Many people in the Vila Nova de Poiares neighbourhood learned to swim in the swimming pools at Recreio da Fraga leisure complex (nicknamed Fraggle Rock in our house) but it became neglected and was closed down for many years. Thanks to the efforts of the local council and local investment, theRead More →
You don’t need to go far to find calçada Portuguesa (Portuguese pavement, or sidewalk) in Portugal. It’s a prominent feature all over the country from the pretty shopping streets of Loulé and Faro in the Algarve to Queen Saint Isabel at Coimbra University and the zig-zag patterns in Santa Cruz onRead More →
I often get enquiries from readers who are considering moving to Portugal. Some of them have spent time in Portugal already while others have only read of its charms. Like many expats in Portugal, I enjoy living here despite certain frustrations, and know I made the right decision in settling down here. For some immigrants, however, theRead More →
If you’re going to be spending Christmas and New Year in Portugal, either as an expat or on holiday, this post is for you. Find out how and where to celebrate, how the Portuguese do things and what events are going on during the festive season. Click one of these links to jumpRead More →
Slightly sweet and moist with a crunchy crust. That’s the way I like my broa, aka traditional Portuguese corn bread. Broa is often served in the basket of bread you get served with olives in restaurants. Portuguese corn bread is more dense and filling than ordinary bread but, when freshly baked, is ohRead More →
“What do you want?” asked the Juiz (judge). “To eat chanfana!” I chanted, along with the 15 other initiates to the Confraria da Chanfana (brotherhood of goat casserole). We were on the stage in the Vila Nova de Poiares cultural centre wearing long black cloaks and wide-brimmed black hats. A waitress gave us each a tinyRead More →
Some things have changed since I first fell in love with Lisbon in 2007 yet many of its charms are timeless. David Kintore’s book, Silver Screen Cities, Celebrating City Cinema Going – Lisbon is essentially the diary of a film-loving TEFL teacher living in Lisbon in the early 1990s, back in the daysRead More →
Guest post by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price: How to prosper on less money in the cheapest places to live. If you move to a country that has a lower cost of living than where you live now, you can easily live a richerRead More →
Getting to the tiny Serra Amarela mountain village of Ermida is an adventure in itself. A single track road twists steeply up the mountainside, affording occasional gut-lurching glimpses of a rocky river bed in the canyon below. I decided to play it safe and pull over into a lay-by to admire the view ratherRead More →