Lisboa

Lisboa, linda Lisboa. During the summer the city is beautiful, hot, but beautiful. I almost forgot the shock I had last Fall, Winter and Spring when it was raining vertically outside 24/7 (no kidding..) and at least once a week inside our old apartment. Then I disliked Lisbon. Much. Then the Summer came and we moved to a new neighborhood. Now I like Lisbon - Much. My previous shock might be due to my expectations of an ever sunny paradise where people are chilled out and theres surfers everywhere. I admit, I had absolutely no idea where I was moving, and this is not a secret island in Asia... But hey, its part of the adventure. Although, as a warning, the Atlantic Ocean does the trick. I think it's rainier than in England.

The Summer has set an ease on the city. People are chilled out, friendly. Unfortunately, my experience of people in Lisbon has been extremely different from most who visited the capital. Let me point out the word: visited. Dude, if you move to Lisbon in the hope to get a wide network of friends, you are mistaken! The people are more introverted than the Finns. Go Finland. It has been extremely difficult to make native friends. I have many good foreign friends, thus, all of them struggling with the same issue in order to integrate into the culture and call this place home. *sob*

However, on the bright side (and there always is), where I just trespassed when I returned this Summer from Finland, when you unlock the language of Portuguese people open up to you. So therefore, I have had some lovely conversations with random people in the cafe, supermarket, gym, basically everywhere I go. Let it flourish! And one more thing. I visited Porto two weeks ago. People were so super nice and open to me that I just wanted to kiss them. (On the cheeks, of course)

Ps. I have some native friends now. One fell from the sky and we were friends in 30 seconds. Others were accumulated over time.

Beijinhos! (Kisses.. in Portuguese)