Around noon, since that was check out time, I summoned Uber and successfully didn't die on my way to the train station. I would've walked but I don't really like rain when my bags aren't waterproof ya know? So for the couple hours that I had at the train station I just chilled. Then got on the train to find out it had free wifi on it. I sat in the wrong seat, which is just cause I can't read Portuguese and was one seat off. Don't worry the guy who had the seat I took was polite about it. Found out that seats actually matter in Portugal since they just check your identification with the identification that bought that seat. Then the guy helped make sure I got off at the right stop since Portugal just announces it instead of having screens with the stops like Spain.
I took a taxi to the hostel. Portugal must really want me to get in shape, because this hostel had stairs leading to reception and then the ten person dorm I am staying in was in the attic, third floor. Lots of stairs to struggle up with the heavy bag that tries to make me fall over. I'm super looking forward to carrying that downstairs. I could've gone exploring Coimbra on Tuesday when I got in but I really wasn't feeling it. Instead I chilled in one of the "living rooms" and then watched Lord of the Rings before going to bed.
Wednesday, May 11th
I started the day by taking advantage of the free breakfast the hostel provides. It wasn't nearly as good looking as the breakfast the Porto hostel had, but it was still food. Then once I was ready, I went exploring. There was only two places that I actually wanted to go to. I started the day by going in completely the wrong direction, but it was okay because I found a cute, little gazebo that had a moot and four bridges leading to it. The reviews of the place I was going to go to after I found the magnificent library I was looking for said it was really hard to get to. I completely missed the library and ended up finding the Botanical Garden instead. I spent a couple hours in the garden, hiding under tress from the rain and just relaxing. Some of the trees were very cool looking and definitely had their own bigger than you attitude going on. The Botanical Garden also had a "skygarden" which was like a miniature ropes or zip lining course. It wasn't open though so I just looked. After my adventure in the garden I walked around trying to find the library only to find I had to buy tickets to enter a university library. I mean it makes sense, and I probably would have but I didn't feel like going anymore and just wanted to go relax out of the rain and in dry clothes so I just went back to the hostel. On the way back I saw a different park that I think might be fun to check out. I'm proud to say for dinner I took advantage of the hostel's free fruit and had a peach and apple.
Thursday, May 12th
I had breakfast and then got everything ready to go. My train doesn't leave until midnightish though so I was planing on spending the day in the hostel. While I was sitting in the living room, someone arrived too early to check in so she was directed there as well. We ended up putting our stuff in a safe room and heading out to see stuff together. We ended up meeting up with one of the friends she had met in Porto and having lunch together before heading back to the hostel so she could check in. We all agreed before parting ways that Coimbra is definitely a day trip and in the one afternoon we had really seen everything there was to offer. So the girl I met at the hostel is named Veronica and she's from Canada. She's been traveling all over Europe for the past couple weeks and now is at the same point I'm at of just being ready to return home. I can't believe that she's at that point after only being in Europe for a couple weeks but I suppose she's been traveling that whole time and it's exhausting whereas I've only been traveling for a short period of time. Then her friend is from Germany and has an obsession with cheese. I forget what her name is though. We had fun walking around, eating, and talking. They both are getting ready to enter the world of adulting and that just sounds horrible. I'm glad I have another year at least before I have to adult.
So after we ended our adventure with the German, we hung out at the hostel for a couple of hours until one of the British guys who is currently living and working in Porto invited us to go to a cafe for a drink. We went, we chatted, apparently the UK is going to vote on leaving the European Union, and then his friend Ollie showed up. Ollie also lives in Porto. We chatted some more then went back to the hostel since all of them had said they would eat the vegetarian chili a French guy was making for dinner. Around 8pm, I began my walk to the train station to wait around there for my midnight train. I'm glad I went before dark because it turned out that a part of my journey was just walking on the highway without there being a sidewalk. Just slightly sketchy if you ask me. I made it there fine and waited around the net few hours in boredom and ready to sleep. Once I got on the train I probably slept most of the trip. One of the train conductors must have had a problem with one of the passengers, I have no clue what caused it, but the GNR was called in about half way through our train ride and she had to provide them with passports and they kept asking her questions. I got that some part of her documentation wasn't in order but she was arguing that she had lived in Lisbon for 7 years now and was on her way to Bilbao and nothing was wrong. After about 20 or 30 minutes of this, they finally let the train move on.
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