Our 2 year anniversary of living in Portugal was June 20th! We desperately wanted to change our lives and here we are. Let’s celebrate with a slice of life comparison of then vs. now.

Two Cars For No Car: We like the freedom of not worrying about parking, paying for insurance, and planning never ending trips to Toyota and VW for maintenance. Getting out on foot has made it easier to feel like we are part of a micro neighborhood community. We are more familiar with our city because it is easier to notice details, people, and daily rhythms when you aren’t whizzing by all of it in a car. Every trip to the grocery store, for a coffee, or a meal out is a walk for us, which allows us to enjoy the beautiful climate.

Fancy Coffee Machine For No Coffee Machine: We owned a fancy Breville coffee machine and had a mini barista station at our house in Medford. We made double cappuccinos every day. Now coffee at home in Olhão is of the instant variety and we add a touch of natas (the equivalent of heavy cream). On the rare occasion we have leite (milk) in the house, probably because we needed it for a recipe like macaroni and cheese, we use the remainder in coffee or a smoothie. Our consumption of milk has definitely decreased. We have at least one café normal (very strong espresso in a tiny cup – served with sugar, which we forego) per day in a café, especially on days we go to night school.

Clothes Dryer For Line Drying:

We were never a one load of laundry a day kind of household in our old life. It was much more likely that I would get super behind on laundry and do many loads in a single day. In Olhão we don’t have room for a dryer and most people here don’t have or use one. A dryer used to make removing pet hair a snap. Now we have to be sure to check the weather report for the occasional rain shower since a downpour on clothes that are line drying can set me back for days. If it rains for several days in a row, we improvise a ladder and our dehumidifier as a clothes drying station. Although laundry takes a lot more time and effort now, line drying is much better for the environment and our electric bill.

Common Household Items Are Sometimes Very Different: Before the international move we had to make decisions about what to keep using a complicated personal equation of function, sentimental value, and size. Some things like my massive California King four poster Pottery Barn bed didn’t make the cut. We also left behind things we knew we could easily replace like ladders. When we went shopping for a replacement ladder in Portugal we were surprised that they looked a bit different from ladders we were used to. Here they are telescoping and not extension ladders and they work great for people like us who need a tall ladder but don’t have a ton of space for storage.

Other things like hanging objects or art on the wall are a major endeavor now that our walls are solid concrete vs. drywall (we have to hire someone to hang anything). While we haven’t personally experienced this issue, we have quite a few expat friends that struggle with operating stoves and ovens as the symbols and mode of operation are not intuitive.

Prosecco For Vinho Verde: We loved our bubbly back in Oregon with $10 – $15 bottles of Prosecco being our go-to choice. Very soon after arriving in Olhão we discovered vinho verde (green wine), a unique Portuguese wine with grapes grown in the northwest of Portugal. Light and fresh, this has become the bottle of choice if we are having a relaxing night in. At €2-€5 for a typical bottle this is an extremely affordable option. Recently when we’ve gotten bubbles for celebrations we find ourselves pining for a basic bottle of verde.

Watching Football Once A Year For Watching Futebol (Soccer) Once A Week:

Every once in a while we would watch the Super Bowl, less for the game and more for the traditions. While we don’t yet fully understand the nuances of the European soccer league system or the local public discontent with Portuguese referees – men in cafés will go on about this in heated debates for hours, we have been thoroughly enjoying the company of our neighbors and friends in the café during a game. We became Benfica (a soccer club outside of Lisbon) fans aka “Benfiquistas”. We even purchased fan gear last year in Lisbon. Benfica had an amazing season the first year we lived here and a less brilliant season the subsequent year (damn you Sporting). For us, Futebol usually involves Portuguese snacks, beer and wine, and on the best nights we get to hear friends shout “goaaaaaaalllllll” or “pênalti” with a passion that is hard to imitate. I can’t imagine having more fun at an American stadium after paying way too much for tickets, travel, and overpriced food vs. hanging with locals at our favorite café. We have already been warned that if we move to the north of Portugal supporting Benfica will no longer be an option and we will have to choose Porto, Braga, or a different regional soccer team to cheer for.

Bars And Pubs For Cafés And Snack Bars: Going out to a bar or pub for us in Medford was usually related to an event like a birthday, retirement gathering, or to have a digestif after a dinner out. Every now and again we would sing karaoke in awesome dive bars, but that was rare. We didn’t regularly go to socialize with strangers or for the nightlife scene.

A cafe in the states is usually a coffee shop that might serve some scones or ice cream. A Portuguese café will most often serve coffee, but they also serve snacks, desserts, liquor, have a TV, act as a community hub, and often serve meals at certain times of day. A snack bar is a café that has a menu available with meals/snacks throughout the day. Being at the café is part of daily life in Portugal and we truly enjoy our time there.

