Travel Blog Post - Blog Posts
TIPS for Lisbon
After living in Lisbon, Portugal for 8 months now - people refer to me as local. Which is cool and it’s nice that people see me as this way though I don’t feel local just yet. Mostly probably due to my problems while speaking in Portuguese. Here are some things I think are useful to consider before entering the country for an holiday or for a more permanent stay. The list could be continued on and on but managed to narrow it down to these facts.
HIGH HEELS
Have probably heard of it but the city is covered with cobblestones and not very well if I may say so. They’re also slippery especially when it rains. If you’re all about the heels I’d recommend wedge shoes or heel that is thick and gives support. Wearing flats is still the best option though.
PORTUGUESE AREN’T SPANISH
Portuguese are introverts. So they won’t come and chat up with you like their social neighbours across the boarder. They will help, they are interested but usually it demans reaching out - from you. Especially in Lisbon people are more reserved than elsewhere in the country I hear. Folks are also very good English speakers here so don’t worry about not knowing enough of Portuguese. Even though making an effort in people’s native is always recommendable.
The difference between Spanish and Portuguese goes also for the language and culture in general. Don’t expect things to be identical despite of the large number of things being quite similar.
PORTUGAL ISN’T JUST SUNSHINE
Lisbon and Portugal does stand on the edge of Europe, next to the Atlantic that brings winds, cold ones and rains. Winter days may be +10 degrees but the nights get low as +2 or even lower. And the houses aren’t heated. So trust me it’s chilly. Also spring time March-April is supposed to be rainy though temperatures are up.
Not my pic! (Moomin)
DON’T PAY TO SEE THE CITY VIEW
The city has great miradouras, lookouts where you can admire the city view towards the river, see the famous churches, castle and landmarks. Enjoy the sunset and have a drink without paying the entry fees. The elevator of Santa Justa, the arch of Rua Augusta and the castle are nice to visit once or perhaps even twice but I prefer the the miradouras which are also the locals favorite.
EMBRACE THE HISTORY
Since Lisbon is the second oldest capital in Europe after Athens make an effort to know the main events in time that made Lisbon the city as we see today. Portugal as a country has a long, proud but not easy history for anyone who’s more interested.
GET LOST
There’s no better city to get lost in but Lisbon. Especially Alfama, the old part and Bairro Alto – the party district which opens up totally different way during day light. Take the most narrow street, celebrate the richness of details and colours around you. Go slowly and pay attention as many cool bars and cafes have no signs outside so these are the spots that only locals know about!
PASTEL DE NATA
The original pastry being almost 200 years old from the district of Bélem where the monks at the Jéronimos Monastery started the whole thing just to get their leftover eggyolks for use. In 1834 the recipe was sold to a local bakery which still exists today in the same spot. Only five men know the secret recipe and they never travel together in case of accidents etc so that there will always be someone to carry on the legacy and tradition.
Traditionally served hot from the oven and with sugar and cinnamon - you can buy them from almost every grocery store and bakery but the number one spot is still and will always be at Bélem. And trust me, they have earned their reputation. Make a stop while sightseeing and don’t be scared of the lines outside since they do have a quick service! If the trip to Bélem is too difficult to squeeze in, Manteigaria at Bairro Alto is the next best thing!
USE THE TRAMS
The old ones which you cannot find anymore in every city. They don’t go as far hop-and-off busses or tuk-tuks but within a normal ticket price you cover the classic Lisbon streets, plenty of sights and save your legs from walking. It’s not completely touristic because the locals still use them as normal transportation to get to work and about!
DON’T STAY IN THE CENTRE
In my opinion Lisbon does not have city center. The biggest shopping mall, sights and services exist different parts of the town. Touristic center can be narrowed down to Alfama, Baixa and Bairro Alto districts. But there are plenty of hotels, restaurants, museums and sights outside of these areas so no need to get stuck in downtown! Lisbon is totally walkable also and has tram, metro, local train and bus systems to make moving around easy.
