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Portugal 2016 – Lisboa

– by Natalia Ustyuzhanina

You have selected the best city ever for your Erasmus, enjoy Lisboa, it is going to be amazing!

First Days

Finally I can write something here. The first week in Lisbon was very busy. As a student in Portugal you have to organize a lot of things on your own. It was great that I have my buddy, otherwise it would be much more complicated. I will also write a few thing about what you need to do before you go to Portugal and a few words about the applying process, but a bit later.

In general, I would say that the first week was very stressful and it is not over yet. But it was a bit my fault, because I arrived very late, actually on the first day when the semester started, but it was not possible to do it differently, because the systems in Germany and Portugal are very different. So I arrived on Monday, 29.02.2016, and directly from the airport I went to the university. So if you are not used to big cities, then be prepared. Lisbon is huge and it can be very difficult and confusing to find something.

So yes, from the airport you can take subway (metro), I will write later what kind of metro they have and how to use it. I also add all or almost all information about the ticket you need in order to get to the university. I would say, if you will go directly from the airport to the campus, it takes around 2 hours and you will have to change many times, so do not go with your bags there, better arrive earlier, move in into your new room (I will provide some information about that as well) and after that carefully plan your visit of the campus. Why carefully 😀 If you want to stay in the city center, it takes you 40-60 minutes to get to the campus. Right now I am staying near the metro station „Intendente“ (Green line, Linha Verde), so I need at least one hour to get to the campus.

Luckily, I had a very good buddy, so he helped me a lot with everything. I was lucky I had a place to leave my bags, so from the airport we went directly to the university to enroll. After two hours, we were at the campus and the Seccao Mobilidade like our Studierendensekretariat was already closed, we were 5 minutes later, but there were still students, so we tried to ask if it is possible to register and it was, so somehow I was enrolled and got my student card. They also „opened“ my timetable, so I finally could see when I have my courses. After the procedure was done, we went to the library to register for their online platform like our KLIPS, but much worse 😀 , and to get some explanation from my buddy how this platform works. Of course, everything is Portuguese, there is no option to have the interface in English, but with the Google Translator somehow it is manageable. By the way, Portuguese people speak very good Englisch, so I would say if your knowledge of Portuguese is zero, no worries, you will find what you look for by using English.

Back to the library, there I saw that I already had a course which I, of course, missed and that I do not have enough courses to attend, even if before your Learning Agreement was signed and you were told that you can attend all courses you selected, do not be satisfied 😀 So from 4 courses, I could attend only 2, one course was not offered, another one was at the same time with other, more interesting course, so I had only two courses and I also was late to register for the Portuguese course (more info under Portuguese course). Usually, we need 18 credit points, so I was already screwed. After I had got some idea how the CLIP works, my buddy went to his classes and I went back to my hotel. I could move in into my apartment first on the first of March.

My first impression about the campus, huge and a very strange logic for the naming of buildings. There is a map, but it is useless, better ask people there and follow your buddy.

University: Timetable, Internet, Library, Canteen, etc.

Timetable

You should be registered in the system of the university to see when you have your courses. You will be registered while your enrollment. Here is the link to the system: https://clip.unl.pt/ No English translation, but still understandable after someone explained you how it works, so ask your colleagues. Be sure that you have a plan B and C for your timetable in case there is some overlapping.

Internet

Very okay. At the university you have a few possibilities to connect to the Internet. Better take your time and install the secured eduroam http://www.div-i.fct.unl.pt/servicos/internet-no-campus/eduroam. You can use it also at other universities, might be useful.

Library

Nice place to study, there are also computers which you can use. The Internet connection is not always good, but it depends on what you have to do. The library is new and has a cafe with super great brownies 🙂 Try them!

Canteen

Pretty good, 2 Euro 50 for one meal. Portugiese students prefer to take food with them and do not really like the canteen, but if you compare to the canteen at our university, their canteen is much better with a wide variety and food really tastes good. Everywhere on campus there are microwaves, so you can also take your food with you and microwave it.

Cafes

A lot. A lot of cafes on campus, try all of them.

Coffee

Great and cheap. From 45 cent for espresso…

Phone

Very easy and cool! Also very cheap if you compare to Germany. In your welcome bag from the university you will get a free prepaid sim card. Here you can read more about it: MORE

Here they also sell a lot of Erasmus cards to get some discounts and free entrances for night clubs.

