Topping up my tan

The Capitolio Cafe has some seating outside that gets the Sun all morning. Even at 8.30, ok 9.00, it’s pretty hot but I decided to sweat it out for a while. It’s a thoroughly pleasant way to start the day. Breakfast options seem a little limited so it was a cheese omelette again. Not that I’m bored of that yet. Especially when served with a nice salad, bread and coffee.

The MacBook Air has a matt screen which means you can actually see what’s on it in bright daylight. I managed a few hours there before moving inside to cool down a bit.

I’ve begun to wonder vaguely about my budget. If you are canny you could eat three meals out for about 10€. Not quite the dollar-a-day of South East Asia but pretty good nonetheless. However temptations are everywhere. On the menu of the day today we had grilled king prawns. Five massive tasty prawns grilled and covered in butter and garlic for about four quid! That’s a proper lunch! It also blew my notional budget. I guess I could have skimped a bit on dinner but the chicken salad is very good and only three quid for a heaped plateful. If I’m still doing this in a month maybe I’ll have to rethink but for now it’s fine.

After work I took a tour around some streets I hadn’t been down before. There are some seriously cool bars in this place. If only I was responsible enough to drink unchaperoned! I guess not drinking is an option but sitting in a Champagne bar with a Coke doesn’t feel quite right.

I have a bit of a quandary about what to do tonight. There is a club opposite my guest house that has a night on with an interesting name. I’m very tempted to check it out. However things happen very late in Portugal. Doors open at 23.45 and close at 0600. On a school night! I imagine things won’t get going until 1/2am. I’m not sure I have that kind of stamina anymore. Perhaps a strategic nap with my alarm set for midnight? I could man up and go straight from club to cafe and see if I make it through a day’s work. 

New home, new office

Home for the next few days is this budget guest house. Not bad for 20€ a night!

The room is basic but it’s clean with a private bathroom and a comfortable (double) bed. It’s only really for getting my head down at then end of the day. Given that it’s hot all day and warm all night you can spend most of your day outside.

For two days now I’ve been working out of the Pax cafe just a few minutes walk from the Bela Star. Bela’s WiFi is a bit flaky so I’ve needed to find something more reliable.

Today I arrived before the place was even properly open but the owner was happy for me to sit down and crack on.

I set myself up at the bar.

I feel a little guilty plonking myself there all day but I buy breakfast, coffees and…

Lunch!

I’ve no idea what that fish is or if it’s even a fish. An eel perhaps? It was pretty tasty though and a bargain at €5.50.

My work plan was slightly scuppered when I was politely asked to leave at quarter past three as the boss was closing up for the day.

However there is more free, and fast, WiFi to be had in a bar right next to the guest house. The smoking ban hasn’t reached Portugal yet and everyone in this bar smokes. I managed a couple of hours of work before I had to leave and get fresh air. I’ve adopted this bar as my new local. It’s frequented by a whole range of folks from hot chicas to well-dressed old gents. It has a certain charm. But for the smoke I’d probably spend more time in there.

Tonight’s conundrum is where to work tomorrow? I could change hotel and hope their WiFi is good enough to use from their rooms. Seems a bit late in the day to change place though. I’m currently sat at the Capitolio Cafe which has good WiFi. I think I’ll risk sitting in it all day tomorrow and do my usual of buying breakfast, coffees and lunch to keep the patrão happy. Hopefully!

Really I should be looking for a room or apartment but haven’t quite got started on that yet (no surprise I guess). Don’t think Gumtree is big here. Maybe Craigslist or something else? Don’t feel too hurried yet but moving from cafe to cafe will probably get old pretty soon!

UPDATE: Spoke to the man at the Capitolio. He’s very happy for me to sit and work away all day. That’s great. I can sit outside until it gets too hot. Then move inside and plug in. The food is cheaper there too as Pax was a little upmarket.

Ubiquitous WiFi

The theory is ‘have internet, will travel’. Can it work in practice? It seems it just might.

WiFi seems to be everywhere these days. It’s mostly a given when you trott into a cafe that they’ll have it.

Today was the first day of attempting to work remotely without the security of being at home with BT’s reliable broadband. Just before 10am I arrived at Pax Cafe, Porto, for some breakfast. The owner spoke no English but ‘internet’ is ‘internet’ right? After some mutual misunderstanding it was decided he did have the internet. I had to go round and look at the router and show him the number I needed to connect! Speedtest.net showed 30Mbps! Must be fibre. Much quicker than my broadband at home.

The staff were super friendly and didn’t seem to mind me sitting there all day. I bought breakfast and lunch and coffees in between. A (nearly) full day’s work was done. The place did get a bit noisy in the afternoon but foreign language chatter is more akin to white-noise I think so my brain filtered it out quite well.

One day down. Many more to go. I’ll go back to that same cafe tomorrow.