Bom Dia! Feedback from Portugal: we’re a fan. So, we’ve had a good look at this country: Porto, Lisbon, Coimbra, Faro … all these cities are as beautiful and dynamic as each other! We’re going to make a mix of all our experiences, and share some anecdotes to make you discover Portugal, before your internship, through the team’s experiences!
Anecdote 1 : After particulier
2011 ! I’m off with friends to Portugal, staying in Rua Do Norte in the center of Lisbon, and a few steps from the docks, right in the streets full of bars, clubs and other places of smelly debauchery! To resituate yourself: Watcha Out For This by Major Lazer has just come out and Sarko is still President of France. With Naïg and David, we decide one evening to go to the Gay Bar 106 to have a beer: pints are 1€, always in the good plans! We meet a bunch of chicks, and guys, and we end up dancing on the docks on DanceHall – a bit drunk – until dawn. There, our new friends offer us an after party: we accept. And there surprise: an after party, in Lisbon, that evening, it was obviously a dirty proposition, and this with a horror movie in Russian with Portuguese subtitles in the background. We quickly fled to the youth hostel to regain our minds!
Anecdote 2: Cod farming
A little culture! My cousin – by marriage – is of Portuguese origin, and he eats the traditional Portuguese dish par excellence: cod. Being in Portugal, I said to myself: OK, I want to see a codfish, without being dried. Shops, grocery stores, restaurants… they were dried everywhere. One morning, I decide to get up very early to go to the fishing port (despite the ban …) and I meet a friendly fisherman who shows me … a cod. It’s the same fish, with two different names !
Anecdote 3: Walking like never before
Portugal is sublime! However, whether you are in Porto or Lisbon, put on your crampons and your best T-shirt, because to visit, you will have to walk a lot. Not that the cities are too big: but it’s *very* hilly: both cities are built on hills. When you walk under 35 degrees, from morning to evening, you’re happy to enjoy the cheap terraces, and to drink as much water as you want! Moreover, in Lisbon, the places to visit are on several slopes, and the city is really splendid: no point in taking public transport, but then you’re WORN at the end of the day!
Anecdote 4: The Art of Slowness
In Portugal, everything is slower than in France: the service, the way of walking, the rhythm of the evenings … it’s a real art of living. the people are welcoming and peaceful! The cities are very touristic, and yet the shopkeepers still have an extraordinary patience. It’s really good to live, there are concerts everywhere, it’s hot, it’s cheap, smiling … Portugal, we love it ! By the way, a little band that we recommend you and that we discovered on the quays of Porto in 2018: Cocopilots !
For your future internship in Portugal: contact us, the Team is ready to answer all your questions 😀