I want to apologise to all Portuguese. After last week I will never call you weirdoes again. I went over all advantages and disadvantages I saw in your country and lack of toilet seat is nothing in compare to greatness of the nation.
I wish at least elite of Poland or elite of elite of Poland would be so well-educated as Portuguese beggars. Linguistic skills aren’t the strength of polish residents, we know mostly one, maybe two foreign languages and it is an achievement when we communicate easily in two. But here when I was accosted and said “Eu nao falo portuges” I usually hear “Espanhol? Alemao? Russo? Italiano? Ingles???”. And you know I was surprised the first time I heard this wide variety of options. But I was even more amazed when it happens like 4 or even more times. No wonder that unemployment is quite high in Portugal if the workforce is so lettered and competitive. If even homeless people know more languages than 99% of Polish, it must be really depressing to run against other appliers at Portuguese labor market.
Of course I am joking, no offense Portuguese people! But the situation is real. The beggars indeed can ask for money in many languages.
So let’s move to serious stuff. Real appreciation. There is a lot of dog lovers around me. It’ impossible to go for a walk and do not meet people with their pets. It seems that they really take care of dogs here, walking a lot and having fun with them. It’s often that people meet and talk at the streets during the walks and in contrast to Poland clean after their dogs. This is the observation for which I needed time to notice. And it’s so simple thing, nothing unusual but actually I appreciate a lot. I’m curious how it looks like in bigger cities.
And last but for sure not least is terrific and surprising skill of drinking beer without opening it. Yes such miracles only in Laranjeiro! Imagine peaceful Monday evening, going back from Sintra, thinking about past day full of great impressions. Luca as a real man needed to buy chips and the beer to complete the perfect day. So we did go to the African shop (the only open that time) and got what we want. Talking and joking we head to the apartment. But suddenly (no idea why) Luca took a look at the bottle which was… half empty (or half full – version for optimists). But the bottle cap was untouched. Now I think no one has any doubts if my apology or admiration for the great Portuguese nation is reasoned. Drinking beer without opening the bottle – this is the real superpower.
It is easy to notice that my picture are not necessarily connected with my text. Sorry for that but honestly, do anyone would like to see pictures of throne without toilet seat? Or packet of chips? Or Portuguese dogs (ok, Portuguese dogs may be quite nice but unfortunately I do not feel comfortable with taking photos of strangers even if the purpose is the dog). But luckily I did take picture of half empty bottle of beer to have proof of such beautiful situation. Even though the quality is not the best, the most important is visible. And as usual I put here some photos of the places I visited in last few days. Palace de Pena I recommend the most!!!
