So not too long after I got here, I scouted and found a taco place not too far. It was pretty good, but the fun part for me was when I first sat and she gave me the menu, I automatically said, "Obrigado," which is "Thank You" in Portuguese. She responded "nao tem de que" which is bascially dont mention it. But then, later, once she brought the food, I slipped back in to the past six months and said, "Gracias," and without missing a beat, she said, "De nada." (fun fact: actually Portuguese will often use the same phrase as there's a lot of similarities between the two languages). Finally, when she brought the check, I just said, "Thank you" w/o thinking. Again, not missing a beat, she said, "You're welcome."
This shows, once again, that it's really only Americans who (mostly) don't bother to learn another language. In Europe, most everyone speaks at least two, and often three. Fun aside: during our quick trip to France to go to Paris Disneyland last month, when we got into our Uber, the dude asked/confirmed if I was David. I said, "Si!" and then "Sorry, yes!" and then "Pardon, oui!" lol Of course, that's about the extent of my French.
Speaking of food, it's - surprise, surprise - much better here than in America. Particularly fast food. I actually drink a bit more soda here than in the states because, for example, while a can of Fanta Orange in the U.S. will have 30-40 grams of sugar in it, here in Portugal, it has 14. And you'd never know. It actually tastes BETTER/more "real" of an orange taste, etc. and I was shocked when I saw it had that much less sugar. They don't allow the dyes and other chemical crap in there, as well. Fast food places and movie theaters will some times have ONLY sugar free versions of soda.
Fast food places ALL have veggie options, and the KFC veggie tenders are SO good, I get those instead. I "tricked" DJ into eating one and he thought it was delicious and was shocked to find it wasn't real chicken. Taco Bell has veggie meat tacos and you'd never know they weren't "real" meat. And so on.
The local places are still pretty heavy on meat dishes, and a LOT of fish, which makes sense since Portugal is a coastal country and Porto is pretty much on the coast. But they're also big on pizza and french fries. Lots of Arabic places, and there's a place around the corner where I can get a two serving order of spicy rice (Halal) that is yummy and only sets me back about $5. For two meals. In general, though, prices are in between Mexico/Ecuador prices and U.S. - trending a little closer to U.S . prices (esp. for fast food).
There is a huge sidewalk cafe culture here that I would definitely take more advantage of if/when I retire here. It's wasted on DJ who still has rather, um, "juvenile" tastes in food. And the weather facilitates it as it's pretty spring like most of the year. I need to come here again during the summer to see how hot it gets, and maybe during "winter"/their rainy season. But their weather still beats anything in the states outside of San Francisco, Hawaii, or San Diego.
Like South America, their "mall culture" here is still thriving, with multiple large, clean malls that actually still have a mix of stores in them and often include a large grocery store, multi screen movie theater, and larger/more diverse food courts than in the states. There is a mid size one walking distance from us, and two other nice, big ones, in opposite directions from us easily accessible by their modern, clean, inexpensive metro.
Finally, one "mixed" thing here: Seagulls! Coz we're pretty much on the coast, there's a fair number of seagulls around town. Not as many as pigeons, of course, but still enough to be both amusing and - to DJ - scary. Not sure why, but he REALLY is scared of them. Partly coz they're much bigger than pigeons, and partly he doesn't like them coz occasionally they'll squawk/cry/sing/whatever you wanna call it early in the morning near our window. See pic below from our upstairs window.
I've grown to enjoy them on the whole, BUT I was very unhappy with one that swooped down on me while I was walking down Via Santa Catarina (pedestrian walking street) trying to eat my chicken sandwich and one almost snatched it out of my hand. Swooped down on me from behind without me seeing it and almost bit my finger off. I'm sure the locals and tourists were amused at my surprise and subsequent swearing and fist raising at it as it flew off - luckily, without my sandwich. Thus, when I came across one the next day, I got DJ to snap this picture:
