Let's continue our tour of European cities with all the tips
provided by people who spent their Erasmus year there. After Budapest,
here you have a unique report of Portsmouth, the little seaside village
in the UK. Our host this week is Antoine aka Antuan, co-author of Babelyon blog.
Finding a place to stay: the uni helps you but life is expensive
I arrived in Portsmouth one week before the term start, with my
backpack as only friend. I was helped from the very beginning by the
university: free minibus transfer from the train station to the
temporary accommodation in a seaside campus, private room at a fair
price (about
£15 a night), house-hunting day with free phone and buses to the city
centre, advice on housing contracts, etc. Everything was organised and
planned by the foreign students department. The only thing I had to
take care of was making friends, which was easy since most EU students
opted for the Uni temporary accommodation offer.
Nevertheless, even helped by the Uni, finding a nice place to stay in
Portsmouth isn't hassle-free. It depends where you want to live.
Portsmouth being an island city, it is densely populated. The City
Centre where the main campus is located isn't very attractive.
Portsmouth is the home of the Royal Navy (see original marines in the above picture) and, hence, suffered heavy
bombings during WWII. Although some historic buildings remain, much of
the centre is "a product of myopic and uninspired postwar development"
as the Lonely Planet puts it.
Therefore many students choose to live in the nearby chill-out seaside
resort of Southsea. I myself ended up in a gorgeous three-storey
Victorian house a short walk from the seafront. Nonetheless I was
probably the luckiest of my friends. Virtually all of them lived in
terraced houses in and around Albert Road, Southsea.
Continental Europeans must know that living in the UK is costly. As a
means of comparison, I paid more or less the same for my shared room in
Portsmouth (a middle-sized city) as for my flat in Lyon (France
second-biggest city).
Portsmouth University: beware of the Chinese box
I studied two years at Portsmouth University (BSc and MSc). I'm overall
happy with the education provided. A great variety of subjects was
available. In France I struggled (and failed) to find a Internet degree
which wasn't IT only whereas in Portsmouth I could choose between
e-learning, creative technologies, e-commerce, etc. But beware of the
all-powerful finance department! They seem to have forgotten that their
"clients" are students and not senior executive managers.
Make sure that the degree you're interested in is attended by British
students. This may sound awkward but some degrees are marketed for the
foreign market (tuition fees for non-EU students are three times
higher) and directly sold abroad by Portsmouth Uni overseas offices.
Unfortunately for many of these degrees, derogatively nicknamed
'Chinese box', the teaching is not up to the standard it should be.
Places: jogging, beers & the Isle of Wight
1. As Portsmouth is so compact, one often wants to escape. My fave
destination is the Isle of Wight, a 10min hovercraft ride from
Southsea.
Once on the island, head to the village of Seaview, follow a seaside
footpath southwards into the woods and you'll find yourself in one of
the most beautiful beaches I know.
2. If you like jogging, the seafront is the perfect spot. Unlike
Brighton's, Portsmouth beaches are separated from the city by a vast
green space, Southsea Common. So while running you'll enjoy the view on
the Isle of Wight without being annoyed by the traffic.
3. On a sunny day, get yourself a beer and watch the ships going in and out the harbour from Old Portsmouth walls.
Partying: don't tell people too early!
There are many places where to go out in Portsmouth. Forget Gunwharfs
quays, a former Navy site turned commercial precinct, it is way too
chainy. Give Guildhall walk in the City Centre a try. You'll find out
that the best pub around is the Registry.
In Southsea, the seafront is lined with clubs. My favourite is the
raucous Chaos on South Parade pier. About 10min from there, Albert Road
is good fun: great pubs (Festings), bars (One-eyed dog, Wine vaults),
curries and music for gig-goers (Wedgewood rooms).
However EU students prefer the cheaper and more international house
parties. When organising one, remember this: don't tell people too
early. Word of mouth is very efficient amongst foreign students. For
the first party we threw, we told about 20 people a week in advance.
Hundred came!
My feeling: a brilliant Erasmus village
Portsmouth might not be pretty but it is a brilliant Erasmus city.
You'll learn to love Southsea: the seafront, the pubs and above all the
student life. In Portsmouth no need to take the tube to meet your new
friends. A student village within the town!
Pictures by Antoine
Apart from that my 5th March in London has been a lovely sunny day. Let’s stroll around then from St. Pancras Station to Old Street. Here on the left graffiti in Trafalgar Square, on the background is the Big Ben.
The difference between the English, not used to the light and the Italian tourists armed with the compulsory sunglasses is blatant!
I meet then Annette, responsible for the local branch of Cafebabel and co-organiser of the debate I will take part in, at the London School of Economics about “New Media and European Democracy”. Stop at a supermarket. I found that London prices are now much lower compared to when I used to live here, in the Lira era, in 1998, for two months after leaving high school. Maybe it’s our prices that have soared in the meantime!
And I still have an unforgettable memory dating back to that period...memory of an evening spent with Luca’s guitar (my adventures mate), a Scottish hippy and many pleased passers by. We were in Covent Garden in front of this shop. The weird thing is that that shop is now called “French connection”.
And it is just in Covent Garden, in a place where time seems to have frozen Neal's Yard, that I came across Zsofia – an Hungarian girl former College of Europe, now in charge of the press releases of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a new centre of studies sponsored by the tycoon George Soros, that is defined as the “first pan European think-tank”.
In the lane that leads to the Neal’s Yard one could read this nice sentence that has added a bit of magic to my trip: “Live the life you have imagined”. 
After the debate, debate in which Andreas, author of Kosmopolit euroblog, stood out, off we went to the pub and later to Annette’s where I took this picture, caught on the bedside table: four books in four different languages. We really are babelians!
The following day, I am nearby the brand new St. Pancras Station, (my Eurostar train to Paris sets off from here) you could have come across this funny character.
A way, from the swinging London to wish me adieu...or maybe...bye bye!
Adriano