This post continues from where I left off with my last post, describing our visit to Lisbon and the surrounding area. If you haven’t already seen it, it’s probably best if you read this first, then come back here. Sintra is a beautiful hilltop town on the outskirts of Lisbon. Luckily our hotel was located…
We had a week off work last week, and beyond a vague intention to have a break in Lisbon at some point, we had no firm plans. Our plans accelerated on Friday evening, just hours after switching off our laptops, when a quiet drink on our terrace was disturbed by the appearance of a scuttling…
Living in Portugal is great, and I’d be the first person to support and encourage anyone thinking of making the move themselves. Having said that, a dose of realism is required. Every week, someone new pops up on the expat forums stating their intentions to move here, and you can detect a level of naivety…
Last Sunday, we ventured over to the FiESA 2011 sand sculpture exhibition in Pera, in the central Algarve. This annual event is an international exhibition of sand sculptures, and the huge scale of it is hard to describe. You really have to see it for yourself. Animalandia is this year´s theme, and sculptors from all…
It was when I was in London a couple of weeks back that I got to thinking about the ways in which we were becoming “more Portuguese.” I had just bowled into my hotel, smiled, said “Ola, bom dia” loudly to the receptionist, then gone very red when I realised I had spoken in Portuguese…
As I type this I am 30-odd thousand feet above Portugal or Spain on my journey back to the Algarve, after a quick week working and socialising in London. We are very much looking forward to re-establishing a routine after our recent residency nightmares, which were exacerbated by three weeks of toothache, which thankfully has…
It’s been a while since I posted. Long enough that people may have wondered if I had done a disappearing act and left Portugal, never to return. Well, strangely enough, it came pretty close. We had so much difficulty renewing our Portuguese residency that, for a time, we thought we may have to leave to…
Following our previous visitors by just one day, my niece arrived last week for a very different kind of break in mind to that of the friends who had just left. My niece decides on a new challenge (or crazy idea, based on your point of view), every year, and tenaciously works towards it. This…
Only time for a quick post today as it’s changeover day for us here in the Algarve. Some friends of ours left here yesterday and my niece arrives in just a few hours – so all hands are on deck to sweep the sand from the floor and restock the fridge and wine-rack ready for…
A big first today for Moving to Portugal – my first interview! A few weeks back I posted here on the blog about “The Moon, Come to Earth – Dispatches from Lisbon,” a wonderful book from author Philip Graham detailing his adventures when he spent a year living in Lisbon with his family. Thanks to…