Lowell Portuguese Bakery (Gorham St) has pasteis.
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Here’s another observation (maybe a gross generalization, dangerous, I know).
- Men socialize with Men. Women socialize with Women. No evident mixing.
I may need to take a road trip there (I live in Brunswick, ME). Thanks.
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Ah, I think you have a good point there. Interesting. But I would say it applies more to the older generations. There’s more obvious mixing among teens and younger adults, in my opinion.
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You’re most likely right in that it applies more to older people; of which I’m one 
Hence my noticing it.
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Haha, I see! I think a lot of the closest mixed-gender interactions are through married straight friends or relatives, for example. And still, when they’re all gathered, the men and women often end up segregated anyway, to some extent. I am generalizing myself, but I see where you’re coming from.
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The Portuguese people have excellent taste in food and wine therefore I am astounded how they can enjoy Sagres and Super Bock. Last time round I had to buy a Spanish beer that tasted anything like what I’d call a tasty beer - Ouch!
And by the way and in regards to not so good beer there’s a Canadian in the team who I can only assume came to Portugal in search of a better beer.
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Hahaha, trying to slip one past me, eh? Say what you will about Canadian beer, but it’s better than what the yanks have got! 
(Honestly, I love beer so much that I’ll still enjoy the worst beer you can throw at me… with my most recent health kick, I’ve been sticking to an occasional red wine. Don’t love it nearly as much, but consuming less is an added feature when trying to stay in shape! 
)
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Joel, “Sadder-bud-wiser” is my pun on “Yankee” beer.
Commercial beer in the USA is pretty bad, though there are micro-breweries that do a nice job.
ANY foreign beer is better than American chemical suds.
Harald
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Ohh yes this with the shoes in the house I cant understand too.
I worked for arround two months in a hospital (public). Once I wanted to use a red pen because there was no other. The nurses didnt let me, they said its bad to use a red pen…the nurses also watched tv during work which is not possible in my country. Most of the people leave the tv on during all day. In my country many ( specially young people) stopp to have tv.
My portuguese teacher was allways arround 5-10min. too late. This doesnt exist in switzerland.
The food: the who recommedation is to eat arround 3 times meat, twice fish per week. My boyfriends family need to have meet/fish for lunch and dinner otherwise its not a real meal.
About the kisses : we kiss in switterland three times but just family or friends. Its normal to give the hands or touch sometimes in some occassions the shoulder of the person. In Portugal I cant touch the shoulder of the man when I say hello. Otherwise he thinks, that I want to meet him.
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A palavra “abraço” como uma forma de se despedir! 
I have seen that, in Portuguese, the word “abraço” [“hug”] is very commonly used as a form of dismissal in a letter or email, even when addressing someone of the same sex. Having lived all my life in an English-speaking culture, I find this to be somewhat of an “oddity,” although a rather nice one! In English, using this word would be considered very inappropriate, and one would never use the word “hug” so casually, except for family members or very close friends. The first time I used this word in an email to my native Portuguese tutor, from Lisboa, after sending it, I immediately panicked and quickly sent another email to him, explaining that I was not at all certain of the appropriateness of the word, apologizing to him if he was offended! 
He laughed and told me that it is completely fine and that it is the equivalent of just saying “best regards” or “regards” in English! I still have to “force” myself to not worry when I use this word!
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Oh boy. Don’t expect consistent Swiss punctuality in Portugal. Trust the words of this chronically late person 
There must be something in the Portuguese air or whatever, because even when I am certain that I’ll be on time, the universe just finds a way of ruining it!
Haha, this is odd for me too. Sometimes, I’ll reciprocate it in an email/message for fear of appearing cold otherwise, but for the most part, I actively refrain from throwing the word “abraço” around, as meaningless as it may be in the end. Also, I wouldn’t say “even when addressing someone of the same sex”, but “especially when addressing someone of the same sex”. Men use “abraço” to say goodbye to each other all the time. With women, they might use “beijinhos”. Between women, “beijinhos” is also common.
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From reading other people’s comments, I remembered my own from when I lived there.
There are like wild peacocks in the parks. No one thinks it’s weird. They get defensive if you come up to them during mating season (the peacocks but maybe also the Portuguese natives) It’s just totally casual and regular.
