Portugal-Universidade do Porto, Portugal

In the last entry, I introduced my friend Magda, with whom I have already taken a few trips. Although Portugal has many exciting places to explore, on our first trip we took the Flixbus to Vigo, which is just over the Spanish border. The harbour town doesn't have too much to offer other than a very small historical centre and an impressive fish market and a container port, but it was recommended to us as a destination because of its proximity to the nature preserves Illas Ciés and Ons. On our arrival day, we mostly enjoyed the view from the Castro over the city and the sea, did a short exploration of the city and then continued to the nearby town of Redondela, where our accommodation was located. In the evening we just sat down for a long time and shared our life stories, watching the children play and adults drink red wine. The next morning, after a 90-minute ferry ride, we landed on Ilha de Ons, which has a sparse landscape, beautiful hiking trails and three restaurants with plenty of seafood options on the menu. Since these are not often on the menu in Franconia, the sight of the bright purple squid took some getting used to for me. After I hid it under a lettuce leaf so I wouldn`t have to look at it while eating, it was surprisingly tasty. On the way back to the mainland, we were then rewarded with a sunset over the sea. 

After the first bonds were established, we went on a road trip to the Gerês National Park with Magda and her Portuguese roommate Vasco on one of the following weekends. To manage our 15 km hike in time, we didn't sleep in on Saturday, but met early at 8 am at their place. We were greeted by Magda with coffee and at 8:15 by Vasco, who announced that he was now going to have breakfast. At this time I was not yet used to the "Portuguese punctuality"...On the way to Gerês we made a stopover in Braga. Or more precisely, we drove through it to the baroque church Bom Jesus de Monte, which, as the name suggests, sits on the top of a mountain above the city. Since we still had our long hike ahead of us in Gerês, we decided against climbing the 573 steps up to the church to save our energy. The double flight of stairs with the 14 stations of the Cross looks like the advanced hike of the Würzburg Käppele (with "only" about 200 steps). From the top we could observe a national competition of the fire department, which in full gear, had to race up those said stairs. One can imagine that a race like this, with all the extra weight, is rather slow and without surprising overtaking maneuvers on the last meters. Anyway, it looked neatly exhausting...After that, we continued on narrow serpentine roads into the national park, from one great miradouro to the next, where I was just glad not to have to drive. On our hike there were surprisingly few people, but numerous goats and a flowering vegetation. As much as I like Porto, it is also very nice to get out into nature and fresh air. Between the extensive pastures, the granite boulders one could get lost by the unobstructed view which reaches into the far distance. As befits such a hike, we also got a little lost and had to fight our way through bushes at times, which again increased the adventure factor. It was an eventful day, after which I fell asleep immediately in the evening.

Next up was a trip to Guimaraes, the "birthplace of Portugal". This time we knew better and arranged to leave a little bit later than before with Magda and Vasco and two other Polish girls. Without stopping we went to the city in the north of Porto, which was declared in 1139 by Alfonso I as the first capital of the young empire of Portugal. Before that, he just had to defeat the Moors and disempowered his mother, who wanted to oust him from the succession in favour of her lover... With its narrow alleys, old crooked buildings and small charming sites, the city is absolutely worth seeing. The top sights are the 15th-century Paco dos Duques (with a total number of 39 fireplaces to demonstrate to the whole world that all the chambers could be heated), the Castelo (a Romanesque freestanding keep surrounded by eight massive defence towers) and the Praca Sao Tiage. The latter is pretty and dreamy between three-story, brightly painted and rather crooked half-timbered houses. Here it is good to linger and observe the colourful bustle of locals and tourists. My personal highlight, however, was at the end, when we drove to Monte da Pena, a mountain adjacent to the city. There you can climb around on winding paths between large rocks, enjoy great views over Guimaraes, and watch Portuguese families picnicking and barbecuing. Our trip ended after a short stop at the house of Vasco's parents, where we were once again offered a beautiful sunset and delicious food.