Student Exchange Report

Home University:
Country of Destination:
Exchange Program:
Exchange University:
Duration:
Teaching language:
Student Name:
E-mail address:
Other:
Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering
Portugal, Lisbon
Erasmus Exchange Program
Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Instituto Superior Técnico
Second semester 2012-2013
English
Joni Jormanainen
[email protected]
The report can be published on the internet with contact information
Student Exchange Report
Table of Contents
1. Before the Exchange.........................................................................................................................3
2. Arrival and EILC Course..................................................................................................................4
3. Lisbon............................................................................................................................................... 4
4. Accommodation ...............................................................................................................................7
5. School and Studies........................................................................................................................... 8
6. Free Time .........................................................................................................................................9
7. Summary.........................................................................................................................................11
1. Before the Exchange
The first and probably also the most difficult task one has to do when considering going
abroad to study, is to decide which country to go to. For me though, that decision was not that hard
to make. First of all, I wanted to stay in Europe. Secondly, I wanted to go to a warm place. And
finally, after talking to a good friend of mine that had been on an exchange the previous year, my
decision was more or less already made. I wanted to go to Portugal.
The School of Electrical Engineering at Aalto University has a bilateral agreement with
Instituto Superior Técnico, which is part of Universidade de Lisboa in Lisbon. Therefore it was
very easy and straightforward for me to apply for an exchange at IST.
The course offerings at IST are good, but perhaps not as vast as at Aalto. The university's
web pages are quite okay. All courses and their descriptions as well as information about all master
and bachelor programs can be found there (http://www.ist.utl.pt/en/education/).
After checking the courses and deciding which ones to take, all I had to do was to fill in the
exchange documents that I was given from my exchange coordinator at my home university, as well
as the online exchange documents for IST. One thing that is great with IST is that the courses you
have chosen can easily be replaced later. I started at IST at the beginning of February and I could
still change my courses in the middle of March. However, it is beneficial to look at the courses
beforehand in order to make a study plan. It is also beneficial to know which of the courses that are
interesting and if they perhaps could be suitable for replacement of some of the originally chosen
ones, in case you change your mind. I chose my courses by going to the first lecture of all the
courses that I thought were interesting. Then I made up my mind.
When it comes to required languages for applying to Portugal you only need to have the
English language certificate from Kielikeskus and give it to your exchange coordinator in order to
apply. You do not need to know any Portuguese in advance, I did not. However, I strongly
recommend that if you do not speak any Portuguese, apply for the EU sponsored European
Intensive Language Course. The EILC course is about three weeks long and usually held a few
weeks before the schools starts. This year there were two courses for beginners, one in Coimbra and
one in Évora. They were held in January and February respectively. I participated in the one at
Évora and afterwards I could understand and speak a little Portuguese. You can ask for information
about the EILC course from your exchanges coordinator. I genuinely think the EILC course is worth
the extra effort, at least it was for me.
There are also Portuguese language courses held at IST. However, I did not take any of those
because the one that was offered was not for free (I think it was around 200€) and it was held at
19.00-21.00 in the evenings. But in retrospect it would have been smart to have taken it. Then I
could have further practiced my Portuguese skills, even though the course would have been mostly
repetition. At the same time I could also have met other exchange students at my university that did
not have the same courses as me.
Concerning the arrangement of an apartment for your stay, you do not need plan much
ahead. There is absolutely no need to book an apartment in advance as long as you reserve some
time, one to two weeks is enough, for apartment searching once you are in Lisbon. There are a lot of
apartments for exchange students in Lisbon and the best way is to search for an apartment there,
only then you can be sure what you will pay for. Lots of cheap hostels are available all around
Lisbon in you can stay whilst searching for an apartment. One popular hostel amongst exchange
students is the Yes Hostel which is located in the middle of downtown Lisbon
(http://www.yeshostels.com). Depending on the hostel, prices are from 8 to 15 euros per night.
However, if you do not have time search, then I can recommend the apartments from
Lisbon4u (http://www.lisbon4u.com/). I stayed at Green 1 and it was perfect. A friend of mine also
stayed there the year before. The drawback is that it is one of the more expensive ones you probably
will be able to find in Lisbon for exchange students, but it is money well spent. The view from the
balcony is absolutely amazing!
