We Officially Live in Braga

We officially live in Braga, Portugal!  It’s not just that, by the time you read this, we’re actually living in our house.  No, that’s not enough to make you official.  You officially live somewhere when you receive mail addressed to you at that location, and that happened this week!  Join us online to find out what else did and did not happen since the last time we checked in.  

This is going to be a bit of a strange post, in that it’s really more just a collection of random thoughts about this past week.  To be honest, it didn’t start off very well.  Our best laid plans to get things done on Monday was a total flop.  No, nothing “happened,” it’s just that everything seemed a bit overwhelming and, despite putting in a very long day doing multiple things, nothing really got done.  Blame it on residual jet lag, or the fact that we’ve both been negligent about studying Portuguese since January, but it seemed like everything took forever and doing something as simple as buying laundry detergent was a major, major effort.  Fortunately, we blew it off as that’s how it will be some days for awhile, and Tuesday turned out just fine.  So did the rest of the week.

But back to the first point of the post.  If you didn’t believe that the address was real mail, well, here it is in all its glory.  Even though they spelled Fraião-Braga wrong (either they did or I did - still, the mail got to me so I’m official).  Yes, the federal government spent $1.20 to send me a letter at my new address to tell me they’ve also sent a letter to my old address concerning my address change.  Regardless, it’s the first piece of non-junkmail (that and two Lido’s advertisements and an electronics store advertisement constitutes the entirety of our mail here) we’ve received and the first in our names. 

So we’re official!  I won’t rehash the multiple trips to stores we’ve taken this week, some successful, others not, in a quest to get our house livable until our household goods arrive (a still unresolved saga that will someday see it’s own post I’m sure).  If you can’t tell from the image below, Ikea has become one of our favorite shopping locations.  It’s not ideal, but they have pretty much everything you need for a home and it’s very reasonably priced, so we can’t complain.  I do wish, however, I had Pat’s old original Eames table (and the chairs as well!) instead of the Ikea knockoff.

Two other things worth noting, one that you see in the image and the other not.  We have discovered that the Continente (the food store next to the Lido’s food store) has alcohol.  And Macallans at that.  So we are continuing our empirical testing that The Macallan in all of its variants is an adequate vaccine for CORONA Virus.  So far we’ve demonstrated that 18 year, 15 year, 12 year double and 12 year single cask are effective, and now we’re proving that a 12 year special edition double cask using sherry seasoned American and European Oak casks is just as effective.  It’s just as tasty.  Also at Continente, after nearly two weeks of searching at every food and cheese location we’ve walked past, we’ve found Ann’s favorite cheese to cook with - gruyere.  I froze for a moment when my eye saw Queijo Gruyere.  Success!  There’s a reason Ann loves me.  I have a way of finding things she wants.  

Lest you think we’re all settled in, have no doubt that everything is far from perfect.  We still struggle with almost everything we look at in the store (you’d think that some of it would settle in by brute force), and as much as we have a place to park ourselves to eat dinner, here’s a picture of Ann’s office: 

I won’t show you the air mattress (thank you Continente) that Ann and I are sleeping on until our bed arrives.  Which should be later this week.  Along with both of our temporary office desks from Ikea (which will be moved down to the photography workspace in the basement when the real office desks arrive), and with any luck, our couch.  We may add a filing cabinet to double as a base for the printer/scanner in my office, and a TV (with stand if necessary) once the couch arrives, but that will be it with respect to furniture until our household goods arrive.  Here I am, 60 years old, living like a college student again (sleeping on an air mattress, with my printer sitting on its box!).  You would think that I would have learned by now.  What’s that line from the Matrix, “Not too bright.”

So what’s life like in Portugal.  I really can’t say, because we’ve been too busy trying to set up home right now.  I’ll fill you in once we really get into a routine.  For now, though, I can tell you about some of the oddities and other thoughts that have crossed my mind.

Like the floor to ceiling glass walls.  They’re everywhere.  And while they seem kinda cool, you quickly realize that you’re moving the entire wall (not a door) when you open them.  And the fact that they don’t believe in window screens so . . . you stand the risk of the bugs flying in.  At least they seem to have fewer (read: fewer, not none) flies and mosquitos than home.

We have wall-length window-doors in the bedrooms, the living room and the office, as well as the laundry room.  Now, you might ask what do you do for a bit of privacy when, let’s say, you walk naked from the shower to your closet to dress?  Well, they don’t use blinds, or curtains generally - at least not from what I’ve seen.  But they do have a solution.  Electric shutters that roll down on the outside of the window.

Here’s a shot of one half-our bedroom’s (yes, we can lower them by halves)  blinds going down.  

