Week four: coronavirus update – I have to go home

Well my experience out here has certainly been unique. I definitely won’t ever forget it – not for the reasons I thought, as things are vastly different now from how I imagined they’d be. Nevertheless I have learnt a lot and am trying to think positively. This is a long post – skip to the end if all you can manage is some bullet point lists!

I’ll start from the beginning (a very good place to start)

GIF from this site

Week four began with a talk at work on Monday morning about the coronavirus. Our office is in the main tourist centre of Lisbon and concerns were that we all had to pass through it every day. Protocols were implemented such as washing your hands immediately upon entering the office in the morning and after lunch. 

At the time it seemed wise but also quite intense. Obviously there had been lots in the news about the virus but this was before the WHO declared a pandemic and before the situation got bad in Italy. It seems like a million years ago and I can’t wrap my head around it being six days ago. My parents were still here at this point and I met them for dinner on what was their final night in Lisbon.

Everything seemed fairly normal but we had to be more alert to the virus as it’d hit Europe and we were working somewhere a lot of international tourists pass through every day. On Tuesday I went to work as normal. And then that evening one of my colleagues contacted me to say that our CEO had initiated a new protocol that we would all work from home with immediate effect.

Never had I been so glad that I moved accommodation. The mere thought of having to work from home in the previous flat was awful. The new place I got moved to is lovely and already felt like home, so I was quite happy with spending most of the days there.

On Wednesday I met someone from the January Erasmus+ group for lunch as he works not far from me and kindly suggested I could do with some social interaction. The WHO officially declared a pandemic that day. We talked about the coronavirus and I mentioned the metro being quiet but other than that life seemed normal-ish.

Thursday was the last normal day, as Richard Osman rightly predicted:

In the early hours of Friday morning I got a text from my boss here. He said that a colleague in our office was with friends at the weekend who’d tested positive for COVID-19. She had symptoms and was trying to get the test done. It was highly likely she had the virus and we all needed to self-quarantine for 14 days. It’s a small office, so a significant risk that it may have spread. 

So my self-quarantine began. Advice on the news made me feel a bit isolated when it said “get friends and family to bring supplies for you”. I left a note for my flatmates to explain the situation and that I would try to keep my distance from them, use the kitchen at different times, etc. The advice doesn’t really take into account people like me who share houses. 

The ashtray isn’t mine in case you were wondering. And sadly I don’t know the cat’s name

Official advice said that you can go into your garden, and I’m very lucky that we have one here. And a lovely cat apparently, who randomly appeared. I spent most of Friday working outdoors, and on Saturday it was about 23c so I sunbathed in the garden and read my book. At the time, it seemed like such a shame I had to use two weeks of my stay in Lisbon not going anywhere or doing anything. But on the other hand, I would never have chosen to spend a day lying in the garden reading and it was really nice. 

The UK organisation who administer the Erasmus+ programme emailed all the participants on Friday night. We were all given the option to fly home if we wanted. (Normally, if you quit the programme early, you have to pay back the EU funding which is about €7k.) I emailed back and said I was in self-quarantine so didn’t feel that going to the airport was a safe option. Plus, I really didn’t want to cut my trip so short if I didn’t have to.

On Saturday evening the Erasmus+ administrators called me and said most people had taken the offer to fly home and urged me to do the same. I didn’t know what to do as I was following public health advice to self-isolate and hated the thought of going on a plane and potentially infecting others, if I might be carrying the virus. 

But I was advised that if I stay and get stuck here, there was no guarantee my funding would continue and I could end up in financial difficulty having to pay the rent and living costs here. The organisation was also concerned that there was a possibility my work placement may not be able to continue as things were hitting crisis level. Plus working from home indefinitely as a fairly new intern wasn’t an ideal situation for me to get the most out of the experience anyway.

After speaking with family back home who were also very concerned that I may get stuck here, I decided that I should go back to the UK. The situation on Friday night was drastically different from the situation on Saturday night. Portugal shares a large border with Spain which declared a total lockdown on Saturday morning.

My close friend lives in Madrid and they’re only allowed to leave the house for the supermarket or the pharmacy. The US closed more borders, as did Poland, Germany, France and others. It seemed likely that Portugal could be next. 

The other concern was that the UK – which in my opinion is reacting far too slowly to this crisis – could also close the borders. I was meant to be in Lisbon until mid-May and by then, things might be ok and I could fly home as planned. But those around me were right – it is too risky to stay here.

If the Erasmus+ programme is cancelled and the contract becomes void I could become liable to pay the rent for months. And in the unlikely scenario that I needed medical help, it’d feel more secure in the UK than trying to work out EHIC and travel insurance situations over here. 

