Team Meetup in Porto

You can have too much of a good thing and, as much as I love Lisbon, I can’t keep just travelling there. There’s so many more places in the world after all! Regardless, Portugal is a great place so for my team meeting this year we decided to head to Porto, a city I’ve not visited before.

As we did the previous year, we decided on a combination of an Airbnb and a hotel, to allow for people with preferences of one or another.

Monday 11th March

What I didn’t like was getting up at 4am, for a 5am start – a 4 hour car journey to Gatwick airport (don’t ask). All went smoothly and, aside from a 30 minute delay, the flight was good.

I arrived at Porto airport and, thankfully, you can get an Uber from just outside arrivals (unless in Lisbon). The driver was nice and said Porto is very different to Lisbon. From what I saw on that first day, the jury is still out.

I met up with my lead, Andrea, who had already arrived. We chatted and I got something to eat whilst our Airbnb was made ready.

Soon we were in and I snagged the top floor bedroom, away from everyone else (I’m the only make so it made sense).

Soon after, Ana and Elena arrived and, after other colleagues checked in at their hotel, they came over too.

The view from the balcony is pretty nice too…

For dinner that first night, we assembled at éLeBê. All were present, except for Andrea who had some important calls that she had to be involved with – she stayed at the Airbnb and made herself something to eat.

We ate well but the food took an hour to arrive. I had “Montada minhota” –
roasted steak fillets with cornbread (and “enriched with
a green wine reduction”)

Tuesday 12th March

My sleep was okay. The bed was comfy but, being in the centre of a city, it’s not overly quiet outside. Plus I found the downside of a loft room in Porto – seagulls love roofs, so they were a nuisance at times. But overall, it could have been a lot worse!

I had a quick breakfast and then a shower before the most important job of the day – a visit to a bakery for a batch of Pastel de Nata’s. We co-worked together in the morning, with 3 of the team heading off to get more shopping.

At 12 we stopped for lunch, before convening at 1:30pm for our first scheduled work sessions – a “how we roll” exercise, where we got to learn a lot more about each other. We did this with 4 people who were joining us on Google Meet too. After a short break, the second session was an AMA with my lead, Andrea. That went equally well and it lead us up to our stop at 4:30pm.

We had free time until dinner at 7:30, so I took the opportunity for a short walk to explore. By the time I got back, everyone else had gone so I took advantage of the quiet to catch up on some things.

Dinner, in the evening, was at P4 na Baixa.

I had the pork cheeks, which was rather nice.

It was filling too but a good walk back after helped with that!

We returned around 9:15pm.

Wednesday 13th March

Similar to yesterday, we started the day with co-working. Overnight I’d had the idea of doing something we’ve done before, and that’s for everyone to submit a fact about themselves for everyone else to try and guess. I have to say, the results were fantastic that I then collected today, but won’t make use of them until tomorrow.

After lunch, we had 2 sessions, each 1.5 hours each, where we discussed various work related topics. Andrea very kindly wrote notes, which was a god-send for me and very much appreciated. And, yes, we put sticky notes on a window – obligatory work!

We broke for a break after that, where Kavit and I did some grocery shopping (not major, just a top-up – tomorrow is our last full day, after all).

At 7 we met two local Automatticians (which we refer to as “Localmatticians”) at the restaurant – A Despensa. I had Alcatra – beef with
cheese and black pepper sauce – followed by a chocolate cake with homemade ice cream.

We were back at the Airbnb around 9:15, but I realised I didn’t have an itemised receipt so walked back to the restaurant to get one.

It was around 11pm by the time I got to bed.

Thursday 14th March

As with the previous days, it started with co-working before lunch. During this time we took the opportunity to try and guess the fun facts about each other – to spice things up, some of us had submitted multiple entries!

After our usual self-made lunch, we headed off in different groups for afternoons of activities. With Andrea and Rick, we first went for a tuk-tuk tour of the city.

After this we went on the Douro river cruise.

A long walk up stairs followed, but with amazing views!

That evening we’d planned to have take-out but we switched, relatively last minute, to the restaurant at the hotel were many were staying.

No pics of the good this time, but I had a pizza, which was very nice. But not very Portuguese.

Friday 16th March

The day we return home!

But first… those bloody seagulls. This time it got unbearable. At 5:30am I got up, opened the window and shoo’ed them away. Then hit my head on a low beam before returning to bed.

Most people had left by mid-morning, but I don’t have a flight until 6pm (I get in after Andrea, who lives in the US and has at least 3 legs to her flight!) so I have around in the Airbnb until midday, after which time I have to leave.

I take my luggage down to the Airbnb owner’s offices, who kindly look after it for me and head off for a bit of an explore.

I eventually stopped at a lovely cafe, which was rated highly, called Do Norte. As well as a coffee I grabbed the “brunch traditional”. It was both healthy and not! I relaxed there for some time before heading out and finding a park for more “not doing very much”.

At 2:30 I headed slowly back towards the Airbnb host’s office, getting my luggage and grabbing an Uber around 3pm. I arrived at the airport at 3:30pm, just as my luggage check-in opened. It was almost immediate and it took 10 minutes, at most, to get through security (no need to take out electronics in Porto, which is a relief!). All of which gave me a silly amount of time to wait for my flight, which wasn’t due to depart until 6:30pm. I liked Porto, and I like exploring, but I’m terrible left on my own – I need company to do it.

So, I sat at the airport, cracked open my laptop and gave myself something else to do instead (including writing this).

It wasn’t actually that long until we boarded and the entire flight went smoothly. Back at Gatwick I sailed through passport control (literally walked up to an empty e-Gate, showed my passport, walked through). Luggage took a while but, once I had it, I was off. The M25 was closed but my timing was such that I still managed to be on it – indeed, I think I was one of the last people going anti-clockwise, as it was literally closed behind me. I got home around 0:30 on Saturday.