Braga, Portugal

The final and the most important match of Champions League would be with Braga, a weak team from Portugal. Because of the importance of the match, Fatih Terim, the coach, decided to take the team to Portugal as earl as on Monday. (No need to say that he is authorized to give decision on such issues). Therefore, we also took the roads to Porto in company with the team two days before the match. The activity was to travel in company with team but I could not find the team at the airport since I got on the plane at the last minute. I did not see them in the plane either. Since we were flying in  a large airbus, the team was taken into the business room and guarded by a bodyguard. What a pity! The poor fellow was standing to prevent anyone to enter the business room while we were sleeping, eating, watching serials or films. Therefore, the ones who would like to have the jersey signed or take photo have to return pensively. As I said in my previous article, the players are the persons like you and me. They also would like to take off their shoes and comfortably lay down. They may also pick their noses and they line up. Please look at this:

The plane took off about 16.00 p.m. and landed at 19.00 according to the time of Portugal. However we could exit from the airport after one hour because of passport and luggage proceeds. We went to our hotels while the team went to Braga where the match would be played.

We were planning to take down our luggage and go for dinner….  After İstanbul, everywhere is smaller… Porto is also small but it is not such small that everyone has to gather in one restaurant. Since everyone sweep into the restaurant named 5 Oceans 

http://www.5oceanos.pt/ it was out of fish and we could not go there though we had reservation. Instead, we went to Oslusiadas http://oslusiadas.com.pt/pt/ a modest but beautiful place in the region of Matosinhos. If I don’t show you some of what we ate how I can provide the impression we were in Portugal…:)

After eating such much and being exhausted of the travel, everyone went to his hotel. On the other day, I woke up earlier and follow my office works. At noon, I finished my works and could leave the hotel and took a walk. The historical center of Porto is very nice but I could not say the same thing for the outskirts. The outskirts seem like a modest European city.

By the way, it is a must to see the buildings with lion figure in the city, of course :)

For the ones who do not know, the lion figure has been used as a symbol for the power, might and crown since the ancient times. As in many places in Europe, it can be seen on the stones, marbles, wood, carpet, rugs, miniatures in Anatolia. It is used for the same purpose today as well and our traveler Sibel Akın continues to take photo wherever she sees lion figures.
The final of the photographs below shows Lisbon. It is very much like Porto, even the clouds are the same, isn’t it?...

Since there are no places, cities and even will be no squares similar to each other in our countries, it was interesting for me to see historical places like each other.  

During afternoon, I took a walk around the Douro, a river having the best landscape of Porto, I ate heartily the sea food at a fish restaurant without knowing what would come over me.

We went to Dolce Vita, the unique shopping center of Porto, nearby the Porto stadium, after eating. http://www.dolcevita.pt/homepage.aspx?param=6xaQnimFh6ShIR4NKdOwDLXlTbEvr/5IcDbWAt+pXxrLmTGd8ZP6Bg4XAlMx8eyB There were many medium-segment stores. The prices were very cheap. On the contrary to many European countries, the tax free product prices begin with 65 Eur. The higher the price the more drawbacks you get. In order to receive the drawback, you should take tax-free form and fill it and have it approved by the the customs at the airport.

We ate dinner at a very nice place named Dom Tonho http://www.dtonho.com/ at the riverside of Douro. The stories of the former presidents of the Galatasaray Club, who were taking rest in company with the dinner, were entertaining. However, like so much talk, this also cannot be written in this page, which is written by millions of people.

I had decided to see the touristic places, take more photos, to buy Porto wine and buy shot glasses for my collection as a souvenir on the next day, meanly on the match day. I had to stay in my hotel room up to the time of the match, since all the sea food I had eaten decided not to stay in me. On the other hand, like a child who is punished by her mother and prevented from playing games and view children from the window, I took the photos of the children who were cheerfully playing.

Therefore, I could not do anything I had planned to do but the gift we received in the evening was actually worth anything.

We left the hotel at about 18.00 p.m for Braga. Braga is a smaller city, 45 minutes away from Porto. In fact, with having a population of 170,000, it is the third biggest city of Portugal. That is bigger than Çekmeköy and smaller than Beşiktaş. The Braga stadium is the famous ‘Axa Stadium’ with an interesting architectural structure.

The stadium was carved into a valley. There are no tribunes behind the football goals. The other tribunes were attached to the valley and each other through the ropes. Despite of considering such technology, we were chilled to the marrow since they did not consider how to heat the stadium. 

If not the struggle of the team during the second period and the miracle at the end of the match even the warmth of the guest worker fans, that may be the coldest and charmless away game.

It was planned that if the team won the match, they would return to İstanbul with us but they stayed in Braga to directly fly to Sivas. Only Muslera who was injured and Melo, the suspended player, returned with us. Since I had my ticket signed by Melo after the final match and it would not be if I have my ticket signed by Muslera who did not save or shoot any penalty in that match. My ticket remained orphan.

Ah yes. You see, well done. My nail polish has washed out. Do you trip over my nail polish while I thank god for returning back safe and sound? That beats all…

I am cross with you; I am ending up the article here. Otherwise, I would write more and more…