For instance:

If you are interested in some offers they provide, so you can also get there the same card with some additional benefits, just check their websites, but as I wrote above, you will get a sim card from the university. Everything is in English, so you can easily activate it and use.

Enrollment

As I wrote in first days, the enrollment was fast and easy. Only what you need is your ID card. They also have a ticketing system there, well, almost everywhere they have it 🙂 So you do not need to wait long. The ladies which are responsible for international students are friendly and seem to be helpful, but they are a bit slowly and expect you to know what you are not able to know, because it is your first semester at their university as an Erasmus student 😀

What important to know, when you are selecting your courses, better take more. The list of courses they provide is very confusing. Better have a plan B in case you will need to change your timetable, if you have some overlapping or would like to attend some Portuguese course. So you can be flexible. The person who is responsible for you is very busy or tries to be 😀 It took me sometime to sign my LA, so better do it a bit earlier.

What else, regarding the enrollment? After the enrollment you will get a bag with some nice things with the logo of the faculty and a sim card, also some advertising about organizations for Erasmus students they have. Usually they offer to buy their card to get discounts. The card costs from 10 to 15 euros and can be very useful, if you plan to party a lot with internationals.

Accommodation

Very important part for your nice staying in Lisbon 🙂

In my case, I booked my first apartment through uniplaces and would never do it again. There you could see only pictures and only positive information, of course 😀 After I had got some problems with my apartment, of course, I was told a lot of about that many people have had problems with that service. So what to do?

You can stay at the student residence of the university in Caparica. Cheap, close to the university, 10 minutes by bus to the beach, some of Erasmus people stay there, so you always have someone to spend time with. Disadvantages: far away from Lisbon, very bad transport connections at night, you will need to take metro (more like a tram) to go to the supermarket.

For example, some of my friends used houzestudent and they still like it.

In general, in Lisbon there are a plenty of rooms, so what I would do, if I would need to find a place to stay now after some experiences I have already gained. I would find some simple place for one or two weeks and look for a room when I am already in Lisbon. It is very important to see how your place looks like, pictures cannot say everything, for example, in my first apartment I had a very horrible smell because of high humidity, it was really horrible 😀

For your first week you can try airbnb, for example, and after visit some apartments and decide which you like most. To search for rooms, you can use Facebook, there are a lot of groups where you can find some offers. You can also use, for example, this website bquarto. It is in Portuguese, but you can use Google Translator, plus as I mentioned before, Portuguese people generally speak English very well or ask your buddy to make some calls to make an appointment for visiting. It is also cheaper to look for a room at a Portuguese website, because often rooms for Erasmus people are more expensive.

Rent

You can have a very nice room in a shared flat with 5 people for 250 euro a month, almost in the city center. If you would like to have a bigger room and less flatmates, so count around 300 euro a month. Usually you have to pay a deposit. Do not forget to ask about something what can approve that you paid. Of course, better to have a contract, that is not so usual to have it here 😀 So pay attention and be careful, unfortunately there are always people which would like to take an advantage of an International person.

I can also provide you the contact data of my last apartment, I really enjoyed staying there.

Ticket

There is no ticket provided by the university. Depending on the place you are going to stay you can use different ways to get to the university. First, what I used:

Lisbon:

Other side:

You can also go by train, more expensive option, or by bus, less secured option regarding punctuality.

The cheapest way to go to the university or from university to Lisbon is to make a transportation passport (Lisboa viva card). What you need for that:

  • Money (12 Euro)
  • One passport picture

Faster to do an emergency one withing 24 hours, for that you will pay 12 Euro. But be aware, you cannot do it everywhere, there are two places where you can do it. I did it at Campo Grande, green line. Here more info for that: http://metro.transporteslisboa.pt/eng/lisboa-viva-card/

Then you can charge this card how you want. In my case I charged my card for metro in Lisbon, boat and after on another side for metro there. A bit confusing, but you will save a lot of money if you do it and do not forget to take your receipts all the time you pay for this card or charge it.

For other options I do not know a lot, but some of my friends went by train, better ask directly there where you will purchase your card. Anyway if you go by train, you will have to take metro on other side from Pragal. All options take a lot of time, but for that you will stay in Lisbon what I also recommend.

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