Quatro meses em Porto
Erasmus ICT in Porto, Portugal.
Some facts and knowledge about Portugal!
Dear followers,
Now already one month further after my last post, here am I again.
Last month was again a great sunny one, I spent almost every sunset at the beach, not always with a girl, but surfing. Waves here are like fun every day. Sometimes big ones, than I take out a 7.10 funboard and sometimes smaller ones, perfect for a long board. This weekend we will sit together with the surfclub organisation to organise another Erasmus party at the beach, I’ll make my “tasteful” lasagne as diner. So big party incoming again, you’ve been warned!
Algarve:
From 27 April - 1 may we went with ESN-Porto to the algarves, south of Portugal. Known as top-1 holiday destinations for Portuguese people (compare it with the local coast in your country). First day was great weather, we discovered a private beach near our 4 star hotel, which was really nice. The second day our sun didn’t want to rise so we took another direction than our schedule said and went to visit Faro City. Not really worth it I would say, just a typical tourist city like Albufeira, were we were staying. After our bus trip back to the hotel we ate at a Dutch bar, some “vleeskroket and Frikandel” which made our day! (only the price was a hit in the face, 2.25/piece). The rest of the weekend was most partying, drinking, … (Some facts: 400 Erasmus students in 2 hotels, 200 from Porto, National Erasmus Meeting, Every evening big party’s in big clubs, Albufeira = Portuguese Bödrum!)
Queima das Fitas:
I will keep this short, The Queima das Fitas (Portuguese for Burning of the Ribbons) is a traditional festivity of the students of some Portuguese universities. During every night of the week a series of concerts takes place on the Queimódromo, next to the city’s park; here it’s also a tradition for the students in the second last year to erect small tents where alcoholic beverages are sold in order to finance the trip that takes place during the last year of their course. It’s comparable with a summer festival in Belgium (like polé polé or marktrock, it has 3 stages) (here is the official spot with bands).
Schoolwork:
Yes, you hear it good, there is still lots of school work to do here as well. I’m every day in the week from 11:00 till 17:00 at my office at ISEP, working around my final project and writing parts of my thesis. At the moment I made a web interface, written in PHP, where people from a factory can login and create/start/stop experiments with a remote 3 phase induction motor. The problem we had this week is that the factory where we work for, doesn’t want to release their driver software of the motor, so we had to make an alternative: We keep the same setup but use a dynamic motor with some database data set to “imitate” the actual motor. At the moment I’m writing a tcp multi-threading server - client model in C# to connect the web interface with the motor driver. Still have some weeks left, so I hope I can finish this project with some results.
What is all that noise about Porto? … See it here why I do my Erasmus in this sparkling city!
Hey you over there,
First of all sorry I didn’t update this for a while, but that only says one thing, I’m really having fun over here! So last time we spoke I went to Ovar, the carnival thing. Now, almost one month further the sun is shining even harder and the degrees keep going up, what’s not bad of course! (Already feeling cold when it’s going under the 20°).
- Surf: Maybe you know, maybe not, but I’m really into surf last days, I did a starter package with Onda Pura (great surf school, cheap lessons, great materials) and it seems that I learn pretty quick. The waves here in the Atlantic Ocean are just stunning! (most days over 7 feet) Matosinhos, the place where I surf is great for learning cause it’s near the harbour bay, so proper timed waves and no rocks/corals! Also they offered me a public relations job at their school; They are social and friendly people and we are having lots of fun together. Oh and next week (Friday the 15th) we throw a big beach barbecue, everyone is welcome!
- Valencia: Last month, Silke, Sofie and me booked cheap Ryanair tickets for 4 days Valencia (1-2-3-4 April). Today, I’m just back from that lovely Spanish city! It has an old historical centre, surrounded by an old river bedding what’s now a big park. We were supposed to do CouchSurfing (Community of people who travel around the world and crash on different people’s couches, NO money but in return you give/get friendship, food or guidance.) but our host couldn’t receive us last minute. So we booked 3 nights in different Youth Hostels and only lost 45€ for it, so not that bad. As pictures speak more than words: you can see them Here.
To shorten up; The things we did:
We had a great weekend I think, with good weather and after landing in Porto again, the sun was smiling at us as well! Pictures Here!
