Road trip to Porto

The fall has been running by quickly, and suddenly there are only three weeks of exchange in Lisbon left. Therefore the weekend road trip we did with a group of exchange friends to Porto will probably also be our last trip together for now. Luckily though the trip was quite amazing and we had a great time seeing new beautiful places in Portugal.

Beautiful Porto

As we were a group of 15 people, we rented out three cars and decided to meet up in Porto with each car making their own stops on the way. Some went to Coimbra and Aveiro, others stopped in Fátima, and our road trip team decided to stop in Nazaré which is home to the world's biggest wave. At this time of year, the cute looking town was quite deserted but I can imagine that the long beach is packed in summer time. We did not see any majorly big waves (although in my opinion, the regular sized waves looked big enough to keep me out of the water) but it was fun to see some surfers heading into the water at sunset time. 

Nazaré

Can you spot the three surfers?

After Nazaré, we headed towards Porto and the hotel in which our whole group was staying. On previous trips, the whole group has stayed in a big house but this time it was nice to be in a walking distance from the city center. Porto is somewhat similar to Lisbon with its hills, architecture and trams, yet it feels a little less hectic and busy although this may also be due to the fact that it is November and off-season for tourists. Porto itself is truly beautiful - I really liked Porto's riverside with old buildings, cafes, boats and several bridges, especially since we were treated with perfect November weather that we were able to enjoy outside on terraces. 

For the most part, we enjoyed and got to know the city by just walking around, seeing different sights and having a coffee or glass of port here and there. As it is interesting to always try local food specialties in new places, some of us decided to have the traditional Porto dish Francesinha. And interesting it was - the dish consisted of two toast breads filled with ham, beef and sausage, covered with a massive amount of cheese and dipped in a spicy sauce/soup. For the sophisticated part of our trip, we attended an actual wine tasting tour at the Vasconcellos winery where we learned how to identify quality port from supermarket port (this local delicacy was much more to my liking). We also tried out the local night life in the Baixa area, enjoying some really fun bars that played legendary music from the 70's all the way to our childhood favorites from the 90's. 

Francesinha

Given that we only had the weekend to explore Porto, we skipped several activities that could be nice to try. If I get to go back sometime, I will definitely take a boat ride on the Douro river and perhaps also visit a winery in the area where grapes for Port wine are grown. 

Other sides of Lisbon

A week ago I had some long awaited guests here in Lisbon when my sister and aunt came to visit. Although the temperature seemed to drop heavily during the few days they were here, we got to enjoy sunny Lisbon in many ways. It was nice to act as a tour guide again, but it also served as a great opportunity to visit places and attractions that I have been meaning to see all autumn. 

In the city center I showed my sister and aunt some basic places like the castle and Praça do Comércio. We also tried some new things like riding up the Santa Justa Lift (looks cool in the city but a total tourist rip-off I would say, 5€ to ride up even though you could just take another rout and walk onto it for free...)  and taking tram number 28 across the city. The tram ride feels like an old roller coaster - it goes up and down Lisbon's steep hills and especially the downhill parts are filled with a mix of excitement and anxiety because you wonder if the breaks will make it. The earlier you jump into the tram the better because once tram 28 reaches the city center, it will be packed. 

For one of our day trips outside of the city center, we hopped on a boat and crossed the Tejo river to visit Cristo Rei, the Jesus statue. We took a boat from Cais do Sodré and then bus 101 which gave a nice little tour of the Almada municipality on the way. Cristo Rei may mildly remind you of Rio de Janeiro's Cristo Redentor, yet the massive cement structure of Cristo Rei makes it look and feel quite different. Cristo Rei is located next to Ponte 25 de Abril, the bridge that reminds you of another city, San Francisco. The Cristo Rei monument itself is somewhat pretentious but the view over Lisbon, the bridge and the entire coast line is pretty amazing. Both the monument and bridge were built during times of dictatorship in Portugal which makes them historically interesting places to visit as well. 

One might also think that I have totally fallen for football since one of that weekend's highlights was the World Championships qualification game Portugal vs. Sweden. Everything about the game was like something I haven't seen before - crazy fans, the jammed metro, the riot police, the size of the stadium, and the excitement of the game. It ended 1-0 for Portugal, and although I have to admit that I cheered for Sweden that night (and football is perhaps the only sport in which it can be considered ok for a Finn to be on Sweden's side) it was great to see the local team win. Now that the teams have played the second game, I'm happy that Portugal went through as they also won the second game by 3-2. 

Portugal vs. Sweden and Ronaldo vs. Zlatan.

Portugal scores!

This Portuguese fan really wanted me to take a photo of him after Portugal's goal.

On the last day, we took the train to lovely Cascais to have an easy day of enjoying the sun and sea breeze. When we got back to Lisbon in the evening, it was time for another highlight as we went to listen to Fado. It is traditional Portuguese music that is sung in restaurants. I had wanted to experience Fado for a long time, and although I did not understand a word of the songs it was just as beautiful, dramatic and melancholic as I had imagined. We decided to try out Clube de Fado which was quite pricy but had both good food and Fado, but there are many other places all around Lisbon to listen to Fado all as well. It might be a good idea to book a table in advance in any place though because even now during "off season" the restaurant was completely full.

