Bon Voyage & Bon Appétit

 With travelling for four months, I’ve now realized that our trip isn’t only a vacation, it also has to become a lifestyle. It’s just not sustainable to sightsee everyday for nine hours and eat out every meal… and we still have real life responsibilities to attend to. In that spirit, this morning we spent an hour or so in a lovely Coimbra café, Nau Coffee, working on job applications and school documents. To power us, I had a cappuccino, Liam a chai latte, and we had a late pastel de nata between us. A nice working set up After our morning working session, we spent the afternoon exploring the city some more. We first visited some Coimbra University buildings. This university is the oldest in Portugal and has beautiful grounds spread throughout the city. One of the oldest university buildings In the university square Walking down the campus stairs The Coimbra University Faculty of Medicine When exploring, we came across a beautiful house just outside the university gardens. We paid ...

Today we travelled from Lisbon to Coimbra! Coimbra is known as the “Oxford” of Portugal as it has the oldest University in the whole country, dating back to 1537. After some no-show buses, we eventually made to our hostel which is right in the centre of Coimbra, next to the Sé Velha (or “the Old Cathedral”). This lovely church dates back to the year 1146 and has beautiful azulejos decorating the inside.  Sé Velha Walking through the church courtyard Beautiful azulejos on the walls  More lovely decorations We then wandered to the San Sebastián Aqueduct and to the Coimbra University Botanical Gardens. Walking past the aqueduct Entering into the botanical gardens The gardens were absolutely stunning! Their main purpose is to serve the student population and supplement in the learning of biology and botany. There are various plaques throughout providing information and interesting facts about the plants and their history in the garden.  Little paths through the garden For ins...