portugal notes

1 am on a random tuesday in lisbon: the metro is packed; people are roaming the streets, some waiting by the bus stop, one eating a sandwich; two women are out jogging; some other women are chatting loudly and smoking on the sidewalk. i was shocked by this. if this was sweden, there wouldn’t be a single person in sight.

portuguese people seemed to enjoy life more than swedes. they also didn’t care much about work. are the two correlated? i'm not sure. probably not.

anyway.

below are notes i took during my stay in lisbon:

• people just sit in their cars? (i’d peak into some parked cars and see a dude just sitting there staring ahead or listening to the radio or something.)
• people stay outside very late (what are they doing out in the streets or in metro at 1am on weekdays?! don’t they have jobs??)
• lots of sirens (kinda nice, distant noice.)
• lots of black people.
• lots of adidas sambas.
• adults play mobile games (it feels like everyone is a kid. in the metro, at the supermarket, at cafés, they played mobile games.)
• lots of arm tattoos.
• people either give you a death stare or don’t look at you at all. i noticed no between.
• cleaner than expected.
• everyone smokes, even 14 year olds. (smoking is still ”cool” i guess?)
• only blue collar jobs? (i saw max 2 people in suits in 10 days, and i was outside all the time.)
• very few dog owners.