LISBON HAS A BOHEMIAN SOUL
If you bother to get to know Lisbon culture and history at all you’ll probably notice that every street, square and statue are not named after politicians but famous artists who made an impact. Some kings and famous historical figures might make an exception here though. This fact is highlighted by the street art, the status of fado music and music in general in here, the diversity of the buildings and local enterprises. Clearly there’s so much space to creativity here! Not everything works as it should and if they do it’s usually with the slow motion I’ve been talking about but there’s an irresistible charm in the local lifestyle.
Every day is a Monday
As much as I’d love to tell you that so much has happened since my last post and this huge number of events is the reason why I haven’t updated this blog I’m afraid the situation is quite the opposite. I have been just really tired and unmotivated to write anything. So not much has evolved since my last post but I thought an update wouldn’t hurt anyone.
I have started studing portuguese, probably the biggest change so far! And I’ve decided to take the local approach while doing it. SLOWLY. So far had only a few classes and I’m not being nearly as active during my free time as I would want to but I am building an idea in my head of how this language works. Many things are similar from other Latin languages since I’ve studied Spanish, Italian and French and then there are other things that are completely new and bizarre. And it is surprisingly hard to let go of the things that have become familiar to me in other languages. But in time.. #patience
I found my teacher Carla on Facebook. She’s a local, 30-somewhat-year-old kindergarden teacher who teaches portuguese for foreigners also. Many TP (teleperformance) employees as well. My employer does offer free language courses but since almost all employees come from somewhere else the classes are quite popular and waiting lists long (6 months in fact). So I thought I’d ”speed” things up.
Discovering music in portuguese...even though they’re from Brazil I think.
This way of studying gives me also flexibility which I couldn’t have had while studying in a group even though it might have been cheaper. I usually have 1,5h lesson once a week so I’ll have time to do something else also during the week. Carla lives on top of many hills of Lisboa, somewhat in the old part of the town, at least compared to the area where I live. I just love to go to her house cause the streets are filled with tons of details, doors, walls, ghost house, local life without too many tourists.
To support my language learning I try to read the news in portuguese at least once a day and I’m also in search of PORTUGUESE pop music. Because music has been a huge help every time I’ve studied a foreign language. All I find is Brazilian artists, nothing wrong with them but I’m very picky about the pronunciation as I am at quite early stage of learning. Don’t wanna learn the wrong thing here. If you have any suggestions please don’t hesitate to tell me!
About differences between portuguese spoken in EU and overseas..
My weekly routine is a mixture of on-off routines… gym, yoga, tinder dates, couchsurfing events.. I’ve come to a habit of spending my Saturday evenings with a bunch of couchsurfers. Dinner and drinks – always having a good time. Besides of travelers there is quite an impressive number of locals being active also.
Tinder I use even less for a romantic purpose but I do use it. And I’ve had some pretty good friend dates. Even though you wouldn’t meet the person again it’s educating to hear different life stories and opinions. Especially when you’re a foreigner living in a new country. Great new areas, bars, cafes etc discovered through these! Have an open mind!
Pink street. Pretty touristic but a good selection of bars, live venues etc. I often end up here with couchsurfers..
I found a nice gym about 15min away from my place. Monthly fee is 30€ unless you sign a contract for a year when you pay 10€ less monthly. There’s also a female section separately which is not big but it’s calm and works for me. It’s cheap and you can notice it sometimes in the machines but like I said I manage. And it’s open 24h/7 so I don’t need to check the opening hours.
Banks and phones don’t still work the way I’d like them to but I have my Finnish ones so what the hell.. I try not to stress about things. Let them go on their pace and ignore the things I can’t control.
Flat stuff! Our laundry machine was broken for three weeks and when we finally got a guy to fix it – it took like 3min! So portuguese slow. Anyhow it works now which is amazing! Meanwhile I went to this self service laundry place around the block.
I’m starting to know Lisboa. The historical capital with obviously strong artistic vibe. Now and as in the past and probably in the future too. Almost every street, statue, square is named after a poet, writer, musician or an artist of some sort. Reading the history of the city opens up to me differently now when I can walk on the same streets and pass the buildings where this country was built, shaped and later on changed numerous times.