Pretty little Cascais

 

Overall we did so much during those four days that we were completely exhausted every night. Hopefully my sister and aunt enjoyed Lisbon as much as I do and perhaps will also to revisit someday. 

La bella Roma

A week ago I got to see how exchange life is in Italy when I visited my boyfriend who is on exchange in Rome at the LUISS Guido Carli University. We spent an extended weekend seeing the main tourist attractions, feeling the atmosphere at a football game and enjoying delicious Italian food and wine. 

I flew in to Rome on Thursday afternoon, but as the sun sets so early we did not have time to do much more than have dinner and enjoy the area my boyfriend lives in, San Lorenzo. It was a youthful and somewhat bohemian area that is especially popular among local students. Although there was not much else to see in the area, it was great for having dinners and drinks because prices are much lower than in the downtown tourist areas, yet the tastes may be even better and more authentic. 

On our first full day, we headed to the city center to walk around, and especially to get tickets for AS Roma's Sunday game. We got our tickets at an official AS Roma store and then headed to walk around the city. We saw Fontana di Trevi, the Spanish stairs and Piazza Navona before the sun had completely set. Given that it was November, I was surprised that every place was still packed with tourists - Rome seems to be highly popular at any time of the year. After it got dark, we walked to Fontana di Trevi again as well as to the Vittorio Emanuele II monument and Colosseum to see them in night lighting before heading to dinner where we enjoyed a menu of pasta, seafood and meat. 

Even at night time, Fontana di Trevi is packed.

Saturday we did even more sightseeing, almost too much for one day as we were completely tired out at the end. We started off with visiting Colosseum, although actually it would have been a better idea to go to Foro Romano first (they work with the same ticket but apparently the line is much, much shorter, so you can first visit Foro Romano and then pass the whole ticket line at Colosseum and walk right in with your ticket). After Foro Romano we passed the Campidoglio square on our way to Pantheon. Then we headed to the Vatican and entered Castel Sant'Angelo to get a beautiful view over the entire city. On our way back, by chance we stopped at Piazza Navona again during the pink sunset moment which pretty much made my day. This big square was perhaps my favorite place in the city with its fountains, artists selling their paintings, the amazing basilica and restaurants surrounding the square. 

On Sunday it was game time - AS Roma vs. Sassuolo! Even though I am more of a hockey girl and not all too crazy about football, going to a game was very exciting. I had only been to a game abroad once before, in Holland around the age of 8, so I did not know what to expect. Even though the game was against a smaller Italian team who did not have a huge fan base representing at the game, the atmosphere and emotions of local fans was quite amazing to experience. Everyone sang, cheered and booed loudly and  enthusiastically. Sadly, although AS Roma led 1-0 for the majority of the game, Sassuolo tied at overtime on the very last minute. The reaction of the crowd was quite heavy - someone actually set a tree on fire outside the stadium out of frustration.  

AS Roma scores!

As with any good vacation, time ran out and I feel that we could have spent many more days experiencing Rome. But it is always good to not do everything so you have a reason to go back. Now I am in Lisbon again and excited for the coming weeks of special visitors, trips and events! 

Review of courses

Exam week is well behind me and second half courses are already in full swing, so it is perhaps time to fulfill one of the exchange blog requirements Aalto made and write about courses I have taken at Nova. As each course I take is worth 3,5 ECTS, I took four courses in the first half and have another three in the second half to gather the necessary 24 ECTS that are required for the Master's minor. I will write brief comments on the first four courses that I have gotten final grades for and later in December get back to the last three courses that I am doing now. 

Consumer Behavior - Professor Luis Martinez

This was perhaps the most theoretical course I have taken in a few years. Basically it extensively went through the different internal and external factors that effect consumer behavior by covering chapters of a given book. The lectures themselves were not too exciting or engaging, but attendance was also not mandatory. The workload of the course was very do-able - basically it consisted of writing a 5 page group paper on a selected topic, giving an 8 minute group presentation and taking an exam. The topic itself is quite self-explanatory especially if you have taken marketing courses before, but beware of the exam - it was surprisingly detailed and demanding considering how the rest of the course was. Overall I did not learn too many new things, but if you do not want to stress too much about courses on exchange I would recommend taking this one.

E-Commerce - Professor David Bernardo

This was definitely one of the most useful courses that I have taken throughout studies - it was extremely relevant and practical, covering e-commerce from various perspectives and providing actual tools to work with. The professor had impressive experience in the field, really knew his area and gave entertaining, engaging lectures. The overall work load was not too heavy (two homeworks that were done over weekends and one 12-page group paper) but since it was an intensive three week course, it felt like you were working with it all the time. Especially the two homeworks were very practical - we used Google AdWords, calculated Customer Lifetime Value, wrote newsletters etc. There were no books or other materials to study for the course, so succeeding in the exam really depended on how well you knew what was taught in class. If you have any interest in learning about business in the digital environment, or just want to attend interesting lectures, I  would definitely recommend taking this course at Nova! 

