Culture Shocks We Never Expected Living in Portugal

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome to As the Dinason's Turn, where we chronicle the adventures of the Dinason family. A seemingly ordinary family from Iowa who decided, hey, you only live once. So let's move to Portugal. And now your hosts, Jason and Tracy Dynaston.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Welcome to another episode of As the Dinason's Turn. We wanted to do kind of a list this time, right?

SPEAKER_03 0:27

Yeah, we want to give you guys some tips. We've seen a lot of people who are coming to Portugal and they've been different places, but we want to give you some tips if you're coming up to the north to give you an idea of what are some things you should keep in mind as you're traveling during these crazy travel months. Right. And so what's what's one of your tips that you think it's good for everybody to keep in mind? Mine, one of mine is um try and have some change, use exact change first thing in the morning during the lunch rush or at the very end of the day, because um the cash register might not have the change to give back to you. So if you have any coins, let's go ahead and use those. If you're like me before when I was traveling, I ended up with a whole bunch of coinage. Um, it was just a crazy amount of coins. And because I'm used to using paper money. And so I would have all of this stuff. And before you know it, I have like 20 euros and change. So I would say try that. Um, and if you have a big bill, apologize. So if you have a 50, anything over a 20, apologize and ask if you can use it. If you can't, use a card. Yeah. What about you?

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Yeah, I think just carry cash is also important. Some of the smaller cafes and stuff might not take cards.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

Yeah, that's definitely a good thing. And you're gonna need um money when you're parking, because while we might have what's called Via Verde, if you get a rental car, um, you can ask for that and then you can use it for parking and you could pay that later. But, you know, um, when you take a ticket, um, you're gonna need to then pay before you get in your car and leave, right? So it's different than in the US. In the US, you would just pay at the exit, right? Or at least in my experience. Yeah. So you have to find the pay machine and they'll tell you where. Usually it's on minus one, right? And so you would be able to find that, but you're gonna have to have that ticket and you're gonna have to use exact change or use change to use that machine. It's not gonna take large bills. Yeah. We have had the experience of losing that ticket. And what happened, Dinoson?

SPEAKER_00 2:45

We had to pay 25 euros for a replacement.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

We'd be 25 euros, which is the highest you can actually pay in a 24-hour period when we had only been there an hour. So don't lose the ticket. Oh my goodness, it was horrible. So, yeah, don't lose your ticket. Oh, jeez. Hmm, let me think. Um, what other tips do you have?

SPEAKER_00 3:09

If you're gonna rent a car, make sure you know how to drive manual transmission, and always get the full insurance, even if you think you're not gonna need it. And yeah, I brought that up to someone recently from the US, and they said, Oh, I learned three on the tree. I learned four on the floor. Actually, I think that my dad's old pickup was more like five.

SPEAKER_03 3:31

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Five on the drive.

SPEAKER_03 3:34

Oh my gosh, I didn't know none of these phrases.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Um well, I don't know if five on the drive is what it was called. That's just what I made up. Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

I like it. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 3:45

Three on the tree, though. That's something people say. I've seen that elsewhere.

SPEAKER_03 3:49

What does that mean? You get in the third gear and you drive and you die around a tree? Like what?

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Like what happened? Some of the old cars had the gear shift on this the column, like the steering column.

SPEAKER_03 4:01

Okay, so I drove the old car.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

It's like you put it, you know, in subcars, not so much anymore. They all have the thing, even man automatics have the thing over in the middle. Gear shift. Yeah, there you go. Whatever. But in in older man, okay. In older automatic cars, you had the thing that you pulled down. That was part of the space. That used to be some cars, not every car, but in some cars, that was where the manual transmission gear shift was. Uh well, that's on the column, and that's and there apparently were three gears.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

That's also where it was in my mom's 1970 Monte Carlo, which was yeah, well, I never heard that. I think that I think it was automatic.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

That's it.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

Still was there. You got to get into reverse and drive somehow, right? Okay. I drove a 1960 Volkswagen bug, and so that was a slanted H. So let me just tell you, moving from a slanted H to a stranded H, that was different. I still think that whoever makes things seem different.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Is like right there on top in Google. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 5:10

I still think this is nothing I've ever heard before. Uh, this is something that maybe you have to be of a certain age to understand.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

1940s and 50s.

