Blogs from Coimbra, Central, Portugal, Europe - page 4

16th July. Bye bye Lisbon, hello Coimbra. As I did my final packing just after 09:00 I was conflicted in my feelings. On the one hand I was relieved to be leaving Lisbon where I’d 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 reasonably priced accommodation on offer? I can tell you I wasn’t looking forward to lugging my large back pack through unknown streets in the midday sun. Settling into a new place sucks. It’s the hard yards of travel in my opinion. I could only hope it went by quickly with a minimum of hassles. I got to the Jarmin Zoologico Metro station without much ... read more

We drove 3 hours or so into Portugal and made day trips from our b&b: To roman ruins, to the beach and to the forested grounds of a former monastery. The b&b 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 fold-out bed for hardy souls, like soldiers or, in this case, Zerian. They think of fold out cribs for babies. Needless to say, Zerian couldn't fit, so the host was gracious enough to let us squeeze in an extra twin bed. Very cozy. Also, interestingly it is near the home town of the last Portugese strong man, who ran Portugal for most of the Cold ... read more

Hi all! Well, our time here in Portugal is quickly coming to an end (just a few days now), but luckily we don’t have to go back and face reality quite yet, as we’re 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 our blog a lot more frequently while we’re on the road, so check back often! Now, without further ado, here are the destinations on the agenda for this summer… Istanbul Budapest Bratislava, Slovakia Vienna Austria - 7 days with a car, this part’s still a little foggy but may include some of Italy and Switzerland, too (suggestions, ... read more

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 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartment without too much trouble (although it did take some serious strategizing to get into the bathroom in the morning). Everyone flew into Lisbon on Monday and they rented a Peugeot minivan (how stylish) and drove up to Coimbra. It was kind of funny seeing all of these familiar faces from halfway around the world standing at our door but after about three minutes everything was back to normal and everyone was having fun and catching up. The first night we went out for Portuguese/Brazilian ... read more

Hello to all my friends and family! It’s been three weeks on the go, and we’ve seen, experienced and learned oh so much! Here’s 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 on the beach (it was a bit chilly), Keenan asked how many years she was in Euros, the kids laughed and laughed over the thought of how to use a bidet (we are still not sure), played some tennis (the boys played some kids who didn’t speak English or they Spanish in an impromptu tournament… it was fun to watch them work through the discomfort ... read more