I’m a confident flyer and experienced traveller; I don’t normally feel nervous about going to an airport. I suppose I did on the way here but those were nerves about moving to another country on my own.

My slight nerves now are about a real, dangerous, threatening, unprecedented and mad situation. I don’t know what challenges I might face at the airport but I am hopeful that it’ll all be ok. Thankfully I’m a very calm person and not easily panicked.

As I keep trying to reassure my parents: if the worst happened and I had to stay here and also got sick, I will be fine. I’m young and fit and healthy, and actually, I have too many red blood cells for some reason, meaning that my immune system is abnormally strong. I only get a common cold once every two or three years. 

Some good news is that my colleague with suspected COVID-19 had the test and it came back negative. I know that there are still risks with me being out and about, but it was a big relief to find out that I haven’t knowingly been in direct contact with someone who has the virus. I feel less guilty about going on a flight and being sat with others. 

For the second time during my short-lived residency in Lisbon I must pack up all my things and attempt to squash everything into two suitcases. It’s a totally bizarre situation to be in actually. At the start of my adventure if you told me I’d have to escape in a hurry because there was genuine chance that the borders will be closed, I would’ve laughed in your face. But here we are!

It goes without saying that I’m absolutely gutted to be leaving. My experience hasn’t been 100% positive but the good definitely outweighs the bad. The last two weeks in particular have been so nice – I feel like I was just getting started with really enjoying my time out here. My new flatmates are lovely, I’ve made some friends, the accommodation is really nice and homely and the weather was starting to get good. 

But I’m trying to see these things as positives – I can say with certainty I’ve made the most out of my time here. I’m grateful to myself for not staying in bed at the weekends or going straight home after work (despite the long days of 9am-6pm).

I walked miles and miles, saw the whole city about three times over, ate in lots of great cafes, visited some of the places from my list and had my parents come to stay. Thinking about it, I managed to cram an awful lot into four weeks! Not to mention the non-sightseeing things. 

This is turning into a long blog so hopefully some bullet points will break the text up if you’re still reading! (Thank you if you are. While we’re on this subject, thank you to everyone who has sent me messages out here, whether it was to see if I was having a nice time, to console me about the accommodation situation, to compliment my writing skills, or see if I was ok during the pandemic and self-quarantine – I really appreciate it.)

What I’ve achieved:

  • I moved abroad alone (obviously; but I am classing it as an achievement)
  • I started a blog!
  • I stood up for myself, wrote an excellent email (if I do say so myself – but it must be, I got moved within 40 hours of sending it) about my accommodation and took charge of my situation
  • I learned a new language
  • I made friends (British and international)
  • I went on a night out with complete strangers, most of whom didn’t speak my language, had a great time and learned about Brazilian culture
  • I had a wonderful five days with my parents and got to show them around
  • I ate a lot of great food (mainly thanks to my parents’ visit and shared love of food)
  • I gained (almost) two marketing qualifications (one in London prior to flying out and one I’ve been doing online)
  • I worked in a new organisation and learnt things there
  • I walked 115 miles (according to my phone)
  • I thoroughly embarrassed myself, but had lots of fun, when I was chosen by a dance group for audience participation (video embedded below for your entertainment)
  • I took lots of photographs
  • I went to all the major sights, plus two museums, and took day trips to Belem and Sintra
  • I got used to eating out alone and grew fond of it 
  • (Not related to being in Lisbon) I applied to be a contributing writer at Talk About and was successful – soon I’ll start writing pieces for them about politics and the environment

What I’ve learnt:

  • Always give something a go, and if you’re not happy, speak up 
  • Be a bit less overly polite and stand up for yourself 
  • I have good friends who care about me 
  • How to make coffee in a percolator
  • Portuguese people say “also” a lot
  • I’m a good writer 
  • How to light a gas stove with a naked flame (this was a genuinely terrifying prospect for someone as clumsy as me)
  • Make the most of your time, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing – you never know when it will end!
  • In the same vein, make time for resting and take a day off now and again to recharge
  • Lisbon has some of the best pastries in the world (ok I already knew this before)
  • It is actually possible to get sick of seeing custard tarts
  • Coffee in Portugal is both very cheap and excellent
  • However unfortunately for my bank account, the best coffee in the city is at the Copenhagen Coffee Lab which isn’t as cheap (or Portuguese)
  • New knowledge about marketing, organisational culture and WordPress
  • Residents of Lisbon are some of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet
  • Living abroad isn’t always fun fun fun
  • How to be alone for long periods of time
  • Sharing a bathroom is easy to get used to when the toilet seat is in one piece
  • Comfort TV is very important (future blog coming about this)
  • It’s quite hard not to touch your face, for some reason
  • Trump and Boris are both as useless and frightening as I thought
  • You just never know what life is going to throw at you

On arriving back in the UK I’m expecting I’ll be advised to self-quarantine (again) for 14 days. I’ve started making some arrangements for this and know I will be ok, although I may go completely mad. I’ll certainly need plenty of tasks so look out for more blogs! I’m planning to write more about my experience as it’s something I’ve enjoyed. My trip got cut short but my blog project doesn’t have to be. Planning to write about what I’ll miss about Lisbon and what I’ve missed about York. 

