Tell us about your Erasmus experience in Budapest
I had an incredible experience, first and the most meaningful one, was undoubtedly meeting different people from different parts of Europe and the world. This experience had brought me new friends and made me realize how the Europe recent past history had made some countries to develop fast and better than others, and some keep on that growing process, hopefully if they find the right governors, in the right time, they will also be available to social development.
Once you know Hungarians better, you will give up on the idea they are cold and unfriendly people. They are really good friends, does with whom you can share your most intimate things, so you can have an honest opinion without any judgment.
Somehow, they made me understand that we, people from the north of Portugal are very similar. It was a very enriching experience and learning the other languages itʼs always interesting. Once I was in the office where I was doing an internship, and an old lady, from the engineering department, saw me having lunch, and she said:
“- jó étvágyat!” (Bon appetite) to what I answer:
“- jó napot!” (Good afternoon) instead of “köszönöm” (Thank you).
She stood looking at me with a “wtf face”. Anyway, a memory from how fascinating is to learn a new language, like once that I went to the hospital and I need to use google translator to communicate there…ahahahah
But who is best Porto or Budapest?
Porto is always number one. And itʼs a privilege living in this city. It has kept most of its original medieval city, with its narrow streets, ups and downs hills, its narrows houses around 4/5 floors. It was a mercantile city with its seaport and important exchange commercial post for Portugal and Europe.
From all the buildings and monuments in the downtown of Porto, I would elect Clérigos Tower as my favorite as it represents the fight from the different religious organizations along with the development of the city to conquer the skyline. The higher they got with their bells towers, the more important they are, as they are close to the sky, and God!