| |
After learning how to speak Portuguese, your final step should be to travel to Portugal. It is my opinion that the best city to visit is Porto. It still manages to maintain more traditions and a more typical gastronomy that perfectly shows the best of what Portugal has to offer. You will notice that, contrary to most Spanish cities, Portuguese cities are very small and easily walkable. You can simply look around in the center and explore. Here are some advantages of visiting Porto:
• It was for many centuries the Portuguese capital, so it preserves many ancient houses and monuments, contrary to Lisbon that lost almost everything during the earthquake of 1755;
• People in Porto still preserve old traditions better than in Lisbon. If you want to try typical Portuguese food and cakes, Porto is the best for that;
• Porto was nominated the Best European destination several times, so the local government invested a lot in tourism to boost the local economy. Last time I visited Porto, I saw a very well organized city full of tourists;
• People in Porto are the friendliest in whole Portugal. Tourists are always very well received here.
Other Portuguese cities worth visiting in Portugal are Viana do Castelo and Tomar. The first Portuguese caravels traveling around the world left from Tomar. It’s a very medieval city. Tomar was also once the European capital of the Knights Templar and the feeling of the old buildings and churches is quite unique as well.
Lisbon has interesting things to visit too, namely, in the city center. But I suggest mostly visiting Cascais, Estoril and Sintra, which are nearby areas but much more interesting to explore. The richest and most famous people in Portugal live in these three locations, and it quickly becomes obvious that citizens in these areas tend to be much more well educated than what you will find in the city center.
Algarve is popular because of Golf and the beach. Apart from that, there’s not much to see there. Other things to notice when traveling in Portugal are the following:
• The cities are very well connected by train and bus. You can go from Porto to Lisbon by train is just about 3 to 4 hours. From Lisbon city center, you can go anywhere, between Sintra and Cascais, by subway or train;
• The Portuguese are the worse drivers in Europe. Never drive at night in Portugal (it’s common for Portuguese to kill themselves by sleeping at the wheel or driving too fast at night, including by doing illegal races), and always keep a 360º vision when driving in Portugal, because people bump their cars in the most stupid situations;
• The Portuguese claim to live in the safest country in Europe and I believe it’s a lie. Among all the European countries I have visited, only Turkey is less safe than Portugal. What makes Portugal seem safe is the police, because they tend to show up 3 hours after a crime occurs and always do their best to avoid having to work on it, by dissuading people from registering the incident. The Portuguese police is a joke when compared to other European countries. Even the special police, before catching someone important, allow such individual to have time to buy a plane ticket, burn the papers and travel to Brazil, because they always know days before it happens. These stories are very common in Portugal. So never bring anything important with you when in Portugal, and always keep money and documents in different wallets. Contrary to Spain, where I have always seen security guards acting, in Portugal, a security guard always decides to go to the bathroom or coffee shop when a robbery is occurring. What I find to be a very interesting coincidence;
• Taxi drivers in Portugal are horrible. Except for Porto, I don’t suggest taking a taxi anywhere. A bus is always a better option.