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I have some strange feeling whenever I go to Portugal of being lost to the rest of the world. It seems that Portugal is in a category quite of its own. And the Portugese are not disatisfied with this. You often here a sentence ending with; "well this is Portugal"and then a smile or laugh indirectly asking you if you can handle it. But let me give an example or two of what Portugal then is.

Well - it's Portugal

Anna Sofie Andersen
2006-08-21 17:44:56

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of alcohol and partying till next morning, when they go to bed. They then get up at 3PM, take the car to the beach and then at some time past 8 or 9PM they have dinner and start drinking again. This is their life circle in the weekend and they all do it. This is exeptionally clear when you sit in a car line from Lisabon to the beaches south of Almada, not feeling you have moved at all for the last two hours and crossing your fingers that the air-condition wont break. Or when you after having arrived have to navigate through thousands of cars parked in a pattern only understandable to Portugese. But as my friends say, it's Portugal!
I really like Portugal and I love my friends, but as very Danish and borring I am, I can't quit the idea of scheduling everything, and being in Portugal for more than ten days is therefore to much for my early to bed life-style. So at this moment I have for hours tried to find a way to Salamanca in Spain, but the best offer has been to arrive at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning. But I guess I'm still in Portugal and have to live the night and go by the rules of the Portugese.

To finish this little essay on Portugal I will come to the conclusion that should my friends here ever travel to Denmark they would become so very stressed by how ordered and scheduled everything is and how dinnerplans are always made three weeks in advance. But what is the better, maybe it would be the compromise of a golden middleway. And yet, I wonder if anything will ever change and whether it should. How borring to travel abroad and still have to plan my schedule. So nice it is just for a ten days time to leave the calendar at home.

As a little note I would like to add that though Denmark and Portugal are so very different there is one thing which we share and that is the appreciation for our national flag. Nowhere but in Denmark and Portugal have I seen so many flags blowing in the wind. (True that I haven't been to USA) It seems as we both wish to show off a little though I have the believe that while it in Denmark is an old tradition bound together with Danish "hygge" - cozyness and the entire idea of the summerhouse, the strawberries, the summerbreeze and not to forget the coffee and a cold beer. In Portugal it seems different. While we show our flag in the garden of any summerhouse on a long pole where the wind can really take a grip in it, the Portugese hang it out their windows and you often drive by appartmentblocks where the facade seems covered in several portugese flags. I have a feeling it might be a pride, not abad one though, but I could imagine that even more flags were shown when the national soccer team played or on national days of independance and so forth. If anyone knows, please give me your thoughts on it.

But well back to real life. Spain is coming up and I am once again on the road.
See you at my next stop.
Anna