PORTO

Whether as a holiday destination or for Erasmus: the Portuguese metropolis attracts with good weather, affordable prices and sweet port wine. The description of a day's routine, as learnt in the A1 Portuguese course (and furnished with a few tips).

8:47 a.m. The German Shepherd in the backyard wakes me with minutes of barking. The springs of the worn-out mattress creak as I slowly get up. In the kitchen, my flatmates – all Erasmus students as well – were faster: all cooking rings (three) are already occupied with espresso makers and sizzling frying pans. I decide to grab a bite on the way to university.

9:15. Mist still hangs over the Douro river as I look down a long street to the other side, the houses of Gaia. When there's mist in the air in the morning, it will be nice in the afternoon, a taxi driver had explained to me. The thing with the dog is incidentally nothing unusual: even near the centre, Portugal's second-largest city sometimes seems strangely village-like. Not a few keep chickens in the backyard. I regularly see a man walking his pig, and once I've even petted it. At Praça de Carlos Alberto I sit down in the "Zenith" and order Israeli shakshuka. Pre-carnation revolution isolation and globalisation are thus only a few steep steps apart.

10:00. Lecture, all in English. During the breaks we drink strong coffee and eat Pastel de Nata with the Portuguese students (usually with those not dressed in the traditional uniforms reminiscent of "Harry Potter"), in the sun a couple of cats lounge on campus.

17:00. After I had decided against taking the metro out to the beach in Matosinhos to surf, I studied and read a bit instead. Now I'm standing on artificial turf and passing balls to students of various nations, alongside Erasmus people mainly Brazilians, whose football style doesn't always match the cliché of the magic touch: a few certainly prefer the rustic, German boot.

21:30. I meet up with a few friends in "Maus Hábitos" for dinner. To do this, you first have to take a lift to the top floor next to it, for which you get a good view over the Art Deco neon advertising of the "Coliseu do Porto". Again I spurn Portuguese food (for fish fans, for example Bacalhao) and order pizza.

24:00. Shortly before the central square Aliados, we remember that an Erasmus party is taking place in the club "Villa". Since one of us has lost his ESN card (Erasmus Student Network), which would entitle him to free entry, we instead trudge up the streets on the other side of the square and head for "Embaixada".

01:30. The bouncer at "Plano B" had initially turned us away, but we already know the trick: we chat up a couple of girls who are just walking past. Fortunately they're from Lisbon and don't know their way around well. We convince them to go into Plano B with us. Thanks to the increased proportion of women in the group, we're now let in without any problems. Inside we drink Port&Tonic, the Lisbon girls chain-smoke.

03:00. We stumble out of the club. The alleys around Galerias (almost all "s" are pronounced like "sh" by the way) are teeming with people. A couple haven't had enough yet, want to go to "Gare" to dance to techno. We meet other people we know. The groups merge and dissolve. I climb into an Uber and let myself be driven home. The driver races over the cobblestones, but is very nice. I have to agree with his colleague. It had indeed been a sunny day.

Andreas Jäger