Mary Lou's Portugal Journal #43

Dear friends and family,

I hope you enjoyed a lovely Easter weekend. We had stunning weather over the weekend and Spring has definitely shown itself. Tourists were everywhere here, enjoying Spring break and sunny weather.

I pass this tree twice a week on my way to water aerobics.

I've mentioned a group we belong to called Internations previously. As the name implies, members are from all over the world. While some members, like us, live here in Porto, you will often find people in attendance who are members from other countries and happen to be in town as tourists. When we arrived at the March event we ran into a Russian friend, Madina, whom we met back when we were first visiting Porto on our scouting trip in March, 2022. As we were chatting with her, we realized that it was exactly four years ago that we met her in a restaurant here in Porto, making hers our first and longest friendship here. Madina immigrated to the U.S. over 30 years ago and still works in there full-time, however, she has a Portuguese visa and maintains an apartment in Porto. Since we've known her she's been trying to get her own textile business up and running so that she can move to Porto full-time, which now looks to be later this year. At this event in March, she introduced us to a few of her Russian friends who were also in attendance that evening. The conversation turned to restaurants here in Porto that specialize in Georgian food, which is apparently different from Russian cuisine. It certainly had them all excited, so we're looking forward to dining with Madina soon at one of these restaurants to see what we think.

Since I wrote my last email, the little excursion in Iran is now a full on war. Well done, MAGA voters. Of course, we attended our third "No Kings" rally here on March 28th and I'm sure many of you did the same in the states, given the reported size of the event worldwide. While the rally here was certainly small by comparison, the energy was passionate. There were even some tourists with signs in attendance. It was amazing to see how many cities across the EU and the world staged these events. He's universally hated. More and more people, not just Americans, are seeking to move here. Sadly, I'm hearing that some areas of the Algarve are starting to show some anti-American sentiment, which can hardly be surprising. Neither of us has encountered anything like that here thus far. Our Portuguese neighbors are very supportive, not only of our being here, but also of our political views and protests.

The "War Pig" sign on the left actually made the national news in the U.S. according to a friend of mine in Atlanta.

Another of my favorite signs

According to a survey by Portugalist.com, about half the Americans either currently living in Portugal, actively planning to move here, or considering moving here are also now considering renouncing their American citizenship after securing their Portuguese citizenship. Of those surveyed, 81% cited political reasons while 38% cited the complexity of the US global tax filling system (to which I will attest). Additionally, of those who are already living in Portugal, just over 44% do not intend to return to the U.S. It's been four years since we made the decision to move here and, of all the Americans we've met along the way, renouncing citizenship never even came up in conversation. Everyone wanted and looked forward to obtaining dual citizenship. But here we are, just one year into this disastrous presidency and people are thinking differently. And yes, this is a small sampling but think about the fact that approximately 1.5 million Americans currently live throughout Europe, not even counting those who moved to Mexico and parts of South America. Is a sampling from Portugal just an anomaly? I doubt it. And, the recent reduction in the cost of renouncing American citizenship was reduced dramatically thanks to a number of lawsuits. Time will tell but the America we grew up in has gone so far right and been taken over by evangelicals and billionaires, that it's not recognizable anymore.

March also was busy collecting tax data for our U.S. accountant so we could get those taxes filed before working on our Portuguese taxes. Just the preparation for the Portuguese return is rather time-consuming but I hope to finish up my spreadsheets for our accountant later today. Once those are done, we will be starting our travel. First up is Nice, France and the Côte d' Azur. Stay tuned for my next update!

Adeus, abraços e beijos, MaryLou

Mary Lou's Portugal Journey #42

Greetings friends and family,

I hope this finds you in good health. We are doing well here.

Sometimes I struggle to write because I let the news consume me, and these days, it's particularly bad isn't it? I'm trying to find ways to keep my spirits up and not let the shitshow in the U.S. take me down.

Here in Portugal, as you have probably already heard, the people have spoken and, with the largest win in history, António José Seguro of the Socialist Party (PS) won the Presidency with over 3.5 million votes, a record for a presidential election. Picture me sighing with relief. And today, March 9th, he has been sworn into office.

