Perhaps graffiti is a bit of a controversial subject for a blog with some people describing the spray-can ready people as criminals, artists or protestors. To be honest I think that they are all three things in one. I do love some graffiti when it's done well and serves a point. What I don't like is tags everywhere with a signature. I just don't get it and I think it makes the cities look ugly. There's loads of good and bad graffiti in Coimbra and here are some of the designs that I preferred.
One of the cultural curiosities Portugal has is the ability to break the ankles of anyone who dares wear their prize 'aid to the butt and boobs' shoes. The streets are paved in small stones which makes 'step on a crack and you'll fall and break your back' a certain possibility. However, these pavements are beautiful and, compared to our tarmacced streets at home, you can appreciate how much effort has been put into creating them. In different cities there are different designs on the floor and here are some pictures that I took at Figueira da Foz:
Fear not, there is a way to get around this stiletto problem if you are of the teeny type. Wedges will be your best friend. Everyone here wears them so don't bother bringing stilettos unless you are some amazing dancing hybrid or have bones of steel.
Here are more pictures of pretty calçadas in and around Coimbra:
Well it's been 3 weeks now since I've been in Portugal. My lessons have started, the sun is still tannable and I've made some great friends. Not only all these things you'd expect from an ERASMUS student... but I am losing weight! This is no easy task since I do love my food and the cakes here are DA BOMB but in all honestly with the heat and busy slow days... eating has taken a back seat. Which is good for me =) especially since before coming here I'd be thinking about food with every other thought... What am I gonna eat today? Should I eat now? How many donuts are too many? And then of course there's the never ending guilt and depression that the thing I love so much does turn you into Nelly the Elephant and people don't seem to like Nelly's. Peh! Sad huh? I know I'm not the only one though =). BUT the thing about being in Coimbra is that I'm not thinking about food... at all! Only when my tummy is growling ferociously will I venture to the fridge, but not for chocs (that just melts so chocoholics beware) but a MASSIVE peach. Fruit here tastes better and it's a real treat from the dried tasteless stuff in England. Our apples own though. Any who =) I'm a lot happier now because I'm not thinking about food and I vow to never think about food or be self critical and self indulgent ever again! Or as far as humanly possible anyway. Sod it, I like Nelly the Elephant!
Of course any good dietician will tell you that diet and the 'e' word are the best ways to lose weight. And bloomin' 'eck they're right! WARNING - if you are lazy and the sight of stairs sends shivers down your spine then maybe Coimbra is the place for you. I have two words for you. Hills and Stairs. Muchas many hills and stairs that will turn your calves to steal and leave you so cream crackered by the time you get to class that at least 5 mins vegetation time is required to get over it! Don't believe me? I took a picture of the stairs leading to Letras (my faculty)...
Yes... I just had to prove it.
Yup. 120 bad boy steps. Twice a day. Gillian McKeith eat your vegetable heart out. I am getting better at them though so there is hope. One day I might be able to muster a sentence at the top of these steps, and put it in my CV as an achievement. There are other stair places to other faculties and one is called the back breaker. No thank you. O and that graffiti of the steps? It's everywhere. People here like to express themselves that way and some of it is pretty good so I'll take some photos some other time.
One thing about doing an ERASMUS year abroad is the amount of paperwork that you go through. Trees and Trees and trees worth of paper... forms that confirm you've arrived, sorted location, receipts, permits, attendance, registration... the list goes on. Yesterday I walked to the University for the first time, which was about a 15 minute walk, and I went at about 2 o'clock. Bad idea! It's hot here and I was just hopping from shadow to shadow to try and keep cool! Any way I go tot the university and started my registration. I arrive at 3 and noted that the office closed at half 4 so I thought I had plenty of time. The system in Portugal with nearly everything is taking tickets to determine whose turn it is next. It's in the supermarket when you want to buy meat, in the banks when you want to be seen and it was in registration too. I took my ticket and went to sit in the garden for my turn. An hour passed. Nothing. I started to think this was a bit odd. Another 50 mins passed and a German guy hopped down the steps and into the garden looking for us lost international students. It took 45 minutes to write down a little bit of information and take pictures and passports and things from us. Then we had to go to another office for a permit to live in Coimbra, which was about a 20 minute walk away near the river. Ping! Another ticket thing and another load of waiting and faffing and finally getting things done! Came home at 7 =) Felt like I'd achieved something though! Still have no idea when my classes start unfortunately since I have to meet with the head of languages to discuss what courses I am taking. This we have to arrange by e-mail and our classes start on Monday! I would panic... but there is seemingly so little information for students compared to England that I'm just going to relax and not get wound up by it in my English way! Also I spoke to a Portuguese student yesterday and she was none the wiser so at least I'm in company!
