Many people on the planet who have not yet been in Portugal, don’t know that this country has so many interesting details. Even those who have been in Portugal several times already discover more and more new things with each next trip. We decided to collect for you the “national” shtick of Portugal in one article.
Coffee
Let’s start with the simplest and most beloved by the Portuguese. It’s no secret that the Portuguese love coffee. Someone loves it more, someone less, but absolutely everyone drinks coffee and in large quantities. After a meal, before an important matter, during a meeting, during a break at work, and so on, the Portuguese always drink coffee.
“Bica” is a small cup of coffee. Throughout the world, this drink is called espresso. And even to drink a tiny cup of espresso, the Portuguese manage to make a whole ritual out of it, although swallowing a few drops of coffee does not take more than two seconds, but for this it is necessary to take a table in a cafe, place an order and dreamily wait for your cup. In Portugal, it’s never a shame to take a table just for coffee.
Often you can hear from the Portuguese an invitation for a cup of coffee. This is a sign of politeness, and sometimes interest in you, so never refuse, even if you do not really like coffee.
Demand for coffee generates supply, so in any smallest village there will definitely be a cafe where you can have a cup of coffee. In large cities, kiosks are scattered throughout the territory, around which there are tables. These stalls are round or polygonal in plan. But you can also find coffee even in a bar or an ice cream parlor. Therefore, if you want to feel like a Portuguese, be sure to go to cafes or stop near kiosks for “bica”.
By the way, Portugal does not grow coffee. The Portuguese only appropriate the method of processing coffee beans.
Ice cream
We figured out the main drink of the country. Portuguese pastries are an all-too-popular topic that we will cover in more detail in the future. But the fact that in Portugal there is a special ice cream, few people know. So, the most delicious ice cream in Portugal is called Santini. It is not sold everywhere, but only in cafes under this brand and only in Lisbon and Porto. If you see an ice cream parlor somewhere else, then know that this is just an attempt to imitate the country’s main ice cream. Sure, ice cream is hard to mess up, so this article isn’t trying to tell you to avoid any ice cream other than Santini, but know that you’ll enjoy one brand of ice cream the most.
Perhaps the list of flavors is not so huge, but all the flavors are so bright and rich that you cannot argue with this statement, even if you want to. Therefore, when you come to Portugal, be sure to find the Santini cafe, which has a special color scheme – red and white stripes, and try at least one ball of goodies so that you never forget this taste again.
Graffiti
After drinking coffee and eating ice cream, it’s time to go in search of a spectacle. People rarely highlight this feature of Portugal, but it exists. This country has a special relationship with street art. Yes, yes, graffiti is considered art, although at the legislative level it is vandalism. However, there is no city in Portugal where there is not a single graffiti. Of course, the most heavily painted city is Lisbon. Now we are not talking about inscriptions with a spray can, which are also quite a lot. We are talking about huge drawings for the entire height of the building.
In Portugal, there are many empty buildings that lose their aesthetic appearance over time. The graffiti does not fix the problem of abandonment, but hides the unprepossessing appearance, making the building almost a landmark. Because the authors of graffiti go further and further and begin to use not only paint, but also raised details that give the graffiti a 3D effect. The author, who works under the pseudonym
Bordalo II, makes graffiti using garbage.
Street art is so popular in Lisbon that travel agencies offer tours of some of the most stunning graffiti. Be sure to use this service!
Baths
If kiosks with coffee and graffiti are attributes of modernity, then concrete laundry tubs right in the center of the city are echoes of the past. In ancient times, such an activity as washing was a collective activity.
Women gathered near special public baths and carried out this household action. Now, obviously, no one uses it for its intended purpose, but often water taps are still in operation. It is very pleasant to wash your face with cool water on a hot day, and it is interesting to touch the history!
Drinking fountains
In an era of environmental concern in many countries, drinking fountains are a thing of the past. Many of us have already forgotten what it is like to lean over a drinking fountain in the middle of the street and take a sip of water of unknown quality. Trust in everything public and free has disappeared. However, in Portugal, people still drink from such fountains, although they do not always drink water from the tap in their apartment. Inexplicable but the fact!
Churro
Since we are back on the topic of drinks, let’s end with the topic of food. Perhaps some of you have already seen mobile trading trailers, let’s call them that. This means that an ordinary truck trailer of a car quickly turns into a candy store, and sometimes into a street kitchen for their production. If cotton candy, lollipops and donuts won’t surprise anyone, then you will definitely be surprised by such a delicacy as “churro“. It is a favorite childhood sweet of many Portuguese.
Churro is produced as follows: the dough is squeezed into a burning oil in the form of a ribbed tube, after a minute the tube is removed and filled with cream. The cream can be different, for example, chocolate or Kinder Bueno. We do not recommend eating churro all the time. Still, frying in oil, carcinogens, sugar – all this in large quantities is not at all good for the body, but pampering yourself and finding out what the Portuguese dreamed about in childhood is worth it!
Conclusion
If you live in Portugal, then many of the unusual details of the country become commonplace and hard to notice. So when friends from your homeland ask you what to look out for in Portugal, you don’t know what to say.
If you have already been to Portugal several times, then for sure you have not heard about many of the items from today’s list, so we give you a reason to return to Portugal again to see what was missing. And if you are going to Portugal for the first time, then today’s article will prove to you that your decision to visit this country is fully justified, because Portugal is amazingly diverse in detail!
