The reason why I'm asking this is because my husband's family and friends who live and work in Portugal think we're crazy for wanting to relocate to Portugal from the UK. Ok, so we know the wages are a lot less to that of the UK in comparison, but the cost of living and the taxes we pay in the UK surely mean that we're not necessarily getting a better deal by staying put? Why do some Portuguese think Portugal is a nightmare of a place to live and work in? I'd be interested to see people's views on this because if I'm honest I'm failing to see why my in-laws are so against us relocating. Husband is Portuguese by the way. :-) Wow, thanks for your answer José, you have given me a really interesting point of view which I like. I've never lived in Portugal but from what I can see the quality of life is much better than here, people seem to love living over there and appreciate life and family values one hundred times more than us over here. I love Portugal and Portuguese people and the language....it's a beautiful language and I love learning it and love hearing my husband speak it! I'm even a Portugal football supporter (watch me get lots of thumbs down from the England supporters now!!) It just frustrates me that so many people we speak to think Portugal is a terrible place to live. Thanks for your answer! Thank you MIG - thats an interesting point to make. I really love the answers so far and I'm definitely going to use them to challenge my in-laws and portuguese friends next time they tell us we are mad for wanting to move over to Portugal! ;-) Thanks again to both of you. Muito obrigado!
Portugal - 2 Answers
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1 :
Good question. let me try to explain you: We, portuguese, are never satisfied with nothing. Maybe it's because of our latin and southeuropean mentality, maybe because of our very peculiar history (ask your husband...) The fact is we aren't arrogant like, for ex, the spanish and we tend to minimize our country in front of foreigners. Maybe it's because we prefer to criticize our house before others do it. (it sounds funny, but it is probably right.) The truth is, apart of our golden age (XV-XVI centuries), fado and football, we portuguese, IN FACT, are proud of many things about our country, like culture, monuments, traditions, food, wine, the peace, low violence and crimes, our language, etc. We know the bad things about Portugal but we also know that there are more countries around the world worse than us. (i usually say to my friends when they criticize portugal's health national system something like: "it could be worse. it could be like Afganisthan" lol) Of course is not a nightmare to live in Portugal. Just this morning my workmates were asking "how the hell the britisih can live in such a GREY country? always raining, fog, polution, etc." Of course when we travel abroad (in west Europe...) it's true that we feel inmpressed about the better stuff we find there... Natural, isn't it? For last i'll say some things - in my humble opinion - are better in Portugal than UK (been there 6 times): - Weather - Wine - Food - Cooffe (i mean, the expresso) - Polution - the sky light - security - tolerance - the "joie de vivre" (no translation needed) last, but not least, my advise is: come to Portugal, live and work here, and i'm sure you'll be very happy like...me!
2 :
Portugal is the best place to live. I'm a Portuguese living in Canada but I still think Portugal is the best place to live. I got married here wile visiting family. My experience with Portuguese emigrants is that they go to another country looking for a better life and they are so blind about other countries being better then Portugal that they forget all the good things they left behind. I know a lot of British couples living in Portugal and they love it. Weather, food, drinks, people and "futebol" are the things you will love the most. Good Luck