2. Arrival and EILC Course
I arrived in Lisbon the 20 of January, one day before the EILC course started and about a
month before the courses at IST started. I chose the EILC course in Évora because it was held at a
later time than the one in Coimbra. This way it was possible for me to finish all my January exams
at Aalto before the exchange. Coimbra is a bigger city in Portugal located about two hours to the
north of Lisbon, whilst Évora is a smaller and very old city one hour to the east of Lisbon.
Coimbra, Porto and Lisbon are the biggest student cities in Portugal, and for sure, there are more
things to do and the student life is more active in Coimbra than in Évora. But if you are considering
going on an exchange for the second semester it will probably not matter so much where you go
since there are no students in the universities at the time of the EILC courses. In Évora there were
only we the EILC course students and our teachers, no other students could be found in the whole
city. The city have about 50 000 inhabitants of which 10 000 lives inside the walls that surround the
old city and the castle. The University of Évora, where the EILC course was held, is located inside
the walls.
The lectures started between 9 and 10 in the morning and ended around 6 or 7 in the
evenings and the course was actually quite intensive. Everything you learned, you were supposed to
know to the next day. The first week was the most intense one and then it became easier towards the
end. During the course I went from not even knowing that the teacher spoke to me (yes, they started
speaking Portuguese already the second day), to actually answering her questions as well as reading
and understanding the texts in the course book correctly at the end. A few cultural trips were
included in the course as well as a traditional Portuguese dinner at the end after the written and oral
exams.
After the course the second semester began and everyone went to his or her exchange
university. From my EILC course we were 7 people that went to Lisbon. I shared a lot great
memories and had great times in Lisbon with my EILC friends.
3. Lisbon
After a successfully completed EILC course I went to Lisbon with some of the other course
students that also were going to study at universities in Lisbon. If you are travelling between cities
in Portugal I recommend using the busses instead of the trains. The busses are all very modern but
still very cheap. All have internet connection, air conditioning etc. the trains do not.
Lisbon is the biggest city and capital of Portugal. It is roughly the same size as Helsinki,
with about 550 000 inhabitants. It is also one of the oldest cities in the world and the oldest capital
city in the Western Europe predating cities like Rome, Paris and London. Lisbon is known for its
vide verity of architectural styles, the old trams dating back to the 1930s, the many viewpoints
called miradouros, the downtown area (which is taken into consideration by UNESCO for a World
Site Heritage status) Baixa and Chiado and Praça do Comércio, the castle Castelo de São Jorge
which has roots dating back several thousands of years, the old district Alfama, the tower Torre de
Belém built during the Age of Discoveries, and of course, the sunny weather and all the sandy
beaches.
My first impression of Lisbon however, was somewhat confusing. I remember that I could
not understand why there were beautiful and perfectly taken care of high-rise buildings next to disrepaired, decayed and even totally ruined ones. It was all a complete mess. But just a week later I
came to love it. I have simply not yet been in any other european city like Lisbon. No other city has
so much character as Lisbon. The houses, the architecture, the city plan, everything is so out of
order and completely opposite to what we are used to have here in Finland. It feels like anything is
okay to build in Lisbon, no building is simply not too vulgar not to be built. This, in combination
with the city's old history makes its architecture one of the most colourful ones in whole Europe.
Furthermore, the great hight differences throughout the city adds an incredible charm over it all.
Like Rome, Lisbon is built on 7 hills. There is actually only one flat road in Lisbon, the one
along the river Tejo, everything else is either up, or down (most of the time it feels like up). When
walking around on the streets of Lisbon one can easily see that is a very old historical European
city, especially in the old district Alfama. There are also a lot of monuments and statues with old
inscriptions that constantly pops up throughout the city. Those ones along the river in the direction
of Belém are very famous and the area is definitely worth a visit. It is from that part of Lisbon
where the explorers set of in their ships during the portuguese age of exploration.
The hills and the big differences in altitude allows for many viewpoints (or miradouros in
Portuguese) to open up all around the city. The views from the Miradouros are amazing. From some
you can see the whole Lisbon as well as to the other side of the river. The more prominent ones are
Miradouro de Santa Luzia and Miradouro das Portas do Sol in Alfama, Miradouro de São Pedro de
Alcantara and Miradouro de Santa Catarina in Bairro Alto and Miradouro de Graça in Graça.
The Alfama district with its wobbly streets, its trams, pastelerias and miradouros became
one of my favourite areas in Lisbon. All in all, the city layout is completely different to that what
we are used to here in Finland and just to walk around in the city is really enjoyable.
