Peaceful, but noisy, the Portuguese don’t shy from protests.  No photos, but walking home Sunday evening we ran into an arena emptying out from a political rally.

The older crowd below was protesting in front of a bank.

Couldn’t identify the cause of this young group banging on make-shift drums and blowing air-horns.  Maybe they’re just in training.

Oporto is a city of college students, and a tradition of the University of Porto is the wearing of black every day.  The uniform is called traje, and while it is not mandatory, there are some academic activities that require it.  Originally women wore a pink dress but currently the men’s and women’s uniforms are similar, except that women wear a skirt.  We’ve had some warm days, but they’re still covered head to toe in black, with a large cape-like blanket over their shoulder.  They were the inspiration for  J. K. Rowling’s design of the Hogwarts students clothes, as she lived in Portugal when she started to write the first book.  Below is a group in pep-rally mode, with an example of the traje being worn by the 3 on the far left.

You KNOW these ladies know what’s going on in the neighborhood – they have the perfect perch to keep an eye out, and catch up.  You can just feel the ‘community”.

Yes, there is a lot of public making out.  And yes, it was weird to take their photo! – Laura