Lisbon via Coimbra

This morning we got up early to go to Coimbra where Carla was very excited about a meeting she had to go to. While she was there I had a look around the university. It is one of the oldest in Europe and was full of all sorts of old shit I wouldn't normally expect at a university. Because of this it is actually a tourist attraction as well as a working university. Back in the day it was closely tied to the royal family so there is lots of lavish royal stuff around the place too. The first thing I found was this guy:

Who is clearly about to give the back-hand to some unsuspecting student (10 points to whoever thinks of the sound he is making, god only knows how to write it!). Awesome. In one of the first rooms I went into there was an information screen so I thought I would see what it had to say:

What the hell kind of language is that? What about all the poor people that speak anything other than Portugese or Spanish (the two other possible languages on the main menu) as a first language. It barely makes any sense to me! It seems like some portugese dude that thought he was hot shit on toast with English tried to pack as many of the fanciest words he knew into one page.

Unfortunately you weren't allowed to take photos in most of the place but I did manage to snap this quickly before someone saw me:

What the hell is that thing in the water? I'm pretty sure that thing never existed so why the hell did someone paint it. Weirdo.

The whole place was pretty cool. Kinda a cross between some of the palaces and residences I have been to and a University. The old library was the best part. It was opened in 17?? something. It has a whole bunch of measures to prevent the books from aging, one of the preventative measures is a bunch of bats that live there to eat the book-eating insects. Each night everything is covered in leather covers so that they don't shit on everything. Mental.

After Carlas meeting we went to have a quick lunch before I hopped on the train to Lisbon. Thanks so much Carla for letting me come and stay with you. I had a fantastic time and relaxing time in Porto with you. I am so stoked I made the effort to get to Portugal to see you. Cheers Carla!

Another uneventful train ride (thats a good thing) and I arrived in Lisbon. I caught the metro from the train station to the airport which Carla thought was impossible. I would later learn that this service has only been open for about a month. Awesome! Portugal is doing its best to make up for Paris' stupid airport metro that was under construction! I located the bag drop place and did a bit of a recce of where I needed to go tomorrow. Should be easy, albeit somewhat time consuming. Damn public transport and having to factor in waiting-around-for-the-transport-to-arrive time. Basically I could arrive at the check-in desk with a reasonable amount of time to spare, or if all my connections are seamless I will have an obscene amount of time to wait at the airport.

I then went into town and down to the river to watch the sun go down before going and meeting Gui (pronounced like "me" but with a G) at the zoo (where she lives close to, not in). I confused her by travelling underground from the metro station to the train station and I was waiting at the train station entrance not the metro entrance where she was. I'm glad she figured out my incompetence and found me. I always seem to find the wrong metro exit! After dropping my stuff at her flat we went and had a tasty dinner before hitting the hay one last time in Portugal (unless I miss my flight...).

Speaking of sleeping I have to mention one of the best things I have ever seen (big call, but bear with me). In Portugal they have these metal "blinds" that come down in between the outer window and the inner window (you can open/close them separately). The blinds are amazing, when you put them down they block out about 99% of the light. Even when I was waking up at Carlas and the sun was blazing I barely knew it was daytime from inside the bedroom. Note to self: If I ever build a house I need to locate a supplier for these and install them. I can't say good enough things.