Apart from the miradouros, Lisbon is full of small snack bars and coffee places called
pastelerias. The Finnish people are amongst those that per year consume the most coffee per person
in the world, but with that said, the coffee culture in Portugal is still on a completely different level.
I think there has to be a pasteleria in every street in Lisbon. Just outside the apartment I lived in, on
a 400 meter long street, there were 5 pastelerias.
A typical Portuguese coffee is called uma bica or just um café and it is what we would call
an espresso. The taste however, is not the same. After tasting the Portuguese coffee, I found it hard
to event to consider the Finnish counterpart worthy of the name “coffee” at all. Depending on the
pasteleria a coffee would typically cost from 50 cents to 1 euro. Apart from the various kinds of
great coffees many different cakes and pastries and usually also many kinds of sandwiches can be
purchased. Many of the pastelerias even offered food, typically something with french fries and
meat.
One thing you can not miss, no matter which pasteleria you stumble upon, is the pastel de
nata. A pastel de nata is a Portuguese egg tart pastry. It is the the most common pastry in all of
Portugal. The original pastry is called Pastel de Belém which is only sold in Casa Pastéis de Belém,
a pastry bakery in Belém (which is a part of west Lisbon) with a long history. Thousands of Pastel
de Belém pastries are made there every day. It is definitely a place that everyone planning to liv in
Lisbon needs to visit.
The pastelerias plays an important role in the Portuguese culture, which after a while seems
quit obvious when you realize how often you sneak into one for a café duplo and a sandes mista.
The transport system in Lisbon works fine. I never had any problem with it. Just like
Helsinki, there are a lot of bus lines, trams, four metro lines, trains and boats on the river. All can be
utilized by purchasing a Lisboa Viva transport pass (35€ per month).
However, here I have to stress one very important point. The pace of life is not as rapid and
strict in Portugal as it is in Finland, nor as in the whole of northern Europe for that matter.
Personally, this is what I came to love the most about my exchange. I was never in a hurry
anywhere and it was impossible to be stressed about anything. For example, there were no
timetables for any of the bus lines. The only information available, was how frequently the bus ran.
So if you wanted to go somewhere you just went to the bus stop and waited, no need for any
running and so forth. The bus came when it came, there was noting to do about it. The relaxed
atmosphere in Lisbon and in the whole Portuguese society was something that I really learned a lot
from. To illustrate how relaxed atmosphere I talk about, I can tell you that the only clocks that I
could find, in the whole of Lisbon, that were working and that actually were on time, were the
digital clocks at the metro and train stations. I could not find any other clock on time, not even in
the university. Of course, the lectures started when they where scheduled to and on time (most of
the time) and working people started their work on time in the mornings, but the stress factor which
people in northern Europe so easily associates time with, was somehow completely non-existent.
The “Portuguese relaxedness” was something I genuinely enjoyed and I would definitely
recommend others to experience it as well.
As an exchange student in Lisbon I could not have picked a better place for my Erasmus.
There are around 4000 exchange students in Lisbon, it has a warm Mediterranean climate with the
most sun hours per year for any European capital and the beach is only 20 minutes away. Add to
this the low price levels compared to Finland and that the level of education at IST is quite okay.
The requirements, efforts and work that had to be done in the courses I had at IST, was not that
much different in comparison to that of what has been required by my courses at Aalto.
Coming from Helsinki, Lisbon is big enough to feel like a big city but still small enough to
feel cozy and homely. The metro takes you to almost any place in the city, it is quite fast and works
overall well. The network includes all of the interesting sites in the city and it even goes directly to
the airport, which is very convenient. Most often I used the metro, only rarely I took the bus.
The relatively low price levels compared to those of Finland were of course very welcomed
by Finnish exchange students in Portugal. In supermarkets almost everything was somewhat
cheaper than in Finland. Fruits and vegetables for example, were much cheaper. Especially Spanish
imported ones which also tasted better and seemed fresher than the Spanish ones we are used to get
from our local K or S markets. For vegetarians however, life is going to be harder in terms of food
compared to Finland. Portugal is very much a meat country and meat was not just cheaper but the
offerings were also generally speaking much vaster than that of Finnish supermarkets. When it
comes to beer, whine and soft drinks, it was ridiculously cheap compared to Finnish prices due to
the lack of alcohol and soft drink taxation. It was also cheaper to eat out at restaurants compared to
Finland. The food offerings in Lisbon definitely felt greater than that of Helsinki. Especially chinese
food and sushi were cheap. Several sushi restaurants had an all you can eat buffet for 10 euros. The
traditional Portuguese restaurants were also quite cheap. When we were eating out, we usually went
as a bigger group where everyone shared everything resulting in a full stomach for a total cost of
around 6 to 9 euros each, including drinks.
