air ball of shameful fire and came crashing back down. They are much less common in Porto than they were in Thailand so we had a strong crowd around us by the time it took off for its brief flight so that made it even worse. All the same though we got these super cute photos and I'm more than happy with our trial. Grant was so valiant lighting the lighter under it too which was great because ever since my waitressing job where I had to light candles I've been useless and faintly afraid of lighters anyway.
For people who managed to get their mini hot air balloons of glory off the ground rather permanently crowds cheered for them which added even more to the companionship and celebration of the night. As we laid on the grass in the square it was just as fun to watch them rise into the night as it was to watch them flicker and die and come silently back down to earth. Grant was cute and drunkenly counting them as best he could and it was really a perfect night.
The next morning though however. Not so cool. So like any city party the next morning Porto was in a full city state of hangover. Almost nothing was open save a few coffee shops and super touristy places. All the actual restaurants and shops either were closed for the day or opened late to let their workers have a break after the all night party that was Sao Joao. From what I could tell they stopped around 4am but that was just around us, we were outside the fringe of the main streets so it could've gone on longer in the heart of it all. So first off everything was closed and second off it smelled like someone had peed all over Porto and that wasn't too far from the truth. A lack of public bathrooms left the city a public bathroom for the drunk so it was actually really gross. Mix that with cans and bottles all over the city, fallen lanterns, and general debris and the city cleaning crews had their work cut out for them. And work they did. There was rain forecasted as well which I think would've been more than welcome to help clean the streets but it didn't come. I said to Grant at one point that I felt bad for anyone arriving in Porto that day who wanted to explore the city because if I just showed up to a city and it smelled like pee everywhere and everything was closed I'd have an awful first impression.
Anyway that wraps up Porto. I know I'm pretty behind but I'll work on Edinburgh and a wrap up post in the next day or two. Right now I'm at London Heathrow Airport waiting for a flight to Paris where tomorrow morning I'll fly out finally heading for the US!
