Hotel Oslo Coimbra

Arrived after a short uneventful journey. Campsite similar. Weather changeable.

Tourist sites do not always live up to the flowery language used in the brochures eg. "Musicological Nucleus of the Salt" turned out to be a Musee de Sel. We did not go.

The local beauty spots, like every where else, that we did go to were covered with ingrained litter.
We are moving on tomorrow.

... plastic bottles around the edges. They were obviously expecting stormy weather. They left great heaps of rubbish all over the site.

We visited Aveiro the nearest town which lived up to its publicity we took the one photograph of their famous boats which was all the brochure had to offer.

We have become a novelty attraction as there are no other British around. After the activities of the weekend we moved on.

... city of Coimbra. The town is very hilly and is divided into the low town, where the shops are, and the high town, with its narrow cobbled streets, where there are two cathedrals (the Old Cathedral, 12th century, and the New Cathedral, a mere 17th century), and also the University, founded in 1290, so it's even older than Oxford or Cambridge. The oldest existing university buildings date back to 1540 ...

... 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 Portugal was a student-standard place with all the basics we needed to survive. We didn't complain until the winter came and we suddenly noticed ...

... tänaseni näha mosaiikpõrandaid ning mitmete ehitiste vundamente. Osad nendest on nüüdseks saanud algse kuju, ehk siis vundament on originaal, kuid peale ehitatud osa on valgest kivist, et välja tuua kontrast kuipalju alustaladest on säilinud. Vanasti elati väga-väga suurejooneliselt, saime jälle kinnituse. Kindlasti tasub seal ära käia, sissepääs on kõigest 3€, mis sisaldab varemete ja muuseumi külastust.

... Kõikidel inimestel oli käes palmioks, kirikuisa pidas loengut ja inimesed kordasid aeg-ajalt tema järgi mingeid sõnu.

Algselt plaanisime Coimbras veeta ka öö, kuid kuna me polnud midagi broneerinud ja jätsime endale nö lahtised käed, siis kohapeal olles tundus see väga mõistlik otsus olevat. Peale mõningast luusimist istusime autosse ja sõitsime edasi. Ilmselt nädala sees, kui kõik üliõpilased on ka kohal ja hängivad tänavatel, on seal linnas rohkem melu ja elu.

... of vantage points. The students here must be in fabulous shape as the streets are all cobblestone and incredibly hilly (mostly without any signage of course). We stopped at what we figured must be the popular cafe and bar area for a 1 Euro beer and some student watching. After waiting patiently for our second wind, we headed out to find the stadium where a traditional "fado" concert was being put on for the tourists as it ...

it was great to stop in a smaller city and see all the culture of coimbra, centred around its famous university which the locals are so proud of. i then moved on to oporto, another picturesque hillside city, full of more museums, and the parks and riverside where also fun to explore.

... a friend, and on the bus we met two nursing students who live there. They were very friendly, took us to their house, fed us dinner, and gave us a place to sleep.

Now I'm in Coimbra, and I came here to see a forest. I should actually be going now to catch my bus. If this internet connection weren't so slow this letter would be longer. It took me a whole hour to read the 15 letters I had (50 minutes waiting, 10 minutes reading). More later