Blogs from Coimbra, Central, Portugal, Europe - page 3

Photographs from our day trip to Coimbra from Porto, Portugal - 29th March 2009.... read more

Following my parent’s path, I decided to choose Portugal for my scholarship. I applied to the famous in Portugal University of Coimbra and after four weeks of submitting my application, I was a happy winner of the Socrates Erasmus scholarship. Even though it’s been long years since this experience, I still miss this worry-free time of my life. I have to admit I was lucky. I arrived to Coimbra in October, after all other students have already attended a monthly course of Portuguese. So everything I would normally have to arrange myself, was already waiting for me thanks to my good friend who found us an apartment and subscribed us both to academic courses. Our apartment in Coimbra was a student-standard place with all the basics we needed to survive. We didn’t complain until the winter ... read more

Today was our second full day in Portugal. Our last morning in Salamanca I had a final serving of churros and chocolate (they really are as good as I had imagined!) and then found our way out of the city - thanks to Sam’s careful planning which involved a walk-through from the parking garage back to the hotel. The drive out of Salamanca led us through changing landscapes and crops. We passed lots of cows of various breeds - there were brown cows and white cows and black cows and charcoal colored cows. After an hour of driving we stopped in Ciudad Rodrigo, a frontier town near the border with Portugal. This town, on the top of a hill, is an ancient walled city that looks out over the plains. We walked the wall and stopped ... read more

Day 8: Conimbriga And on the sixth day God created man. On the seventh day he rested! Well God is lazy SOB! On the sixth day I went to Coimbra...by foot...and on the seventh day we went to Conimbriga. This historical site is the best preserved Roman site in Portugal. They are still excavating the site and only uncovered a staggering 12ha! The story of Conimbriga starts withe the threat of the Suevi. As they threatened to capture the village the residents of Conimbriga sacrificed a part of the city by building a wall straight through the town. They commissioned the construction of this defensive wall immediately using everything they could find including the stones and bricks of the sacrificed houses. They didn't build it high and strong enough...the Suevi pillaged the village. It was later ... read more

Look up a little and the brilliant sky blues & sun-whitened walls meet in the far-off 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 populated by beggars out of the 19th century, complete with humps. The welfare system according to the online Encyclopaedia Britannica is comprehensive... 'The Portuguese welfare system is composed of several types of institutions that insure workers against sickness, disability, and old age and provide for the payment of pensions and family allowances. Compulsory insurance is provided by employers in most sectors of business and ... read more