Also, on the subject of self-isolation boredom, if any readers would like anything then please get in touch. That sounds oddly vague and bit creepy. What I mean is that I have skills! In marketing, social media, SEO, websites, coding, copywriting, communication… if you have some kind of project that could use my help on this then I’d be grateful for the work to fill my evenings and weekends (for free obviously).

Or perhaps you’re also self-isolating and just want a chat? Message me on social media or email me at chamomehannah@gmail.com! 

Since I’ve just started reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, this seems an appropriate message for now:

Courtesy of GIPHY

Week three: food, guests, and more food

My post is a little late for week three as my parents came to stay for a long weekend. This was my favourite week so far – it got off to an odd start, packing all my things and spending my birthday waiting 45 minutes in the rain for a taxi I’m sure the company forgot to book. But I eventually got to the new accommodation and was met by the landlady who gave me fresh towels and sheets! (I had to take my own to the previous place.)

It seems the accommodation here is very hit-and-miss. Why I was put in an awful place when a lovely place was available at a day’s notice, I’ll never know. But I’m here now and it’s good so far. However I did wake up on the third day with some mosquito bites and had to spend a small fortune on those things you plug into the wall. 

  • Heat-changing dachshund mug
The new building, and my birthday gift from the office (the little blue dog is hidden until you fill it with coffee)

Wednesday was a nice day, as my office found out that I kept quiet about my birthday on Tuesday. Somehow in the hour I was out for lunch, they got me a gift and a card that everyone signed. I don’t know how they knew that a colour-changing dachshund mug was the perfect gift for me, but anyone who knows me well would agree this is absolutely spot-on! In the evening I met some of the January Erasmus+ group at the Asian restaurant Nood. It was a nice change from all the traditional Portuguese food!

On Thursday my parents arrived. Luckily they timed their trip well before travelling went a bit mad with all this coronavirus panic. I recommended they stay at Marques de Pombal which they agreed was a great spot. It’s out of the main tourist centre so nice and quiet, but it’s also between Parque and Avenida da Liberdade which you might miss if you stayed in a more tourist-y spot. 

They arrived mid-morning and I knew they would need coffee and a snack (can you tell where I get it from?) so I sent instructions to find the nearest Padaria. I tried to explain (over Whatsapp) that the Portugese have their own names for coffee here – it isn’t the standard americano, cappuccino etc that you find in France or Italy.

My mum is of the same opinion as me that milk and sugar don’t belong in coffee. So I told her to order an “abatanado” which is a black coffee somewhere between an espresso and an americano. Obviously something got lost in translation as she later told me the woman had no idea what she was saying, other than what sounded like the Flintstones’ catchphrase.

Courtesy of GIPHY

I was working Thursday and Friday so gave them recommendations of where to go and met them after work for dinner. On Thursday we went to Sea Me, an amazing fish place. I’ve been pescatarian for most of my life, but spent the last two years as vegetarian. At first I felt a bit guilty going back to pescatarianism but you don’t have to spend long at Sea Me for the guilt to disappear because the food is amazing. Most of it isn’t on the menu – they take you to the counter full of wet fish and you choose one to share between you, which is slightly bizarre but a fun experience.

On Friday my parents took a boat trip which stopped at Belem so I told them to get off there and explore. What I described as a “church” is why they claim to have got lost because it’s actually an enormous monastery. Regardless, they loved Belem, even if they didn’t try the Pasteis de Nata. In their defence the queue is usually an hour long – but it’s the place they were invented so in my opinion, worth the wait.

After work I met them off the boat and took them up Rua das Flores (one of my favourite streets) to Landeau Chocolate. This is the place the New York Times called “devilishly good” and it doesn’t disappoint. Literally all they sell is chocolate cake and hot drinks.

Discussing where to go for dinner, I said there was a tapas place at the top of the road, Taberna, that looked nice whenever I passed. It’s off the tourist tracks and always busy. Time Out and The Guardian both had write-ups about it, saying they don’t take bookings but it’s worth the wait. 

