It’s raining cats and dogs

I have to say, I'm generally very lucky with the weather. I started hiking at the beginning of October at almost 30 degrees and had mostly sun. A good month later, the sun is still shining and it's over 15 degrees. However, the days are getting shorter and the nights colder. In between I had a long weekend of rain and storms.

I was sitting on a bench having breakfast on a Thursday morning when a couple came by and I talked to them for a while. They told me that there was a lot of rain and wind forecast for the weekend. They said, we're from England, we know what rain is, but when it rains here, it's another thing and it comes down extremely hard.

I guess I was still lucky because I only got really wet for 2 days. I had a rain jacket and protection for my backpack, but nothing for my legs. And if you walk through the rain all day, it doesn't matter how good your protection is, it's just cold after a while.

One such rainy day was on my stage just before Porto. I made very fast progress that day because I was just too wet to want to take a big break, and yet hardly any day has dragged on so much. I was so desperate for a hot shower that I started counting the last minutes in my head. Finally, the hostel! 'Sorry, the hostel is closed, try one km further'. Shit, I moved on in a bad mood, nothing came. At some point I looked on Maps to see when something was coming, and unfortunately didn't really find anything promising. In my experience, locals are still more informative than Google Maps. So I went into the next bar, soaking wet. 5 slightly older men were standing at the bar. 'Does anyone speak English?' One of the men knew some English and translated for the others. I explained to them that the hostel was closed. First they tried calling the hostel and then they thought about where to put me up. I asked for buses that could take me closer to Porto and maybe to more accommodations.

They told me about the Metro Bus which goes to Vila de Gaia, which is only 4 km from Porto and where I found a hostel. The men were very helpful and as I had hardly any data left, they looked up the times and the exact departure point for me. It must have taken another hour until the bus was there and me sitting in it. The bus wasn't very warm either and by then I couldn't stop my body from shaking. Finally at the hostel. I immediately took a shower. It must have taken 10 minutes of hot water before my hands finally stopped tingling. I spent the rest of the evening snuggled up in bed in front of a small radiator, which I placed on the highest setting right in front of me.

And since the rain didn't leave much time for photos, and I mentioned cats and dogs anyway. I added a few pictures of cats and dogs, which I meet a lot on my way. The cats are often lying around in the sun, grooming themselves or sneaking under cars. The dogs are all eager to defend their homes. And as long as you are in sight, they bark loudly, no matter how big or old the dog is. So that sometimes an entire village accompanied me for a while, barking loudly.