Post-Porto Post

As I sit in the train station, waiting for our train to Lisbon, I will write about our time in Porto for Fred's Urban Sketchers Symposium. I'm behind on the blog because this is a new city for me and there was too much to see to just hole up and blog by myself!

Some info about this organization can be found here:  http://www.urbansketchers.org/p/usk-symposium.html   This is the 9th year for the event, four of which Fred's participated in: Barcelona, Manchester (UK), Brazil (Paraty), and Porto.

Porto is the second largest city in Portugal (Lisbon being first). It's on the Duoro River, and is best known for its port wine. It is also known for its buildings covered in beautiful tiles (azulejos). I plan to do a whole post on just these tiles, as I collected tons of shots of them.

This post is going to be VERY long -- the entire Thursday night, Friday, and Saturday that we were in Porto.

Adorable little bottle of port in Fred's swag back. I took this shot on our balcony.

This year's Symposium was the biggest yet at 800 sketchers, representing 46 countries.

TONS of sponsors were there!

This sketcher found himself surrounded by Portuguese camp kids. 

At every corner are more sketchers.

Porto has these cool trams. Lots of people ride bikes in Porto and they use the tram track as a bike path and then just get off when a tram is coming.

This year, all the instructors did a demo (in addition to workshops, which are more about teaching than showing what they, themselves, do). This is the beginning of Fred's demo.

Another demo happening.

Around every corner!

More campers! Fred's demo in the background.

Fred entertaining his demo attendees.

One of Fred's workshop attendees is an American journalist working in France and tweeted this:

@fredlynchart‘s favorite quotes about art are gems of wisdom. Lynch, a talented illustrator & teacher, brings a stand-up comic’s wit to his workshops at #USkPorto2018. “Viewers draw meaning from pictures,” Lynch writes. “Illustrators draw meaning into them.”

Get off the tracks!

Friday night we ate with Gabi, the founder and master mind behind Urban Sketchers. He's a Spanish-American, Seattle-based journalist who also illustrates, teaches, and sketches. Lovely man. He writes for the Seattle Times.

The cappuccinos are usually half the size of this one. I had this while killing time before a Port wine "factory?" tour. Across the river is where all the factories are. That's not what they're called, but... And it's not Porto anymore, it's Vila Nova de Gaia.

Our hotel was just out of view on the left, one block from the Duoro.

A broom store!

These mail slots -- I don't get it. They must have shelving on the other side so the mail doesn't just end up in one big pile.

Santa's escaping. Or maybe this is how he gets in since there is nary a chimney in Porto!

Love this sketcher shot. 

Looks like this sketcher's got an idea.

This is a bookstore that charges ADMISSION now due to the throngs of visitors. Apparently it inspired J.K. Rowlings' Harry Potter books, so fans come far and wide...  

...and stand in a line that goes all the way down the street.

I'm determined to not eat surrounded by tourists. No easy task in beautiful places like Porto, but this one --- a great find, and really not very far off the beaten path!

All this for six euro.

And while I was sitting there, what comes on the TV but an interview with Urban Sketchers sketchers! 

She's the cook. I took Fred back later for a drink. She and her husband were very sweet, but tired and needed to close.

As we were leaving, the guy was setting these all up for the morning -- this is how they had been when I was there at lunch. 

Fishing on the Duoro is strictly catch and release.

The view from Porto to Vila Nova de Gaia.

This cat was hilarious --- he would crouch down all flat, wiggle his hind quarters faster and faster, and then seem to doze off. Later I got a closer look and he was cross-eyed, so he might not really even see the bird very well.

Crazy pretty and varied sardine cans.

Adorable cozy place for a drink. Sometimes you have to get over not getting a seat outside because the locals don't always care and it's really nice inside.

Magic hour light.

The port factory.

A mural at the port factory.

A new friend on the tour and I took each other's pictures.

Porto from across the Duoro.

Next is my story about these kids who jump off the bridge for money. They do it all day long and tourists give them money for it. If you're a new observer, it's scary. I don't know if it was just me, but I was alarmed. Some guy and I decided together that he's probably not suicidal. He just does this for show. There's a gang of about eight of them. All about 16. They act really nervous as if they just can't bring themselves to do it, while their buddies are egging them on from the side. 

These are the guys on the sidelines. They all seem to take turns doing it.

If you look closely, you can see this kid after he's has jumped. They keep their sneakers on --- which is very concerning for us onlookers --- so they can climb up the rocks to get back up again.

He changes his posture to be like a pencil. He can go deeper that way and come up further away, increasing our concern when he doesn't pop back up immediately.

He's climbing up the rocks here.

I excitedly shot this thinking those were real pigeons on that cool cube sculpture!  

Gabi himself taking Fred's workshop! 

I took this photo with the intention of posting it to Instagram with the caption: The mailman has a tough job.....
Only to find out that "Correio" is not a name. It means "mail."   

I find that the graffiti in Portugal is happy stuff. 

I was determined to walk 10K steps before allowing myself to relax with lunch, but at 8,600, I caved to this sweet place.  

Murca! I guess I didn't take a picture of my meal, but it was amazing. Salad, soup, bread, wine, water.... all for under six euro.  NO tourists. All Portuguese people -- mostly older couples at lunch.
 

This is Porto from my walk home. I ended up really far from where I started.

Tonight was the last night of the show, when, as I mentioned before, they have a silent auction. So fun, and HUGE this time with 800 participants. I wanted to scream PEOPLE! Please walk counter clockwise around the table... keep it moving... no butting in... no stopping and chatting. We all want to see all the work. It took me 45 minutes to get all the way around. I bid on the one that spoke to me, and would remind me of my time spent here. And I WON it. Fred has it so packaged up and protected that I can't take a photo of it, but it turns out the artist was in Fred's workshop when she did it!  The assignment was to illustrate a quote by the American writer Mary McCarthy, "Every Portuguese town is like a bride's finery. Something old. Something new. Something borrowed. Something blue."  Barbara Luel is the artist. I will post the image later!  I LOVE IT! So glad I won the silent auction.

 

Fred and I left for a bit and had a bite across the street. When we returned it was cocktail time and closing bids. (A new cocktail, by the way, that I happened to have learned about on my Port tour, is white port and tonic. Very nice. It was served at this event.) We chatted with people we see at these events, and some we don't see much but with whom Fred has an email and/or social media relationship. Then at 9 pm, pretty much right on schedule, the announcement was made: Next year in Amsterdam. It can be ANYWHERE in the world, so this is really a cool moment! We can't count on going, however. We have to hope Fred's proposal gets accepted, and that the timing doesn't conflict with Viterbo.

Fred and Gabi :) 

Shari Blaukopf won Fred's piece!

On the walk home.  

I want to be at that party. 

Good night and goodbye, Porto!