Swedish experience in Portugal

Our journey began in Alvesta, a small town often used as a meeting point during trips like this. We went by train to Copenhagen were we then catched a flight to Amsterdam and further on to Porto. In Porto we were greeted by the Portuguese teachers who took us to the suburb Matosinhos.

Same day as our arrival we started by visiting the city hall of Matosinhos where we had the opportunity to listen to the mayor and learn about how their society works. Afterwards we had a guided tour around the building and later on went to the school for the first time to meet the hosts and the rest of the Portuguese students. During the trip we had the opportunity to learn about work and study opportunities in the different countries that was visiting like Finland, Slovenia, Spain, Greece and of course the host country Portugal. We also had the chance to taste typical Portuguese food together with our new friends around Europe. 

During the evenings we usually went by metro to Porto to have dinner and see the beautiful city. We visited a multinational technical cooperation who developed electrical cars with stations all over the globe and had a guided tour there as well. One of the days we went by bus all around Porto and the surrounding areas. We got the chance to try the famous port vine in of the most popular wine cellars in Porto, a fantastic experience. The week ended with a last night of dance and a lot of food and drinks. We got the chance to try folk dance from different countries and cultures and also show some of our own traditional dances.

It was a fantastic life experience in many different ways. We got the chance to make a lot of new friends, hopefully friends for life, improve our soft skills and our ability to speak English. Leaving the place was difficult for sure but in today’s society staying in touch is not a problem. We are very grateful for the explicit experiences and all our fabulous new friends from all over Europe, this is something we will never forget and hopefully we will meet all of our new friends again.

If you ever have the opportunity to participate in the Erasmus project, you should!