SPEAKER_03 5:21

There you go. There you go. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Grandpa Dallas could have told us about three on the tree.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

Grandpa Dallas would have had stories about three on the tree. He wouldn't have just told us. So, yes, manual transmission. And the reason why we say get the maximum amount of full coverage insurance no matter what, is because in Portugal, you never know what's going to happen. First of all, there could be a scratch on the car that you didn't see beforehand, and then all of a sudden it's your responsibility. Um, you can like parking garages. We've hit a pole, right? We've had a door of shame kind of incident. So you need to know that things are very narrow here. It's always in your best interest to have full coverage, even if you think you have coverage with your cards, your bacardic cards or something else, go ahead and get it through the rental um place because they're gonna want that. Um, it'll it'll save you a headache. Trust us, it'll save you a headache. And if you do have um a shame moment, a poll of shame moment, um, contact the police so you can write up a report so that you have it for that insurance claim. That's a good tip. What's something else we want people to know if they come to Portugal this time of year? So we've got driving, we've got change and cash.

SPEAKER_00 6:38

I think it's just it's hot. It is hot. Now, I guess I don't know along the beach if it's so hot. It's cooler. We we're not that far. We're only like 45 minutes inland, but it's hot.

SPEAKER_03 6:52

It is, and so if you can get a hand fan, stop in someplace at one of the tourist shops or the flying tiger, um, a normal, grab yourself a hand fan and have it with you because we even us, we use it like inside of the mall, even it gets hot, and like our level of air conditioning versus Portugal's level of air conditioning are different things. Okay. So even at hotel level of air conditioning is not the same in Portugal as it is in the United States. So have that in mind. A hand fan is always gonna be your friend, I would say that's gonna be important. Um, when you when you order water, you're gonna pay for it. Know that it's okay. Just know that that's part of it. You don't have to tip. So there's that. Um, but I would say if you're in a tourist destination, try and eat further away from any of the plazas. Try and find someplace that's a little bit off of the beaten path. Um, because the people, the plazas, the tourist places are always going to be more expensive. And the food is not usually as good. That's been our experience. So if you can kind of go off the beaten path or even just go to like a snack bar and have toast, like a toast mista, I feel like toast in Portugal is its own meal category. And it's always good to have toast, just like it's always a good idea to have coffee. Portugal philosophy there.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Yeah. Yeah. A few months ago when one of your former students came to visit, we ate dinner at some place kind of like that off the beaten path. And the I don't know, the food was okay, the service was maybe lacking a little, but the view looked right over the river. And I mean, it was just perfect to sit and relax for an hour. Absolutely. You could find those places, but it might not be on the beaten path where everyone else is.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

Yeah. And you know, I have to say, um, sometimes getting lost has the benefit of you finding like the perfect spot. So there's always going to be a cafe around when you need to take a break. Definitely take that break, you know. Um, the other thing I would say is when you go to all these tourist destinations, most places will have a cafe in the tourist destination, like the castle or the museum. Um, it's always worth taking your time at that cafe, in my opinion. Um, based on my experience, the students always knew they could find me at the cafe because it's a good place to sit and relax and enjoy the environment. Um, but take breaks. Do not overcrowd your day, right? There is a Portuguese philosophy about vacation. Have you learned this philosophy, Jason, about what the philosophy of vacation is?

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Well, I don't know what the philosophy is, but I just remember someone told you a couple of years ago, what do you do at the Algarve? And it's like, we don't do anything. That is Portuguese philosophy.

SPEAKER_03 9:54

That's right. So, you know, unlike having a to-do list that's a mile long, um, or that you want to visit four or five sites in a day, pick one in the morning, see how you feel, then maybe do another in the afternoon. You're not gonna see it all. That's okay. But that is a philosophy. Not only that, but I've learned that even if you know somebody who's staying in the same place you are, um, you don't socialize because socializing requires energy. And the entire purpose of vacation is to re-energize, not to have something suck energy away from you. I thought that was fantastic. So, um, but so the idea is just literally to relax. Only do something that moves you that you feel like you want to do, do no more. And if you wake up on a day where you're like, all I want to do is lay here, then do it. I think it's a great philosophy. When you go to the beach, you lay down and then you might get up, get into the cold, cooler water and then go back. You might get up and go and get yourself a beer, but you don't need to go trekking and no, you don't have to do that hike, and no, you don't have to kayak or like windsurf or any of those things, and it would still be a vacation. I like that philosophy, especially if you uh have a day where you feel like all you do is run, run, run, run, run. Yeah, give yourself that permission. Hmm, something else we would tell people. Oh, bring things that are lightweight, and we mean like light cotton, linen, breathable fibers, things you can wash by hand and then hang up and dry because it is hot. And so if you've got linen um or lightweight cotton that's breathable, you're gonna actually not sweat as badly as everyone else, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:51