Though we're back to some rain today, we have experienced some lovely sunny days here in February. Spring is in the air with the tulip trees in bloom everywhere. On Valentine's Day weekend we treated ourselves to a stay downtown at a new boutique hotel, Hotel Kodawari Flores, located on Rua das Flores, which was named the coolest street in the EU this year according to Travel and Leisure magazine. Located close to São Bento train station, the street is filled with cool shops, bars and restaurants and has a great vibe. The hotel itself is a small but really lovely and specializes in a great night's sleep, with custom horsehair mattresses made by Hasten and fabulous weighted blankets made by blanky here in Portugal. We actually own two of the weighted blankets ourselves. They delivered two silk sleep masks, three sets of eye hydrating masks, and two pairs of their signature socks to our room. And we were greeted upon arrival with not one, but two glasses each of Graham's Port Wine 🥴. If you ever plan to visit Porto, I would highly recommend this hotel. Also located on Rua das Flores, is what I've always thought of as Dildo Square. I'm not sure what these statues are supposed to represent but that's what comes to mind whenever I see them. 🤭

Dildo Square (there are actually 3 of these statues)

Now that the severe rain has passed and the Douro River isn't spilling over and dirty, as it was shortly after all the storms, we've been down to the waterfront a few times to enjoy some sun and some wine. I captured what I think is a cool photo there recently.

The reflection of Porto from the Gaia side of the Douro River.

I will end with a few thoughts of my own. Yes, I am sad to see that the U.S. military has been and will continue to use the Lajes airbase in the Azores to refuel on their way to Iran to, conceivably, kill everyone in sight. The U.S. and Portugal have had the agreement in place since 1951 and they don't intend to upend that agreement now, even though the Portuguese government isn't thrilled with this new war. And it is a war, make no mistake about it. Hopefully, this war isn't going to spread but hey, look at the two dummies running this and ask yourself, what are the chances of that? Honestly, the potential for additional wars all over the map is stunning and all brought to you by the guy who believes he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. I think that ship has sailed. Finally, I will share one of my favorite posts seen recently on Instagram; "Call me crazy, but I think the president of the United States and the dumbest motherfucker on earth should be two different people."

Stay safe and stay healthy.

Adeus, abraços e beijos,

MaryLou

P.S. Thanks to my sister for sending me this post from Facebook...the photo was taken on Highway 24 heading to Walnut Creek, CA.

Mary Lou's Portugal Journal #41

Greetings family and friends,

January brought us rain, rain, and more rain. In fact, as I'm writing this, on February 6, we've had almost non-stop rain since the start of the year, along with high winds that woke us on a number of nights. In our 3.5 years living here in Porto we have never seen so much rain. Three storms in a row ... Ingrid, Kristin and Leonardo battered the country, causing massive damage. The city of Coimbra, about 1.5 hours south of Porto, experienced record breaking winds clocked at 129.7 mph on January 28th. Porto has been lucky (so far anyway) because we haven't had the severe flooding and hurricane winds/damage like other parts of the country (though I would argue that the winds that kept us awake sure sounded like hurricane winds 🫩). That said, this morning the Douro River overflowed its banks on both sides of the Ribeira, (the historic section of downtown) on the Porto side and the Gaia side. For those of you who have visited Porto, you should be able to picture it. The Tejo River in the south as well as the Douro River here in the north are both at warning level red today, as both rivers are overflowing from all the rain, and the disaster situation in the country has been extended until February 15. Warnings have been issued for everyone to stay away from both riverfronts. There are currently 2000 soldiers deployed to assist. As of now there are 13 reported deaths in Portugal, but that number could rise as yet another storm, Marta, is due to arrive Saturday. Areas along the Silver Coast, including Nazaré, were walloped, with trees snapped in half or literally ripped out of the ground. People in Nazaré had to dig out their cars from the deep sand that blew in along the waterfront and into the lower levels of town. Businesses along the waterfront there were demolished. Lots of buildings and a stadium were heavily damaged along the coast. In the south, particularly in Oeiras, where our friend Gloria resides, there has been massive flooding resulting in damage to homes. Thankfully, she is safe. The Algarve was particularly battered by Storm Leonardo. Storm Marta will be entering the country from the south tomorrow, so people in that area are on high alert.

Round one of the election for President of Portugal was held on Sunday, January 18th, with 11 candidates on the ballot. The mini wannabe trump candidate, André Ventura, head of the Chega party, came in second with 24% of the vote while candidate António José Seguro of the PS Socialist party came in first with 30.6% of the vote. On Sunday, February 8, the second round of voting will take place. Unfortunately, with all the weather related catastrophes right now, it's still not clear if voting might be pushed back a week. Perhaps we'll know more tomorrow. Given what's happening in the U.S. right now, some people are starting to wake up to the cruelty of far-right groups leading the country. Hopefully enough people come out to vote and prevent the slide into another dictatorship here.

January was a difficult month for me, as I spent almost the entire month sick, first with an ungodly allergy attack followed by the worst sinus infection I've ever experienced. I'm finally feeling normal again, thankfully.