Bottles Of Salad Dressing For Olive Oil And Vinegar: We used to have anywhere between 3-5 bottles of salad dressing in our refrigerator in Medford. Andrew always had Ranch for dipping pizza and we would usually have several other options for pasta or veggie salads. Occasionally we would make homemade dressing which always tastes better than pre-made. Since moving we haven’t purchased a single bottle of dressing. You can find it in the stores, but we simply drizzle our greens with olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice. We usually don’t even bother with the formality of mixing up a vinaigrette. It must hit the spot because we eat at least 4 salads per week in Portugal.

Tip: When hosting friends for games or dinner, I like to make a veggie/chip dip using some combination of the following: dried or fresh herbs, cream cheese, mayonnaise, crème frâiche, Greek yogurt if I want a healthier version, blue cheese if I want a punchy addition, or piri piri if I want it spicy. If we have leftovers I use it on our salads. If your creamy dip is too thick to use as a dressing, add a dash of milk to thin it out.

Fancy Microbrews And IPAs For Super Bock Or Cristal: A decade ago Andrew didn’t drink beer, just some hard cider and occasional lambics. Eventually he started drinking sours and slowly transitioned into IPA’s. There are craft beers and IPA’s in Portugal; they cost the same or more than in the US and likely aren’t available at any café outside the tourist area. In Portugal people drink Portuguese beer, Super Bock and Sagres being the two main contenders (Cristal is a Pilsner style spin-off made by the Super Bock group). Andrew didn’t even flinch at the transition to enjoying Super Bock, they have a great flavor and go perfectly with a good game of soccer, a pizza, or a warm afternoon on the rooftop. Super Bock is €1.20 (or less) per bottle at the café or about €10 for 15 bottles at the grocery store. We aren’t going to talk about the mini beers that people drink in Portugal because that is something we don’t understand and a change we’re not making.

Occasional Fancy Dinners Out For More Frequent Lunches Out: We have always loved an amazing meal and would go out for extravagant meals in the Pacific Northwest or while traveling. In Oregon we found the places we adored like New Sammy’s Cowboy Bistro or MÄS and would loving indulging there. In Olhão there are plenty of very good restaurants, but instead of dinner we often aim for a more affordable (but just as tasty) lunch. Each of us can get a full meal for between €4.50 and €12 depending on where we eat and if we are having coffee, wine, and dessert that day. If you are settling in for a Portuguese lunch, be sure to plan for about 2 hours, and maybe a nap afterwards.

Shopping Once A Week To Shopping Almost Daily: We shop every day or two and keep just what we need in the house. We have a few staples (flour, sugar, butter, and coffee for example) but don’t have an overstuffed fridge or freezer. Full disclosure, the fridge and/or freezer does get crammed when our Ukrainian friends deliver a sack of locally caught fish or a whole massive rooster for Easter or if we order way to much Christmas takeout from Café Bianca. Andrew does most of the shopping and it’s great exercise since the larger markets are just over a half mile walk from the house.

In Medford I would start with 4-6 recipes I planned to make, jot down a fairly substantial shopping list and one of us would go to the store once a week. It would be nearly impossible to shop in the same way without a car. I find that we eat more fresh vegetables and fruits and while we do cook recipes and shop for specific ingredients, it is more common for me to whip something up in Chopped fashion with ingredients I want to use up from the pantry and fridge. Our household food waste is close to zero (sometimes we still get a tomato or a piece of fruit or cheese that goes bad).

Modern Plumbing For Antique Pipes: There are some basic things you have to relearn when you move great distances. Bathroom habits and hygiene have changed most drastically for us. Portugal is the oldest country in Europe and with that comes some plumbing challenges. Most restaurants, cafés, and schools in our region have signs that request you do not flush anything including toilet paper. Usually there are wastebaskets near the toilet to discard used tissue. We were a bit late to learn this lesson in our own home, through a combination of “you don’t know what you don’t know” and DAMN retraining yourself to NOT put TP in the toilet is a difficult lesson. We also had several panic stricken days our first year when we blamed ourself for clogging the entire neighborhood whenever we saw construction on our street. Eventually we installed a bidet in order to make taking out the bathroom trash a little less disgusting.

Tip: The TP “flush vs. no flush” rule isn’t universal for every region of Portugal, and recently changed in Olhão. If I am in a new region of the country and am not sure what to do, I simply look for where the trash can is placed in the bathroom. If I am in a tiny bathroom, especially a public one, I look for a sign.