Financially I’m better here. I make pretty much the same money (after taxes and rent) as I did in Finland but with things being cheaper here - I’m more free here financially. My employer clearly has some sort of reputation here and the company is widely known but I don’t care what other people say. My experiences have only been positive so far. At least to compared to Finnish companies in a similar field there are many things to be grateful for.
Work is allright. I still go there. Training has been over for quite some weeks now and officially I should be on some sort of pro-level. Mornings ain’t my favorites especially when they start so damn early. I wake up 4:30am to catch the local train at 5:44 and be at work 6:30am. There’s a lot spare time there but at that time of the day there aren’t much connections to choose from. But location-like I’m super lucky cause the train to work is the best and fastest option in the city. And my body has adjusted quite easily to the new rhythm and I’m pretty ready for the bed after 8:30pm. And it’s nice to skip the rush hours when coming and going though social life is hard to plan when you’re starting to get sleepy at dinner time (portuguese eat late).
EUROVISION IS APPROACHING!!! Anyhow here you can see my local train station, the shopping mall where I have my lunch sometimes, do my shopping and see the area in general where I go to work to every day..
Days vary and are colorful because of the people who call. Got some pretty legendary stuff already in good and bad. Some calls take a lifetime and others not. I get calls about 20-40 every day. Even though my job is to listen people complaining I still like it! I like to work with the hotels stuff, flight stuff and tourism stuff in general so it makes everything nicer. There are a lot of RULES because we work in a customer service, because we handle payments and refunds, because we work on the phones. I know they exist for a reason so I don’t mind.
Even though things don’t work always as I’d like them to or even understand why they are as they are, I am super grateful for the helpful co-workers around me though who have the patience to give me a hand every time I need it. Apparently I’ve done some sales also cause I won a competition on the other Monday. But still it’s gonna take a long time before I’m gonna feel being good at what I do.
Weather like..it’s still very summery here at least during the days almost reaching +30C every day. But mornings especially at the hour I wake up, are chilly sometimes even cold. My room is freezing with the +15 temperatures during the nights and I was also sick on the other weekend. Not much rain thouh. Yet.
I’m actually looking forward to the cooler weather, less tourists and scenery changing. For the next post I’ll promise to get cracking – to make some progress with the Lisboa/Portugal to do list of mine.
Welcome
Even though it’s still early days of my life in Portugal - here’s a ”quick” update about my first 9 days in Lisbon! Tons of things I’m still missing, practical things like having a local bank account or a phone number and obviously the city, the country within its culture and language haven’t still quite opened for me yet.
Back in Finland I did manage to squeeze the last 30 years of my life into two luggage (apart from a few bags of clothes and dvd’s and cd’s which my mom took in) and get rid of everything else that didn’t fit in. People wondering how do you do that, but it is literally like peeling an onion. Prioritizing. One layer at the time. And yes it can make you even cry – or at least sad. Not everything you want or even need does fit in. Farewells were as expected but it was comforted by the thought in my head that leaving Finland felt still very natural and necessary thing to do. I was on the right track.
(Not all in that pile ended up coming with me)
My first down side came along already back at home when I was trying to get a travel insurance (or any insurance) which no finnish insurance company will provide me cause I don’t have a permanent address there anymore and I’m moving permanently out of the country. So I went on as insuranceless and hoped that all my stuff, all 56 kg of it would arrive safely in Lisbon with me. Luckily no problems there. I’m covered in health issues by my employer but not sure if I can get some insurance for my stuff from a portuguese insurance companies. Still working on that one.
In my new employer’s support package for foreign employees included a pick up from the airport which was super handy since I didn’t know where I was gonna live (the flat was also provided by Teleperformance). And the guy picking me up wasn’t part of any international human trafficking as mom was so afraid. Positive things, you know. No, he was very friendly and professional.
But to be honest - I was super relieved that the company I applied EXISTS and everything was what they said it would be. Because when you agree online to something - you never know. But everything went fine and I didn’t become one of those horror stories you hear out there.