  • Cake and hot chocolate at Landeau Chocolate - Lisbon's best cake
  • By the Wine - Lisbon's best wine bar
Some of Rua das Flores’s best offerings: cake and hot chocolate at Landeau Chocolate, and wine at By the Wine

We got there at 7pm (early for Portugal) and were advised it was an hour’s wait. I knew there was an excellent wine bar a few doors down (this is why it’s one of my favourite streets – it has everything you could possibly need food and drink wise). An hour easily went past in By the Wine, and somehow three glasses of excellent wine was only €9. 

By 8pm we were seated and the waitress talked us through the menu (which is a blackboard, changing daily). The service is fantastic – not only their English but their memory of what flavours come with each dish. We ordered six to share including fish, seafood, and veg. I can’t recommend this place enough, everything was amazing (especially the codfish, and the chocolate mousse with olive oil and salt – sounds weird, tastes delicious). 

On Saturday I warned my parents to prepare for a hilly and exhausting day. You can’t visit Lisbon without going to Alfama (the old town), but the transport struggles to get up there so walking is the only real option. Luckily I knew a short cut through a supermarket where you can take the lift to the sixth floor to Miradouro do Chão do Loureiro. It skips a lot of stairs.

Os meus pais

Alfama can be quite confusing if you don’t know where you’re going, partly because it’s so hilly. Lisbon has many beautiful viewpoints and there are several in Alfama that are definitely worth hiking up the hills for. We went up to the castle and around the neighbouring streets, then back down via Miradouro de Santa Luzia and Miradouro do Recolhimento for views over the Church of São Vicente of Fora.

In my opinion the best viewpoint is Miradouro da Graça which I saved for last (partly because it’s also the highest one so naturally made sense to be at the end of our route). My parents agreed that it was the best view as you can see right over the city including the castle and the bridge.

Miradouro da Graça - best Lisbon viewpoint
Miradouro da Graça

It was time for coffee so we of course went to a branch of my favourite place (the Copenhagen Coffee Lab). I’ve already filled a loyalty card which in only three weeks is a bit embarrassing…

For the rest of the afternoon I took them on the 15E tram to LX Factory. Somehow I’ve been there twice and didn’t know about the rooftop bar until someone told me about it at the weekend. It’s a busy bar with amazing views over the roof terrace. As it faces Christ the King, they have a ‘response’ to it in the form of a female mannequin. 

LX Factory - rooftop bars Lisbon
Rio Maravilha at LX Factory

Landeau Chocolate has another branch at LX Factory so we avoided the busy bar and went down for a hot chocolate, which my dad later described as the “best ever, anywhere”. For dinner we decided to go back to Taberna where they remembered us and kindly seated us earlier than the hour promised.

Sunday involved a trip to Sintra which was colder than I’d remembered. We got the train from Rossio and wandered about, stumbling upon a lovely authentic restaurant, Tulhas. My mum has a knack for finding excellent places among more tourist-y options. After this we did the Comboio de Sintra trip which is less expensive and less intense that the bus that goes to every palace, castle and hill. 

Further testament to my mum’s good nose for restaurants and cafes, for Sunday evening she found La Trattoria which is within walking distance of their hotel. It’s a nice relaxed setting and they do pasta and pizza with local influences (I recommend the scallop risotto). 

On their last day I was back at work so recommended a quieter day exploring some areas out of town. Marques de Pombal is a short walk to the Gulbenkian Museum which I’d visited before and knew they would love. Even if you’re not that into art, the gardens and setting are beautiful. The walk there is via El Corte Inglés, a lovely department store with eateries on the seventh floor.

  • View from Parque Eduardo VII
  • View from El Corte Inglés
Parque Eduardo VII and the view from El Corte Inglés

After the Gulbenkian I told them to walk back through Parque Eduardo VII which I used to pass on the way to the metro from my old accommodation. There is an excellent viewpoint at the top, quite different from Lisbon’s other views. They loved it there and said it was one of their favourite days exploring parts of the city outside of the centre.

I felt sad when they left as it was really nice having a bit of “home” over here and having people to show around. But I think it was best they left when they did as it was only the following day that WHO declared a pandemic. I’m getting into week four now, which I’ll save for the next blog!

Me stood in front of: This is a fast way to the centre of Lisbon
Exploring Alfama

Happy birthday to me: an unexpected moving day

Firstly, thank you to everyone who sent such nice messages to me, especially my friend back home who has family here and offered me a place to stay with them until I got sorted. Everyone’s care and kindness made me miss home but it’s lovely to know I have such nice people to go back to when I return to England.

