Day 4

This chilly wednesday started with us joining the other nationals on the bus at 9am. We were taken to one of Porto’s man-made parks, called Serralves. Upon arrival we were greeted by Rita, our guide for the visit.

Inside one of the parks pretty wooden buildings, Rita introduced us to the park, with facts and figues of some of the different plant species that could be found there. We were told that the vegetation of Serralves has been significantly affected by invasive plant species since its opening during the beginning of the 20th century.

We were later brought outside to study the diversity of the trees in the park. In groups, we chose a 10 by 10 meter area inside which we would analyse the amount of native, non-native, and invasive species respectively. As a result we could conclude that the number of invasive plants species, such as the large Eucalyptus tree, makes up close to one third of the plants in the park, which is quite a worrying figure.

The study was followed by a lovely walk through the park of Serralves. Along the way, we saw animals, flower installations and even got to go inside a small cave underground.

For lunch, we ate a restaurant in the city of Porto. Some of us decided to try one of the region’s specialities. This dish is called Francesinha, and consists of a variety of different meats, hams and sausages, all covered in melted cheese and with an egg on top. It was quite intimidating upon being placed in front of the two of us that had ordered it. However, the final verdict was good, even though it was one of the richest and densest pieces of food we’d consumed.

The final activity of the day was a field trip in the beautiful forestated landscape outside of Porto. We walked on a dreamy path overlooking a flowing river at the bottom of the pass. Our activity relating to invasive species was to help locals with the removal of invasive acacia trees. We were taught to remove the bark from the trees in a specific manner, and then given gloves and garden knives to set to work ourselves. Even though this was quite physical work, we all enjoyed it and could walk back to the bus feeling like we hade done concrete work to make the wild Portuguese nature a better place.

Go Baj!