How the best view of Porto is found by getting lost
Victoria Gilbert wins our weekly Just Back travel writing competition - and £250 - for her account of an exquisite and unexpected view of Porto.
“I know where we’re going,” I called out to my better half, who was reluctantly following me up the hills further and further away from the city centre of Porto. We were searching for the Teixeira Lopes House Museum, as I was desperate to find something that was not a tourist trap.
My boyfriend started grumbling about how lost he thought we were – “not such a great sense of direction after all,” he teased. The higher we climbed, and the further we got from the port houses, the more I began – begrudgingly – to suspect he was right. Pride would not allow me to deviate from my Google Maps route, though. I was the guide, and he was not to question me.
It turned out my sense of direction had failed me, and our hour-long trek ended with us standing in front of a local swimming pool in a quiet residential area. The heavy smell of chlorine permeating the air added to my embarrassment.
But I was not going to let this hitch get in the way of my desire to find something different, and promptly started leading us to the next unique location I had pinpointed: the Portuguese Centre for Photography. This time I got us there.
The unique selling point here is that the photographs are housed in the recently converted Cadeia da Relacao prison. It was a formidable building, and I felt intimidated by the exterior and the functional minimalism within the museum’s stone walls.
My disquiet meant that, initially, I could only see the A5 printed photographs stuck haphazardly on peeling paint, but soon I widened my gaze and we started learning about Porto’s rich history, notably the role photography had played in the country’s liberation from dictatorship. In this new light, the decor of the prison became less of an overbearing presence, and instead, became part of the exhibitions. It took on a defiant nature, challenging our perceptions in the same way that the photographs had stood up to adversity in a country ruled by a dictator.
Our interest rose as we climbed the stone stairs, passing a group of teenagers taking photos, but peaked on the top floor, which housed small glass cabinets displaying the evolution of cameras through the ages.
Suddenly, a voice over the loudspeaker alerted us to the fact it was time to leave. We panicked at the idea of being locked in, and as we tried to find our way out, began to feel claustrophobic in the narrow corridors. In our rush, we stumbled across a barred window – only to be rewarded with the best view of Porto we had seen all holiday.
Visiting the museum was far from the quaint and romantic experience I had imagined for us, but as we watched the sun set from our own quiet corner of the city, I couldn’t think of a more perfect find.
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