The Lisbon nightlife is concentrated to the areas Bairro Alto and Cais do Sodré. Bairro Alto
is a very old area with lots of small narrow streets filled with small bars, pubs and restaurants.
Totally there are probably hundreds of bars and restaurants put together. It is a very popular place
amongst exchange students as well as amongst locals. Near the Erasmus bars there is even a place
called the Erasmus Corner which works like a big meeting point for all Erasmus students. Every
time I went there I met at least 10 new people. The drinking culture in Bairro Alto is very different
to anywhere else, no-one really stays in the bars, instead everyone is enjoying their drink in the
streets. The streets are can be very crowded, especially on Friday and Saturday nights when the area
more ore less looks like a giant outdoor festival in between old buildings. Except from trying
different bars (or finding already visited ones) I really recommend to try some of the restaurants in
this area. I had one of my best steaks so far in a restaurant called Sul, right at the entrance of Bairro
Alto near Largo de Camões. Bairro Alto closes at 2pm on except on Fridays and Saturdays when it
closes at 3pm. After that people moves down towards the river to Cais do Sodré which is an area
where many night clubs are located. This area has an old and interesting history and it does never
really sleep. Here you can find some of the best bifana places in Lisbon.
A bifana is a Portuguese version of a hamburger or hot dog. It is basically a warm wheat bun
with a pork beef inside. There are two sorts of bifanas the ones where the beaf is grilled and the
ones where it is cooked and looks like it is “brushed” with some sort of sweet sauce. My favourite is
the latter one and my favourite place is on the left side just in front of LX Factory. Amazingly good
stuff, a definite must try.
Lastly, one of the main reasons to go to Lisbon for exchange is of course the weather. When
I was in Évora, the weather was for the most part (what I can remember) sunny with some clouds
and around 20 degrees celsius during the day. I remember sitting in t-skirts having coffee during the
lunch breaks. During the nights it was around 13 degrees. In Portugal however, they don't insulate
their buildings as we do in Finland. So during the winter period, December to March, it is very cold
inside. I remember coming to Lisbon in February and I had to sleep in sweatpants, sweater and
extra socks. Fortunately it did not last long and in March it started to get warmer and no extra
clothes were needed any more in order to be able to sleep. March on the other hand, is usually a
somewhat rainy month in Portugal. Generally it rains or drizzles for a month or so between summer
and winter and that happens to be in March, more or less. However, its not cold (but not worm
either) and at this time most people started going surfing already. After March I don't remember any
rainy day. In April the temperature was already around 25 degrees and it was mostly sunny. May
was sunny, almost cloud free and around 30 degrees. June to August were hot, mostly around 35
degrees. Some weekends were really hot, over 40 degrees and again most of the time no clouds
could be seen on the sky.
I does not take long to get used to the warmth and the sun, and later if it is below 30 you
kind of feel like its a coolish day. The beach weather starts from the end of March and after that its
just to enjoy.
View over downtown from Miradouro de Graça
4. Accommodation
As already mentioned, there is no need to stress about finding an apartment in Lisbon in
advance. There are a lot offerings and available apartments. I started to look for an apartment in
Lisbon the last week of my EILC course.
There are no equivalent to our HOAS or AYY student housing in Lisbon. Every exchange
student has to find his/her own apartment from the free market. The apartments can be found from
many different places, normally by searching the internet, from various Erasmus (or exchange
student) facebook pages, from the welcoming package that the school hands out, from the Erasmus
welcoming package (in Lisbon) and form the Aalto exchange package you receive when you get
selected for the exchange.
Personally I recommend joining some of the Erasmus or exchange student facebook pages.
A lot of offers are posted through facebook. I was searching apartments from the various welcome
packages I got. It was from the Aalto welcome package that I found my first apartment in Lisbon.
A friend of mine had been in Lisbon on exchange the year before and he recommended to
me the same company he had rented his apartment from. I can now further recommend it to
whoever is planning to study in Lisbon. The company is called lisbon4u
(http://www.lisbon4u.com/) and they speak english (at least so much that you can understand them).
