Finding Our Rhythm in Portugal
Markets, Matches, and More Wine than Planned
By our third week here, something shifted; we stopped feeling like tourists and started feeling like we actually lived here. Our days have settled into a comfortable rhythm, usually beginning with a morning walk along the beach followed by a trip to the grocery store.
Shopping for groceries has been one of the little surprises we’ve enjoyed. Preservatives aren’t nearly as common here, so packaged foods are sold in much smaller quantities. People tend to buy what they need for the next few days rather than stocking up for a week at a time. That works perfectly for us because we genuinely enjoy wandering through the local markets. We’ve visited every major grocery store in the city at this point, but most days we stick to the small neighborhood market just down the street.
This week we even made a trip to Aqua Portimão, the local mall, because I was on a mission to find a specific brand of shampoo. Sun, salt water & sunscreen does a number on your hair.
Attached to the mall is a huge grocery store that immediately reminded us of Target back home, except with an even more impressive food section. The fresh fish counter was a little intimidating and the wine department seemed to go on forever
Here’s our favorite wine, and check out the price!
After our shopping trip, we walked downtown for lunch at another great spot Shawn found for us: Restaurante O Mata Porcos.
It’s a 3 generation family-run restaurant, and you can feel how much pride they take in what they do. When we arrived, most of the diners were locals, and the dining room filled up within twenty minutes of opening.
Shawn ordered the pork and clam stew, while I went with the peri-peri chicken. Both were fantastic.
We also ordered what turned out to be far more wine than we needed. Since it’s sold by the litre, we probably should have ordered about a quarter of what we did.
The extra wine definitely didn’t help with the uncontrollable giggles brought on by the buildings in the mural on the wall…
As far as entertainment, the World Cup is currently a huge deal here. Every bar along our street has the matches playing throughout the afternoon and evening. You can usually tell who’s playing before you even see a screen - just look at the jerseys people are wearing. And when a team scores, the celebration spills right out into the streets
Most of the visitors we’ve encountered seem to be British, Spanish, French, German, or Portuguese. We’ve also heard Scottish and Irish accents. Americans, on the other hand, are very rare here. We’ve only confidently identified one fellow American so far, thanks to a loudly proclaimed, “We gotta get up early, y’all!”
One of our favorite games now is trying to guess where people are from before we pass them on the beach or hear them talking.
As for us, I’m never quite sure what people assume we are. Restaurant servers often approach our table with a tentative “Hola?” and a questioning look.
My best guess is that people think we’re German - Shawn’s height seems to fit the stereotype perfectly.
We do make an effort not to immediately stand out as Americans. While all the World Cup videos from back home are endearing, Americans don’t have the best reputation as tourists abroad. We try to keep our voices down, be respectful, and use whatever Portuguese we’ve managed to learn so far. English is spoken regularly here, but almost always with a British, Irish, or other non-American accent. But sometimes you have to let out your inner very stereotypical, extroverted Americanness. We had a fun server last night who spoke 5 or 6 languages and was disappointed when he found out we were not from Texas (the most American of the states, apparently😂)
It’s been fun settling into everyday life, learning the local rhythms, and slowly feeling less like visitors and more like temporary locals. I can’t believe we have less than a week left here before we are on to our next stop, Porto.
Saúde!