Hey guys, this year I did my summer internship in Portugal. First, I want to say that the reason why I chose this country was simple – nice weather and good food 🙂 I was accepted to Braga (50km northeast from Porto), althought it was my third option after Lisboa and Porto. So I highly recommend to you, send them all paperworks ASAP to raise your chance to get on your preferred place. I didn´t do that. Fortunately, they accepted me to a plastic surgery department, which I wanted.
Braga is very nice and quite big town with rich history. People are helpful but usually they do not speak english but in the hospital I didnt have any problem. Doctors and all stuff generally were awesome. Every one of us or maximum two students together had his/their own supervising doctor. I can´t speak Portuguese but they always explained to us, what´s going on. Sure, it would be better to understand whole conversation but that is not such an issue. We also could scrub in and assist through the operations. My doctor gave me his personal number just in case I would need some help.
The dorms where half an hour away from the hospital by bus and the bus stop is right in front of them. The single rides were too expensive for us so we had to buy one-month ticket. I was satisfied with myThere were two meals included in the price. We got special tickets for that but you could use it just in school canteen which was half kilometer away from the hospital or dorms canteen. Honestly, the food was ordinary and I didn´t like it. But it was in prize and I was hungry… However, the hospital canteen was unbelievable. The main course cost about 3 euro but for example you could point at the fresh meat or fish and they grill it right in front of you or it was possible to choose a salad mixed from ingredients you wanted and so on… Really the best hospital canteen I´ve ever seen. If you want to stay also in the afternoon, it was the best choice where to have a lunch. Must to taste food is Francesinha but be careful, it is mix of everythig,
room except of warmth and noise from canteen´s air condition. But I think it was standart.
The contact persons took care of us very well. First week, we spent almost every day in the city centre to watch Euro championship matches and I was glad to be there when Portugal representation became the champions. Do not stop the party 🙂 They showed us the best places where to eat or drink 🙂 and spent a lot of time with us. They where very helpful when we needed something and also they took us to the beach by their own cars.
I can´t properly rate social program because I participated only on the first weekend trip to Ponte de Lima, Geres and Guimares. The hightlight of the trip supposed to be waterfalls in national park but 5 min before our arrival there, the bus driver told us, he is not able to get there by bus because of the narrow road and we turned back. Finally, we found nice place for swimming instead but we had been looking forward to jumping to the waterfalls first. But I think the next time, they will fix it. I arranged my other trips on my own because usually it costs less, I didn´t have to wait for anyone and could go wherever I wanted. For example return flight ticket to Lisbon costs about 30 euro insted of more expensive 4 hour ride by bus. However it depends what you preffer 🙂
The most of the time I spent in Porto. There is quite a cheap train about 6 euro for return ticket from Braga. I hadn´texpected that Porto would be so charming. You can do beautiful walking tour or visit beach and Porto wine cellars. If interested in delicious food, nice views and architecture certainly visit Porto. Worth visiting is also national park Geres and old historical towns such as Coimbra or Aveiro which is called portugal Venice 🙂 If you want, you can also rent a car and go to Vigo or Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
Special advice for you. There are new low cost chart flights from Budapest and Krakow to Porto and the prices are better in August. Call or write me if you will need an advice about travelling there.