On January 9th, exactly one year since our resident cards expired, our doorbell rang and our postman greeted us with a huge smile and shouted "AIMA!"; however, we quickly realized he was only delivering one card, Nick's. I was visibly upset that he had nothing for me, but he tried to reassure me that maybe next week it will come. Four days later he rang the doorbell again and shouted "AIMA!". I insisted that he let me take his picture delivering mine.

Our postman delivering Nick's card on January 9.

Four days later my card is delivered by our very happy postman!

Our new cards are good for another three years. Finally, we can travel and yet .... these storms are affecting all of Europe right now. There has been widespread flooding in parts of France and Italy, along with snow in the Netherlands, Paris and elsewhere. We've had friends stranded in Paris who were actually just on a layover flying back from the states and got stuck in Paris without proper clothes for a snowstorm. Another friend had to spend two extra days in the Netherlands because flights were grounded due to the snow there. We don't feel like trading the bad weather here only to experience bad weather elsewhere so we're hanging on for a bit before traveling elsewhere. But, the good new is that we finally have our new cards.

Though I would like to make my feelings clear about the appalling events of January in the U.S., I'm too angry and disgusted with his supporters to comment further right now.

Stay safe, stay healthy. Adeus, abraços e beijos, MaryLou

Mary Lou's Portugal Journal #40

Greetings and Happy New Year. Let's hope it's better than 2025, which could go down as the worst on record thanks to you know who and his merry band of brown shirts.

This was actually the first Christmas we spent in Porto, of the four we've experienced since moving here. I can confirm that we ate too much, drank too much (probably me more than Nick), and generally partied with friends for most of the month, right up through New Year's Eve. Earlier in December we took a vintage Christmas train day trip to see the World's largest Santa, per the Guinness Book of World Records. It was quite a fun day, stopping first in Macinhata do Vouga to visit a train museum. Along the route, from Aveiro to Macinhata, we were greeted by the locals living along the route and waving to the train. This vintage train travels on a particular narrow gauge track from years ago, so it's not regularly used anymore. The museum was a fascinating look at how the former dictator, Salazar, made changes to trains over his almost 50 year reign, forcing the middle class to travel in third class, after eliminating all second class seats and comforts. As we arrived there, the locals were at the train station to play traditional Portuguese music, dance, and had little Christmas faire booths set up to shop. We were treated to small pastries from the local area we well. After touring the museum, we again boarded the train and headed to Águeda, a charming town inland that is known for its amazing Christmas lights and displays. The giant Santa was really quite spectacular, standing at 69 feet tall and covered in 250,000 LED lights.

Águeda's giant Santa

A festive street in Águeda

Another festive street in Águeda

The town also holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the smallest Santa, however with the crowds and long lines, we had to skip it. However, I'm including a picture of it from online in the link below... this was crafted on the inside of the head of a needle. Who thinks of doing something like this??? You can read about it and see it here: https://www.itv.com/news/2017-12-06/meet-the-worlds-smallest-santa-claus-the-latest-micro-sculpture-by-willard-wigan

On Christmas Eve we hosted our friends Cagla, Bob and their kids plus Bob's brother, John for dinner.

A partial view of our tree and our view of the ocean.

On New Year's Eve we were invited by our neighbor across the hall, Luis, to a small gathering with his friends. This is the second time we've been included in an all Portuguese party, so we were quite honored to be invited. Fortunately, I had just learned the day prior of some "rules" and/or superstitions that the Portuguese follow for New Year's so we both wore blue underwear and carried money in our pockets. Once at the party, everyone confirmed that they too were wearing blue underwear and, anyone who didn't have money in their pocket was given a euro for that purpose. We all chose to skip the one about eating 12 raisins, one at each strike of the clock at midnight. Having grown up in the "raisin capital of the world" I know better than to eat them. Fireworks were going off all around our area at midnight and at the same time we watched the huge fireworks display held in downtown Porto on the local tv station. After that, the dancing started! Nick managed to speak mostly Portuguese the entire evening! He's really becoming fluent, whereas me, not so much I'm afraid.

Since I started writing this piece I came down with a horrible cough and cold which rendered me fairly useless for the past 6 days. I might now hold the record for the most sneezes by a human being. 🤧 Hence, I'm just getting back to finishing this. Amazingly, there was just enough time in between the start of my illness and the pathetic POS in the WH to invade Venezuela for the oil (it has nothing to do with drugs) and to threaten how many other countries?...I've lost count. Way to go MAGA voters! Anyone not horrified at the current state of affairs there...those people horrify me the most.

Will the Epstein files ever be fully released???

Today is January 7, 2026 and we still have not received our new resident cards. In two more days it will be a year since they expired. 😡🤯😩

Stay healthy and safe.

Adeus, abraços e beijos,

MaryLou