Living in Europe (Portugal) - Day-to-day differences

Olá pessoas! (Hello people). Tomorrow is one of modern Portugal’s biggest holidays. 25 de Abril. It was on this day in 1974 that Portugual brought about the end of the 48-year dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar by means of a “peaceful coup” called the Carnation Revolution. The longest suspension bridge in Europe is in Lisbon, going over the Tagus River. The name of the bridge? 25 de Abril Bridge. There are also streets in most towns called 25 de Abril Avenue, etc. Fun fact to know and tell, eh? Want to know more? Do check out Wikipedia. For instance, what do carnations have to do with it?

25 de Abril Bridge

I started composing a bit of a list of various things that are different about day-to-day life here. Things that people from here don’t even think about. Let’s see how far I get. These are pretty much in random order.

Orange juice

One of the more delightful things is these machines in some of the supermarkets that are loaded up with oranges, peel and all. You put a bottle under it, turn a knob and voila! Fresh orange juice that is absolutely delicious.

Fabulous OJ machine

Light switches

As far as I can tell, light switches here are all like shown in the photo. Not a big deal, just different. What is more different is that the switches for bathrooms are on the outside of the room before you go in. I imagine there is a reason, but no idea what it is.

Television

This one is currently making me a bit nuts. I guess I never completely understood the world after streaming mostly replaced “networks”. I know there is still NBC, CBS and ABC, etc. but I don’t worry my little head about them much. Apparently there are all these weirdo ways for “TV” to make a buck that I also don’t understand. I have been paying for, primarily, YouTubeTV, NetFlix and Amazon Prime in the states. I saw no reason for that to change and, wrongly, assumed I could still watch the TV I want to watch this way. I sort of came to understand that I need to “fake” being in the US with VPN. This, however, isn’t always reliable. That was for my college sports, which, for now, is not of interest. BUT, I also can’t watch certain things on Netflix and Amazon, not even the trailers. I’m EXTREMELY annoyed by this, I don’t even watch that much TV, but it’s a problem. A problem I have yet to solve. Grrrrrr.

Electricity

I read enough on Facebook to know that electricity delivery is way different. You can chose your service provider. Well, most people can. Our landlord wants to keep the utilities in his name. I guess that’s ok. We’ve been renting this apartment since September 1, 2024 and moved in on December 7, 2024. He’s only given us one bill. I’m sure that would be dandy if he only EVER gives us one bill, but I don’t expect that to be the case. By the way, I had to ask 3 times to get that bill, which included water and gas, so I really don’t have a good idea of what it all ACTUALLY costs. We quickly noticed that almost all the light fixtures, which appear to accommodate 2 light bulbs, only have one. We are fans of light. LED bulbs are SO CHEAP to operate. Scott tried to open some of the fixtures and couldn’t. We have no idea what that’s about. Not terribly happy about it. We also have had the apartment completely lose power. This seems to be due to the combination of things we’ve had running. Like the dishwasher and a space heater. Or the washing machine and the microwave. I don’t know why we haven’t asked for some details. But we haven’t.

Taking a number 

In Portugal, for the most part, you don’t have to stand in line with other smelly people. You take a number and wait your turn wherever. For heaven’s sake, don’t forget to take a number. If you do, no one takes pity on you and lets you take your turn. You must get a number when you realize it and go with it. Mostly, these numbers are computer-generated, not a little thingy that spits out bits of paper. Even the bank runs this way. You don’t go in and go to the counter. You take a number, choosing when you do either a number for counter service or something more involved (can’t remember what that’s called because it’s in Porguguese). When we went for results for Scott’s knee MRI, he didn’t have to get a number to see the doctor, but when we came out, we had to get one to pay the bill. Some of these computers show a little British flag so you can get English, but many of them don’t. So you gotta quickly bring up Google Translate and take a photo or maybe someone will help you, or you just gotta guess. Until you learn Portuguese. All in all, I think once you know the language, it’s a decent system.

No ATM fees

Since I mentioned banking, guess what? They don’t charge a fee for using the ATM, not even another bank’s ATM. That’s the way it should be!

Laundry

I also read this on Facebook, so it wasn’t a complete surprise. Most homes do not have clothes dryers. Let me say that again. No clothes dryers. And it’s not just a matter of going out an buying one. The homes (especially apartments) don’t have a way to vent the dryers and, as previously mentioned, there’s the matter of electricity. This wasn’t the end of my world. I’ve lived with a clothesline before. It’s not entirely lamentable. In fact, it seems that things dry more quickly. However, these are my beefs with it…. The laundry comes out “crunchy”, if it rains and you don’t notice, well, that sucks. And mostly, I count on the dryer to get most of the dog hair off of things. Not no mo.

Water at a restaurant

There is nothing wrong with the tap water in Portugal (or seriously, much of the modern world). The servers do come by and ask you if you want water. Mostly they’re interested if you want still or sparkling (com gas). Whichever choice you make, you will get bottled water unless you specify tap water. In fact, I think Scott has asked for tap and still received bottled, but maybe they just put tap water in a bottle. Usually, I either don’t want water or want com gas. I kind of assume they don’t charge for tap water, but otherwise, they do. And honestly, I haven’t checked to see about any of it.

Bread, etc., at a restaurant

In the US it’s not uncommon for bread or tortilla chips to appear on your table. Unless it’s something special that you ordered, you don’t pay for it. Not so in Portugal and a lot of Europe. Often they bring a bit of bread, some olives and maybe a couple of other things. If you eat them, you will pay for them. The thing to do, if you don’t want it, is to politely decline.

There’s more on my list, but it’s hot where I’m sitting and it’s been a tense couple of days for me. The good news is that the stuff that we shipped from Charlotte is due to arrive in Lisbon on May 7. The shipping company, Global International will bring it from Lisbon all the way to our apartment and UNPACK it for us.

Yesterday Scott attended an event at the University of the Algarve that was intended for people to get some summer interns. I’m going to encourage him to fill you in. If he doesn’t, you should ask him.

Love ya! Come see us!

R