History of Globalization - Professor Maria Eugénia Mata

From previous exchange reports and a lack of deep interest in the topic, I did not have too high expectations for this course. The professor was quite enthusiastic about the topic area but the slides and lectures were not always clear or easy to follow.  The workload however was clearly explained and relatively light - it consisted of writing a short individual essay and giving a group presentation about a given academic article. The exam accounted for 60% which is much higher than in the other courses, but I mainly read the conclusion parts of given academic articles when studying for it. Compared to other courses I took, this was also the only one in which the professor actually provided feedback and results on assignments throughout the course - in all other courses we just received a final grade before getting any other feedback. Considering the workload and time this course consumes, it could be considered quite an optimal choice for exchange. 

Venture Creation - Professor Manuel Forjaz

I would not classify myself as a entrepreneurially enthusiastic person so this course was rather out of my comfort zone. However the professor is quite the motivational speaker and was able to make entrepreneurship just a little more appealing to me than it was before. We learned some very practical things about creating business ideas, giving elevator pitches and  writing business plans. The professor's goal was for students to start companies during the course, which would result in a grade 20 immediately (the grading scale is 1-20, but you need 10 to pass). Getting that score by actually doing given assignments was harder, however the professor did guarantee a passing grade for anyone who just attended lectures and the exam. In the end, although the lectures by the professor were inspiring and interesting, the course itself was quite confusing and I'm not sure if any student completely understoof what we were supposed to do. The final exam says quite a lot - no one was told it was open book, although half of the students thought you could bring a laptop and the other half had no clue (but Nova's policy forbids laptops in final exams so we couldn't use them anyway).

Madeira Island

Last week right after exams, I set off for an extended weekend trip together with a group of exchange friends and flew to Madeira, the Portuguese island in the Atlantic Ocean. We rented a big house, drove up and down Madeira's hills and spent a surprisingly active short vacation in beautiful sceneries.

Going to Madeira was a fast and budget friendly trip as EasyJet flies there in less than two hours from Lisbon. My flights were a bit over 100€, but if you book earlier you can get them for a lot cheaper as well. The only slightly uneasy part of the trip is knowing that Madeira's airport is supposedly one of the most dangerous in the world. Usually I'm a little anxious only during take offs, but this time the landing also caused some shaky hands.

For our stay in Madeira, we rented a beautiful, big house that easily fit 20 people for dinners and hanging out (and 13 for sleeping comfortably), had a pool and a view to the ocean. The only tricky part was that we never found out the address of the place so it took us well over three hours of driving in the dark to find it for the first time. After we finally by accident found the house, we had a great time and I would really recommend renting a house instead of hotel rooms for any similar trip. We later also realized that the "no clear address"-thing was quite common around the island and trips often took at least twice as long as we planned for due to small roads, huge hills and many wrong turns. 

Renting a car seems to be a real must if you want to see as much as possible of Madeira since everything is located quite far from each other across the island. Our group did what any budget-conscious students would do and rented the cheapest cars that were available, but it might be wiser to get something a bit stronger and bigger - our Opel Corsa and the other small cars were really not made for driving five people on steep and curvy hills. However driving up with first gear and wondering if the engine would last just made the trip a little more adventurous. 

Driving on steep cliffs...

... and through water falls.

I was quite surprised by how active our group was on the trip. Travelling with so many people was great because everyone was able to do different things - while some went coasteering and diving, others went hiking and sightseeing. Paragliding was also supposed to be scheduled but didn't work out due to bad winds. I joined in for the sightseeing and hiking activities just to get a better view of the island. We did two walks on Levadas of which there are many around the island. They are water systems which are apparently meant to take rain water to farmers in towns, but also provide great paths to walk through mountains. The longer Levada walk we took was really beautiful and exciting, although I wish we had known to bring flashlights since it included walking through a pitch black, 100 meter cave tunnel.

Taking a Levada walk.

My favorite spot in Madeira that we visited was the lava pools at Porto Moniz. Although the ride there took forever and even made some people car sick (blame it on the crazy roads, not the late night before...), the place we reached was beautiful. For the price of 1€ we got to swim in the pools filled with natural sea water and watch crazy waves hit the rocks right next to us. It was really relaxing and had it not been so cold we would have probably spent a much longer time there.

Porto Moniz.

The last night of the trip we spent in Funchal to see a bit of Madeira's capital as well. Maybe it is because of the cloudy, rainy weather we had that day, but Funchal was actually the least interesting place I saw on the trip. Even at the end of October, it was packed with tourists which felt quite hectic compared to other parts of the island. We also did not have time to visit any famous attractions such as the botanical garden or the cable cart (the latter we actually only skipped due to its price) so I can't say that I saw much of it. Although Funchal was pretty and well kept, it is Madeira's nature and other sights that I would go back to.