I sent them a mail, asking for a room, and got one from the first of March. However if you want a
room from the same company you have to book much earlier, I was just lucky I got mine that late.
The Lisbon4u apartments are very well taken care of, they are clean and good looking so they are
booked fast.
I arrived in Lisbon in the middle of February and during the first three weeks I lived in an
apartment in Santa Apolónia. The apartment was from LXFlats
(http://filipebravo.thebu2iness.com/propertyLettingList.do?), and it was a really nice one too. The
landlord Filipe was a cool guy that spoke perfect english. The whole building was only for Erasmus
students. Several of the flats had nice private backyards. The place was only 50 meters from Santa
Apolónia train station, which also is a bus, metro and taxi station as well as a boat terminal. The
apartments where big, with 6-9 students in each, they had TV, internet, 2-3 showers each, washing
machine and even dishwashers. A cleaning lady was also included in the price which was from 200
to 400 euros if I remember correctly.
The reason why I did not stay in this apartment was that I had already payed the bocking fee
for the lisbon4u apartment which had been recommended to me by a good friend.
At lisbon4u I stayed in the Green1 apartment. The rent was quite expensive (375€ per month
plus water, electricity, gas and internet) compared to other exchange apartments which normally
cost from 150 to 350 euros per month with all fees included (though I doubt any Finn would
consider any of the 150 euro apartments due to the poor conditions they usually were in). The
lisbon4u apartment is perfect if you are studying at IST. The apartment is located in Estefânia,
which is in the middle between downtown and IST. It only took 10 minutes to walk to IST and
around 20 to walk to the centre or Bairro Alto. It has both the green, blue and yellow metro line at
walking distance, the supermarket is also close, but most importantly, its located on top of a hill and
the apartment is on the 6th floor with a huge balcony. From the balcony you could see the whole of
Lisbon, from the south to the north. It was very clean (a cleaning lady came twice a week) and the
internet connection was fast. There are 7 rooms in the apartment, the kitchen and shower were very
good. Opposite to this apartment there is another lisbon4u apartment, Green2 (with a mirror image
layout of Green1) so there were in total 14 erasmus student on that floor.
In general when it comes to choosing an apartment in Lisbon I would say that do not take
any apartment that is further north of IST or Alameda, you will anyway spend your free time in the
centre and in Bairro Alto, so choose one in Estefânia or anywhere between IST and downtown. The
area around Marquês de Pombal, Bairro Alto and downtown Lisbon are all very good places and a
lot of my exchange friends lived around these places. If you choose to live in Bairro Alto, keep in
mind that that part of Lisbon never sleeps.
If you are not taking any language course before the school starts or if you arrive in Lisbon
just a few days before the first lecture, then it can be good to check some apartment in advance. But
I recommend to go there a few weeks earlier and stay at a hostel whilst searching for one. Many
exchange students did that and that way they also got to meet each other. Some even stayed at
hostels the first week of school while still searching for the perfect apartment. Anyhow, you do not
need to worry about not getting a place to stay, there are a lot of places, the main thing is you are
happy with what you can find.
BBQ at Green1 balcony
5. School and Studies
The Instituto Superior Técnico has two campuses. The main campus is located on top of a
hill between the Alameda and Saldanha metro stations, in Lisbon. The other campus is located at
Taguspark, which is about 35 minutes outside Lisbon. There are free IST busses that goes between
IST Alameda and Taguspark campuses. The bus timetable can be found on IST's web page but
basically there where about four busses from Alameda to Taguspark before 12 o'clock, after that
only one in this direction the rest of the busses was from Taguspark back to Alameda.
It is important to check at which campus your courses are held at when you are choosing
you courses because sometime it is impossible to combine courses at the different locations due to
the bus transports. I chose courses that had lectures only on Tuesday in Taguspark so that I could
spend the whole day there and then the rest of the week in Alameda. The Industrial Engineering and
Management department for instance has all its courses in Taguspark. Some Industrial Management
courses are however provided by other departments at Alameda. Also, I think I was the only
exchange student that attended courses at Taguspark, at least I did not even once meet any nonportuguese in Taguspark. So if you want to practise your portuguese then Taguspark is the place to
be at.
However, you do not need to know portuguese in order to participate in courses at
Taguspark. All master level courses can be performed in English at IST. You just have to raise your
hand at the first lecture and say that you are an Erasmus student. Then the teacher is obligated to
give the lectures in English, as well as providing the course materials in English.
