Road trip to the South

When my boyfriend was here to visit, we decided to spend part of his stay on the road by driving down to Algarve to enjoy some beaches, touristy towns and the former end of the world. We visited the towns of Tavira, Lagos and Sagres, and although the trip was only for one night we managed to do quite a lot and find places that would be great to come back to. 

We rented a car from Lisbon's airport which was an easy place to begin the trip. After having sat in taxis and experienced the traffic within the city, I definitely wanted to avoid having to drive through the center. Instead, we headed straight to the Vasco da Gama bridge that took us to the highway towards Algarve. Renting a car was not expensive, but naturally came with some extra expenses that were not mentioned in the reservation price. However, as my family well knows, I'm a bit obsessive with insurances so I did not mind paying extra for an insurance that let us off the hook if anything happened to the car.  Driving on the highway and in Algarve was really relaxed - roads were in great condition, traffic was light and there was luckily no sign of the hectic, wild driving that you see in the city.

Foggy morning while driving on Europe's longest bridge, Vasco da Gama.

Our first stop on the trip was a small town called Tavira, which is to the east from Algarve's capital Faro. Within the town itself there is not much to see but it is a nice place to stop for eating and walking around. After a great lunch, we headed to the beach and after a little GPS mix-up, found ourselves on a short boat ride that took us to Ilha de Tavira with its long sand beaches.

Great sea food in Tavira.

Ilha de Tavira

After Tavira, we headed towards a hotel that we had booked in Lagos. This city was a lot bigger than the first one and packed with German and British tourists. Still it was a pretty place with a marina, lovely old town and so many restaurants that it was impossible to choose where to eat. The next morning we strolled more around Lagos to see it in day light, and if we would have had more time we would have probably gone on one of the many boat trips to grottos that are being sold on the boulevard.

Old Town of Lagos

The last destination  of our trip was Sagres. We first found a few beautiful beaches to enjoy the sun and clear water. Although Tavira's long sandy beach was great too, I was really amazed by the beaches that were surrounded by high cliffs. Even though beaches were full of people, they still felt somehow isolated and peaceful. These types of beaches seem to be quite common in many places around Algarve.

Local specialty - Grilled sardines

Our last stop before heading back to Lisbon was Cabo de São Vicente, the former end of the world and Europe's most South-Western point. This stop I was most excited  about - I had visited the place on my first abroad trip as a baby almost 25 years ago, and although I naturally have no memory of it, it was quite nostalgic to go. And quite truthfully it was also the most breath taking place I have seen during my whole stay in Portugal so far. The way the ocean looks from there is indescribable, and the view over cliffs are amazing. I can only imagine what sunsets look like there. 

Famour lighthouse at Cabo de São Vicente

Out of all the places we visited, especially Sagres and Cabo de São Vicente I would definitely want to go back to. However having a car in Algarve is great because on a longer stay you can visit any place because everything is so close to each other.

Studying at Nova

For the past week or so, school has kept me surprisingly busy with group works and pressing deadlines. With the last one behind me and four exams approaching next week, I thought it would be a good time to write something about the actual reason I am in Lisbon currently - exchange studies at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, more precisely at Nova School of Business and Economics.  

The business school is located at Nova's Campolide campus, close to the metro station São Sebastião along the red and blue lines. From what I have heard, the building is a former monastery turned military building turned university, but it looks nice from the outside and has all the necessary equipment on the inside. Classrooms are quite ok, cafeterias serve simple and affordable food, wifi is available throughout the building and the print shop offers some very beneficial services. Some classrooms even have AC which is a great plus in the warm weather that Lisbon keeps having.

At NOVA, most Master's level courses last half a semester and are worth 3,5 ECTS while some last the whole semester  being worth 7 ECTS. It seems like quite a lot of school and work each course compared to the 6 ECTS I receive from half-semester courses back at Aalto University, but still I chose to do only half semester courses. The main reason was that none of the topics of whole semester courses really interested me, and as it turns out the workload is very do-able and comparable to the amount of ECTS the courses are worth (at least in the courses that I am taking... I have heard other versions from people taking many economics or finance courses).

The course selection process at NOVA is somewhat different from Aalto - selections are done on two given dates on a "first come, first serve" basis meaning that you have to reserve this specific time to be ready by the computer to rush through selections in order to get a place. Sounds kind of rough, but I actually prefer it compared to Aalto's lottery system in which you have to wait for weeks after which, depending on the amount of students and your luck, you may or may not get a place in the course. At NOVA you just have to be well prepared with a pre-planned schedule when the day of course selections comes. This year's selection was done in September after we had our first info session.

Quite a majestic scene on my walk home from school

In the selection, I got all but one of the courses that I wanted and was able to build a nice Tuesday to Thursday schedule meaning that I have long weekends throughout the semester. The majority of the courses I have had so far have been interesting and at a good level. Lecture attendance is quite often required and you can only skip a few classes but since I have long weekends it hasn't really been a problem. What has been hard to get used to is the late schedule - many of my courses start in the late afternoon and a few times I have left a lecture as late as 10 pm. Each of the courses has had pretty much the same evaluation structure: a groupwork/presentation, an individual assignment/class participation, and a written exam. Some professors seem to put a lot of emphasis on participation, sometimes up to 20%, which can be annoying mainly because local students are seeking good grades and therefore talk in class a lot, sometimes having something relevant to say and sometimes not so much. 

My exams start on Monday and last until Friday. After that I'll be able to write more specifically about each of the courses I took and tell a little more about the workload, lectures and assignments. 

Showing Lisbon

One really enjoyable part about exchange is when you get to show your city to people who come for a visit. It is the time you realize that you have actually gotten to know your new home quite well and have found unique things you want to show others. I had my first visitor here from last Wednesday until Monday when my boyfriend came to Lisbon. He is also doing his Master's exchange at the moment in Rome (you can follow his AS Roma-filled exchange blog "Tutto Totti" here) and we made a deal to visit each other's exchange cities. My turn to travel to Rome is in exactly one month.

The artist at Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcantara, close to my home here. I will  have to buy one of his works before the end of exchange.

During the days we spent in Lisbon together, we did some very touristy sightseeing around town. We went to a few new places but mainly revisited things that I had already experienced and knew were worth seeing. Before hand I had made big plans for us to visit Belem and make a day trip to Cascais, but as we only had a few days to spend in Lisbon it was much nicer to have a relaxed time around the city (I'll have to make sure to visit those places later on though). The week before my boyfriend arrived, Lisbon had been gloomy, foggy and rainy, so we were lucky that it was practically sunny all throughout his stay. The only time it rained was when we were checking out Bairro Alto - instead of bar hopping we were stuck at the door of a crowded place for over an hour waiting for the pouring rain to stop, so that experience fell a bit short. 

One of the places we revisited was Castelo de São Jorge where we managed to stay until sunset. Despite some interfering clouds it was quite amazing to watch the sun descend over Lisbon and see the city's lights turn on slowly. Other than sightseeing around Lisbon we just enjoyed coffees at miradouros, ate out and had drinks on terraces at sunset time. As it turns out that is pretty much my favorite time of the day, and for some reason sunsets feel especially lovely in Lisbon. Sitting outside in summer clothes in October and enjoying the day light turn into night is really quite exceptional and something I haven't gotten to do that much before.

PS. The reason why we only had a few days to spend in Lisbon was because we headed down to Algarve for a two day road trip. That little vacation deserves its own post so I will get back to it later.