February 21, 2021
On February 12, 2021, Jung Ilwoo started to share something very precious to him: a video with the first episode of His Third walk to Santiago de Compostela, the Portuguese Central Way.
This walk took place in May of 2019. He walked from Porto in Portugal.
Today marks the start of the Fourth year of this website! WOO Hoo! and I’m so happy to be celebrating it by writing and sharing this post. This post about one of the things this lovely man loves to do the most… walk his beloved Santiago way. It has been such a ¡Buen Camino! being with you Ilwoo! Learning because of you! You show up, manifest in my life when I least expect it… and I am not surprised anymore… I just say… I love you too! So now let me love you the best way I know how… by creating this post.
With this post I attempt to see more of each place you visited in detail. To take this trip with you with a historic and cultural lens as I’m able to decipher the places you visited, ate at or slept at in your video. I will also take information and photos you shared in the recent show Phone Cleansing and way back in your Instagram account too.
This post will be helpful to anyone who travels to Portugal (and Spain) or lives there and wants to enjoy these precious Oppa moments! This is a way to love him and be with him spiritually…
Let’s get started!
Packing! Jung Ilwoo shared this first photo of his trip. Packing for it.
In Phone Cleansing he shared a photo of his notebook, a list that took him 6 months to create as he attempted to find the lightest items to take with him. This is the photo and the list (he blurred the brand names).
This is the whole list translated:
List
1 backpack
2 trekking shoes
3 stick
4 sleeping bag
5 rain coat
6 trekking hat
7 gloves
8 head lantern
9 sports towel 2~3
10 medicines (something to disinfect needles, vaseline, muscle relaxant, tiger balm, vitamin, medicine for cold)
11 emergency food (pepper paste, ramen, ramen soup base, curry base)
12 sleeping eye patch, earplugs
13 detergent
14 notebook, pen
15 electronic book
16 clothes(windbreaker jacket, 3 tshirts, 1 or 2 shirts, 2 shorts, 1 long pants)
17 2 sunglasses
18 5 underwear
19 5 trekking socks
20 sneakers
21 sandal or slippers
22 multi adapter plug
23 ipad mini
Here he is in Seoul heading out to Spain…
And here he is in Lisbon, the Capital of Portugal. He actually flew into Lisbon and then continued the next day to Porto.
This is one of the main squares of Lisbon! It’s called Plaza Rossio. Love that yellow bandana on his neck! THis is how I knew it was Lisbon. I did a search for that Tezenis store and found it in Lisbon only.
Do yo want to feel like you are there? This is the Google Map LINK. You can move around the entire area … and picture our dear Oppa enjoying it! My family vacationed there a week before he went, in April of 2019! They said one of the coolest things in Lisboa was the floor, there are mosaics everywhere! My nieces enjoyed them a lot! Here is one of them running.
This is a photo my mom took from a Mirador, or high tower there called Elevador de Santa Justa:
Jung Il woo took a train to Porto, and the first image we see after the big letters that say Porto is the train station of “Porto São Bento.”
This is what the station looks like on the outside…
Cr. Wikipedia
It is absolutely majestic on the inside. Its vestibule contains some of the most impressive “azulejos” or painted blue tiles in the world. This station is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it is a National Monument of Portugal.
“This building was constructed over a number of years, starting in 1904, based on plans by architect José Marques da Silva. The large panels of azulejo tile were designed and painted by Jorge Colaço; they were completed in 1916 and the station was then inaugurated.[3] The murals represent moments in the country’s history and the multicolored panels depict rural scenes showing the people of various regions.”
“There are approximately 20,000 azulejo tiles, dating from 1905–1916, that were composed by Jorge Colaço, an important painter of azulejo. The actual tiles were made in the Sacavém factory.[5] Colaço placed the first tiles on 13 August 1905.[5] To the left of the entrance is a scene depicting the Battle of Arcos de Valdevez and Egas Moniz before Alfonso VII of Castile, while to the right, is D. João I in Oporto, with his fiancé, and the Conquest of Ceuta. On the border wall at the entrance are small panels depicting countryside scenes. The tile project required 11 years to complete.” Cr. Wikipedia
Cr. Novocom.top
A video…
We see him greet his manager and best friend Joo Yoonsuk with a high five and then they sit down to have a meal and beer…
They did not venture far… in fact they are right in front of the train station:
Do you see the restaurant with the brown tables and chairs? That’s where they ate! It’s called: Sabores de Invicta, Google Map Exact location HERE.