The courses I took at IST were the following:
–
–
–
Econ Economics, 6 ECTS credits, from the Energy Engineering and Management
Department (Alameda)
GEC Knowledge Engineering and Management, 6 ECTS credits, from Information
Systems and Computer Engineering Department (Alameda)
GECon Commercial and Strategic Management, 6 ECTS credits, from Information
Systems and Computer Engineering (Taguspark)
The requirements and workload of these course were about the same as for the Industrial
Management courses at Aalto. Originally I also intended to take some courses in Electrical
Engineering, the Renewable Sources and Distributed Power Generation for example, but I later
changed all my original courses. I went to some of the first lectures of the Renewable Sources and
Distributed Power Generation course. In that course the professor spoke first in English then in
Portuguese. His English was good and he was very knowledgeable in this field. The only problem
was that I could not attend the English calculation exercises because that particular one was only
held once a week, when I was in Taguspark, and nothing was put on the course web page. No
solutions nor lecture slides, nothing. The book was in Portuguese, so the only way to make the
course was to be present at the lectures and the exercises in order to take notes. This is a big
difference compared to Aalto, where everything is put on the course web page and you can study on
your own if you miss something. Many of the other electrical courses (and some other courses as
well) were laid up in the same manner. So keep in mind that most of the courses you take at IST,
you do not have any choice but to attend all lectures and exercises.
Also, it is important that you attend the first lectures of all the courses you are interested in
taking. Vital information is given in these first lectures and if you are the only one not speaking
English, this is the time to tell the teacher, otherwise it will most likely be held in Portuguese.
The Economics course I took is the equivalent to Aalto's TU-91.1001 Kansantaloustieteen
perusteet. It was organized for the first time at IST so the professor was very eager to teach. The
slides were up to date and to the point. This course had all materials and calculation exercises on its
web page. The professor spoke good English and also knew what he was talking about. The lectures
were divided between the professor and a bank director. The bank director, however, was the worst
lecturer I have ever had. The course material and especially the course book on the other hand were
probably the best materials I have ever had to work with. For the first time I actually read the whole
course book from the first to the last page. I really recommend this course if you are interested in
knowing more about micro and macro economics. If the same bank director is giving lectures, you
can just read the book instead.
The Knowledge Engineering and Management course was in English and partly held by the
students and partly by the professor. We were only four students attending the course. The structure
of the lectures were intended to simulate a company's management group. We were assigned two
presentations of our individual projects which each were based on course materials. We then graded
and evaluated each other. At the end there was a normal exam and the grades constituted of 50% of
exam and 50% of the presentations and summaries. It was a somewhat laborious course and it went
very deep into some of the knowledge engineering and management concepts. If you are interested
in how to manage knowledge in a company, then this is a good course.
The Commercial and Strategic Management course was a case study structured course. I
was the only non-portuguese speaking in the course and the professor did her best to speak in
English but practically I think most of the conversations went in Portuguese. We did four case
studies in groups of three. The case studies were quite laborious, each returned case was 30-50
pages long when the were finished. The lectures were also quit long, 5 hours with only one coffee
break. The course however provided many useful tools to take advantage of when making strategic
decisions for a company. The professor also provided me with English reading materials and books.
If you are interested in corporate strategy and decision making then this is a very good course to
have in your back pocket. Another nice thing about this course was that the teacher put us to work
with some relevant tasks and questionaries during the lectures, so you automatically stayed focused
on the problems and you could concretely see that you had learned something.
6. Free Time
Portugal is of course an obvious choice for anyone who is interested in surfing. Portugal is
the number one surfing paradise in Europe. I did not quite realize how big the surfing culture
actually is in Portugal before I got to experience it myself. There are many great and long sunny
beaches with good waves. In fact, the tallest wave ever to have been surfed, was surfed in Nazareth
northern Portugal last March.
Except from monitoring the various beach cams on the internet to find the perfect wave
conditions for surfing, there are many other things that Portugal has to offer. During my six and a
half months there I managed to see the whole south and middle Portugal. Algarve, the southernmost
part of Portugal is especially nice. We did a road trip there durning the Eastern Holidays and visited
all the cities from the Spanish border up along the coast line to Lisbon. We slept in hostels, which
are quite cheap, I think I never payed more that 13 € per night. Albufeira and Lagos are very
beautiful places and they are perhaps those that sticks out the most in my mind. I actually did
another road trip to Algarve later, just a week before returning to Finland. This time we only visited
smaller towns and beaches. We had taken a tent and and a barbecue with us so we could sleep on
the beaches and cook dinner in the evenings. During the days we tried various local delicacies at
different restaurants for lunch. If you have the opportunity, try the cataplana, a Portuguese seafood
dish. It is amazing!
