Whatever happened to Portugal?

Weird coincidnece: I just finally busted through the 4 Euro pair of Portuguese flag-emblazoned (weird hyphenating there?)flip flops that I bought 15 months ago in Cascais.

NB: I ain't one them cats that be wearing flip flops on the regular.

Years ago I spent a summer in Carcavelos just outside of Lisbon. Terrific place - very inexpensive, tremendous food, Seconding Drew's "neutron bomb" depopulated feeling.

Also, Livraria Lello in Porto is the most amazing looking bookstore in the world.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/51/150009587_838680fbd8.jpg

UH. I think I could lose myself in there.

None of this is official or legal AFAIK

There was a piece on BBC News the other day about Portugal decriminalising all drugs a couple of years ago, and how this hasn't led to Lisbon getting an Amsterdam-type reputation, instead consumption has actually fallen and how no-one can really explain why. The piece ran with footage of a girl openly smoking heroin in some abandoned scrubland, which made the whole thing seem very unattractive.

lol wait, what? That's not true! It's legal to own small amounts of hash/weed for consumption, but it's illegal to smoke in public, and certainly illegal to sell! So technically what this boils down to is if the police searches your house and finds some hash they can't arrest you for that. Which is hardly Amsterdam-level appealing. I was under the impression that harder drugs are still 100% illegal, but might have to check up on that.

But yeah, it's pretty normal for people to be smoking up more or less in public over here, especially at the Ribeira district (which is where Whitey went, I'm guessing.) Most pubs and clubs will let you do that if you're reasonably discreet about it. The thing is if you get caught basically all you have to do is hand the stuff over to the police, there's no jail terms or fines, so it's a controlled risk. Still not a nice experience when it happens, though.

I realise that this is after-the-fact, but if anyone's planning to visit Porto next year I reccomend going in May and checking out when Serralves (the local modern art museum) is doing their "Serralves Em Festa" weekend. Basically they open the place to the public for 40 straight hours - and the thing is, the museum is sorrounded by these absolutley huge and gorgeous gardens. So you get to lounge about in these beautiful spots o forest, grass, etc. and catch random performance art, dance, music, etc. They also more high profile concerts at one place, this year we had Dan Deacon, A Certain Ratio, Gravy Train and Metro Area DJs. It's like a really friendly, laid back festival, basically. Oh, and you get to visit the museum, free of charge. I reccomend going on Saturday at like three in the morning, when the place is just full of people who are drunk/high/wasted as shit. It's an experience.

Also, Livraria Lello in Porto is the most amazing looking bookstore in the world.

Gorgeous, but not actually a good bookstore. They know that they're on every tour guide's plan and coast on that, very unfriendly service and the selection's for shit. A friend of mine enjoys browsing their technology section, though, because it's full of early 90's "omg virtual reality!" type books.

Just want to say something kind about the Gulbenkian in Lisbon.

Simão, alongside Lampard, is also on the cover of the Portuguese edition of FIFA 10's cover (it is the 18th title in Electronic Arts' FIFA series of football video games, available for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and Wii). He said: "It's an honor to be part of the EA Sports FIFA. Being on the cover of this fantastic video game with such a rich history it's truly a great achievement for me".[26]

Happy 25th of April everyone!

http://i.imgur.com/eApG736.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBrp6b2th4Q

Folk, marching band music, Funk, Chanson, Rock and a cover of "Maiden Voyage" - pretty much all you could ask for from a Portuguese protest singer record.

✌️

Portuguese government has decreed that ALL asylum seekers and ALL undocumented migrants with pending applications for residence are AUTOMATICALLY granted and may access ALL STATE PROVISION including healthcare and benefits. I'm going to faint. https://t.co/EU4bP75eis

— Zoe Gardner (@ZoeJardiniere) March 28, 2020

All current residence and asylum requests automatically granted so immigrants can access health services!

dope

Just about every single Portuguese film I've seen in recent years has a very explicit pro-immigration stance. Very heartening to see culture bleed into policy

<3 <3 <3 <3

Haha, imago, don't think the niche that is Portuguese cinema had anything to do with this, audiences for that (like myself) tend to be leftist and pro-immigrant by default. The fact that Portugal's current PM is the son of immigrants perhaps more so, but also right now it's a total win-win measure - ppl who might have the virus not getting access to healthcare helps the virus spreading in general, even most racists understand that.