And here’s a shot with one side fully down (pretty much total blackout) and the other side almost down.  And yes, you can stop them at any point to allow a bit of light in.  Which is nice.  The blinds are also really convenient because the late afternoon summer sun will shine right on where the tv will likely be.  The solution - lower the blinds when you want to watch tv.

At least the house will be secure once we start taking our long trips.  Close down the blinds and seal-up the house!

Another oddity is the floor-to-ceiling doors.  This is our bedroom door.  Same thing for all the bathrooms.  And yes, there is a key to lock the door (though why it’s on the outside is beyond me - Ann thinking of locking me in my room if I’m bad?). Bathrooms are the same way.  If you want real privacy, turn the key.

And outlets.  Man do the Portuguese not like their outlets.  Ok, Ann and I are gear hounds and have way too many things to power, but there are not nearly enough outlets for our taste.  I guess that’s why god invented power strips (see Ann’s office above).  

The rest of the week was pretty tiring.  The days always took longer than we expected and we were so pooped that we didn’t really have the energy to get out and try different restaurants.  Plus, a lot of places do not open for dinner until 7:30, or 8:00, or 9:00.  Our goal was to hit the late-lunch hour, until 3:00 where you can get real meals, but all too often we missed that window.  Hopefully that will change once we get settled into our routine.

We did get a lot accomplished so by Friday we decided we would eat at 7:30 and just stay up until dinner settled.  It was worth it!

Both before and after dinner Ann and I enjoyed walking around the old town.  It really is a beautiful city and very accessible on foot. 

As much as we’ve been occupied with getting our lives established here, we haven’t ignored the news from home.  Particularly disconcerting is the reports of the virus surges that are occurring in many places, to include our beloved Oregon and Arizona.  We are dumbfounded at people’s ignorance and the cavalier attitude they show towards others - by people, I mean Americans.  And the government does not help.  What people need is clear guidance as to what is required, and why.  And enforcement of requirements imposed to help prevent the spread of what is, in fact, a public health crisis.  

Here’s a shot of the children’s playground behind our house.  I think I’d written how I was looking forward to the sound of children playing just behind our house.  Well, that’s not going to happen for awhile yet.  If you look at the image below, the playground entrance is taped off, as is each of the playground structures.  To put things into perspective, all of Portugal is now in Phase 3 of returning to normal.  And they’re still implementing active protective measures - and the government has announced it will do so until there is a vaccine readily available to everyone.  So people continue to wear masks in enclosed public places, and even in outdoor places where there are lots of people.  Nearly everyone uses the hand sanitizer located at the entrance of a store (or place to eat) as you enter.  The bigger stores have multiple dispensers - today Ann and I must have hand sanitized 5 times in Ikea.  And while Toys-R-Us is open near us, they take everyone’s temperatures before being allowed to enter the store (it’s not like that for the regular stores).  It doesn’t matter that “Corona virus doesn’t affect little kids as much as older people,” Portugal cares about protecting their children, as well as average citizens.  And Senior Citizens get additional protections as well - priority in lines, etc.

I don’t say these things to rub it in.  I say it out of sadness about the ignorance my country is showing.  While we have a President who says that we should be doing less testing and that it is overrated, here in Portugal you can stop by any number of pharmacy and health care stores and get a test over-the-counter.  Resultados em 10 min.

President Obama has the best response to the failings this administration has shown - Vote!

Moving on.  There are new things that I’m enjoying, like the clock bells.  We heard them in downtown Braga at the vacation rental, but we also hear them here in Fraião.  It’s nice.  Plus the stone streets.  It seems to be granite squares instead of cobblestone, but they give you that bumpy ride.  They’re mostly in the old city, but our street as well as a few surrounding streets have them as well.

And the other day as Ann was setting up my printer, I looked at her, then the clouds and realized that they have the Simpsons clouds here in Braga as well.  For you uncouth, uninformed, cultural Luddites out there, Springfield, Oregon is the basis for the Springfield in the sit-com The Simpsons (some might say my stomach is starting to compete with Homer’s).  Watch it some time, you’ll see the clouds.  It felt like home!  This is home.

And I suspect I’m going to get a bit healthier living here.  For years home was a one-level house.  Now I’m living on four levels. 

Can you say stairs?

Forget your hat . . . two flights up the stairs to get it.  Oh darn, left my phone in the office - stairs down, stairs up.  And given that my brain isn’t firing on all cylinders given the amount of stuff that’s being pushed through it, I’m doing a lot of forgetting.  Something my legs are starting to complain about.  With that and the really screwed up eating schedule I’ve had the last couple of weeks, I’ve bound to have lost at least a few pounds (wishful thinking).

Well, that’s about it, except for my discovery today.  We’ve got a ghost in the house.  Twice today I put the clothes basket by the closet doors, and twice today it moved on its own.  I say it’s a ghost.  Ann says it’s the wind blowing through the door.

Nah, it’s a ghost!