A bit north of the southern coast line are some mountains with small roads and astonishing
views after which the plains of the famous wine district Alentejo opens up. In the middle of Portugal
lies many medieval towns and cities that often has a castle surrounded by huge walls in their
centres.
I also went to the volcanic island Madeira for one week. We stayed in a hostel in Funchal
and drove around on the island with a rented car. We drove on almost every road and visited all sites
from the easternmost point to the westernmost. We visited the old town and ate Peixe Espada Preto,
a local fish delicacy which tasted just like European perch. The only cool thing we missed was the
volcanic caves. As said the hight differences in Lisbon are quit big but on Madeira they are in a
completely different league. A car is a absolute must if you want to move around on the island.
Another good thing to know is that there are no beaches on Madeira, which is nice because there
less tourists around. Instead there are a lot of beautiful walking-trails. The nature is very varying
and Madeira is a very good destination for hiking.
In Finland I play floorball but no such thing exists in Portugal. There, only one sport is
important, and that is of course football. So, naturally I played some football and I also went to see
some football matches. Lisbon has two teams, Benfica and Sporting. I strongly remember Benfica
playing in the UEFA final against Chelsea and three hugh screens had been put up on Praça do
Comércio and thousands of people were watching, something that not really happens in Finland.
There are no equivalent to our UNISPORT, so to go to the gym was therefore quite
expensive in comparison, about 45€ per month with Erasmus discount. There are neither any place
to use bicycles or rollerblades in Lisbon, its too hilly, except from along the river. Neither is there
any good places to run in the city. To run you have to take the bus to the city park or then run along
the river.
There is, however, in Cascais free bikes to rent with which you can ride along the coastline
to Guincho beach. The views along that bike road are amazing. Guincho is a more windy beach
which makes it perfect for kite-surfing, windsurfing or just to tumble around in the big waves.
Overall I guess I spend a lot time on the beaches. Carcavelos is only 20 minutes by train
from Cais do Sodré train station and Costa de Caparica is just on the other side of the river. Both
are very cool places to spend an afternoon after school. Another amazing beach is Ursa, near Cabo
da Roca, the westernmost part of continental Europe. I also spend a week in the surf town Peniche.
From there we took a boat to the island Berlengas, or the “seagull” island since is was full of
nesting seagulls. On Berlengas was a crazy hot beach. It is completely closed from any wind and
with the sun shining its literally like a sauna. There we also visited some caves with a smaller boat
and an old fort, Forte de São João Baptista das Berlengas.
Lisbon has many sites to see as already mentioned, but besides them I feel like I should
mention Aqueduto das Águas Livres a 65 meter high aqueduct in the middle of Lisbon, the Palácio
Nacional da Pena and the other palaces in Sintra, the February Lisbon festival, the one month
summer festival in Lisbon in June, the fado concerts in Alfama, and of course the people and the
relaxed atmosphere.
One thing I regret though, is that I did not have time to visit the northern parts nor the cities
there. Friends told me that Porto was beautiful, Averio as well and that Coimbra is full of students. I
guess that one semester is not enough to see the whole country.
Me on top of Madeira
7. Summary
I had an awesome time in Portugal. The first and main thing that comes to my mind is of
course all cool people and great friends that I made there. Lisbon is an excellent city for exchange
students. There are a lot of exchange students there from all over the world, so it is fairly easy to
meet people and get friends from all continents. Personally I formed great friendships with the
people I met at the EILC course in Évora and especially with those who later also went to study in
Lisbon.
The language of communication during my ERASMUS was mostly English. When hanging
out with other exchange students from so many different countries the only practically working
language is English. Because of that I did not learn as much Portuguese as I would have wanted to.
Still, my Portuguese was good enough for daily and common small talk conversations.
Since I got back I have been told by my friends that I am now a much more relaxed and
openminded person. How much truth there is in that, I can not really tell. What I do know is that I
miss the times I had with my friends, I miss the sun, the beaches, the warmth, everything, and if I
could, I would go back in a flash. To go on an exchange is definitely worth every second, and no
matter what country you decide to go to, you will come home with memories that won't ever fade
away.