Can you guess from the menu what Oppa ate?
That’s right, our Oppa went straight for the Steak on plate! ^ ^
The next photo is from where they slept. I found it! Right HERE. It is the green building, if you turn around you will see Ilwoo’s view from the street! I think it must have been airbnb special as the building does not say hotel on it…
Address: R. de Mouzinho da Silveira 318 or 320/ 4050-418 Porto, Portugal
Then they headed to get their Pilgrim Passports at the Porto Cathedral. This is what it looks like. He posted this photo back in 2019 in his Instagram.
The Porto Cathedral, known there as Se Do Porto was built in the 12th Century in the Romanesque Style. It was built by Bishop Hugh, a French nobleman who came to Porto even before Portugal’s independence, and ruled the city from 1113 to 1136. It sits high a hill and that is why you see Ilwoo going up slanted streets and stairs.
These are photos from the Cathedral.
Facade:
(Cr. Wikipedia)
Interior:
In Ilwoo’s video:
By Wiki-Commons:
Cloisters:
Detail by Stuart Freedman:
So gorgeous!
The Cathedral (Se Do) and its large square (Largo da Sé) sit in the middle of the historic center of Porto and it is a Unesco World Heritage Site. This square filled with vendors during the middle ages.
I found a site that has many photos about what to see in the cathedral and tips on how to get there : HERE. This is a video fro this site:
This is a longer video, if you have time: (30 minutes)
In this last video there is this part the narrator reads and below you can see Oppa walking by it!
Here is another photo of the large square:
This ornately carved twisting stone pillory is called a “pelourinho” by the Portuguese. This pillory is a reconstruction of a 1797 engraving and was inaugurated in 1945. I read that in ancient times they would have hung people and tortured them on the rings sticking out, to scare people into behaving! There are many pillories all over Portugal… that must have been so scary for children!
I was fascinated by the Azulejos all over Porto and found this great wordpress sister website that talks all about them:
That night they went to walk along what is referred to as Ribeira: the riverbank walkway along the side of the Douro River. There was a beautiful full moon!
A bit more about this place:
“Ribeira is one of the most popular neighborhoods in Porto. It is one of the most authentic and picturesque parts of the city in the heart of the old town. As its name suggests, the district is situated on the riverbank (Ribeira in Portuguese stems from the word river).
Its colorful and wonderfully decorated façades are noteworthy and you’ll find that both the quaint terraced houses on the waterfront that reflect on the Douro River (which you can get a better view from Gaia) and the rest of the buildings further up in the little winding streets are equally pleasant.
Charming by Night
This part of town becomes alive at nighttime and is the perfect place to spend your evenings. Ribeira is full of traditional restaurants with lively terraces where you can savor some of Portugal’s delicious typical dishes while you enjoy views over Dom Luís I Bridge and Vila Nova da Gaia with its cellars lit up. ”
Here are some beautiful photos… as seen from Gaia across the river:
Cr. Touropia.com
Directly across the river is a place that wine lover Ilwoo would love to visit. It’s a town called: Vila Nova de Gaia and it known for its cellars where Port wine was stored for hundreds of years when the wine was moved by water. This video is good to get a sense of the history:
It has English subtitles! But I love hearing her speak in Portuguese!
Look at this old photo of the port wine being loaded into boats:
Cr. portoalities.com
Cr. touropia
All this part of Portugal was influenced in their names by the Celts:
“Vila Nova de Gaia already existed under the Roman Empire as the city of Cale. It developed most likely from a preexistent Celtic Castro, or Neolithic settlement. The origin of the name Cale[4] (or Gale, since in Classical Latin there was not always a clear distinction between the letters “g” and “c”) is likely Celtic, from the root “Gall-” with which Celts referred to themselves, similarly to Galicia, Gaul or Galway. The river itself has a Celtic name, Douro (Latinised Durus) after Celtic “dwr”, deep water, water or river. In Roman times the bulk of the population probably lived south of the river Douro, and on the north side, there was a smaller settlement around the deep water port which now is the Ribeira neighbourhood of Porto. The name of Porto, in high medieval times Portus Cale, thus stood for the harbour (“portus” in Latin) of the city of Cale. With the important trade of the river Douro, which is easily navigable up to the Régua deep inland, the Porto part of the city came to overgrow Cale, and became the most important part of town, where the Bishopric and the merchants were established.” Cr. Wikipedia
The next morning they had breakfast near their hotel and then headed to the Cathedral to get their first stamp!