I also found the doors and keys to be odd. Huge old doors or weird metal tiny front doors that you have to crouch down to get to or the key hole will be close to the ground on some doors? Never have seen that anywhere else.
The cafes would sell beer in the afternoon and play the futbole game for people as if they were a sports pub but like… with all the lights on and just running like a regular cheap cafe. They don’t even dim the lighting to make it more bar-like.
Ultra-pasteurized milk I saw there for the first time and now I love it and buy it online. You can keep it for like two years, unrefrigerated in the closet.
When you go to the grocery store, you can buy everything as a single. Pack of six juice boxes but you only want one? Rip the package open and just buy the amount that you want. No one thinks that’s weird. Everyone does it. There will be random things you can’t do it with. I tried to buy a single one of those “6 Strawberry” juice things and they were like um excuse me you can’t buy this alone. You need to buy the whole pack of that particular brand but the other one right next to it was ok to buy as singles.
They have these uniformed men in most of the cities who just come around and keep everything clean. I would have never learned how to throw out my trash in our building if I hadn’t met them - THEY CAME TO COLLECT OUR TRASH. INSIDE THE HOUSE. The guys physically come indoors and remove our bag and walk out with it? I think it may have been our buildings thing they set up because there was no big dumpster spot? I have no idea honestly. I asked my boss about it but her English wasn’t great and I did not understand her answer but pretended I did. Lol.
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Here in Providence, we have like 5 places that sell them. One delivers if you live around but the best are from Silver Star Bakery in Fox Point, Providence on the East Side. I know there are more in East Providence and Fall River with them as well but I can’t remember the names of any of those places. I’m sure you could google maps type them in. Though, since it’s America - a lot of places call them Pastel de Natas (which is wrong but its the easier way to find it usually) Pastel is one. Pasteis are two. The nata part doesn’t go plural BUT American’s don’t care lol
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Hahaha, yes. They’re allowed to roam free at the zoo and in lots of parks. I even remember seeing a peacock casually strutting around the upper part of Bairro Alto, in Lisbon, in multiple occasions, when I had classes there. No idea where it would come from or go to.
I didn’t know this was rare in the US. I’m not sure you can store it for years, but definitely for several months, at least (before opening).
It’s so frustrating when you can’t buy a single of some random product!
That seems specific to the building/area you lived in. There might be a few other places like that, but it’s definitely not the norm - I’d never even heard of it until now.
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Thanks for the information on Natas. Proividence is a long way from where I am in Brunswick, ME, but I may have to make a trip.
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There’s one thing I’m curious about (I’m from the UK), and that is the Análises Clínicas in every town. What goes on behind those doors? I daren’t go in and find out, but as a complete hypochondriac I am intrigued! What’s on the menu – I presume they do blood tests and skin biopsies etc, rather than open heart surgery/amputations?! Do you need a referral from a doctor? Do the results get reported to your health insurance? Why do these places exist (rather than just the general practice/hospital-based healthcare I’m used to)? Are they expensive? Are they reliable? Are there popular tests people like to get done, and why?!
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I’m enjoying this thread 
Surprised no one has mentioned the liberal use of the car horn on Portuguese roads!
I find that when there is some obstruction to the flow of traffic every driver held up in the line of traffic will go crazy on their horn no matter how far down the line they are.
This is definitely a bit of a quirk / oddity when compared to the UK (but maybe not much of a quirk compared to other countries). I love Portugal but I have to say I’m not a huge fan of this 
In the UK, the Highway Code has this gem: “A horn should only be used when warning someone of any danger due to another vehicle or any other kind of danger, and not to indicate your annoyance.”
Things are certainly different in Portugal 
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I have often wondered about these too…
It IS interesting. When I drove in Europe (a long time ago) I found a lot of interesting quirks. The French and their way of merging left without looking for traffic took some getting used to! There was use of parking lights when driving in towns, and so on! I learned to just pay them no mind and act a little like them!! In the United States we have similar things. Canadian drivers are not held in high regard here along the border. Canadians speed and drive like crazies! You just have to watch out for the other guy as well as yourself!