Portugal is a little bit Janky

Portugal is a little bit janky. Don't get me wrong, I love it, and it's a very positive experience. There are just some things that are a bit off. The first thing I noticed was the town centres, the areas where all of the tourism is concentrated. Maybe not so much in Lisbon, but this was very noticeable in the medium-sized towns that we had visited on our way to Porto. It's a typical European city with shops on the first floors and above the shops I would expect to find residences. But instead, abandoned and empty buildings in some level of disrepair. The first floors look bright and brilliant and clean, and directly above them are broken windows, shutters hanging off of one nail.

One of our Airbnb hosts I taken this as an opportunity and changed four levels of one building into rental apartments. We took the one on the fourth floor and found ourselves looking into abandoned empty rooms just across the alleyways.

But this isn't the only janky thing. Then there's the real estate market as a whole. Given that I'm planning on moving to Europe at some point in the near future, or at least somewhat near future, I keep an eye on the cost of real estate in all the countries we visit. Portugal's pricing doesn't make any sense. Now, I realize that Portugal is nowhere near as poor as Bulgaria, and I would expect prices to be a little bit higher here. We traveled through a lot of tiny villages, many of which were mostly abandoned, and full of ramshackle piles of rocks that just barely resemble walls. This isn't too different than Bulgaria.

But here is where things really get strange. You'll have brand new houses, houses that would have cost a hundred grand or more to build in the United States, right next to these ruined out holes. We've seen Villages that were 50% ruins, 50% new construction, all mingled together in one giant heap.

And then there's the prices. Now in Bulgaria you could easily find these long abandoned houses sitting on 1000 square meters of land, it would sell for $1,000, $2,000. Often even less! This is land that has been abandoned for a decade or more, nobody has any interest in it, and the only benefited can do anyone is for somebody to buy it and start paying property taxes on it.

In Portugal, these same abandoned properties are selling for fifty thousand Euros, a hundred thousand Euros. This doesn't make any sense! It's nothing but a pile of rocks and a tiny scrap of land!

Okay, so aside from Real Estate, there's a whole coffee thing I mentioned earlier. Today we went into a cafe and I ordered an americano and a cappuccino. The americano was two shots of espresso and a little bit of hot water. To make a cappuccino they pulled out a little packet of powder added hot water and stirred it up! Despite having a $5,000 espresso machine right there, ready for use! I then learned that had I asked for a coffee with milk I would have gotten the cappuccino. It's like these people don't understand what coffee is!  The Japanese know what a cappuccino is.  The Germans know.  The Kuwaitis know.  The UAE knows.  Alabamans even know.  What the heck, Portugal?

And then there is sandwiches! Or I should say sandwich. There is only one sandwich in Portugal. It is the ham and cheese sandwich. You will not put lettuce on it, or tomato, or mustard, or anything else. It is ham, cheese, bread.  From Lisbon to Porto and everywhere in between if you ask for a sandwich you will get a bun cut in half a thin slice or two of ham anything slice or two of weak cheese.  燎 索 Even the sandwich emoticon has more ingredients.