This is so helpful! We bought new construction and the actual address is illusive to us, they keep referring to the left! Now I know. So essentially it's "stage right" or "stage left" as the orientation is referred to in theater.
Oh my, you know your timing could not be better, right? We are down to hours before we leave and I am furiously committing this post to memory so we can actually find our way around when we get there. (I actually knew about the DTO/ESQ thing, but not which way you had to be facing to make it work. How on earth would anyone know that???) Thank you so much, Carol!
What a great piece, Carol! Each of us has had to cope with Portuguese peculiarities when acculturating ourselves to Portugal. At least you didn't experience any confusion between the WC and the bidet. Some (but not many) house these two essentials in different rooms. The consequences of making a mistake ... OMG! My own pet bugaboo -- which I still get wrong, even after 5 years living here -- is remembering that Puxar! means Pull! not Push! With your permission, I've scheduled "Dazed and Confused in Portugal" to run in the Spring (2023) issue of Portugal Living Magazine.
So much truth here! I finally STOPPED using military time because it drives me nuts and between 8-10pm I'm always very confused! The no street signs crack me up. No one knows the name of the main road out of town... Locals, nope. The 40 words for a street name.... Omg. Right!? Love this.
I'm training myself to say any dates, written wholly as numbers, in the European format, in the hope that I will, eventually, think of it that way automatically. I found that thinking of it as smallest to biggest (D-M-Y) helps, but have noticed that, sometimes, the year is at the beginning (biggest to smallest, Y-M-D)! More recently, someone said, "no matter what, the month is in the middle" and, keeping that in mind, it's been less of a struggle.
My current fear is the inevitable misuse (or lack thereof) of the term/title Dr/Dra. My understanding is that it's applied more broadly than here in the states, but am not entirely sure I understand exactly when, or to whom, it applies.
I learned some things today, but I still don't understand the left and right apartment. Maybe you can explain it to me over several glasses of wine. Also, I never have heard of a Citizen Shop - good to know.
I am Portuguese and I still have the same problems you have….
As far as date is concerned, I think it’s an American thing because I had never had problems with dates before.
The problem with the citizens shop is that it is always very crowded and sometimes you have to wait a long time but it’s really where you deal with everything.
Dazed and confused in Portugal
This is so helpful! We bought new construction and the actual address is illusive to us, they keep referring to the left! Now I know. So essentially it's "stage right" or "stage left" as the orientation is referred to in theater.
Oh my, you know your timing could not be better, right? We are down to hours before we leave and I am furiously committing this post to memory so we can actually find our way around when we get there. (I actually knew about the DTO/ESQ thing, but not which way you had to be facing to make it work. How on earth would anyone know that???) Thank you so much, Carol!
Little details I hadn't considered would have surely confused me. Now I'm better prepared. Thank you!
What a great piece, Carol! Each of us has had to cope with Portuguese peculiarities when acculturating ourselves to Portugal. At least you didn't experience any confusion between the WC and the bidet. Some (but not many) house these two essentials in different rooms. The consequences of making a mistake ... OMG! My own pet bugaboo -- which I still get wrong, even after 5 years living here -- is remembering that Puxar! means Pull! not Push! With your permission, I've scheduled "Dazed and Confused in Portugal" to run in the Spring (2023) issue of Portugal Living Magazine.
Carol- once again an incredibly helpful piece! You always know just what little treasures to impart to be most helpful! Thank you!
So much truth here! I finally STOPPED using military time because it drives me nuts and between 8-10pm I'm always very confused! The no street signs crack me up. No one knows the name of the main road out of town... Locals, nope. The 40 words for a street name.... Omg. Right!? Love this.
I'm training myself to say any dates, written wholly as numbers, in the European format, in the hope that I will, eventually, think of it that way automatically. I found that thinking of it as smallest to biggest (D-M-Y) helps, but have noticed that, sometimes, the year is at the beginning (biggest to smallest, Y-M-D)! More recently, someone said, "no matter what, the month is in the middle" and, keeping that in mind, it's been less of a struggle.
My current fear is the inevitable misuse (or lack thereof) of the term/title Dr/Dra. My understanding is that it's applied more broadly than here in the states, but am not entirely sure I understand exactly when, or to whom, it applies.
I learned some things today, but I still don't understand the left and right apartment. Maybe you can explain it to me over several glasses of wine. Also, I never have heard of a Citizen Shop - good to know.
You are right. It’s very confusing.
I am Portuguese and I still have the same problems you have….
As far as date is concerned, I think it’s an American thing because I had never had problems with dates before.
The problem with the citizens shop is that it is always very crowded and sometimes you have to wait a long time but it’s really where you deal with everything.
Portugal has too much bureaucracy.