Adeus Lisboa !

.... and say hello to Albufeira. Yes, I left Lisbon – the city which had already become my home. But Erasmus is over, most Erasmus students have already left and summer means Algarve in Portugal.

 I truly fell in love with the city, we had the graziest parties, really great internship, met unforgettable people, managed to visit fantastical places – I am just so happy I did Erasmus in Lisbon and wouldn’t change anything... Lisbon is truly an Erasmus city, I am gonna be way better physiotherapist thanks to all the experience I got from Portugal. And as I have mentioned before, I will definetily come back as soon as possible.

Have a nice summer!  Final year, here I come !

Liina Kõllamets FT2

Liina already concluded everything so I will try to not repeat her.

When I visited Portugal the first time in 2012 years summer I said after that I’m definitely going back there, but I didn’t expect the opportunity to open so soon. But I’m very grateful for it!After Erasmus I believe even more the sayings that your home is where is your suitcase and you miss your home only when you don’t like the road... because in Portugal i felt like belonging there and it was so hard to say good bye. All the experience I had during these 3 months are unforgettable and I can say that It was one of the best times of my life and even when Erasmus means no regrets I still have one regret – that I didnt stay for longer. And I’m going to say it second time too! That I will definitely visit Portugal again in the future because I’m just too in love with Lisbon! I already miss my internship companions and portugues people!

Kristina Kärk TK3

PORTO

Portwine, gondolas, awesome architecture, Douro river, luxury boats, UNESCO world heritage old town, colourful houses, beautiful streets and breathtaking views and so so so kind people ....

Yes, Liina and Kristina went to Porto to see this fantastical city of Portugal. The city had something magical in it, we had an amazing 2 day trip.
We took a bus from Lisbon, the journey lasted 2.40 h and on the first day we managed to see all the main sights - we mean the important things noted on the tourist map. One random hotel took our bags to hold for free so we could walk around town very easily and in Porto you can easily walk from A to B because the city is not that big. Of course in the evening we were really tired and we were searching for a supermarket for ages but still we were successful. To stay the night we used couchsurfing, one guy not very far from Porto city was our host. He picked us up in the evening and we had a great time. It was interesting to hear about his job as a pilot - this is just the hardest job, I personally was very suprised. Of course we talked about Estonia because no one never knows anything about our country so it is our job to spread the word ! :D
On the next day we allowed ourselves a long sleep and went to the beach to eat breakfast. This is just too cool that you can go and eat breakfast at the beach ! :D This was our holiday so the second day was all about being lazy. We managed to get ourselves a guide for the second day, a guy who lives in Porto, owns a car and was just way too kind (like most of people in Porto). So we went to a park, to the ocean again, were in a traffic jam, still managed to get to the wine tasting too ! We were just too lucky because our Porto friend got 3 tickets from a random cafe so we got the wine tasting completely free ! Portwine of course was really good ! It was so sad to leave this city, our friend even offered us his home so we could go and visit Coimbra too but we have to leave something for the next time too ! ;)

Now it is picturetime!

Majestetic cafe - very expensive and really fancy

So beautiful sunset

And we had an opportunity to visit a real grape plantation farm

Thank you for reading ! We will definitely go back to Porto some day !!! 

Sintra

Ola!

So we both have been so busy that we haven't got any time to sit indoors in the computer and do any posts. But this is the mistake we are correcting now :). One weekend we went to Sintra which is a MUST GO place in Portugal. Sintra is a very touristic palce and famous for it's beautiful architecture and landscapes. The nature in that place is different from Lisbon and the distance from those places is only 20-25 kilometers. Sintra has a microclimate, which means that its location on hills jutting out from the ocean, catches the breeze from the sea. This makes it much cooler than most of the beach towns.

On that day when we visited Sintra it was rainy and foggy but honestly this made it even better because we really got the feeling like we are in a fairytale or in a movie.

Locals say that you need at least 2 days to go through all Sintra and one day is not enough.Well we accepted the challenge to see everything in one day and almost succeeded, because in our opinion we saw most of the things and rate it as 70% SEEN! So the other 30% of Sintras sights will wait for us the next time we come to Portugal. Because Sintra is the place to go and the views are just breathtaking and you can’t convey them by pictures...

Pena Palace

Pena Palace

Historical city centre

Piriquita cafe, in the town centre, makes its own delicious and famous ‘travesseiros’, puff pastry filled with egg and almond. The queue was so long that the line was even out of the door.

Cuties. Tuk Tuks

Another miradouro.

Ola!

Liina just chilling in fog

Everything was blooming :)

When you wake up, have a morning coffe in your garden and enjoy this view!? The word AMAZING is too soft

Liina Kõllamets FT2

Kristina Kärk TK3

Madrid, Spain ! :)

Good morning!

You know, when I found out that I got Erasmus scholarship I was absolutely sure that I will love the Spanish life more than my practical training. And it is very surprisingly amazingly awesome that it is the other way around. I mean, I love my life here - people, parties, environment, food, weather, public transport etc, but I cannot say that I am thrilled to wake up every morning for that.. I am thrilled to wake up every morning to go to my practical training though.

Thing is that Erasmus is not about studying. It's about cultural exchange, new people, living in a totally new place and well the studies are like extra thing.. My Erasmus is vice versa: studying and doing my practical training is the most essential and most enjoyable thing and everything else comes extra.

But well, I finished my practice on Wednesday. Ah, it was emotionally very hard.. to say goodbye to all those awesome physiotherapist and patients. I am going to miss the heck out of them! I know that people don't understand it, they tell me "Well, it's part of life and you will find another job and other practical training places etc" but it's not true. Well, it is. I am going to have practical training next year as well but not as this one. Because from this one I gained so much more than just knowledge about my field.

First of all, I got motivation to study harder so once when I start working I will be as good physiotherapist as my tutor. I got to know the working environment and the working team I definitely want to be part of. I want to have these patient that you don't even treat but still come to you on your last day and say "Keep on smiling. Good luck in life!" or "I love you! I will miss you." I want all of that. Here I actually want to get up in the morning to go to work because if you actually want to do that then it's not working. I want this actually not working thing.

On my last day, I baked them a cake. It wasn't my most amazing cake sadly. Anyways. At the end of the lunch brake they told me they have a gift for me. I was so surprised about it since they really didn't have to do it. The gift.. it is the most amazing and sweetest thing ever! I absolutely love it!

And imagine my face when I found Estonian there..

Or when I read "I'll be watching you"

..and then both of us did the thing with the fingers.. you know what I am talking about.

Oeh. This is so hard... I am leaving Spain tomorrow and I am ready to leave. I can leave. I don't want to but I can handle it. I can't really handle leaving the hospital though. It seriously brings tears into my eyes so I am kind'a happy that I am home alone right now and nobody can see me.

And for last.. Me and my tutor. The woman who made my practical training what it was! You have a piece of my heart! I really do want to be as smart and as awesome tutor one day as you are right now.

What I want to say is that. Spain has amazing positive affect on your professional and also private life. If you have the opportunity to do an Erasmus, do it! Just freakin' do it! It is the best time in your life so far! Afterwards it will just get better! :)

As I said on Wednesday, I won't say "Adios!" to you. It is "Hasta lluego!"

I promise.