Coimbra (25 Oct)

On this day Antonio organized a conference on a very interesting and touching subject: the reign of King Leopold II of Belgium in Congo. This was actually one of, if not the first of humakind's holocausts. The congoleese people were treated very cruelly by this king and made slaves that brought in rubber to make the Belgians rich. And if they did not bring in enough rubber, their hands would be cut off...and their women murdered. The attempts of Leopold to hide this masacre were almost successful. But in the end he was boooed by the Belgians at his funeral.
The strangest things happened afterwards. The Belgians chose to forget about this episode, so today you can still see statues of Leopold in Belgium and some of the buildings he built with bloody money are considered monuments today.

...While Antonio was busy setting up the last details of this conference...I took my first strole around Coimbra.

University walls:

Cityscape:
Botanical garden:
A monastery:
More cityscape:
Aquaduct:

By this time I am even more in love with the city structure that is on hills, with the vegetation and the bohemian atmosphere.

In the evening I got to see Latada for the first time- a one week student festival.
Coimbra is a student city mostly and therefore, most of the student traditions have been well preserved. On this week, one can see Coimbra students dressed up in traditional black suites with capes roaming the streets, getting drunk and having fun. The older students are in charge of the freshers that have to do the strangest things, from walking the streets in diapers, to singing and so on....the students that graduate on the other hand get their clothes completely torn and get to walk the streets almost naked. All in all it is a celebration and a huge space hosts concerts and a discoteque for all students.

The day ended with a traditional dinner in a small restaurant where we had octopus and a thing similar to "Fasole cu ciolan" which is meat with beans. Desert was the sweet "Camel Drule". By this time I am becoming in love with Portgese food...