Visit Portugal: 5 Things You Will Love & Hate about Portugal

www.woltersworld.com
Hate #1. The Eating Times: Portuguese restaurants close their kitchens from 3PM until 7 or 8PM each day. That means if you get peckish for Porco Preto or salivating for Sardines at 5 or 6PM you are out of luck. You can get small snacks and the fast food joints are open, but the traditional fair is not available. This will really upset you traveling while you are in Portugal especially if you have kids with early bed times.
Hate#2. Paying for Bread and Olives: This is just an annoyance you may notice on paying your bill at a restaurant. The tasty looking bread, olives, BUTTER, sardine paste, cheese, ham, etc You have to pay for each of them separately. Yes, that means that pad of butter your dad wants to eat costs him something more. And if you are looking at the cheese and ham realize that they will cost more than your actual meal.
Hate#3. Drug Dealers in Lisbon: This is something even the locales hate. Drug dealers on the pedestrian streets and in the bar districts asking everyone and anyone to buy hashish or worse. They come up regardless of the time of day or people you are with. I have been asked for drugs while I was pushing my son around in his stroller (he was 3 at the time), and my mom (grandma) was offered drugs as well. Just say no and be forceful with it as they will follow you and ask you again and again.
Hate #4. Portuguese Drivers: My Portuguese friends like to tell me there is a little rally driver in each Portuguese. The problem is that means the roads are quite dangerous and that includes the sidewalk. Walk around Porto or Lisbon and you will see. Especially scary for parents with small children.
Hate # 5. Service: Now, not all service is bad in Portugal, if you find a family run restaurant (tasca) or store you will be pleasantly surprised. But the chain stores and restaurants have service that will turn you off of shopping. So, be prepared. The minimum wage is only about 450 euros per month, so that may explain a bit.

And then there are things you will love about Portugal.
Love #1. It is Cheap!! Comparing to any other western and some eastern European countries Portugal is extremely affordable. Whether it is eating out, public transport or drinking your wallet will love your visit to Portugal almost as much as you will!
Love #2. Wine and Food. Portuguese wine is amazing and affordable, if you want to learn how to love wine Portugal has them all, great reds and whites, their green wine (young white) is to die for and of course the world famous Port Wine from Porto. The food here is great as well, whether it is the great selection of seafood or pork or sweets Portuguese food is dang tasty!
Love #3. Nice People: Portugal has amazing people and when you get to know them they become even more affable and friendly. They will invite you to their home or even their grandmas village just to show you a good time in their country. They will let you know the best restaurants and are glad to share. Amazing people.
Love #4. They Speak English. Portuguese are great at English, not only do a majority of the youth (under 40) speak it, they speak it well. And even over 40 you will find a lot of older people that tourist will be in contact with will speak at least workable English. This is helpful regardless of where you are from as English is the international language.
Love #5. The Country. You will love the sites, the history, the everything about Portugal. There is so much to see and do and I just do not have enough space here to write or time on video to explain, but believe me whether it is surfing in Sagres, hiking in the Serra da Estrela, Celebrating Santos in Lisbon, Portugal will be a great trip you will remember forever.

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Tags:

• tourism
• portugal
• hate
• love
• travel
• tips

[ak43darkhell]

what this guy on about they don have de real stuff and police don't care? well my friend I lived in portugal for more then 20 years now I'm in london and all te time I'm asked if I want drugs

[woltersworld]

@ak43darkhell Yeah, and it sucks getting asked to buy drugs anywhere in the world. that doesnt make it ok. and Lisbon is beyond belief with the drug pushers. its almost comical how they ask everyone. hell my 65 year old mom was asked. WTF? I mean she is cool and all but still ;) hey thanks for watching adn commenting!

[fossilvivo]

like many other portuguese people i totally agree with your "hate" list. but i will add another one: taxi drivers especially in airports. like in many other countries(from poland to spain) they always try to rip you off.

[woltersworld]

@fossilvivo and what about when you live in lisbon and you pick up a taxi at the airport. i lived by marques pombal in the center of the city and the taxi drivers were always pissed off like it was not far enough. i mean do they expect everyone that flyies into the airport to be going to sintra? that always pissed me off as i had to "apologize" for only going downtown. Then I would tell them which way to go because they would sometimes get "creative" with the routes...

[woltersworld]

@fossilvivo and one time the taxi cost something like 22 or 24 euros and it usually costed 10 to 12 from the airport to our apartment (it was a Monday afternoon) and i gave the guy 15 and he started bitching at me and i said call the police and we can discuss the route you took. i mean, going via moscavide to get to the center... FU dude :) thanks for commenting and watching! abracos! hope you will subsribe

[whitemerovingian]

a bit of a contradiction here, you speak about bad service, and then about how friendly and affable people. Now you mentioned something about for the people in the US or UK about quality of service. In Portugal we do follow the tradition of, the customer is always right, however there is a difference(a very thin i admit) between that, and bending over and the proverbial "kissing the ass" of the customer or the shopping assistant pestering you with advices that you did not asked to begin with.

[woltersworld]

@whitemerovingian I find that service and the actual people can be very different. that is why i point out the lack of service (people are horrible to the people in shops and the shop people are too, 5 years in portugal teach you a lot) but htose same horrible service or horrible to service people are actually super nice. its really weird. but i guess the squeeky wheel gets the grease. thanks for watching and commenting!

[maximiz3d]

I'm Portuguese and I hate that 5 things too. But I swear I'm a good driver ;)

[woltersworld]

@ImSoWavyJuheard Mas eu morava 5 anos em Portugal, pagei impostos la, trabalhei la... entao eu acho que eu tenho o direito para discutir sobre as coisas boas e mas de portugal.

abracos

[bolshevikML]

@dimezzogiorno They are simply rude, unfriendly, aggressive etc.

[dimezzogiorno]

@bolshevikML that's really interesting because tourists usually like the Portuguese. Could you tell me why you didn't like the people?

[bolshevikML]

I went to Portugal and I loved the landscape and hated the people.

[ak43darkhell]

@woltersworld now mate i want one too :'(

[ak43darkhell]

@ak43darkhell tou com umas saudades de comer essa coisa vou te dizer ate me ponho a enventar aqui em londres xD nao ligues o meu primeiro comentario e das horasja tou a tripar xD

[ak43darkhell]

@MrCroky123 ganda esponja xD

[ak43darkhell]

@badhabitz69 well thats because you are from out of the country and like he aid they don't have the real stuff so they miht be thifs trying to stell your money believe e real dealers don't do this silly things

[ak43darkhell]

@maximiz3d lier haha tou so a curtir xD

[ak43darkhell]

@ImSoWavyJuheard i got lost what are you on about ? tou a tentar perceber do que falas tu ha pa tava dificil mas espera nao tenho a certesa se realmente compreendi talvez se ao andaces tao wavy xD lol "your not, the roads buses with no railing on the side"? and " if you fall down ur falling till you hit the floor." bhahahahahahah bem ele nao e portugues mas o portugues dele e melhor que o teu ingles eu nao sou nenhum genio mas acho que quando cais continuas a cair ate bateres no chao xD