The 5 Top Similarities and Differences between Living in Portugal vs. the USA

hi I'm Trish I'm a 52-year-old Filipino ameran living in the alar Portugal and here's a glimpse into my life so for a change of pace I thought I would walk to Oldtown farro and the marina so you guys can take a look at what they would call maybe the capital of the ALG Garb and that's far so there's a lot going on um it's you know happening and bustling so wanted to give you a little bit of an idea what it looks like and also I wanted to answer one of my friends her name is Trish too she had asked me can you tell me five things that are similar and five things that are different between Portugal and us and California I thought I would do that via video so here I'm going to pop myself down sit down at a bench and I will go through my list of things with you guys here are the top five things that are similar that we found uh moving from the US to Portugal [Music] and first is well we came from Southern California and now we're down in the algar Portugal and the weather is sort of similar so algar likes to say or Portugal likes to tell that it has 300 days of sun and that's kind of like California the weather is not very different although so the summer it's for the most part Sunny most of the year uh there's hardly any it's not we don't ever have snow down here uh so yeah in that case it's it's very similar to California I got to say it is a little colder in the winter like in California I never had to wear a winter coat but here I definitely have to wear a winter coat so the wind is a little chillier here but for the most part it's beautiful and temperate weather all year round so that's number one similarity number two similarity is the aligra has stunning beaches beautiful very beautiful beaches similar to Southern California so sometimes I'll post photos of gorgeous beaches here in Portugal and people will say wow that looks like lagona which is where we were coming from very easy to acclimate cuz it's very similar and number three related to that is there's a huge surf culture here so uh you know just like Southern California known for their Surfers Ry was a surfer and I just I love that when I first met him he was such a cool Surfer and could do all these he made surfing Look So Easy um because it's not and here there's a lot of surfers they're known for their big wave surfing in nazare but there's also panish is going to be part of the World Cup surfing it's one of the stops so yeah there's tons of surfers here and there's tons the surf spots and lots of surfboards and especially in the Western elar near srish which is where Ry would ideally want to move to it's just a huge surfing spot so and also up a little North I mean I love pra the AA beautiful area where there's a ton of surfers so lots of surf spots so if you're a surfer you're living in California or you're living in the US you will find it very easy to acclimate here for and you'll see with the video that there are a ton of very similar fast food chains that you can find in the US that you can find here so McDonald's KFC Burger King if you miss those in California or in the US don't worry you will find them [Music] here last but not least you'll also find lots of palm trees here it's very similar in Southern California the temperature is the same so there's tons of palm trees trees and there's tons of outdoor malls so I mean I miss of course Fashion Island and the Spectrum in Orange County because that was near Laguna but we've got we got the Forum and the forum's great so and that's an outdoor mall yeah and tons of outdoor markets here so very similar okay so there's a ton of differences there's I mean we are in Europe and it is a different country but I will list the top five that or at least five big ones that come off the top of my head and the first is cost of living I know you probably heard this ton of vloggers bloggers post everything everyone's like retiring in Portugal to make their money work um harder for them and there is truth to that because the cost of living here is a lot is a lot better and I remember going to the US and stopping by Target and buying five things and it cost $70 and here you could get a whole cart full of stuff and it will be 30 year old so um your dollar does go a little further here um and that's why you know it's really attractive to retirees there's a ton of retirees here because they want their money to last a little longer things are a little a little bit a little bit cheaper so that is a [Music] plus and the second thing that is very different that I found is you know whereas I could go to a huge Supermarket um at home Pilan Target you know and kind of do your One-Stop shop for the week you don't do that here we do these little micro shops and it was really hard for me to adjust in the beginning because I couldn't find everything at one place in the US you can go to Target and you'll get everything you need plus more um here I'll have to maybe stop by a little because I really really like their produce and their like their salmon for example you know I can't find some organic stuff so I'll have to stop by the cero so you do you kind of buy little mini things and the other thing is you you almost you shop more like I don't I shop I feel like I go grocery shopping food shopping almost every day just to buy something so that is a huge difference and kind of you know something to adjust to third the other thing is restaurants are pretty much closed from 3:00 to 7:00 you know how the US everything is kind of open all the time you're kind of screwed and out of luck if you're starving at 4:00 honestly that's what I found except for if you're at a mall for example and you can go to a food court but if you want to go to your nearby restaurant your local restaurant around your neighborhood they're probably not going to be open until 7:00 so hopefully you've made dinner or you just got to wait and it's because the Portuguese eat much later and yeah so and then they these restaurants closed down so you are kind of out of luck from 3:00 to 7:00 [Music] p.m. okay the fourth thing that's very different is there's no traffic here not not really I mean if you go up to Lisbon or Porto maybe the cities then you will be stuck in traffic because that has happened but for the most part here no not at all I mean the highways empty me I can get we can get up to Lisbon from the algarb in just under 3 hours and it's because you don't stop at all there's just no traffic you can just go straight through and yeah it's nice like here I'm in I'm in you know in the really in the heart of farro right now and coures see in the back and it's it's Rush Hour what you would consider rush hour it's 6:00 and uh no C crazy cars stucking traffic so that's obviously really nice and the fifth big difference is R wanted me to mention this or he had brought it up which is true is that all the buildings here are made of brick and concrete so in the US you know you have your drywall and houses are made out of wood here no you literally if you want to hang a painting you have to get a drill and drill a screw or whatever so that you can hang that painting up you can't just nail it in just won't happen so I think that is part of the reason why the insulation here is not the greatest and Winters you always hear it freezing because it's only made these these homes are made of Concrete and brick so it really keeps the colding and you're cold you're freezing you're freezing in the winter freezing so gotten a little better with heaters and stuff but and they do like these under under floor heating that's that helps a lot of the homes but yeah no such thing as insulation that I see okay and the last thing I'll end that is very different I mean I listed five similarities and five differences but I think the biggest similar or biggest difference is that Portugal is more family and Community oriented I mean it's it's a different culture they're really focused on families and community and um you know whereas the US is very much an achiever Society so it's very about individualistic um accomplishments you know that obviously impacts the way that everyone lives here so um you know the Healthcare is more affordable um there's vacation and just work life balance is a little better um and it's because Europeans in general really value family and Community uh more so and I noticed that right away um with my friends they like they'll invite you to their home and they'll cook dinner for you and um you know we do a lot of gatherings with our friends um just more more Community oriented versus you know Americans we're just too busy we're busy working and so it's not really so much about family and you know that's and that's really refreshing living here and we that's we just love it I mean I think that's really important oh and the other thing that's very different is it's very safe here I mean you think that this is some sketchy neighborhood but it's not it's near where Jax does his dance so yeah there's a ton of graffiti which is you know not the best but they think it's art anyway Portugal is the number three safest country in the world versus the US which is 128 so even though it does look sketchy it's actually very safe there's no sketchy neighborhoods you feel safe walking you know one of the reasons why we're still here in Portugal and in Europe so anyway that's my take I'm sure there's more but ask me questions I mean that's our five years here so that's the top five similarities and top five differences plus you know just My overall takee okay guys talk to you [Music] soon

Channel: Tricia Buenvenida

Views: 10,878

Keywords: living in portugal, living in algarve, American expat, American in portugal, filipino in Portugal, life after 50

Id: IRO83r_xpRI

Length: 11min 50sec (710 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 12 2023