If you aren’t caught up – read the week two blog! Two flats were found for me today which I asked to go and view. The first was a little further out of town than I am now but very close to the metro and in a nice quiet area. It was clean, tidy, safe, and I’ll have two bedrooms (they are connected for some reason so I will have a single bed and a double bed). The bathroom is shared but with three other people and it seemed clean which is all I care about at this point! 

The second property was in my favourite area of the city, Avenida da Liberdade. I think I like it so much because it reminds me of Paris. Anyway, while it was a great location and meant I could have walked to work, it was not the cleanest of places. No mould this time – but the bathroom and kitchen were a bit below par. And when I asked how many people live there and they replied “seven” (sharing one bathroom, yes), I knew my mind was made up.

View from balcony at second property over Avenida

It did have this view from the balcony, which was hard to say no to. But actually, I don’t think it is a good idea to live in your favourite part of town anyway. Back home I know that if I lived in my favourite part of York, the loveliness of it would soon wear off.

I asked if I could take the first property and move ASAP. I am moving tomorrow! Which is actually my birthday, so happy birthday to me… packing and moving yay!

Regardless of my personal calendar I am relieved to be leaving this place. Messages from friends kept asking why have I put up with this for two weeks. It’s a good question. I don’t really know. I guess it was mainly because I thought most people on the Erasmus+ programme would be in the same situation. I didn’t want to be the person who complained about dirty accommodation when everyone else’s was like that too. 

If the group I flew over with was closer then I would have known that others were in nicer, clean accommodation. But because we didn’t really bond, I didn’t know until meeting the January group on Saturday night that a) we should expect nice clean properties, and b) there was an option to move. 

Lessons have been learnt from this experience – or one major lesson:

Speak up!

I didn’t even go into full details in my last post about the conditions here but it isn’t just the bathroom. The kitchen is also incredibly grim and cooking in it has been a real challenge. Hence my eating out a lot. 

Additionally my room is next to the lounge where people watch the tv quite late and smoke. The walls are very thin and the smoke smell fills my room some nights. I was asked to complete a form before coming out here which explicitly stated I am a non-smoker, so I don’t know what the point of that was. Noise is also a problem when it rains as the shutters outside are held up by huge metal boxes which make an unbelievable racket in the wind and rain. I actually took a video last night to show my boyfriend how loud it was and why I was getting no sleep. 

Apart from the smoking and occasional noise, the other people living here have been nice to me, despite the majority not having the best English skills. I will make sure to write them a note in my very patchy Portuguese to thank them for showing me around, being kind, and taking me out with their Brazilian friends. I might pop to the “bica” house one Friday night and see if they’re there.

Tram 24E from Praça de Luís de Camões – another of my favourite places in the city

Today I got the 24E tram back to Campolide for the last time. There are two things I will miss about living here: the tram ride home, and the walk through Parque to the metro each morning (I take the metro because there is a branch of A Padaria Portuguesa on route, obviously). But of course these do not make it worth staying in this hellish building. And I can get an old-fashioned yellow tram anytime. To Parque in fact. 

Early mornings at Parque Eduardo VII

Before the tram, for some self-love, I went to Nicolau for pancakes (instead of dinner – if you think I am going to try and cook in this flat one more time you’re having a laugh). Plus it doesn’t look like I’ll be doing anything to celebrate my birthday tomorrow so a solo pancake trip it was. Nicolau is a superb all-day brunch place. They have two branches but both are usually super busy so I thought a Monday evening would be a good time to go. I recommend. 

Better start packing! And hopefully return to some cheerier, sunnier blog posts next week. 

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Week two: a lot has happened

It is day 13 and I’m in my favourite chain cafe (again) – A Padaria Portuguesa. I practically have shares in the company at this point.

Much has happened in the last few days. I am fine, and this experience has already taught me a lot, which is part of the reason I came here. But take a seat, this could turn into a long story. 

Let’s start from where I left my last blog post. It was Tuesday, the surprise bank holiday. I spent the morning on my laptop at the Copenhagen Coffee Lab (already one of my favourite places in the city).

For the afternoon I headed to Belem via LX Factory, which is a very hipster-y collection of cafes and shops in abandoned buildings in a neighbourhood you wouldn’t have any reason to visit otherwise. I highly recommend it if you have time to get a bus out there (it is walkable too – about half an hour from Lisbon along the waterfront). It has one of the coolest bookshops in the world, some great food, and views from under the Ponte 25 de Abril bridge. 

  • LX Factory
  • Ler Devagar bookshop
  • Ponte de 25 Abril

I walked from there to Belem (about half an hour) and it suddenly rained. Having not prepared for this I got pretty soaked! I had been planning to visit the Meet Vincent Van Gogh exhibition (my favourite artist) but discovered it hadn’t opened yet. Oops. So I carried on into Belem and went to Museu Coleção Berardo. Mostly it’s modern art which isn’t really my thing, but there’s a couple of Andy Warhol and Picasso pieces, both of whom I like. 

