I was MUGGED in Porto, Portugal.

two of his buddies Sucker Punch me right into the face my glasses fall onto the ground my nose is bleeding everywhere and pretty much it's a three onone these guys are ganging up on me maybe I have a really punchable face I don't [Music] know now this is definitely not a video that I wanted to make not going to lie my pride hurts a little bit on this one it's hard to come on camera with a black eye and a crooked nose but I think that this video needs to be made so that people coming to visit Lisbon and Porto in anywhere in Europe can be aware and exercise caution in certain situations and areas let me start by saying that this video is in no way meant to detour people from going out and traveling and coming to Portu I have a video about Portu that is one of my favorite videos I have ever filmed so make sure to subscribe and follow because you won't want to miss that one I also didn't make this video to play the victim and act as though there was no provocation on my side this could have happened anywhere in the world and it's just a part of traveling and being abroad it's not always kittens and rainbows everywhere you go sunsets and glasses of wine sometimes traveling can be ugly and that's just part of the journey to be honest it's pretty laughable now but in the moment things could have gotten very serious Portugal is Apparently one of the safest countries in the world and it frequently is in the top 10 safest places Year bye however this is a perfect example of how you need to keep your wits about you because things like this can happen anywhere it seems like where people come to spend money eventually always becomes targets of pickpocketing muggings and tourist scams but let's get to the story of what happened so basically I'm strolling through poru which is a great City to walk in there's a a lot of hills and I really like the exercise of it and so much to see in a small uh proximity so the incident took place around midnight and I'm walking through aliados which is the Avenue of the Allies a very popular tourist place that is crawling with people in the day but at the time there was nobody in the square and I'm walking by the McDonald's this is the famous McDonald's that people dub the most beautiful McDonald's in the world which is a shame to me to see this beautiful building that could be used for so many cool things turned into a McDonald's and then I get approached by a guy in a track suit uh trying to sell me elicit drugs and at first he was speaking very broken Portuguese I could tell it wasn't his first language and when he heard me speak English he switches to a broken English and I said to him kindly no I don't want any drugs I'm okay thank you and I continue walking I tried to ignore him and he continued to follow me and he starts asking me more aggressively if I want to to buy drugs and I told him no I don't want any drugs I'm good thank you very much uh well he keeps persisting and persisting and I keep telling him no I'm good and this went on for a little while and so I just continued to walk down the street and try to get away from him uh then he began to follow me quite a ways uh at this point tensions were definitely starting to raise and I was starting to get a bit aggravated at this guy uh for bothering me so much and his tone starts to get much more aggressive at this point and he's been following me for almost 5 minutes now so I turn around to him and I aggressively say I don't want to buy anything leave me alone and when I said this he grabs onto my shirt and he pulls really hard we get into this like scuffle and uh next thing I know I hear uh Footprints running up behind me and as I turned to look two of his buddies Sucker Punch me right into the face my glasses fall onto the ground my nose is bleeding everywhere I'm wearing this white jacket that is just full of blood at this point and pretty much it's a three onone these guys are ganging up on me not going to lie during this moment uh I was definitely afraid of what was going to happen were they going to beat me senseless and take all of my stuff uh were they could they possibly kill me but luckily amidst all the commotion happening these three other guys come running up and chasing them off thank God that these guys came to my rescue because who knows what these three guys would have done um and you know I thought about it now if I was in a place like United States or Brazil or any place where they have uh really bad violence this could have been a lot worse and if it wasn't for these guys I probably wouldn't have walked away with just the Shiner and a swollen crooked nose so thank you to those guys if you're watching this now I think it's irrelevant to mention what ethnicity or race the group that attacked me was but I think it's important to mention that this isn't the first time I've had an issue with street pedlers trying to sell illicit drugs in Lisbon and in Portu maybe this is becoming an increasing issue in bigger cities like Lisbon and Portu and even in the Algarve as they get more popular and more tourist money comes in and afterwards this older Portuguese guy who was across the way that witnessed it from afar came up and started apologizing to me that this is not Portugal and I could kind of feel that his pride in his country was hurt to see something like this happened here however it is interesting that I've also talked to some locals who say that puu and Lisbon were much worse 20 years ago and incidents like this were much more common looking back in hindsight there were probably some things that I possibly could have done to maybe avoid this altercation altogether and I wanted to share this with you so so maybe you don't make the same mistakes that I did first situation was I was alone after midnight I have been doing this in numerous cities around the world including in United States like Los Angeles San Francisco and Detroit for many years so I guess I underestimated uh any danger that could really happen in Europe and specifically Portugal even though I know there can be crimes like this that can happen but they typically happen more in cities like Madrid Paris and London the second situation was that I was a little bit drunk and I think that these perpetrators targeted me for this so I basically was a Sitting Duck maybe I just got too comfortable with this idea that Portugal is so safe and I dropped my awareness of the surroundings around me number three is I probably could have ran off into the McDonald's or into a bar but my kind of explosive reaction to him not leaving me alone probably didn't help the situation and lastly maybe because I am a nerdy guy with glasses I looked like an easy target maybe I have a really punchable face I don't know but I'm also not making this video for political reasons to say that Portugal is much more dangerous than people make it out to be but if you come here to visit and you're in the popular tourist areas Portugal is becoming a more popular place and with the good certainly brings the bad when traveling in Europe or anywhere in Portugal it's important to look alive keep your with about you and don't trust anyone if you're in an obvious tourist area because these are the most commonly targeted places for things like this but again this could have happened anywhere in the world but it does seem like right now there are some increasing tensions for obvious reasons and it's important when visiting any city in Europe to keep that in mind look alive and be aware of your surroundings at all times now lastly I want to take a moment to thank all of the locals and people who have welcomed me here and made me feel so much at home it has been such a delight and joy to be here and I hope if you come to Portugal you treat it with respect for the culture that's been here for a very long time if you want to see more videos about living in Portugal or Europe in general make sure to hit the like And subscribe button because I'll be posting videos like this every week on this channel hopefully we'll see you next time now I'm going to go ice my [Music] face [Music] [Music] oh

Channel: Dave in Portugal

Views: 140,801

Keywords: Living in Portugal, Moving to Portugal, Lisbon, Algarve, D7 Visa in Portugal, D7 Visa, D8 Remote Work Visa, Dave in Portugal, American in Europe, Madiera, Porto, Porto Portugal, Oporto, Move to Portugal, NHR Tax Scheme Portugal, Portuguese, Nathaniel Drew, Mugged in Europe, Mugged in Porto, Is Portugal Dangerous?, Is Porto Dangerous?, Is Europe Dangerous to visit?, Beat up in Porto, Americans in Europe, Porto McDonald's

Id: DqmEb6zE1Ec

Length: 8min 48sec (528 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 03 2024