When it came time to chose where we wanted to explore with out days off, we did a little research on areas other than the beautiful Lisbon. With our digs optimally located in central Portugal, we had the ability to head up north and explore the other side of the country most people do not have/take the time see. We decided to save up our days off and use them all at once in our third work week and much research and consideration, we were off to explore Coimbra and Porto.
Stop one was about an hour and a half train ride to the home of Portugal’s greatest university (and has been for the last 5 centuries) and is the countries 
medieval capital. We stepped off the graffiti clad train, which moved at the speed of a bus on a freeway, and saw the historic and beautiful city of Coimbra. The streets were full with vendors and students back from break, and the ancient buildings cling to the steep hill wherein the university sat atop. We spent the day climbing stairs, continuously taking in the scenery (catching our breath), walking around campus and exploring its copious amounts of street art of current and past students who once walked the windy streets. You can hear the sweet sounds of Fado, a type of music made by students to ‘woo’ the chicks of Coimbra or marvel over the 60,000+ books in the chinoiserie clad bookshelves in Biblioteca Joanine.
After eating some delicious Pastel de nata (a Portuguese egg tart pastry) and having a Super Bock (Portuguese beer), we headed back to the train station to make our way to Porto.
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