Today it took me 2 attempts and over 2 hours to find the supermarket! It was a bit of a nightmare to be honest, but my sense of direction is zero so it was my own fault! Therefore dear ERASMUS students... bring a map. I so wish I had one. I feel like a bit of an idiot for not bringing one really! The supermarkets in Portugal are quite good and have most of the things you find at home. The only thing I couldn't find today was heat protection spray for my hair but I'm sure they have it here somewhere! Here are the names of some of the supermarkets in Portugal:
Pingo Doce
Continente
Intermarché
Mini-Preco
And those are all I can think of at the minute but there are probably more and most towns have at least one of these. So don't worry, you won't starve. O and on the long walk home today I walked past a macaw parrot which shocked me a lot! Now I feel like I'm on a dessert island made of papers and more papers =)
It's been a few days since my last post but a lot has happened! Yesterday my family brought me to Coimbra with all my things to settle in and luckily I knew another ERASMUS student here so I went straight to him! I'm definitely a bit of a home bird so to say I was nervous is a bit of an understatement! My English friend told me that there were rooms available but when I called the Dono (landlord) He couldn't arrange anything til the following day. I thought about just waiting for the next day thinking it would be better to have a room near someone I know rather than move all of my things from Student accommodation to a permanent house. I would have stayed in student accommodation because it's very cheap (150 Euros p/m) but I was only allowed to stay for a month so it didn't seem worth it. So I walked down the street and couple of doors down we saw an add in a window for rooms. We called and here I am!
This is my room for now.
Our kitchen
I'm sharing with 4 other girls. I have met 2 of them already but the rest are coming at the end of the month. One is only staying til the end of this month and then I think I might move into her room because it's a little more private. Mine is right in the middle of the house and has 2 doors to get it and out of. First impressions of the other girls are good but it's hard to know really when my Portuguese is so rusty! The Dona (landlady) is called Teresa and she is lovely! This morning she took me to the shops to get some food and showed me how to get to University. Something that hopefully I'll sort out today! I really like the apartment. We're in a kind of basement flat so it's nice and cool for the summer... though I don't know what it'll be like in the winter! We have a terrace with a beautiful view of the city, 2 bathrooms, one with a spa shower! free calls to England after 9pm, internet connection and a TV. We also have a parlor to but potatoes and things in! Which I thought was kinda cool :P. Our kitchen is nice and comes with a dishwasher and we have a washing machine outside in a shed. In Coimbra you can expect to pay around 200-300 Euros for a room in a good location near the Uni (I can see it from my window!)
sha
Okay so this is the part of the blog where I’ll be taking pictures of what I eat in Portugal so that future ERASMUS students will know what to expect. =)
Cozido e sopa com maca
The first meal I had in Benavente was my Nan's Cozido and sopa. This is boiled meat, potatoes, linguica, farinheira and vegetables. It's very healthy and great with a pap-seco (Portuguese bread roll). The soup has pasta in it. Don't panic. It's normal and very filling.
Chicken (fricken awesome) Frikasé, rice, pap-seco and figs
I'm not sure if this food is particularly 'Portuguese' but I thought I'd take a picture anyway. =) It's chicken frisasé with rice a pap-seco and figs. The chicken will normally come with bones as will the fish if you go to a Portuguese restaurant so if you're not used to deciphering from meat and bone perhaps you should have a little practice before you go or eat steak =). The sauce is made from egg yolk, lemon juice and parsley and tastes awesome! Honestly the picture doesn't do it justice. The figs here are really sweet too. Actually all the fruit here tastes better (apart form the apples). So, if you do come then try a pesego (peach). It rocks.
Oven baked salmon, with carrots and a mountain of spuds.
This is a very healthy dish and food done in the oven all together like this is very popular in Portugal. Partly because it's easy coz you just have to leave it. Although from my experiences with ovens here they have 2 settings. Off and Charcoal. So it goes without saying - keep an eye on your food! I tried making a cake in an oven that only knows 250 degrees. Bad move. It was like a London smog in the kitchen and no cake which is very sad. So the second time that I tried, I turned the oven on for 10 mins... then off... then on... TEDIOUS! But that oven wasn't gonna beat me and I got cake. So Crissy 1, Oven 1. For now.
