http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Portugal , Central , Coimbra en-us Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:02:34 BST Sun, 07 Sep 2008 21:02:34 BST Look up a little and the brilliant sky blues sunwhitened walls meet in the faroff haze of the hills. Surrounding you. Shadows throw across the old old buildings and older land.Slowing your heart mind as you happily wander the alleys and squares.Welcome to Coimbra.We got here Travelling by train. It's where old new Portugal meet. The coaches are largely modern roomy but the stations were http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-313577.html 16th July. Bye bye Lisbon hello Coimbra. As I did my final packing just after 0900 I was conflicted in my feelings. On the one hand I was relieved to be leaving Lisbon where Irsquod had an extended forced stay due to illness. On the other there was some trepidation at facing the unknown. Will the bus station at Coimbra be near where the pensions are located and secondly will there be reasonabl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-300977.html Picture catchup in CoimbraSorry for the terrible picture qualityAll through my trip I looked in vain for an Internet cafe that had USB upload capability to grab pictures from my camera on which the whole travel blog idea hinged for me at leastnaturally I could have just entered unadorned text. I pretty much stopped taking any pictures at all. This accounts for the very fragmentary cov http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-272476.html We drove 3 hours or so into Portugal and made day trips from our bb To roman ruins to the beach and to the forested grounds of a former monastery. The bb was run by a dutch ex patriate family. There was a great pool friendly guests a giant chess set and kayaks to take out. We also learned that a cot is something else to the Dutch. I picture a foldout bed for hardy souls like soldier http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-190636.html And... we're off But first a few last pictures from CoimbranbspEurope raquonbspPortugal raquonbspCoimbra By L and J in PortugalJune 9th 2007Lindsay JasonJust posting a few last pictures from Portugal. Leaving Coimbra and saying goodbye to our friends was kind of hard but we're excited to be on to the next adventure. We're currently having a great time in Istanbul and we'll post http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-167451.html Hi all Well our time here in Portugal is quickly coming to an end just a few days now but luckily we donrsquot have to go back and face reality quite yet as wersquore planning to travel around Europe for six or seven weeks before going back at the end of July. We thought it would be fun to let everyone know what our itinerary is and also to let you know that we are planning to update o http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-165511.html This has been another lively week here in Coimbra. We got back from Lisbon last Saturday after spending a week with Jason's family blog is coming on that wersquove been getting behind and the city felt a little different. It is currently the Queima das Fitas or Burning of the Ribbons the biggest student festival of the year and apparently second only to Oktoberfest in terms of beer cons http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-156771.html During the first week of our Easter break five of our friends Tom Tina Emily Jason and his friend Jason yes three Jasons came to visit from California. It was great to see them after so long and we somehow managed to squeeze seven people into our 2bedroom 1bathroom apartment without too much trouble although it did take some serious strategizing to get into the bathroom in the morni http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-150826.html The last connection I had was so slow that none of the pictures uploaded so here are some updates. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-149355.html Hello to all my friends and family Itrsquos been three weeks on the go and wersquove seen experienced and learned oh so much Herersquos a summary of my highlights and observations Our first stop Roquetas de Mar a sleepy little town on the Costa del Sol where we all went to language school for 2 hours a day became good friends with the family who runs the escuela de idiomas played http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-149354.html In fact I think Coimbra's got SF beat with its hills. One of these days I'll be able to upload photos and you'll see what I mean. The University campus is on top of the major central hill. Portugal has a saying Lisbon shows off Braga prays Coimbra studies and Porto works. You gotta want to go to school to walk up there everyday. The BIG SURPRISE of the whole trip I knew Coimbra was going http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-147177.html I still can't upload pictures but I'll tell you what I saw on my way here to Coimbra. I use the train for two reasons onethe buses share the roads with all sorts of crazy drivers twoI like seeing people's backyards with hay bales that look like the ones in the states all wrapped in white chiuckens sheep goats ponies huge lilies that grow like weeds red clay dirt like in Georgia ca http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-146813.html Earlier this week there was a pretty cool sunset with some interesting clouds. I took a few photos down by the park and the pedestrian bridge. Jason http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-132696.html This weekend we went on a field trip organized by our university. We went to four smaller towns south of Coimbra Batalha Alcobaa So Martinho do Porto and bidos. It was a fun trip because most of our classmates and friends went there were around 60 of us on a big doubledecker bus and so there was lots of time to hang out and goof around with them while checking out some new places in Po http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-132695.html Herersquos a few photos of the Christmas decorations that they just put up downtown. Also Lindsay just found an article about Coimbra that just came out a few days ago in a British