Ilwoo Oppa is so happy to begin his walk!
They make one last stop at a bookstore where a bit of Harry Potter was “filmed.” There were no scenes of Harry Potter filmed in Porto or Portugal. But J.K. Rowling lived for a period of her life in Porto and there is the believe that a few of Porto locations, including this bookstore helped to inspire her story of Harry Potter.
This bookstore is known as the Livraria Lello e Irmão or Livraria Chadron. It is so, so gorgeous… take a look:
This library was founded in 1869 by the Frenchman Ernesto Chardron and opened to the public in 1881 for the first time. It’s architect was: Francisco Xavier Esteves. The reason why it has so many names is for all the people that helped develop it. It is considered one of the most gorgeous bookstores in the world.
If you are a Harry Potter Fan there is a brief history and relation of J.K Rowling to Porto and the sites that inspired her book HERE. She wrote three of the books in Portugal!
They meet a friend of Ilwoo’s: Lee Young Jae. He provides great Drone views!!!
Is it hot or is it just me?! ^ ^
They get to their hotel and freshen up… and of course discuss dinner.
Did you notice? His underwear drying on his bed! (TMI!!! We now know what king of briefs he likes… he is not a boxers man! ^ ^ Or maybe it’s because of the heat?)
Then they go grocery shopping…
This part was hilarious… his embarassed manager has no chance with Ilwoo’s charming kindness!
For more about porto and where to go visit HERE.
They visit to the Cathedral of Braga to get their stamp and blessings! This Cathedral is the oldest in Portugal and one of the oldest in the Iberian Peninsula. Here is some of its history:
“The Diocese of Braga dates from the 3rd century AD, being one of the oldest in the peninsula and the centre for the Christianism of Galicia (Northwestern Iberia).
Saint Peter of Rates or of Braga, is traditionally considered to be the first bishop of Braga between the years 45 and 60. Tradition says he was a Jew that had recently died when Saint James the Great was in the area. The Apostle knowing him to be a man of intelligence and good will had him resurrected from the grave and ordained him to preach the glory of Christ. The same tradition holds that Peter of Rates was martyred while attempting to make converts to the Christian faith in northern Portugal.
When Roman power was being dissolved by invading Germanic tribes, Braga (then called Bracara Augusta) became the capital of the Suebi Kingdom (409 to 584). Bishop Martin of Dumio, a great religious figure of the time, converted the Suebi to Catholicism around 550. The importance of Braga diminished during Visigoth times, and after the arrival of the Moors (716) it lost its bishop seat.
The bishopric of Braga was restored around 1071, after the city was back into Christian hands, and Bishop Pedro started to build a cathedral, consecrated in 1089 (only the Eastern chapels were finished). Starting in 1093, the County of Portugal was ruled by Count Henry of Burgundy who, together with Bishop Geraldo de Moissac, managed to convince the Pope to turn Braga into an archbishopric in 1107. The archbishop of Braga had power over a large region in Northwestern Iberia, including most of Portugal and part of Galicia, in today Spain.
Construction on the cathedral was then resumed and lasted until the middle of the 13th century, but the details are obscure. The original 12th century-building was built in the Burgundian Romanesque style of the monastery church of Cluny. It influenced many other churches and monasteries in Portugal in that period. In later times the cathedral was greatly modified so its a mix of Romanesque, Gothic, Moorish, Manueline and baroque styles. Particularly important were the addition of new chapels and the entrance gallery in gothic style, the new Manueline main chapel, and the various additions in baroque times like the towers, chapels and much inner decoration.
The cathedral as the most important religious site in Iberia (before the founding of Santiago of Compostela and the reconquest of Toledo from Muslim hands) was an extremely powerful institution at the time and enjoyed a great degree of influence in the papal court.”
Cr. Wikipedia
Here are some more photos of the Cathedral:
Exterior:
Interior:
It is so impressive!
Froggy dear! Not too much salt now!
His manager looks so cute in that previous photo!