A happy Lisbon tile selfie before the rain hit

Downstairs they had a beautiful photography exhibition of Andreas H Bitesnich’s work. He does black and white street photography which is one of my passions. The photographs on display were series from different cities: New York, Berlin, Vienna, Tokyo, Paris, and most recently Lisbon. Super inspiring work. Plus I’m lucky to have visited all of these places (except Tokyo) so recognised some of the locations.

On Thursday the office was having a gas-something-or-other fitted which was apparently going to be noisy and dusty, so they said most people would be working remotely and I could too. Not wanting to spend the whole day in my room on my bed, I went back to the Copenhagen Coffee Lab and joined a whole row of other keyboard warriors. Despite being a bit more expensive than the ridiculously cheap drinks in most Portuguese places, it’s the best coffee I’ve found yet. And trust me, I know my coffee.

Coffee and croissant at Copenhagen Coffee Lab

Heading back after a day’s work, I started to feel a bit odd. I realised that this was the longest amount of time I’d ever spent alone. As I discussed in the week one post, the group I flew over with has not become close, as they all already knew other people, and I am not living with international students so the language barrier gets in the way of making friendships. It felt like a strange day. My friend who spent years travelling in his youth shared his memories with me of having those down days, and made me feel a bit better about it. 

After work on Friday I forced myself to hang out in the living room instead of my bedroom. One of my flatmates’ Brazilian friends came to collect him for a night out and saw me sat at the table on my laptop. They asked if I’d like to go out with them which was very kind. It was like uni days again, going out in an unknown city with total strangers. One of them spoke good English and made sure I knew where we were going and what was happening which was really appreciated. I got back at 2am having had a great night. They must have had some sort of radar that I was feeling a bit lost. 

Bear with me, I am getting to the ‘story’ bit.

Last week I was added to a Whatsapp group with the people on this programme who flew over last month. They sent a message inviting everyone to a vegan buffet on Saturday night so I went along to meet them.

There are six people in the group who came over last month (four of them were at the dinner) and they all became close on arrival as no-one knew each other and they were keen to make friends. I explained that it hadn’t been the same with our group which they said was a shame and that I was welcome to hang out with them. They were very kind to me, we had a fun night, and it was nice to have a conversation with people whose first language is also English!

I always enjoy getting to know international people of course, but when there is a language barrier (i.e. the English isn’t fluent), it can make bonding a little harder. It was also nice to speak to others on the Erasmus+ programme who’ve been here for a while now. They had a similar experience to me with the application and pre-departure process (it was not a good experience. I will write about this in another blog. But hey-ho, I got here).  

Here comes the thing that’s made me feel quite different about my experience. Nothing bad has happened, but to me, this feels quite crazy, because I am the one here living it. 

Let me start from the beginning. My accommodation is horrible. I have not complained about this (before today) for a number of reasons:

  • I didn’t want to worry anyone.
  • I thought everyone was in the same situation. It’s a fully-funded trip after all, so I wasn’t exactly expecting luxury. 
  • I am not the type to complain about something straight away. I try to give things a fair chance and see if it improves or I get used to it. 

My room is ok – it was quite dirty when I arrived so I did a bit of vacuuming and dusting and it is ok. The same cannot be said for the bathroom. I’ll spare you of the photos but to cut it short, the toilet seat is snapped in half (as in half of it falls onto the floor when you use the loo – this might not be so hard for a man trying to pee (which the others living there all are) but we women don’t exactly have the option to stand up). The shower curtain is horrifically mouldy and very difficult to avoid while showering. I am just beginning to master the art of how to shower in a very small space without letting the flapping-around curtain touch me. As a tall person this is not easy. 

Anyway, I’m only here for three months, I kept telling myself. And the area is nice. Mostly I was putting up with it because I thought that I didn’t have a choice and this is what to expect from a Erasmus scheme. 

On Saturday night two of the people who came over in January were telling me that they were originally placed in the same building as each other. It was awful, and they both got moved to nicer, clean places. One even has an en-suite! Apparently a girl I flew over with lives there too. The two people who were moved were telling me about the ordeal with the Erasmus administration company over here.

They complained about the state of the accommodation and how the other four who flew over in January were given cleaner, more suitable, habitable places. And they discovered that the company had not been to check out the building where they were placed (which they are supposed to). Mould in one of the bedrooms was painted over as a solution. This is obviously a serious health risk. They fought their case and got moved. 