How can i complain with a sky like that?! (early September)
I made it here! Right now I have the luxury of staying at my Nan's house in Benavente... but I will be moving to Coimbra on either Monday or Tuesday. It's exciting stuff but there are a few things about Portugal that I have noticed. It's a lot slower paced than England. For example, yesterday I went out at 10 to sort out a bank account, Portuguese phone and Internet. Now this wouldn't take long in England... I'd probably be finished by lunchtime... In Portugal... we finished at 7pm! This is partly due to all the shops closing for lunch. Now this to me is just odd... since getting a lunch break in England is hard enough sometimes! The good news is that everything was finished and all I have to do now is register with the Uni... get a permit... and find somewhere nice to live =). I'm really looking forward to when all the organising is over and I can sit back with a sumol and a pastais de nata! (Tango and cream cake)
The other thing I have noticed about Portuguese life... is that driving is for maniacs. I'm a nervous driver anyway... but here I’m a nervous pedestrian! It seems that a zebra crossing is a pretty design in the road, tailgating is just a way to check if you know the people in the car in front and dodging the tomatoes that fly out of delivery trucks is aa well learnt a lesson as walking. Therefore buses, trains and trams are my options. But I’ll be travelling on them soon so I'll let you know how that goes!
O and this is a 'salamander' aka 'central heating?'. Either way you burn things in it like a proper pyromaniac should =)
The other thing I learnt is that the Portuguese people are really lovely and friendly so far. They really do try to help you most of the time... Hopefully this will be the same in Coimbra since I'm gonna need all the help I can get! Also the weather is as hot a topic here as it is in England and the Portuguese really do appreciate a cup of English tea =). Although a queen of Portugal first introduced the English to tea drinking in the olden days. The court laughed at her and gave her beer! So maybe our cultures aren't so different... especially since there's Sagres and Superbock nearly everywhere!
Ninotchka
Having a hug from mum.
Also more recently my nan has taken it upon herself to 'rescue' a stray cat from the streets. This cat is lovely and has beautiful soft fur and doesn't scratch or bite you. (Stephand Amanda would love her!) Needless to say she's a new member of the family who has a completely unpronouncable name (Nin-otch-ka) and will soon be having kittens! I'll post the pictures as soon as we get them. I reckon it will be soon though because she is huuuge and doesn't seem to know what to do with herself! Taking in strays form the street seems to be something that happens a lot in this village because there are so many strays out there. It seems to be part of the culture really, like picking flowers to bring home.
This is Stevey-bear =) A great boyfriend substitute!
Well it certainly was a couple of emotional days near the end! I really am going to miss England and all my lovely friends, family and boyfriend. A couple of days before leaving we all got to the pub and I said my goodbyes... and it felt like I wouldn't be seeing some of these people for years! Keeping things in perspective now though I see that it's only 3 and a half months to go... and these first few days have already gone fast! I didn't expect cards and pressies so thank you very much to everyone that gave me things! And you are the people I will blame for what happened at the airport =P.
I rolled up with my luggage and of course it was well over. Luckily the man took pity on me and let me move things from my hand luggage to my main luggage without handing out a fine =). Lovely English man with white hair and glasses that works for TAP. I was 7 kgs over on my hand luggage and 1kg over on my big bag, but honestly I only packed the essentials! So my piece of advice for anyone going on an Erasmus year is: take a friend! Then you can split the baggage between you :) If not then pack light. Things like toothpaste and shampoo can be bought there. I didn't pack any of these things and it was still over so if all else fails... flutter your eyelashes or beg!
Click the link above for a live countdown to when I'm home for Christmas! Not that I'm counting ;)
Saying goodbyes at the airport is depressing. Really sad and I did cry... a lot! The thing is... you walk through to departures and there's a lady there waiting to check your ticket! I bet she sees depressed people all the time... Poor woman! However... the clever Heathrow people give you one way of stopping those tears... and it is the duty free!! Oooo... the shops. Oooo.. the spending. I felt better very quickly! In fact I didn't need to sit in the corner and cover my bleary eyes with a newspaper... I didn't care! I thought sod it... I have to go so I might as well take presents and sod the heavy bags too! I got on the plane fine and crammed my entire luggage in the over head boxes. I was sat next to the window so I could see everything go tiny but I couldn't stop the smoochy couple in front of me. I missed Stevey... and it was all their fault! But then I thought to myself... meh... the man looks like a gorilla... and is a schlurpy loud kisser... so maybe I’m luckier than the couple in front after all!
I stuck my nose in a book the whole way (thank you Bridie!) and got lost in the trashiest most brilliant novel about a Romeo and Juliet style drama! We were given indistinguishable meat in a sandwich... but pudding was pineapple jelly so I liked that :) The flight was brilliant... no turbulence for the whole 493 miles. So, Mr. Pilot, I love you. And waiting for me was my Nan and friend Laura. I was so happy to see them! Especially since I hadn't seen my Nan since April. Then we were off and out and the Portugal story begins!
