Last weekend I went to Portugal with 52 Erasmus students, the majority of them was from UK and the States. There were 48 girls and 5 guys altogether. The proportion wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t great either but there were at least a few guys not like in my Statistics classes. Anyway, the trip was fab!!!

1^st day: we left Salamanca in the afternoon and after a few hours on the coach arrived to Coimbra. Having checked-in in a 3* hotel, we went to a typical student Portuguese restaurant and enjoyed scrumptious Bacalao con nata (Cod in a creamy sauce – famous Portuguese dish) and Carne a la Portuguesa (not really sure now what was it but I reckon pork or beef with potatoes, olives and some other veg) with a plenty of (cheap meaning not really good but neither poisonous) wine. After the feast we went to one of Erasmus bars for a few chupitos (shots of vodka, rum, absinth, etc. for the price of 1-2E usually) and later to a disco and then others went to another disco probably – I don’t really know, I was off about 3 a.m. All in all, the night was so much fun!

2^nd day: in the morning we visited University and Cathedral in Coimbra and then headed to Lisbon. To be honest, Coimbra is one of my favourites cities in Portugal, pretty much because it’s a student city with the oldest University in the country like Salamanca. On the way to Lisbon we visited Batalha to see its Monastery. In Lisbon we partied as hard as in Coimbra if not even harder. We went to Barrio Alto, the district full of pubs to begin with and later in smaller groups to some discos.

3^rd day: Belem, Sintra, Caracais, Lisbon. What I enjoyed most was Boca de Infierno, the outermost western part of the Europe and a beach in Caracais. And yes, I did swim in the ocean. Water was pretty warm although it was almost mid-October! It´s incredible but true! In Caracais too, Maria and Karen and I had to run away from a British restaurant. The waiter had told us that the service was quick and there’s no reason to worry. Okay, so we sat down and waited for our burgers and beans’n’toast. Having waited 10-15 minutes and having nibbled our starter we realized that it had been time to go back on the bus. Oopsie… I went to the trip organizer and asked if it was possible to wait for us 10 minutes. The answer was (obviously) “no”. So we left 5E for the starter and ran away. I didn’t feel good with what we had done and, what is more, I was dying of a hunger. Luckily I managed to eat some fast-food when we were back in Lisbon.

4^th day: We left Lisbon in the morning and went to Fatima to pray for our sins. Although it was a day before 13^th of a month, the place wasn’t really busy. We stayed there about 2 hrs and then headed back to Salamanca. The same day a few people from the trip went to Irish Rover (the most popular Erasmus bar in Salamanca) to socialize more. I didn’t. I was dead and had caught a cold in Portugal which I still ‘enjoy’ now. But the trip was worth the money (and damage to my health)!!!

It’s all for today. ¡Chao!