Chocolate Shot Cups? I Seriously Love Coimbra.

A popular Portuguese liquor made from ginja (a sour berry), sugar, and schnapps, is my new favorite thing. They call it Ginjinha (so it’s fun to say) and serve it as a shot (so it’s fun to consume). As if that weren’t enough, at a small shop near Coimbra’s central plaza, Ginjinha comes in a chocolate shot cup. That’s right, people. Chocolate. Shot. Cup. Drink the liquor, eat the cup. It’s a thing of beauty.

Heavenly shots are ready for consumption

Visiting Coimbra Hogwarts

Students at the nearly 800-year-old University of Coimbra wear black capes to class. When I learned about the traditional uniform, I decided that the University of Coimbra was Hogwarts. Students study Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts. They learn to cast spells and play Quidditch. Seriously. You can quote me on this.

Since we were in town over the holiday break, we sadly missed out on meeting any Hogwarts students in their medieval garb. To compensate, we pretended to be them.

Fado and Falling for Coimbra

To me, there's no better souvenir from a foreign country than a CD. I like to pop into a record store, grab some music off the shelves, plant myself at a listening station, and go for the ride. Usually, I feel like I gain insight into a culture by listening to its traditional and popular music, even if I can't understand the lyrics.

Portugal is famous for fado, a musical genre that typically features mournful lyrics and an emotional, expressive singing style. I tend to find beauty in all things melancholy and was therefore eager to learn more about fado. On a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of Lisbon, I discovered Portuguese fado singer Cristina Branco, whose songs played between historical anecdotes on my headset. I learned the singer's name from the bus driver and now own one of her albums. It turns out that Cristina Branco is one of the most popular current-day interpreters of the fado style. Below is a taste.