Later in the evening we took our drinks to Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara (miradouro means “viewpoint” in Portuguese). My tram passes here every day, I said. It’s lovely. “Wait, where do you live?” one of them asked. “Campolide” I replied. He looked at me like I said I could see ghosts or something. Then in the perfect Portuguese accent he listed my exact address. It took a second for it to click why he knew my address.

THIS IS THE BUILDING THEY GOT MOVED FROM. The one I have been placed in. The one the company admitted to them was not fit for purpose. 

I am absolutely shocked and appalled. Like I said, the accommodation isn’t nice, but I tried to give it a go and put up with it. But it’s a different thing to find out that: 

  1. Everyone else is living in clean places.
  2. They moved people away from this building due to it being uninhabitable. They actually admitted to people on the same programme as me that it wasn’t right – and then put me there.

When I got back there that night it felt more uncomfortable than it had done before. I also started to wonder whether the white walls of my bedroom had been freshly painted and black mould was sitting beneath them. 

Part of the reason I came on this trip was to grow my confidence. The main motivation was to gain experience in my field of marketing – but I know that my confidence needs some work too and was hoping the trip would improve it. I am not shy, and I am very resilient, but I know that I’m often too nice for my own good. I think I can say that it’s already getting there and I have already learnt a lot!

Of course, I have sent an email with all of this information to the organisation. Who knows what will happen. But I don’t want to stay where I am knowing that they deemed it unfit. Showering will seem even more difficult knowing I am not meant to be in that situation. 

I want to stress to anyone going through the process of applying or wanting to apply to this scheme that my experience has been atypical. I hope this will not happen to you – it probably has a lot to do with how last-minute my place was arranged (saving this for the other story of how I ended up in Lisbon). But please remain vigilant. And speak up! I am beginning to wish I complained of the state of affairs on the first day. 

To end on a more positive note – today I went to Kaya for lunch which is an organic, mostly veggie place near me. I then walked up to Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and gardens which it turns out is free on Sundays after 2pm. Unfortunately it’s a grey and wet day otherwise the gardens would have been lovely – I plan to return on a sunnier day. The museum has a great selection of art: mainly ancient artefacts, paintings, sculptures etc. For me it was worth going to see the impressionist art including pieces by Monet, Manet and Renoir (some of my favourite artists). 

Monet's wife, painted by Renoir
Monet’s wife, painted by Renoir

Week one: walking, pastries and coffee

It’s Tuesday and I’m sat in the Copenhagen Coffee Lab in the “laptop zone”. Lisbon is full of amazing cafes and places to get coffee, but the Copenhagen Coffee Lab is a nice change to all the traditional Portuguese places. Not a nata in sight! (Did I miss a good pun there? Nat-a nata in sight…). It’s nice and open and minimalist, obviously with great coffee and pastries. 

Copenhagen Coffee Lab (already had too much coffee so having tea today). And yes, I am paranoid and have the sticker over my webcam like Zuckerberg.

Why am I in a coffee shop in the middle of the day on Tuesday? I turned up for work this morning to an empty office and discovered that today is a national holiday (Carnival – at home we call it Pancake Day)…

This has actually worked out well because I always sleep in on the weekend or days off, so at least I was out and about by 9am! Annoyingly though I have my laptop with me which I don’t want to carry around while sightseeing, hence the coffee shop trip with my laptop for the remainder of the morning.

So I have been in Lisbon for eight days now. It somehow feels like a lot longer, but not because time has gone slowly due to boredom. The first week was very full-on: arrived on Monday at 9pm, got up early on Tuesday for four hours of language class and then three hours of work. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Monday (yesterday) all followed the same structure.

Language classes* have been so much fun. I was a bit nervous about not keeping up because foreign language is not my strong suit – mainly the listening. (As my colleagues and friends back home will tell you, I often have trouble telling what people are saying in English. I think it’s a mild-Asperger’s thing, which I’ll save for a future blog post when I’m more confident to write about it.)

To my surprise not only did I manage to keep up but I loved the classes. It’s been so fun learning a new language, maybe because there is real reason to try hard with it. Not like in school where you know you’ll never need to know the French for “I have one sister and a pet Guinea Pig”.

Before I came, I discussed my nerves about the language with my mum, who reminded me that you don’t need to learn it perfectly as most British people can’t speak English properly. A very good point, I thought. Many people don’t know simple words like their/there/they’re, two/too/to, and they put apostrophes in things like CDs and Fridays.

Yesterday, the last class, one of the girls said my Portuguese was really good which was very nice of her to comment. I am blessed with a good memory, especially for things I see or write (another Asperger’s thing I think). So having a teacher write words on the board and get us to use them in the homework each night really helped me. I have actually asked if I can carry on the lessons one morning per week but need to sort this with tutors/classmates/workplace. 

