The Series Of My Life - Season 1 - Episode 96

4 years ago

The Series Of My Life - Season 1 - Episode 96

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The City of Porto was one of the Five Cities that attained the status of a major City in the Iberia Peninsula in the early 18th Century. The other four cities were Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Lisbon. It was the City where Henry the Navigator was born and Raised.

After I woke up from my stress-induced sleep, I told Jennifer that we were going down to the City to feed our eyes; something I loved doing whenever I visited a new place.

We walked downstairs and out to the street. The mighty Estadio do Dragao (The Dragon Stadium; home of FC Porto) stood in front of us and dwarfed every other structure in the area.
We trekked through ALMEDA DAS ANTAS road behind the Estadio and saw a tram station. We got there and waited for minutes before a tram came.

We got into the tram without having any idea of where we were going.

The tram was over 100 years old. Its history was somehow written in figures near the front seat where the driver sat. Its horn was a bell. Its seats were metals.

We purchased a ticket from the driver and sat near the front. When we got to a large green garden, everybody got down including us.

There was a large Cafe across the road. Boldly written in front of it was '' CAFE VELASQUEZ'' We got in and sat among numerous portuguese drinking coffee and tea. We ordered for two cups Of Cappucino. We took the cups outside and sipped it through a straw as we walked down the street like Romeo and Juliet.

Down the street, we found Restaurant Vitoria.
We entered inside it and sat down.
Some white Europeans looked at us as if we came in to beg for food. I ignored them as usual.

A waiter brought menu list and dropped it on our table. I opened the menu and searched from top to bottom without understanding the names of the foods. I just closed it and demanded for rice and chicken legs. The waiter looked at Jennifer who nodded in agreement of what I had demanded. I ordered for a bottle of Port Wine. I had seen it in a table of one of the white men who looked at us when we entered.
Port Wine was a local product of Porto. It contained about 12% volume of alcohol. I preferred spirits with 42% and above but since I was with Jenny, I didn't want to get too high.

We finished our foods an hour later and ventured into the Garden of St Francisco across the road. It was a magnificent garden with hundreds of tourists taking pictures. It was a pity that we had no camera with us. It was Christmas, shops were closed except bars and restaurants.

We just walked around the park and when we got tired of it, we took a taxi down to River Douro.

River Douro was the largest river in Porto. It flowed in from northern Spanish region crossing Valladolid all the way into the Atlantic and crossed Portugal through Porto.

I had purchased a 1euro city map along the road. Not that I needed it but when you go to Rome, you must behave like the Romans.

There were tourists from all over Europe eating and drinking along the river, we joined them.

At around 8pm, it was getting dark and cold. We hired a taxi and drove back to our hotel behind the Estadio Dragao.

We got to our room and took our bath together. We had somehow became unofficial husband and wife.

Sometimes I wished the conditions we found ourselves were better.

Jenny was a lovely sweet girl. She knew nothing about the harsh conditions of Europe. I doubt she even suffered in Africa before heading to Europe.

She could not even locate Germany, Italy or the nearby Spain in a Map. She could not name a single city in Europe except London: she could not differentiate between summer and winter. She could not even buy a train ticket from the automat machines on her own.
By the time I found out she knew nothing about life in Europe, she was already living with me.

Sending her away because of such things would make me feel bad for the rest of my life. I felt obligated to teach her all the basic things she should know about Europe but there was only one problem; I was in Portugal for papers.

I could have even managed to teach her if we had not fell into the madam Grace's troubles.
I wasn't a religious person but somehow I felt that nature brought her into my life for a reason. All I needed to do was to find out what the reason was.

A part of me had already decided to send her to Germany, teach her a story to tell during her asylum and forget about her. But she was a teenager and somehow our life had gotten entangled with each other.
I had discovered that each time I brought up the issue of sending her away, she would cry and even refused to eat.

Since we were on a forced holiday in Porto, we needed to make the best of it as much as possible.

My nerves had started to relax a little bit. I had stopped being jumpy and on alert.

I doubted madam Grace would find us up there in Porto. Nobody knew where I was, even Jose.

He had called me while we were on the train to Porto but I told him I was going to Algarve in the Southern Portugal. I pointed him South while heading North.

We slept after a few chats.

She wanted sexxx,

I wanted sleep.

She had noticed that she was stressing me and that she was a burden to me. She depended on me for everything and the last thing she wanted to do was to upset me. That would have been disastrous for her; or so she thought.

During our sleep that night, I had a dream..
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