7 Surprisingly Good Things About Portugal

7 Surprisingly Good Things About Portugal…believe me there alot more than 7, but for whatever sake 7 is a good place to start.

Our lovely journey to Portugal this past December/January has us wanting and planning to return this summer.  After all of Joanie’s months of research prior to visiting, we were pleasantly surprised to be only a little surprised.

Costs

First, and maybe most important was the cost of most everything…no surprises and certainly no shocks.  The cost of food, drink, lodging, Uber and car rental, gas…all less than our Costa Rica journey back in August.  Across the board all our expenses were much cheaper than comparable costs in all of Costa Rica.  To be fair, our Airbnb lodging was nearly the same in Portugal vs Costa Rica—shocking that a European cultured city could match rural, under-developed Costa Rica!  There were no surprises with the car rental, as in Costa Rica.  We purchased a toll permit so we could zip through toll lanes without digging around for change and slowing or stopping to pay tolls.  And, the tolls were reasonable and the highway system was very good.  I like the toll system.  You use it, you help pay for it.  You don’t use it, or use it very little, you don’t pay for it or you pay as much as you do use it…cool.

Now, some of the drivers think they are still on the autobahn, but as long as you stay to the right, including as far right even with 3 lanes you’ll be good.  Drivers will pass you driving significantly faster than you and the kph speed limit.  There’s not much with the blinker system on the highway either, as cars zip past you and then get right back into the right lane and are gone.

Roads

Second, as I mentioned a bit above, the roads and highways are well-maintained and easy to drive, although narrow cobble-stone streets in villages on up to the cities are common in many areas.

Speaking Portuguese

You can get by without speaking Portuguese in most areas even rural Portugal. We learned a few greetings and key phrases in Portuguese and managed well for our 30 day adventure.  While we were very busy prior to leaving for Portugal, I do regret not spending more time learning vocabulary and more phrases.  We did learn many basic phrases, and we were gently, humorously reminded about other phrases, such as good afternoon.  Speaking in Spanish is not really appreciated, such as, there is no saying  gracias, you say obrigado, thank you.  I mean, how hard is that.  I did fall back on some of my Italian, and that just always seems to be cool.  We didn’t have any problems with that.

When we were in Lisbon, the Uber drivers, mentioned they hear every language; of course French, Italian, English, Spanish, and of course, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, so Lisbon is more forgiving.

The Portuguese

Portuguese are friendly and welcoming to Americans and ex-pats.  Portuguese will say hello even in Lisbon/Porto, but we always went with ola, or boa noite, bom dia.

Being from Arizona, when we were asked where we are from, we would start out with Arizona…U.S.  I wanted to know if they knew of Arizona.  And, I wanted them to know where in the U.S., such as New York or Florida or California or Kansas, or where abouts you know, kind of a big area of all sorts.  And, in general, Europeans have kind of an old west, wild west, sunsets, cowboys, saguaros…hot… sort of image thing still about Arizona.  So, that was all good.

Although it is a poorer country than most of Europe, the Portuguese are well-dressed, polite, sometimes a little loud for me…but that’s me.  There are many Mercedes and BMWs that are in good condition, as well as many other European type cars.  There weren’t many Japanese cars, and we may have seen one Ford.  I’m sure there are a few U.S. cars, but just a few.  Not much in the way of trucks, especially in the cities with narrow, often one-way narrow roads.  Trucks are more common in rural areas.  And, not much in the way of motorcycles, unlike Costa Rica.  That is probably a cost of gas issue.

Health

The population tends to be healthier and more normal weight compared with Americans. This includes the elderly often well-dressed and walking the streets without walkers or wheelchairs, but you might spot an occasional cane.

We’ll be looking more into the healthcare system this summer.  But, we are looking forward to a diet of daily fresh fish, fresh vegetables from the street markets and their cheeses, meats and wines this summer…sort of a Mediterranean, ketoish sort of diet this summer along with lots of walking!

Clean

The country/city is relatively clean free of trash and graffiti. The streets are clean of any trash.  There are a couple areas where I spotted graffiti, but much less compared to certain areas in the U.S. Portugal is pro-green and recycling bins are plentiful in all the rural and city areas.

Safe

As far as we can tell, in our 30 days this past winter, Portugal seems a safe country.  It seems to be safe to be out late at night, even in Lisbon/Porto.  However, as some of you can imagine, wrong turn, wrong place, wrong time, anywhere you go, on and on, always be aware of pick pockets, especially in the high season, as well as other petty crimes.  I am always wary of the pick pocket type by wearing cargo pants or shorts.  I mean, I forget where I put things with my cargo pants.  I think I’ve unloaded all the pockets going through customs and they find something in a pocket I thought I checked, but didn’t check.  And then, I’m always concerned about a break in while we are away.

While walking busy streets, via peripheral, I could tell we were being targeted, probably as tourists, maybe as U.S., and sure enough a guy approached for a euro or two, which put me on high alert as a black belt.  Anyway, that’s me, and maybe it’s not something to be as concerned about.  At the latest look, Portugal has been given, on a scale of 1 to 4, 4 being a do not travel warning to specific countries, to 1 being safest to travel to, Portugal was given a 1, while many such as Spain, France, Italy were given a 2 level.  Though we couldn’t follow the Portuguese news, as far as the safe or unsafe issue hitting our radar, there seems to be little of the violent crime, low levels of murder, rape or gang violence.

So anyway,

maybe I got a little too much into the safe, kind of safe thing, but that’s me, and all in all, there were so many good, great, fun things about Portugal.  I mean, if all goes well, we’re planning on summering in Portugal this summer.  We would recommend visiting to anyone that is considering visiting Portugal.  Maybe we’ll get the chance to meet up with you!  All right, till next time…ciao.