{"id":1495,"date":"2016-09-21T08:56:23","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T12:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web1prod.sunflowerit.ca\/wordpress\/auto-draft\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T15:08:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T19:08:33","slug":"the-university-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sunflowerit.ca\/travel\/other-trips\/europe2016\/trips-europe\/the-university-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The University life…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2016.09.17 (Porto – Coimbra)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After our breakfast at the hotel, we took Porto\u2019s metro one last time to the train station. Upon boarding the train, we enjoyed seeing passengers arguing that someone else were in their seats, while some others were realizing they were in the wrong carriage. Flash back to our last trip in UK last year, in York where we ended up on the wrong train! The train ride to Coimbra was nice. We were warned that Coimbra had two train stations appropriately named \u201cA\u0385 and \u2018B\u201d. Naturally, we arrived at \u201cB\u201d then we needed to transfer train to get to \u201cA\u201d. Jenny was seeking to get confirmation of the platform but the agent was not understanding her quite well. Yesterday evening in Porto, at the restaurant Jenny requested from our waiter \u0385Just the bill please\u201d\u2026 the waiter brought us a beer instead! Our language struggle continues somewhat!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our hotel was only few minutes walking from the train station. After settling into our room, we booked our accommodation for our next town: Nazare. We even managed to book our bus tickets and pay online thanks to PayPal. I was thankful that I had my PayPal password available in my Keypass2 database. After our next travel destination logistics confirmed, we took a stroll up to the old University campus. Coimbra is home of one of the oldest universities in continuous operation in the world. It was established in 1290 in Lisbon and it went through a number of relocations until it was moved permanently to Coimbra in 1537. Shortly after our arrival in Porto, we discovered that University student dress similarly to Harry Potter but with a black cape. They are easily noticeable while wandering the streets. On the campus, we stumbled on a wedding\u2026 after all it is Saturday. We had a great seafood supper in a small restaurant where each plate coming out of the kitchen appeared unique.<\/p>\n\n\n