Mary Lou's Portugal Journal #5: We Visit the Mercado in Porto. We Buy an Apartment.

Greetings friends and family,

So much news since my last update. In late September we got to see our former neighbors from Brentwood, Heidi and Jere, who were on a tour of Spain and Portugal and had a free hour+ between events. It was great to see them and catch up. Heidi remembered that I am gluten free and brought me some GF treats from Trader Joe's! What a sweetheart. That same evening we were dining in our favorite little neighborhood Vietnamese restaurant when I heard a woman with a very heavy Russian accent standing at the counter, talking with the owner. I was sure she was the same woman (Madina) who we met back in March when we were here scouting for a place to live. She noticed me staring at her and immediately made the connection and came over to visit with us. In March we first met Madina while dining at a Portuguese restaurant and this time it was in a Vietnamese restaurant. It turns out that she lives in our neighborhood. Four days later we again ran into Madina, this time dining with her friend from Denmark, Eva, who also now lives in Porto. Eva's mode of transportation is her bike, and it's not electric. I love that we get to meet such interesting people from so many different countries. Since then we've been out to dinner with Madina and she had us over for hors d'oeuvres last week. Madina and Eva will be coming to our place for dinner once we get moved in and settled.

Parque de Cidade is a gorgeous city park very near the flat we're buying so we walked over there recently to check it out. The park is quite grand and has restaurants, lakes, a sports area and tons of trails to walk and ride bikes. This will be a great place to picnic next time we're there. It's very close to the ocean as well, as it meets up with Matoshinos, the neighboring town to Porto.

If you have seen my photos on Instagram, our new Mercado do Bolhao finally opened in downtown Porto.

The city spent the last 3-4 years transforming a grand old building that occupies an entire city block into this fabulous Mercado. Lots of fresh produce, meats, cheeses, olives, breads, wines and ports, fish, flowers, etc. It was bustling with people on our first and every visit since. It's now a tour stop as well, as I've already seen a number of tour guides giving talks to groups as we're shopping. The Mercado is a three story building that will have restaurants on the upper floors and 38 shops on the exterior of the building. It's really magnificent. We bought some bread (yes, for those of you who know that I am gluten-free, I can actually eat a type of cornmeal bread that is a speciality here in northern Portugal), some freshly sliced presunta (like prosciutto), olives, goat cheese, and some lovely red wine (2.50 euros a glass) and sat at a little bar and enjoyed our lunch. You can also purchase a glass of wine or port and drink while you are shopping. What a wonderful place...this will be a weekly stop for us and a place we look forward to showing to future visitors.

Actually, we've already done that once when we met up with a couple (Michele and Peter) who are friends of a friend from Nevada. They were in town for two days so we arranged to meet up at the Mercado to show them around. Peter marveled at some of the prices of nuts and produce...so much cheaper here.

Last week we made the down payment and signed our CRCV (like a Promissory Note) to purchase the flat. I must mention that our realtor recently responded to an email we sent asking some questions about the seller's responsibilities. One thing we learned is that the seller doesn't even have to leave the "light balls" (light fixtures). We laughed and laughed about that. Back to the signing...It was an interesting process because we met the seller and all signed the document at the same time at his realtor's office, then we all went to the flat so we could take measurements and he could show us how things work.

The seller, Ron, is from Holland and is a delightful man who has travelled the world extensively. He converted one of the three bedrooms into a den, connecting it to the living/dining area. He then opened up the kitchen with a large pass-through so that sunlight brightens all three areas. He added lots of storage areas as well. He also turned the pantry into a laundry room, eliminating the washing machine in the kitchen, which is a very common kitchen fixture in Europe. Portuguese flats tend to have small bedrooms and often small kitchens as well, but he did a great job transforming this space and making a very comfortable and workable kitchen.

He showed us all around the apartment and opened a bottle of champagne as we celebrated. He's also taking us to dinner in the next few weeks and wants to take us to the arts district here as well. We will close on the purchase in mid-December and he will rent back from us until the end of January, at which point we'll have some painting done and move in by the end of February. Purchasing a home here is definitely different than in the states. There's not nearly as much paperwork and there are no escrow accounts. By the way, Ron is leaving his "light balls" for us too.

And our big news.....it's official...we're residents of Portugal! Thursday, October 20th we attended our final immigration appointment in Coimbra with our attorney Manoela. Manoela did most of the talking and we just signed paperwork, had our criminal background checked, got our pictures and fingerprints taken, and received our approvals. It may take 90 days to get our actual residence cards in the mail however we now have documents showing that we're residents. Afterwards we went out for a celebratory lunch with Manoela and her husband. It was quite the journey to get to this point and such a relief to have it behind us.

Now cue up the Twilight Zone music.....last week while we were standing at a bus stop another couple also waiting struck up a conversation with us. John and his wife Mary Lou (what are the chances!) come to Porto when they can and always rent the same Airbnb. After exchanging contact information we agreed to meet up for dinner on Friday (last night). Yesterday morning I got a text from John telling me that they met another American couple at the same bus stop who are here looking for a house to buy and he wanted us all to meet for drinks prior to our dinner date. When the other couple, Eric and Andrea arrived, we were exchanging small talk and learned that they are also from California...they live in El Segundo, Nick's hometown. Andrea grew up in El Segundo and attended the same schools that Nick did, albeit many years later as they are much younger than us. Andrea asked Nick his last name and when he told her she looked quite surprised and asked if he knew Stephanie Molinaro. "She's my niece." Andrea was Stephanie's best friend since elementary school. We actually attended a birthday party for Stephanie many, many years ago and I remembered this stunning blue suede dress that I thought Stephanie was wearing but it turns out Andrea was wearing the blue suede dress and Stephanie was wearing a version in red. Seriously, what are the chances! Eric has named our group of six the 500 Club because we all met at a bus stop waiting for the #500 bus.

And another small world experience...our friends Ed and Rhonda, whom I've mentioned in previous write-ups, were in Porto again earlier this week and we again met up for dinner. Ed and my sister attended the same high school in Fresno and graduated a year apart. On this trip they brought another couple with them, Carl and Kris...Carl also attended the same high school as my sister. His wife Kris grew up in Walnut Creek and she still has family there...her sister lives within a mile of my daughter's home in Walnut Creek and her mother lives in Rossmoor, the retirement community in WC. Such a small world!

And finally, we're getting closer to receiving our shipped goods. They arrived in Rotterdam and made it through customs without any issues. Now we're waiting for word on the delivery date. And we continue on this very difficult path of learning this difficult language. Don't even get me started on irregular verbs!

Adeus, abraços e beijos,

MaryLou