Monday
Every Monday I have classes 12-2 and 6-8, the university is only a ten minute walk from my flat so I don’t need to leave early at all. Between my lessons I usually go to Pingo Doce to do my food shop and then go home for lunch. I have a really long time between classes so I usually do my work either at home or in a coffee shop. I hate having a class that finishes so late but in Lisbon it really doesn’t matter because everything happens so much later than at home, this week I met my friends for dinner in Principe Real around 9:30. Dinner is sooo much later here, the first week I was here I went out for dinner at 7pm and every single restaurant was completely empty.
Tuesday
Today I started the day in Santa Apolonia, every Tuesday there is a huge market here called Feira da Ladra, it’s on a huge hill like everything in Lisbon. They sell absolutely everyyything here and it’s all really cheap. After this I went to a cafe in Alfama and did some reading before getting the metro to Praça do Comercio to meet my friends for a bit of shopping.
Wednesday
I have the same classes as Monday today, again I just study between classes. Today I stayed on campus to do this with my friends from France who are also on their year abroad. When I finished class today I went to the park near my flat to watch the sunset.
Thursday
No classes today so I went to the beach! Usually we get the train to Cascais but there’s so many beaches you can get to on the bus for free but they are always packed, always worth it though. Today I went to Seisimbra, an hour’s bus journey from Lisbon. At the beach in Portugal you usually get a tosta mista and a somersby, and there’s always people on the beach shouting ‘bolaaaa!’ selling bola berlim which is like a custard doughnut but sooo much better.
Friday
Again, no classes for me on a Friday. I started the day going for a walk to get a coffee and a pastel de nata. These are the best things ever. They are custard tarts that only cost around €1, they’re so good and so cheap I find myself getting one every single day. There’s a lot of debate on where the best ones are from, but for me it’s definitely Manteigaria. After this I met up with my friends in Baixa-Chiado which is basically the centre of the city, we just walked around exploring because it feels like there’s new things popping up all the time. But we ended up at one of the viewpoints (miradouro), there are so many of these in Lisbon and they are gorgeous. I came home around 7pm and my friends came over for drinks and dinner a bit later on before we went out. Around midnight we got the metro to Baixa again to go to Bairro Alto. Here, there’s a street called Erasmus Corner which, as the name suggests, is the place to be for Erasmus students. Around 2am we made our way to the famous pink street. Every night out in Lisbon ends around 6am when the metro re-opens, VERY different to a night out in Southampton.
Saturday
I got home around 7am last night, if you can even say ‘last night’, so I didn’t end up waking up until around 3pm. I stayed in bed until it was time to get ready to go out again! This week it’s a rooftop party in LX factory. LX factory is a bit difficult to describe, it’s an old industrial complex that’s been converted into loads of bars and restaurants. It’s really cool and underneath the bridge.
