Living in a small village in Portugal: Is our life really any different?

Since we moved to Serra D’EL Rei, you can say our life is pretty different. After all, we live in a totally different country with a different culture and language. We don’t work a 9-5 job anymore so our days are slower and more flexible. And this has also allowed us to be more social and part of our community. Well, it has for me; Beth was already quite social in America.

But besides having to get up and go to work everyday, our life probably looks about the same as everyone else here.

From City to Village

We moved from Winston Salem, NC, a city of over 250,000 people to a village of 1400. That is a big change for us. Our shopping is more local and more often. Two to three times a week, I will go to the local fruit market or butcher to buy our food. We try to shop in the bigger stores only once a week and usually only buy products that we cannot get locally. I buy all of my meat from the butcher which took some time to learn because the cuts of meat are different here. Luckily, the owners son knows enough English to help me and I can point to what I want.

I also order my veggie from a Portuguese farm in Ferrel which is about 10 minutes away. She delivers them every Friday. I do the orders in Portuguese and I still have to look at my translation sheets. I also get fish from the fish monger at either our local outdoor market or from the lady in the van on Tuesdays. Fish are readily available but more expensive than meat.

Living in a small village in Portugal means learning the language

Living in such a small village means that most people here don’t speak English. The ones that do work in the cafes and the small supermarket in town but the people you run in to on the street do not.

Once a week, I have a Portuguese lesson from a private tutor in our village. Her name is Maria and we focus on me being able to have a conversation with people I meet on the street or in the cafe. Portuguese is not the easiest language to learn. Fortunately it is somewhat similar to Spanish so was able to pick up a few things quickly. But it is also different in many ways and it is going to take some time for us to learn. I might be fluent in 20 years if I really work hard at it.

This summer there were two times our language lessons were really put to the test. One was the traveling market that came to our village. Portugal has these markets that move around. Before large stores or online shopping was available, these markets provided the shopping for the village for a year. Can you imagine having to buy all of your major supplies for a year in one day?

These markets sell EVERYTHING from linens, sheets, clothes, tableware and cookware, charcoal grills, tools, shoes–everything. But NO ONE spoke English. I had to develop an ear for numbers very quickly because there were a couple of times I thought they said one thing and it was another. I don’t think any of them were trying to rip me off. It’s more that I didn’t hear it correctly. But I did manage to buy some linens and a swanky Portuguese apron.

The other instance we had to use our language lessons was at the local festa in our village. We volunteered to peel potatoes for the sit down dinner that they have. We were in a hot kitchen for 3 hours with 5 other people that did not speak any English. Communication was HARD. Our friend, Geoff, knew more than we did and was able to communicate some but he was not an interpreter. But the Portuguese are a very friendly people and luckily, Cesar, the man in charge, does speak English and translated when he was able. The villagers were so welcoming and very appreciative of our help and we loved participating in something that was important to the community.

Since neither of us work a 9-5 job anymore, our days are very flexible. This makes it easy to explore the country. We might go to one of the neighbouring villages and run errands like the bank or a larger grocery store trip. We also might go exploring and visit villages we haven’t been to such as Tomar and Alcobaça.

Community

We also love to hang out with our new friends at the cafe and have a coffee, beer or wine. The people we usually hang out with are our expat friends Meg and Geoff from Scotland or Joelen, David and Ansley from America. But since the cafe is the local bar, we also meet the villagers and learn more about where we live. Most everyone greets you with a boa tarde! (good afternoon) or tudo bem? (all good?). We don’t know enough Portuguese to get past this point of the conversation but we are putting names to faces and learning more and more about our neighbours.

But all in all, one of the biggest advantages and change for the both of us of living in a small village in Portugal, especially this one, is that we are two married women and we feel safe. We know that we can hold hands and no one will bother us or be mean. They accept us for who we are and let us live in peace and that is more than I can say for where we were.

To find out more or hear us talk about living in Portugal, check out our Podcast, Wandering Works for Us on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Pocket Casts.