Two weeks ago I went to meet my friend Claire from France. Yes, I said meet not visit or anything. Me and Claire are penpals since 2006 and this was an unique oportunity to visit her and meet my first penpal.

Another good thing about this was that I could meet the city of Coimbra. If you know Portugal or if you've been here before probably you've heard about Coimbra.

This city is very famous for the academic life. It has the oldest portuguese universities and, when full of students, has a life that you don't see anywhere else in Portugal.

So I always had some curiosity about Coimbra. Unfortunally for Claire she came on the worse season of Coimbra. She got here in June or July (ups not sure) and she is leaving in September so the city is really calm and you see no students on the street.

I left Lisbon around 10h30 by bus, since I don't have a driving licence and I'm poor (no money for gas if I had a car). The trip was ok but I needed to pee so badly when I got to Coimbra. I couldn't take it anymore and went to the station bathroom. Yuck. I was wearing flip flops and my feet got wet with something that I prefer not to know what it was

When I left the bathroom I saw this short blond girl and reconized her from the picture. Actually I thought she was taller. I mean, me having 1,55m everyone is taller than me... The first words didn't came out right I guess, for me of course. But then we chatted a lot. I think when we know someone from other countries or from different places there is always so much to speak about. So we did it.

We had to go by bus to her house. It is cheaper not to eat in a restaurant so we decided to eat at her house. Her house is great. Has two big rooms, in good conditions and the view was amazing. Only 400 euros for it. I wasn't that surprised because Coimbra is quite cheap but in Lisbon you pay the same for a one room house that has 50 years and in bad conditions.

Claire did some pasta for us and we chatted a lot during lunch. Next to lunch I was feeling sleepy and needed a coffee. We went to a coffee near by and I did all the talking. She said people don't speak english with her. I was a bit with that but I guess it's not that weird. Old people don't speak english and even young people, if they don't speak well, they just to speak with you at all.

Than we decided to go to Coimbra and visit what we could at that time. The bus took an eternity to come and I had to pay 1,50 euros for the ticket. Claire payed the first trip, thank you :)

Now a big no to Coimbra on turistic indications. I mean this because we went to several places and there was no indications about what we were seeing (ok there was a few but not enough i guess). The first place was in a little square with a little cathedral, there was no name on it and has it was a mass going on we didn't enter. Then we went to a street, very cute street, until a little wall that used to be the city wall ( I think :P). We went our way to another cathedral that later found out to be the old cathedral, Sé Velha. We went inside and it is very beautifull with the tiles on the wall (See pictures please). I found out something curious. There were a few graves inside and one of them had the family coat of arms from a friend of mine. Unfortunally there was no name identifing the death person.

At the same square of Sé Velha there was also the house of Zeca Afonso. Zeca Afonso was a very famous singer and song writer. He has a lot of success because of the songs he wrote during the regime years. He died young but I don't know why. I told this to Claire because she didn't knew the guy.

We kept walking on our way to the university. I took some pictures but didn't went inside. The library was closed and we had to pay for the students jail (funny!). But the outside was enough for me. I loved the tiles inside the hall ( I only went to the hall way) and the colored roof. I imagine how it was when the university was still fresh and new...

Then, when we were leaving, a girl stopped me and asks if I could fill a questionary for her thesis. I did it and thanks to her I found out the names of the monuments I've seen before. She also give us some advices of where to go.

Well we didn't had more time and on our way back we found our Sé Nova (new cathedral). We just took a little peek inside because there was also a mass.

Another bus trip to Claire's house.

She made dinner. In portuguese we call it quiche but in french is quiche lorraine :p It was good and very simple. I guess in Portugal we put to many ingredients. We ate it with salad and fruit.

Then we just chated a lot, went to the internet and then to bed.

I didn't had a great night but it wasn't the bed or the pillows fault. I had some bad nights before due to stress at university.

When I wake up, Claire was already fully dressed and I went to take a shower. Then breakfast and a chat about what we were going to do next. I suggested we go to a shopping center next to her house till lunch time. So we went. She told me it was a long way up on the way back... The mall was ok and I bought a birthday gift for a friend and a scarf for myself. Then it was time to return. It was hot and sunny and we went up the whole way! When I got home I wished for another shower.

So for lunch we had the quiche left overs and went to Mondego Park. This was actually the only place i've visited in Coimbra. But that time it was stormy weather... We went for a walk and it was such a pleasant weather that I felt like taking a bath in the river. Well we couldn't and it was time for me to leave.

Claire took me to the bus station and I left around 18h30 on my way to Lisbon. Hope to be back but this time to a big academic partyyyy!!

So this was my first post here, kinda boring I think. Please forgive my english :)