newspaper . Therersquos a lot of good info about Coimbra and the author even mentions the new bridge and the steep stairs in our neighborhood.httptravel.independent.co.ukeuropearticle2056538.ece Jason http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-132692.html Last Sunday was the grand opening of the pedestrian bridge at the park near our apartment. We walk by this bridge all time but it has always been closed even though the sign says it was supposed to open in March. So needless to say this was big excitement for us. They had a really big flashy show with actors in costume fireworks lasers and music some trendy dance music and some traditio http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-132690.html Itrsquos been awhile since we last posted and we donrsquot actually have all that much to report. Wersquore finally settling into somewhat of a routine just in time for Christmas and our trip back to the states to shake it all up again. We thought that we would post some more pictures of our little world here in Coimbra and talk about some of the good and the notsogood things about liv http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-132689.html This last week has been an interesting one here in Coimbra. The annual Festa das Latas Party of the Cans doesnrsquot translate so wellhellip started last Wednesday and culminated with the ldquoLatadardquo last night. The Festa das Latas used to be held at the end of the school year when law students finished their exams before the other schools and ran through the streets with cans http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-132686.html Lindsayrsquos brother Tim came to visit us last week. It was fun to have a guest and see a familiar face. We showed him around Coimbra and in exchange he brought us brand new bottles of contact solution it costs over 20 a bottle here and The Office Season 2 DVD to watch. I thought it was a pretty good trade myself.On the weekend we went to Porto and climbed the tallest tower in Portu http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-132685.html Coimbra is a university town but until recently most of the students hadnrsquot been here. In the last couple of weeks the town has been changing a lot as classes for some programs have started and the students have started to return. Certain parts of the city that seemed kind of deserted before are now packed with students sitting at cafes having a coffee or a beer with friends. It seems http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-132682.html We just finished our first week of classes. Itrsquos a pretty intense schedule with 23 hours of class a week and four different subjects. Wersquore both in the beginning level which has moved really fast present tense present progressive ser vs. estar all in the first 4 days. As we expected we are among the oldest students in the class. There are about 35 students in our class http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-132680.html Saturday night Jason and I went to a free fado performance down the street from our apartment. Fado is a traditional music from Portugal and there are two different styles Coimbra fado and Lisbon fado. The fado from Coimbra is considered more academic and only performed by men while the fado from Lisbon is more popular and both women and men can sing it. The fado group we saw had three mem http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-132676.html Friday was kind of an oddfunny day because it was the first day that we needed to find our own internet access because we couldnrsquot use the hotelrsquos wireless network anymore we checked out on Thursday and our appointment with Portugal Telecom to set up DSL in our apartment is not until next week. We need internet at least every weekday so Lindsay can do her translation work and so I http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-132675.html I took some pictures of our apartment this morning. We havenrsquot really moved in yet wersquoll be doing that today but wersquore pretty happy with the layout of the apartment. There are 2 bedrooms 1 bath and a living roomkitchen combo room. Yesterday we bought a little TV we get 1 Portuguese station right now and a little FM radioCD player havenrsquot had time yet to check fo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-132674.html Well we officially live in Portugal now We got an apartment today that wersquore really happy with have already gotten cell phones and have applied for bank accounts which required a whole other set of minor administrative tasks that went surprisingly smoothly. We even went to Carrefour today and got stocked up with kitchen supplies and sheets and towels and stuff. Coimbra seems to be a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-132639.html Just getting to Coimbra was a bit of an ordeal. Arriving at the Lisbon airport I had to wait for 40 minutes for all the bags to come out before realizing mine wasn't going to come out. They had a take a number system for lost bags at the Lisbon airport this must be a common occurrence Grabbed a cab through the pouring rain to the Oriente train station the cabbie was quite chatty and singing http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-106729.html Once again I awoke to fantastic weather I'm getting spoiled and walked to the bus station to catch a bus to the city of Guarda Portugal. Up until now I've been able to use my rail pass to get around in Europe but getting into Portugal by rail pretty much requires you to take an overnight train to Porto or Lisboa which I didn't want to do. So I bought a 13euro bus ticket to the first place http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-106120.html We really aren't getting much time at each stop and the rain has put a literal damper on the exploring by foot. But we are on our way to Coimbra in the north to stay at the Pousada in Condeixa de Nova.Road maps can be a great tool but a comparision of the Hertz map and the Michelin map leads us to a gap in the road. Fall back and regroup over lunch before getting on the main northsouth highwa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Central/Coimbra/blog-23669.html