As I am writing this we have been in Porto just a bit over 4 months. I am going to break it down into segments, unlike my rant about the final months in California before the move.
We arrived in our new city on May 28th quite blurry eyed from the flight. Bringing our two pups, Lilo and Stitch with us meant we had to have a veterinarian check them at the airport in Porto. Our little Stitch was grumpy from the long flight and wouldn’t let the vet touch him. But, the kind Vet let us depart the airport with stern instructions to see a local Vet and get their check up and dog passports faxed to him within the week!
The apartment we rented in Porto was unfurnished, except for a bed, so we stayed in an AL (a VBRO in Portuguese) for the first 3 weeks. It was tiny but did have a couch (not one big enough for all 4 of us) a kitchen with plates, pots and pans, plus sheets and pillows for the bed. As we had none of these things in our apartment, we needed to figure out where to shop and get busy!
Porto is full of inexpensive cafes and restaurants so for the first week we mostly ate out. It still blows my mind that we can go to a traditional Portuguese sit down resturant and have a lunch consisting of a generous entree with sides, wine and dessert for 10 Euro, that’s less than a meal at McDonald’s in LA! Summer in Porto is lovely, with temps in the high 70’s to low 80’s, there is considerably more humidity than Los Angeles, my T-shirts stayed in the closet while I relied on loose cotton and linen tops and capris.
Grocery shopping was the first thing to conquer, we had visited the country a few times and did some cooking then so it wasn’t brand new. We knew we could get some favorites like Hellmann’s mayonnaise and sliced ham and cheese. They cook much more from scratch and don’t have a lot of frozen entrees or canned goods. The first thing I purchased for our apartment was an Instant-pot. I had one in California, but rarely used it since I also had a crock pot, rice cooker and even a pressure cooker. But with a much smaller kitchen having one multicooker made much more sense. I managed to purchase some beef at the butcher (an adventure in language limitations in itself) and wanted to make a pot roast. Humm, no French onion or cream of mushroom soup. No Campbells at all. Google to the rescue! Once I figured out how to make mushroom cream sauce from scratch, I couldn’t help but think about all the years I wasted using the inferior canned stuff!
While we were figuring out how to cook, we were shopping! We needed everything, furniture, dishes, bedding. I never thought I could dislike shopping, but it WAS uncomfortable. I had just spent the last year NOT buying anything because I knew we would be moving and selling almost everything we already had, I had no reason to buy more. Now, having to do so much shopping was a shock to my system. The first thing my husband bought was a TV, I simply let him get what he wanted. Everything else became a negotiation. I’d forgotten what it was like to try to furnish a home, with us both having different styles… it’s rough! Now we had an empty apartment with a TV … progress?
Initially we tried to purchase Portuguese products. Simple enough for our dishware (pictured above) but the stores don’t stock furniture, generally it has to be ordered and takes 6-8 weeks for delivery. Not so great when you have nothing. We found a couch at a Portuguese shop and ordered it, with the promise it would be ready in 45 days max, we paid and additional 89 euros to have it delivered upstairs to our living room (ouch!)
The weekend we moved into our apartment coincided with the festival of Sao Joao. It is a major street party with children and adults carrying large plastic hammers and bonking each other on the head with them. I have no idea what that has to do with St. John! The kids are up late and once the sun goes down (around 9 pm this time of year) people light paper lanterns and send them up into the sky. I made a wish on mine and sent it up from our tiny balcony. (Then prayed it wouldn’t get caught in the trees!) You can hear bands playing and the smell of sardines roasting on small grills fill the air. We still didn’t have any real furniture, but we did have 2 folding chairs, towels and bedding, some kitchenware and an organized cutlery drawer, we were on our way.