It's crazy. Can you think of anything else you would tell people if they come to the north of Portugal? Things to keep in mind.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

Culturally, it's different from other places that you'll be in Portugal. It's different from Lisbon, which is different from the Algarve.

SPEAKER_03 12:10

Well, and even where we are is different, even from Porto. So we live in a smaller area. We live in outside of Braga. Braga is a different kind of town than Porto is, um, even, and it's literally 35 minutes away. So I would say that the things I've learned, um, saying bon dia, boa tarde, um, where we are is important to acknowledge other people, um, to say obrigada, por favor, thank you, please, and thank you, hello and goodbye are important magic words here. Um, I'd say those are the things I would let you know. Don't be surprised if you're um in northern Portugal and people wave at you as you drive by. It's a very Midwestern type of place in that sense. Um, so the finger wave uh as you drive by somebody uh in the middle of northern Portugal, totally fine. Yeah. Um but yes, it it is a very different place than you would see even in Lisbon or Porto. Yeah. What are some of the the things that you've noticed that you really enjoy about the northern part of Portugal versus Porto, Lisbon, Algarve? What are the things that kind of speak to you?

SPEAKER_00 13:23

I think the pace of life is more our speed.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

And it's much slower pace of life than what we had in the US. So I would say um, you know, Lisbon was way is way too high-paced for us, like even moving from a high-paced life in the US, that that's probably more of a Porto speed of life. But I like where we are now. It's definitely slower paced. And so that's also if you have a long list of things to do, people will tell you, be more Portuguese. And what does be more Portuguese mean? I'm still trying to figure it out, but definitely slower, calmer, let things go, don't worry. Hakeups are going to happen. And the mantra here, what is what does George always tell us?

SPEAKER_00 14:11

It's good, it's normal.

SPEAKER_03 14:12

It's good, it's normal. It's okay. Or if something's broken or something's wrong, it's easy fix. It's easy, it's an easy fix, it's good, it's normal, it's okay. It's a good mantra to have. Yeah. So things happen, it's good, it's normal, and it's okay. And that's some of your best stories, honestly, is when craziness happens.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

We don't film nearly as much as we should.

SPEAKER_03 14:39

We don't. And I think it's because we actually are not of well, we're not, we didn't get into the um social media part of our generation uh when we probably should have, um, based on when other people were doing it. We were we were busy doing other things, you know. I was busy doing uh my master's and doctorate work when I could have been doing some of those things. So and you were reporting, so you had enough talking to and letting people know it's just a different vehicle. Um I, you know, come enjoy it, take your time. Um that the alcohol will hit you more quickly because it's hot and you're sweating, but also it's got more alcohol in it.

SPEAKER_00 15:25

Um that's true. The wine we were told does have the wine at least produced in this region, has more alcohol because the temperatures, the climate is getting hotter and drier, which affects the grapes, which affects the alcohol content, gives it more kick.

SPEAKER_03 15:44

It does give it more kick.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

When we looked, we were out to dinner with friends that one night, and we he and I were looking at the bottle, and it I forget that it was like 15%. Yeah, 18, it was like double what you would normally think that wine would be for alcohol percentage.

SPEAKER_03 16:00

Yeah, I'd say that that's true for every bit of alcohol you drink.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Um I remember in Spain, though, on the Camino when you would have wine, it's like you could drink that entire bottle that they put on the table and everything was just fine, and you wake up the next morning just fine and dandy. But I haven't tried that in Portugal.

SPEAKER_03 16:21

It hits you differently. It hits you that thing. We need some of our Camino friends to come and visit us so we can have an excuse to drink an entire bottle of wine in the evening. It's not something we do very often.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

That's true.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

So come and see us. We absolutely have the space and would love to see you. Um, I think the only other thing I can think of, um, and it just left my head. That's always fun when that happens because we were talking about Camino and wine. So alcohol hits differently.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

We'll see if the editor edits this part out or not.

