My journey through the bureaucracy of becoming a legal resident in Portugal has been a series of physical trips, often covering long distances and being more stressful than the actual appointments involved. Trips to San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, and Orlando have all been intense journeys. Fittingly today’s post will focus on my journey more than the appointment itself.

My appointment really couldn’t be further from Olhão. Trains don’t run all the way to that part of the country and the bus that does go there is on a winding 12 hour journey with multiple transfers. I decided to rent a car so I could be in control of my arrival time (avoiding at least one extra night of lodging and a missed language class) and because I wanted to make a stop in Coimbra.

Our friends The Goulds live there and we had some stuff of theirs to deliver. They kindly offered to let me get some sleep on their couch when I arrived which ended up working out with my itinerary.

I rented a car from the Faro airport. Michelle took the train with me to the nearby city and we had a lovely lunch before going to the airport. The rental process was relatively painless requiring only my Passport and Oregon Driver’s License and the 15 minute drive home went smoothly. I loaded up our friends’ things and prepared to head to school.

On Tuesday we had language class from 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m., my appointment in Bragança was at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, and we had another language class at 9:00 p.m. Thursday. I had heard stories about horribly confusing roundabouts and rampant dangerous tailgating which made me a bit nervous about my upcoming mega-drive.

Class went well and I was on the road shortly after 9:00 p.m. Portugal has a series of national roads and separate toll roads. The tolls can be quite hefty but due to my late start I chose to use them on this first leg of the journey. The system is automatic (I paid to rent an electronic reader in my car) and simple to use. Traffic was light and these roads are in pristine condition. Another huge benefit of these toll roads is that there are rest areas with gas stations, restrooms, and convenience stores every 40km.

I did fill up on gas before finishing my night’s drive, I was nervous about using the correct pump (diesel) and the clerk kindly put up with my silly questions – silly because if I had just looked I would have seen that the gas tank and pump both have perfectly clear markings to make sure you use the correct option.

I arrived at my first destination at 1:40 a.m. Wednesday, unloaded the boxes and quickly fell asleep. I had to get up right at about 8:00 a.m. because I wanted to take the non-toll routes going forward which would make the drive quite a bit longer. It was a gloomy rainy morning and we’ll be back to Coimbra soon so I only paused to grab one zoomed in shot of the historic university from the Gould’s balcony.

Coimbra was a mess of a traffic jam as I started my trip but after I escaped the city it was another mostly lovely day of driving. For you Oregonians – the toll roads are like the best sections of Interstate 5 with almost no traffic. They are almost always two lanes each direction and divided by large barriers. The national roads are more like Highway 99, smaller and often veering right through small towns and villages.

At one point I noted “Driving through a deluge on what could be an ancient Highway 99 going through villages with cobblestone paths, completely deserted roundabouts built by madman; roundabouts that have roundabouts of their own. I finally have seen signs that direct me towards Bragança”. I will admit that one eerily deserted village made me think that I had drove into the opening scene of the video game Resident Evil 4, thankfully there were no zombies to be seen.

Some notes on driving in Portugal. Most importantly: the other drivers were amazing. No tailgating, no dangerous driving, no unnecessary honking, I had to pass multiple slower vehicles and it was never an issue. The law is clear here – use the right lane at all times unless passing or turning – and it was followed by everyone. Drivers are so cognizant of using the left lane that they often leave their blinkers on the whole time they do so. Roundabouts sound more confusing here then they are in practice. They are two lanes and you generally enter from the right lane if you are taking the first exit, otherwise you enter via the left lane. In theory this should allow a steady flow of traffic and it worked great on my drive. I don’t think it would work so well in the United States…

I wish it hadn’t been so rainy because I travelled through the picturesque Douro Valley and barely got any pictures. This is lovely wine country and reminded me quite a bit of Southern Oregon.

Bragança is only about 19km from Spain and the roads became obviously rural as I left the Douro region. I made my way through some very tiny cobbled streets and found parking right across from my destination with a few hours to spare. I decided to find lunch and do some sightseeing.

I found a fancy Italian restaurant near where I had parked and paid a bit too much for a superb sea bass lunch. I was so excited to use my basic Portuguese language skills! I got a table and the server started talking to me and I was doing my best to understand and failing. Like every country Portugal has regional accents and I was hearing the Northern accent for the first time. I’m not going into great detail here but one simple example is how an “S” sounds by default – in the north it is like ‘s‘nake and in the south it’s more like mousta’ch‘e. Thankfully the manager spoke English and I didn’t have to starve. I was able to successfully order coffee in Portuguese at a café after lunch with no problem.

The town itself was lovely with historic buildings and art all around. The region is suffering an economic decline and many buildings are for sale or in ruins. Leaves have started turning fall colors in the North and it was quite lovely.

You may have noticed the historic castle in the background. I got back to my car with about 40 minutes to spare and the entrance was just a few blocks away!

After a quick self tour of the castle grounds I hustled down to my appointment at SEF. I was so anxious I missed the sign on the internal door that basically said “don’t open this door, we’ll come out to you”, thankfully the staff were kindhearted and I nervously took a seat about 30 minutes before my appointment. Two minutes later I was invited inside for my appointment but had to loiter just inside the door as a young man was trying to understand why his father had just been denied residency, this was sad to see and didn’t help my anxiety at all!

Technically my appointment should be just a formality since the requirements to get the Visa are either the same or more stringent and SEF already had all those documents. They need an application form, updated bank statements, proof that I have health insurance in Portugal, a copy of my lease, and my Portuguese tax ID documents. I had those things and a bunch of extra things available just in case.

It became immediately apparent that the person in charge of the process was a trainee, and her trainer was sitting right with her. More stress! The trainee kept wanting to ask me for more documents and the trainer kept telling her “Não” or, inexplicably, “Estados Unidos“, and having her move on. I actually only had to provide half the required documents before I was told to go to a machine and get my ID photo taken along with fingerprints. After that I sat back down and the trainer spent 25 minutes training the trainee, walking them slowly through each step of their process. My nerves were FRIED but in the end I was told to watch my mailbox because I have been approved as a resident of Portugal for two years!

I said farewell to Bragança and started the long drive home just after 3:30 p.m. My original goal was to use the national roads and avoid going into Spain (I don’t have the required international driver’s license). The rain kept pouring down, the roads were getting tinier the further south I got, village dogs kept camping in the roadways making me very worried that in the dark and rain I could hit an animal. After three plus hour of driving I hadn’t seen a single gas station. I was supposed to get home around 1:30 a.m. but finally gave up and switched to the toll roads allowing me to get home earlier and more safely. Michelle and I celebrated with some Vinho Verde and a lovely meal and I quickly faded into much needed slumber.

Michelle’s appointment is next month and after two years we should be able to renew our residence permits for another three years (hopefully we can get appointments near where we live).