(My new home - My room, the two pics, the messy ones above in the left)
The neighborhood gave me first a chill and not in positive sense of the word. It didn’t exactly wow me even though I wasn’t expecting any Ritz – I do pay only a few hundreds of euros monthly. The flat was nice though. A lot of light. There are 3 other people, at the moment all girls (2 from Austria, 1 French). Not super close with them but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However they’re friendly and helpful.
In a nutshell there are washing machines (dishes, laundry + tumble dryer), one broken coffee maker (working on that), freezer (ice cream), two bathrooms, no balcony. And basically I have the other bathroom for my use only – a bit confused about why that is but apparently it has something to do with the locations of the rooms I guess (not complaining). Down sides.. we could have more kitchen wear, I CANNOT ACCOMMODATE ANYONE and it could be tidier here... but oh well it’s a start. I can look for something else if I get super irritated. Oh and we have a cleaning lady coming in once a week but she doesn’t touch the rooms naturally. And yes still people can’t mind their own messes! Apart from once locking myself outside of the flat even with a key (don’t ask me) there haven’t been any difficulties.
(Not my photo - I live 10min to the left from this traffic circle)
But the location is really good. I guess I live somewhat in the Areeiro neighborhood. Feels safe. Lots of people with children, old couples.. Not a party district clearly. 10min away from the metro, train stations. Bus stops, pharmacy, groceries are right in front of my house. In the next block there are cafes, gym, more grocery stores, banks, hotels, restaurants… Airport is super close also. Not prettiest neighborhood in the city but living here – it works!
About the work. Well haven’t started that one yet properly. I’m having four weeks of training with 4 other Finns. It’s been confusing, interesting, cool, difficult, horrifying, fun and the list goes on… Tons of things to learn! But overall so far so good! I do feel like I’m at the right place and this is what I wanna do!
The city itself! Haven’t had much chance to discover it yet. Just the weekends basically. And there are so much to see here! I wonder what kept me away before. The city doesn’t exactly have that one, clear, symbolic sight which the people recognize the destination for but to be honest Lisbon doesn’t need one cause the entire city with its warm atmosphere and relaxed spirit is a landmark itself. It does remind me of Rome (old), Barcelona (green areas, palm trees, mediterranean atmosphere) or Québec City (stairs, hills). This is a perfect city just to get lost. Narrow old streets with tons of colours and details. Hundreds of hills and stairs make sure that wondering around here will go for a work out. People are friendly. They might not always speak English but they understand it pretty well. Super handy when you don’t speak a word of Portuguese! But I have managed with the help of my knowledge in Spanish, French, Italian and English – which ever language you manage to find the word the other person understands. I have a feeling I’m gonna be here for a while.
The weather hasn’t been that bad as I expected. And yes by bad I mean HOT. I’m afraid of melting, you see. There were some +30 degree days but the there’s always such a strong wind in Lisboa that makes it feel cooler and then when it’s actually +20 it has a tendency to feel actually cold.
When moving abroad what helps and has helped me tremendously in the past is to have someone at the destination. In Spain I had my future room mate getting me started with things. In Montréal and here in Lisbon I had a friend (THANK YOU!!) – and they were huge help when you just don’t have a clue about anything and for a brief moment you can just trust someone else to take the lead or you’ll always have someone to turn to.
In general during this week there have been ups and downs. I have LOVED and then I have just HATED living in Lisbon and Portugal. Strong emotions indeed. And so damn small things but very every day like! If I’ve learnt anything at all during these 9 days is patience! Not the thing itself but basically just that you should have it. I clearly don’t. I knew this and I was reminded of it but still somehow I was surprised.
Always prepare yourself to have time and effort to have a second or third round of doing things before successfully finishing them. Especially if they are official ones. Forget customer service. Forget doing things online. And like I said in the beginning I haven’t even got myself a phone number or bank account yet. But like they say, no country was made to feel foreigners comfortable. I have definitely been feeling uncomfortable. But so did I in Québec and Spain. This is all part of the fun, the things you’ll be laughing about in a year. In the end things have a way of working out. You’ll find your way. You’ll learn how things work. You’ll adapt. You’ll have a different attitude. And that’s what I’ll be doing.
