I'm sitting in a rest stop on Hwy A2 just past Lagos on my way back home to Estoril. I'm feeling so comfortable. I've learned so much. Portugal has 200 grape varietals, Alentejo is magnificent. The letter S at the end of a word is almost always the sh sound. The pottery is varied and beautiful. They serve fries with everything and I have to stop eating them. Substitute tomatoes? Sim chips, com tomate?
Before I left town, I looked at a house for sale. In the window of a real estate office I saw a "casa antigua" for 125,000e. I asked about it and a young man took me to see it. It was unlivable but interesting. I'm sure it used to house a family. Two bedrooms with just enough room for the beds, a kitchen dining area and a larger bedroom. No indoor plumbing. They have built an illegal bathroom out front with everything needed but the house itself is crumbling. The attached houses on either side have all been redone. Interesting that places are so attached in Portugal. Less land? Huddling together with the sea at your back? Protection? Community? The towns all have attached homes, even though people may have land and farm outside of town. Why not free standing houses? Living in town instead of on the farm? They have farm land outside the town but live connected.
So, rent, don't buy. I could stay at the Navigator for 25e a night with housekeeping.
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