Portugal with Erasmus

We don't waste our time here, we don't only explore the city but also villages near by. It's interesting to see all the houses diffrent and peoples gardens filled with lemon and orange trees. From what we have seen portuguese really appreciate having there own vegetables and fruits. The oranges here taste amazing we love to squeeze fresh orange juice everyday for breakfast and sprinkle a little bit of lemon on fish from Atlantic Ocean.

Gondomar is a city that belongs to the municipality of Porto and it is known for being the capital of filigree and goldsmith. Cindor, the school that we go to, teaches making jewelery especially in those techniques. Today we saw the biggest filigree heart in the world and we were able to talk to the producers of filigree. The heart is huge and weights 23kg! The biggest filigree heart in the world!

The Dom Luis I Bridge is perfect place for evening walk. It is lit so at night the lights reflect on Douro river. The bri From the bridge there is a wonderful panoramic view. The bridge connects a vineyard district Villa Nova de Gaia with Porto. Author of the Dom Luis I Bridge project was a student of Eiffel, Francois Gustave Theophile Syrig.

After a long day of school and exploring the city we like to go on walks after dinner. For us in Portugal anywhere you go there is a breathtaking view, every little street is diffrent and each house has it's own style. All the time you go either up or down the hill. Walks like that can be tiring so you can always go to a cafe-snack bar that are everywhere. Trust us you don't have to look for them long.

When it gets hot we only go to the beach, on weekend we spend the whole days there and on week days we go straight after school. We spend our time at the beach tanning, then swimming in the ocean and jumping through the waves... when the day ends and the sun starts setting we enjoy the view. When it's not that hot anymore we love to play volleyball with new met people. Last time we even met polish girls that where also on erasmus, after talking with them we met portuguese and they told us so much about Porto and places we have to see. From the place we live we have only thirty minutes by metro! On more windy days there is a lot of surfers on the beach, because there is a lot of surfing schools near the beach. The beach we go to is in Matoshinios near Porto, if you ever go to Porto you have to visit Matoshinios!

Today we went to a beautiful beach near river Douro in Gondomar that belongs to the municipality of Porto. It was such a hot day, but sadly we coudn't go into the water because we had still a little cough after swimming in the Ocean last week☺We went on a long walk by the river and enjoyed the nature around us. After we drank cold lemonade with our hosts in a bar near the beach. When we were going back home, we stopped to see the organization that Carlos volonteers to. He showed us everything, the training room, the office... He gave us a lot of gifts from the organization.

Today we are celebrating the day of Europe, we are very thankful for living in Europe, because that is why we are now in Portugal and we can experience this wonderful adventure of getting to know new cultures, new food, new people, even a diffrent education system! We feel welcome here. It is great that European Union gives young people so much opportunities.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon we decided to take a trip to the castle. It was very hot, so we had to put on a ton of sunscreen, in opposite way we would look like shrimps, because here the sun is much stronger then in Poland so you have to protect your skin and eyes. The drive took us less then an hour from Rio Tinto (a town near Porto) to Gumaraes, and we arrived to the monumental castle. The castle was built in the 10th century to defend the monastery. Inside of that edifice was presented history of Portugal. It was really interesting, because this small country has huge history.

While we were at the beach with our hosts, they decided to suprise us and reserved a table in a beutiful portuguese restaurant. As we were walking towards the restaurant they also took us for the best eclairs in Porto. At the restaurant we tried a lot of diffrent dishes, the waiters were bringing various food to our table. They were only appetizers before our main dish which included huge, tasty salmon. We joyfully spent the evening and came back home with full tummies☻☺

Coffee is an inherent element of Portuguese. We have to admit that this coffee is the best coffee we have ever drank, it's nothing strange because it's the best coffee in Europe. If you ask for coffee you will always get an espresso. The coffee here is also really cheap in a cafeteria near our bus stop that we visit pretty often it costs 65 cents, and nata that is also very popular and typical for Portugal costs only 70 cents. Nata is french dough filled with something similar like vanilla pudding, often portuguese sprinkile a little bit of cinnamon on top. We're addicted to it! Portuguese love going out to cafes, it's a part of their routine, that's also why coffee here is so unexpensive, people go there a few times a day.

This wednesday we had only 2 hours of jewelry class and our teacher was telling us how to make a wedding ring, it's a very interesting process but not as easy as it looks. He saw how fascinated we were with the process so he suggested that we can come later for his next lessons. Of course we waited and came in order to create our own rings! The first ring we made with our techer, Ernesto. He showed us step by step and then before creating them by ourselves he measured our ring-finger. Two of the steps were a little bit dangerous, one of then required using 65 degrees celsius acid, in the second step using fire was necessary, we had to light a gas burner and melt the metal to join the two ends of our wire. Now we have a beautiful souvenir for the rest of our lifes!

We were lucky enough to get invited to lunch at Marta´s grandparents house! On Sunday we went to the city to visit her family, even dough they didn´t know english the athmosphere was incredible we felt like we are a part of the family! After a huge lunch we went on a walk around the neighbourhood and came back for birthday cake because it was Marta´s sister 23rd birthday! It was an exiting day for us and when we came back home we were tired so we orderd pizza for dinner.

At 12:30 pm our driver was waiting for us in front of our apartment. He doesn´t speak english so the only words we spoke with him were "bom dia" which means good morning and "obrigada" which means thank you :). We arrived at school at lunch time so we had a big, delacious meal and went for our english class. At the english class everybody introduced themselfes to us and we introduced ourselfes to them. We played interesting games and learned useful things in english. After english lessons we had jewelry class that was amazing, the teacher taught us how to make a wire!

On our first day in Porto we met Marta. She took us to one of the best chinese restaurant, then we went on a walk to the city centere with our polish teacher and explored the city. After a long walk Carlos took us to the Atlantic Ocean! It was amazing, we had a nice weather and saw huge waves and palm trees. We thought that after seeing the ocean we are going home, but Carlos took us to a beautiful spot where we had a breathtaking panoramic view of Porto and the Douro river. Carlos spontaniously decided to take us shopping and then eat pizza at Pizza Hut! It was a exhausting day but satisfying.

 We began our trip on Sunday afternoon, we had a bus from Poznan to Warsaw. When we arrived in Warsaw we went to the Chopin airport and had a little shopping there at Victoria´s Secret. At 8:50 pm we had a plane to Porto and arrived 00:10 am! The flight went by really fast because first we were admiring the beutiful view from our window and then we fell asleep. Our host, Carlos, picked us up from the airport and when we came home he showed us the apartment. We weren´t expecting our room to be that big and comfortable, we have even a private bathroom! We were very impressed.