We are (were?) currently in the middle of a culture war regarding racism nonetheless, coinciding with a huge influx of ppl coming in from Brazil due to the terrible situation there.

to add to what Daniel_Rf said on the Latin thread about young Portuguese speaking English, the government has now put UK passport holders into the fast track queue

I know UK's oldest ally and everything but the scale of the Anglophilia is quite something

you whippersnappers need to remember Eusebio and all that etc etc

will add that said Anglophilia was very much in evidence when I visited last in 2019. either that or I'm an uncommonly charismatic kinda guy

lol sorry to disappoint but it's not anglophilia it's wanting $$$$ from tourists, the national economy now being entirely reliant on this

Portuguese kids speaking English is entirely to do with the yanks.

b...but we fwends?

Most of their footballers play for Wolves these days.

My Airbnb host in Faro had taken to supporting Wolves! He was watching them on telly when I arrived

'entirely to do with the Yanks' is EPL erasure surely

Oh Faro isn't Portugal, the Algarve is a UK territory obv.

lol, where does Porto fit on that metric (a mooted destination)

Porto is Portugal but also, as locals will tell you, a nation of its own.

To be clear my joke about the Algarve is only half-joking: there's a huge amount of British retirees living there, pretty much self-segregated from the locals (much like some regions in Spain) and its industry is even more directed towards tourism than the rest of the country, it's just not representative at all. The only other place I'd say this about would be Madeira.

When I went, I avoided the Maddy McCann Zone to the west of Faro, staying in Faro itself and venturing eastward to Olhau and Tavira by train, and it definitely didn't feel like expat country; hardly any UK retirees (maybe they were there in various Brexit complexes I didn't stumble across). Loads of good birdwatching tho!

https://www.portugalresident.com/algarve-drought-nears-catastrophic-level/

Love Portugal, hate seeing that Chega guy’s smug face on every billboard.

Also admire the commitment to double parking on both sides of the one-way narrow street.

Ha, going in May and hoping to avoid driving, but may rent a car to go to the drought-stricken south? Would love to hear your tips/experiences.

I’ve been in Porto and the north, saving Lisbon and points south for another time. Highly recommend Coimbra, just lovely, small, but had a liveliness to it since it’s a university town. Salazar’s alma mater!

Oof, apologies for the fucking Ventura billboards, at least in Porto ppl have been quite good at vandalizing those.

Coimbra not so much "a" but THE university town, it's in its main distinguishing feature. Lots of great stuff from there tho I do hate the whole black uniform serenade shit.

Hey I went to the University of Virginia a lot of performative “tradition” there too.

50 years ago today

will head to my local portuguese cafe-bar for lunch :)

hopefully the proprietor isn't a salazar fan (i suspect he isn't)

Wish him a happy 25th and find out :)

After an initial "Oh yes, I didn't know it was the 50th" and an initial "I was a little boy in South Africa then, wasn't a big deal to us", uncorked a resounding "all it did was create all these bloody corrupt governments!" x_x

Cited Jose Socrates. I nodded and smiled. Not my area of expertise. But...hmm

Anyone running a small customer-facing business has at least a 60% chance of being a reactionary crank, regardless of nationality.

Sounds like a Chega voter all right!

Happy 50th!

I was in Porto a couple of weeks ago having a marvellous time. That is, until a full-on (and pretty terrfiying) ne0 n4z1 protest started taking place right outside our apartment window. earlier in the day we'd also spotted a totally separate anti-abortion march going through the city. no it won't do

Sad stuff. Friends back home are mobilizing against it and I feel a bit of guilt over not being there to contribute...not that things are great here either.

I do think (hope?) that the anti-abortion stuff is gonna turn more ppl off these fash wankers than anything else.

Damn. I'll be there in a few weeks (Lisbon > Madeira > Porto > ???), excited.

lisbon is great, just so great

I really loved my mere week in Northern Portugal, want to go back and see Lisbon, Evora, etc.

Where did you go in the north besides Porto?

The Douro valley, Vila Real, and Coimbra (which isn’t really that north)

Oh nice, we're definitely planning on Douro and I want to go to Coimbra too.