SPEAKER_03 16:53

Oh no, he won't. He'll leave it here. I know he will. He'd be like, uh huh, Cotter. Have fun. Don't overdo it. Um, and know that you oh, this is what I was gonna say. We went to dinner, we had a 7:30 reservation and we closed the restaurant at 11:30. And that was okay. We had our meal, we paid for it, all those things. Nobody's gonna kick you out ahead of time. So, you know, if you stay longer than you think you would normally get another drink, add to your tab, um, get yourself a coffee, get a dessert, you know, get another snack or something like that. But don't be afraid of, don't feel like you have to leave your table. Um, and I'd say that that would be different in a tourist destination. If you were sitting there um and you didn't have a reservation or things looked really busy, then you might want to be cognizant that there are going to be people waiting. But we picked a night of the week that it wasn't overly busy because it was between festivals and we could actually just enjoy our time together. So um that part of socializing is important. You will see children out at 11 p.m. midnight um during the summer, and you just take your kids with you. So that's the other thing. You know, don't leave your kids back in the hotel. You know, take them with you. They're just expected to go. Um, and they'll fall asleep on in their stroller or they'll just kind of hang out, they'll run around and play. There'll be other kids for them to play with. So don't be afraid to go out.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

And some of the things in Portugal, music festivals and fairs and stuff, don't really get started till after sundown. Oh, yeah. Which is something I'm never gonna get used to. I don't think that something literally starts at midnight.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

Well, what I what I love is I met friends last week for um for dinner at 7 p.m., which was early. So that's most places are not opening until 7 or 70.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

That if you show up at 6:30, there's a lot of restaurants that'll be closed, maybe not in the tourist areas.

SPEAKER_03 18:53

Well, even in in Guimaraish, this is downtown Guimaraish, they won't serve you.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

True.

SPEAKER_03 18:57

They'll they'll tell you the the kitchen's not open. You can have a snack, but the kitchen's not open until 7 or 7:30. So keep that in mind. Um, but we were leaving at like 9:30 and things were just starting to get hopping. Um, and so I think that's that's important to keep in mind because it's hot during the day. People like to come out and socialize. And, you know, 9:30, 10 o'clock at night, things are just getting started. Don't be surprised about that. It's just a different summer atmosphere. Wintertime, it's not as late that I've noticed that things get started. It's usually maybe an hour earlier. Things at eight o'clock, people start getting together and doing things. But summer, I mean, the concert on the square doesn't start until 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. sometimes. So keep that in mind. Things are are always going to be later. Um, and then your day also starts later too. So nine o'clock, things will start to open. Those things will be open by 10. Don't expect a 7 a.m. anything, okay?

SPEAKER_00 20:03

That's true. Only the grocery stores open at eight.

SPEAKER_03 20:07

Yeah, exactly. So um nothing early.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Otherwise, it's nine or ten.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

Yeah, you can go and work out, but and you have coffee, and you're you're gonna have to have coffee in your own room or in your space. So if you're worried about having coffee in the morning, make sure that you've got that taken care of before you go to sleep at night because 9 a.m., 10 a.m. is when you're actually going to be able to get that because reasonable working hours is the idea. I love it. It's a great pace. I think that that's wonderful, you know. And I love that there are so many festivals going on in the north right now, too. So in Gimanais, they have a big festival that's going on that's ending this weekend, which has been going on for like two weeks now. It's crazy. They've closed large parts of the city even. You can't get to it. So that's been a different experience. But I have to say that it's really nice to see everything that's going on. There's always something going on, and it's free. You don't have to be paying a lot of money to go and enjoy yourself. Um, that's the other great thing, too, when it comes to these kinds of festivals. You can spend money, um, and you'll spend money on food and drink and those things when you get there, but you don't have to have an entry ticket for most things. Keep that in mind, but ask around. Um, something, you know, uh towns are not that far, like they're pretty close to each other. So you could go 30 minutes to a festival and enjoy it. A put Portuguese person would say, Oh, that's a track for you. That might not be. So um explore, enjoy yourself. Um, and yeah, relax, be more Portuguese. It's good, it's fine, it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

It's a good message. It is. All right, join us again next time.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

You've been listening to As the Dinasons Turn, a podcast presented by Dinoson Media Ventures. Don't forget to like and subscribe, and catch us again next time for another episode.