Arriving at the border of Spain and Portugal, after visiting so many countries, listening to my own language was very pleasant. A very different accent, distinct grammatical constructions, but at least it was my mother language. We arrived in the city of Lisbon with BlaBlaCar along with 3 more Spanish girls from Seville who were taking a week off.
Upon arriving in the city I had the surprise that it all looked like the neighborhood of Santa Teresa in Rio de Janeiro. Old low buildings, alleys and if that were not enough you still had the cable car! To the streets all of Portuguese stones similar to Rio de Janeiro.
We had not booked any lodging so we went straight to a snack bar. The second surprise was the ambient music, sertanejo and arrocha, typical Brazilian songs. And to drink, Antarctica guaraná of course! I definitely felt in Brazil.
But when I went to ask for a sandwich, it was complicated, the boy asked me, with ham or fiame? In Portugal the ham we know is called fiame. The ham of Portugal is a smoked ham, similar to Parma ham. I enjoyed to try this, to feel more the local culture, very good by the way. After the sandwich I was still a little hungry so I ordered a soup that was divine. We booked the hostel using the internet from the snack bar and went there.
When walking around the city the feeling of literally walking on the boardwalk of Copacabana in Rio.
The streets very similar to where I live in lapa (Rio), I even found Lapa’s Alley! Feeling of being at home was very good.
Viva Portugal!