superphoenix
Well-known member
Fellow Americans, what if I told you I discovered a place more beautiful than San Francisco, with better weather than LA, more drug legalization than Portland, a place where you can drink publicly like in New Orleans, and cheaper than Kansas City? Sounds too good to be true, right?
Hey all, I just got back from 15 days in Lisbon, 8 of which were a personal vacation and the other 7 a Covid quarantine because my friend caught it (somehow I didn’t).
Let me just state how impressed I am with the city and expound on how it may be the ideal expat location: it is better than most major cities in the U.S. and (according to my friend who’s traveled Europe way more than me) one of the best locations in Europe as well.
Not many Americans talk about Lisbon, and I only visited because it was warm and heard it was comparable to San Francisco, and damn did this place blow me away. The same rolling hills and beautiful design of SF, without the tent cities or human shit, probably because of much more humane policies.
Despite much of the “old city” still existing, Lisbon still feels modern.
Weather: 300 days of sunshine, rarely rains and if so it’s a drizzle. It almost never reaches below 45 Fahrenheit in the winter. Even in January, there was a good 20 minutes of the day where I could wear a T-shirt. Can be hot in the summer. Doesn’t seem to ever be too humid, and unlike Florida, I saw almost no mosquitoes there!
Things to do: The architecture and infrastructure and design are like no other here, just walking around kinda blows your mind if you’ve never really explored Europe extensively. Most attractions here (churches, historic sites) are free or fairly inexpensive, often free to Portuguese citizens and discounted for students and those under 25. There’s also a thriving graffiti culture and a good amount of abandoned buildings to explore if you wander for long enough.
Money: The cost of living is low compared to in American cities (You can probably buy groceries for a week for the equivalent of $15-20 bucks). There aren’t really big box stores to steal from or dumpster dive in, but with the cost of living being so low, you shouldn’t really have to. I believe panhandling is legal, the only negative is that jobs endemic to Portugal tend to pay less, but if you can work remotely, you will live like a king/queen. Gentrification has raised prices here, but nothing to the extent of what I’ve seen in the United States.
Politics: The leading party in the system and possibly the victor in the next election is the socialist party, something the U.S. could probably never pull off. The policies and people here are generally leftist compared to in the United States. Their main right-wing are the social democrats, which are probably the furthest left politicians being represented in the U.S right now. Drugs are decriminalized, but don’t buy them off street dealers in the public squares because they just sell herbs. If there’s a punk scene I want to be part of here, I’ve yet to discover it, but there are tons of whites people with dreads.
Language: Although Portuguese is the main language, the tourism boom of the pst decade has made many signs subtitled in English as well, and most people you talk to will have passable English skills, especially younger folk. Most people here also understand some degree of Spanish as well.
Transit: The rest of the country is beautiful by the way, with nearby Sintra, Porto, and the inland parks rivaling some of America’s gorgeous sights. A metro ticket is 1.50E, and I’ve hopped on trams without paying. Ubers/taxis are super inexpensive and everything is incredibly walkable. Only issue with the cobbled streets and hills and stairs is it’s not very wheelchair-accessible.
(Tip: The nearby city of Porto is just as beautiful and even more inexpensive)
Hey all, I just got back from 15 days in Lisbon, 8 of which were a personal vacation and the other 7 a Covid quarantine because my friend caught it (somehow I didn’t).
Let me just state how impressed I am with the city and expound on how it may be the ideal expat location: it is better than most major cities in the U.S. and (according to my friend who’s traveled Europe way more than me) one of the best locations in Europe as well.
Not many Americans talk about Lisbon, and I only visited because it was warm and heard it was comparable to San Francisco, and damn did this place blow me away. The same rolling hills and beautiful design of SF, without the tent cities or human shit, probably because of much more humane policies.
Despite much of the “old city” still existing, Lisbon still feels modern.
Weather: 300 days of sunshine, rarely rains and if so it’s a drizzle. It almost never reaches below 45 Fahrenheit in the winter. Even in January, there was a good 20 minutes of the day where I could wear a T-shirt. Can be hot in the summer. Doesn’t seem to ever be too humid, and unlike Florida, I saw almost no mosquitoes there!
Things to do: The architecture and infrastructure and design are like no other here, just walking around kinda blows your mind if you’ve never really explored Europe extensively. Most attractions here (churches, historic sites) are free or fairly inexpensive, often free to Portuguese citizens and discounted for students and those under 25. There’s also a thriving graffiti culture and a good amount of abandoned buildings to explore if you wander for long enough.
Money: The cost of living is low compared to in American cities (You can probably buy groceries for a week for the equivalent of $15-20 bucks). There aren’t really big box stores to steal from or dumpster dive in, but with the cost of living being so low, you shouldn’t really have to. I believe panhandling is legal, the only negative is that jobs endemic to Portugal tend to pay less, but if you can work remotely, you will live like a king/queen. Gentrification has raised prices here, but nothing to the extent of what I’ve seen in the United States.
Politics: The leading party in the system and possibly the victor in the next election is the socialist party, something the U.S. could probably never pull off. The policies and people here are generally leftist compared to in the United States. Their main right-wing are the social democrats, which are probably the furthest left politicians being represented in the U.S right now. Drugs are decriminalized, but don’t buy them off street dealers in the public squares because they just sell herbs. If there’s a punk scene I want to be part of here, I’ve yet to discover it, but there are tons of whites people with dreads.
Language: Although Portuguese is the main language, the tourism boom of the pst decade has made many signs subtitled in English as well, and most people you talk to will have passable English skills, especially younger folk. Most people here also understand some degree of Spanish as well.
Transit: The rest of the country is beautiful by the way, with nearby Sintra, Porto, and the inland parks rivaling some of America’s gorgeous sights. A metro ticket is 1.50E, and I’ve hopped on trams without paying. Ubers/taxis are super inexpensive and everything is incredibly walkable. Only issue with the cobbled streets and hills and stairs is it’s not very wheelchair-accessible.
(Tip: The nearby city of Porto is just as beautiful and even more inexpensive)
