Weekend in Portugal

This past weekend we traveled to Portugal. We left Friday afternoon and arrived in Aviero, Portugal in the evening. Marianna (mi madre) made me a "snack" for the bus ride, a 12 inch baguette with nutella, another 12 inch baguette with Spanish tortilla (potato dish), an orange, chocolate bar, and juice. Needless to say after sharing my "snack" with my friends she became quite popular.  We had a dinner at a local restaurant in Aviero and then went back to our hotel. Aviero is a really cool coastal city and it is known as the "Venice of Portugal" because they have gondolas rides. The gondolas are painted with very bright colors and are really beautiful. In the morning we went to Coimbra to tour the local University. All of the students in the University have to wear suits and a long cape. They really all look like Harry Potter running around Hogwarts, it is pretty funny! Instead of tossing their cap after graduating, they rip of their suits and run around naked….seriously. A little different than the United States! The library at the University is absolutely beautiful and adorned with real gold. They allow bats to live in the library so the bats can eat all of the insects that might damage the books.

After touring the University we had some free time to explore the city and then headed back to the beach at Aviero to have lunch. We ate at a wonderful restaurant near the beach and then spent the afternoon enjoying the sun. Luckily we had really wonderful weather and were able to relax and take a siesta on the beach. Saturday evening we were on our own for dinner. We eat bread ALL THE TIME here and we were all craving something somewhat healthy so we went to a local sushi bar. The sushi was phenomenal and the chef just kept bringing us tons of sushi rolls to share for 10 euro per person.  After dinner we walked around the city and then my friend Heather and I went to a local concert. The band played lots of American music, which was really cool and in Portugal they are HUGE fans of Coldplay.

Sunday we traveled to Oporto to tour a local winery. The winery was very interesting! I am sure my dad would have appreciated it much more than we did but it was a good experience. Portugal is known for their ports so it was nice to learn the history behind the winery and of course, have a little taste at the end. After the tour we had free time and Heather and I went for a "gondola" ride, but really it is more like a ski lift. We walked over the bridge in Oporto, which was designed by a student of Eiffel's. There were some wonderful views of the city from the bridge. Afterwards we stopped to have lunch at a local café. We headed home to Salamanca just in time to have dinner with our families. The trip to Portugal was very fun but I think we were all ready to get some sleep by the time we got home!