See you in my next blog post, lovely readers!
Last week, Monday, we went to Ovar (small city in the district of Aveiro) to celebrate carnival which is a real party here in Portugal, part-cause of it’s mass inhabitants of Brazil. The city was converged like a festival place (pukkelpop/werchter) and there were more then 10.000 participants that night! (it’s actually a whole week carnival here)
That weekend my Belgium friends were visiting me as well, we did some beach walking, had some city sightseeing and of course proper meals and lots of drinks!
Before taking of to Ovar ESN (our Erasmus Organisation, which is really awesome and active) organised a diner, 200 ESN’ers joined us for a great meal inclusive drinks, which was great to get in the mood. I was dressed up as a Monk, as you can see on my Facebook Profile.
It was a great great Evening/morning but the only problem was the organisation of trains; some of my friends couldn’t get in Ovar cause of to many people compared with to less trains. Also to get back we had quite problems and I was sleeping in a great bed at around 10.00!
The other days of the week I did the regular things here like; Surfing, going to house party’s, Piolho, … and YES, to school as well! (My project is up to date and I handed in the first part of my thesis for a check-up).
Yesterday after a lovely day with a lovely person I went to the hairdresser (7 Euro for wash-wash-cut-wash-dry, not expensive) but their skills really suck! he didn’t know how to thick our my hair, so he just started to shorten, shorten and shorten. The result you can see on the picture below. but hey … hair grows back no ?
See you around! (As promised! Rafael and Pedro thanks for reading ;))
Cheers!
Woops, forgot I got this thing running as well …
To open I want to say, people: don’t hesitate to go on Erasmus to Porto! I’m one month here now and this city stole my heart already.
Last weeks I did some thesis/project work on days and visited some bars/clubs at night. I also managed with my mentor in Belgium so I can stay one month longer here, of course if my parents agree with this :)
To give this post some kind of content I’ll give some local habits and facts:
I really need to get dressed and start moving to the sea for my next surf course. To end, The weather is 20 degrees here and the sun is shinning!
See you later. Beijinhos
I had a really nice week already. Wednesday I went with another Belgian girl, a hollandaise and 2 Irish girls to have a diner at Espinho (15min with train from Porto - a beach town). After tasting some great local dishes we did some beach walking and enjoyed the sound of the big waves with some Super Bock.
Friday evening after eating a Portoguese cachorro I went out for my first night in Porto, it was really nice, there is a place in the middle of the city called, Piolio, all students come together there and drink and chat, it’s like a big street event. (it’s from thursday - saturday, every week, and drinks are like crazy cheap - gintonic:2,5€ - there are photos in my album). The day after I leave to your imagination … :D
In Belgium it was mostly - lazy Sundays - but actually I spend this one very active over here. We went with a small group to Guimaraes (the city where Portugal is born, it has ancient castle and some nice views). It was actually raining a bit but we had a good Sunday with lots of walking. Don’t forget to check out the pictures … and uh … who wants to be my valentine date?
Hello there far far away,
Here is a short report of my first days in Porto, I’ll write my blog in English so everyone can have a look and feel of my doings, and also to improve my English writing skills here.
This weekend I moved in with Patricia and Rui, a very social and friendly Portuguese couple. I got my own room/bathroom that I share with a Bulgarian girl for the moment (from the end of February she will swap with a Belgian girl). I did some sightseeing in centro histórico (downtown Porto, my place is in the north of Porto) Friday and Saturday, which you could see on my Blog Photos.
Sunday evening I went to a social “couch-surf” event with my Portuguese family, it was very pleasant evening with food & drinks.
This morning I took a bus ride to my school and after meeting some professors and getting a introduction of my thesis and project I went to the local metro office to apply for a monthly metro/bus recibo, with great success, I got a pass where I can travel whole Porto with -from coast to centro, -from house to school, …
Tomorrow I’ll go to the swimming pool to “apply” for a swimming recibo (here in porto it’s not that easy to go swim, you need a healthcare proof and additional documents to get a swimming possibility) and I’ll start doing some research for my project.
See you later, Alligator …
This will be my Erasmus blog for the next 4 months. Photos are viewable here:
I’ll post more later. Beijinhos!