Sunset, five minute walk from my new office at Monday

All in all, it’s been an excellent week. I am absolutely exhausted because I am not someone who can just go home after work when work is in Baixa-Chiado (I can finally say this now!). Every evening I’ve wandered around and headed home for about 8pm. Come the weekend, I walked about 11km on Saturday sort of by accident. I started the day at Crush Donuts (amazing, probably the second-best donut ever – to Dough in NYC). And then I just kept walking and exploring, visiting the areas I came to on my trip to Lisbon in 2017 and trying to get my bearings. 

I think I saw nearly all of the best viewpoints in one day which is a bit ridiculous, but once you get walking you just keep coming to more! On Saturday afternoon, I met a girl from my office back home who happens to be from Lisbon and was visiting family for a few days. It was so nice to see a friendly face and spend some time with a local! She showed me the famous codfish cakes and I ate fish for the first time in two years – looks like I’m going back to pescetarian life while in Portugal. They have some of the best seafood in the world, can you blame me?

On Sunday I had brunch at Leitaria – a cafe I went to with my friend when we came in 2017. It’s close to my accommodation which is mad to think that when we were there, future me would say “you’ll live 10 minutes from here one day”. Me, living in Lisbon? What?

I walked another 9km on Sunday, seeing different parts of the city. Of course on both days I took my new SLR everywhere and snapped far too many photos. I’ll find the time to upload them soon. In the meantime, I’ve been putting photos on my Instagram:

Instagram: @hannahbobdup (not my real surname, in case you thought it was odd…)

Sunday evening involved a trip to IKEA – turns out it’s only 10 minutes on the bus from my accommodation. The flat comes with communal kitchenware but it’s a bit student-life-y and I wanted my own plates and cutlery, which at IKEA is only a few euros. I ate dinner there too as the cafe is so cheap and opens late!

The mistake I made was not checking that I could get the same bus back that I had got to IKEA. You can’t. It reminded me of my student days getting the bus to IKEA where I had a part-time job, and getting stranded at the retail park when buses were late or temperamental. Google Maps saved me and I found a route back involving two buses in the dark. Luckily I’m well-travelled and good at being on my own / not panicking!

My accommodation has been a bit of a culture shock, going back to a student halls type of situation. Things I’m just about getting used to:

  • single bed
  • dirty floors
  • shared bathroom
  • shared kitchen
  • living with non-English people

In my few years as a working graduate I’ve become more accustomed to a nice standard of life than I realised! But as the programme coordinator said:

This experience is meant to challenge you in more ways than one. 

Of course living with non-English people is all part of a great cultural experience and hopefully it will improve my language (although one of them who kindly showed me around speaks excellent English). Prior to arriving I did think that I would be living with others on similar Erasmus programmes to me, who were also new and didn’t know anyone.

It was a bit of a surprise to be mainly alone and not with others who were new to Lisbon, as I haven’t become close to the people I flew over with either. They’re lovely and we’ve had fun taking the language classes together, but we all live and work in different places so won’t see each other much now. Of course we could meet up, but they already know each other well so I am sort of an outsider and didn’t really bond.

(This is unusual for the Erasmus+ scheme as I came onto it very late and was offered a last-minute spot. Typically I would have done the training in London with the people I flew over with. However I did my training with some girls coming over in March who I am looking forward to seeing again.)

Again, luckily I’m good at being alone and happy to wander around and eat out on my own. I took a solo trip to Latvia three years ago and it was one of the best holidays ever. Being on your own is a skill, I’ve come to realise. I once took it for granted but have since learned it’s something most people struggle with. Future blog post coming on this topic. 

One last note from the first week here is the coffee. The coffee! It’s unbelievably cheap. I forgot that kettles aren’t really a thing outside of the UK. Our accommodation doesn’t have one, and I can’t get far without my morning strong black coffee. Each day on my way to language class I’ve stopped at A Padaria Portugesa which is a chain cafe they have here. Amazing pastries, and an espresso is €0.65. Ridiculous. And the croissants filled with chocolate and fresh strawberries only bring the total breakfast cost to €2.55. I will probably return to the UK in three months the size of a house – but at least the no-kettle thing won’t be a problem! 

*Language classes are at PortLingua who I really recommend. Here’s me looking like an absolute GIANT on their Facebook page. (Those people aren’t that small, I just have massive shoulders.)

PS – website in progress – proper pages and ‘about me’ / ‘what on earth am I doing moving to Lisbon’ coming soon!

Nerves

I’ve been feeling a bit anxious this week. I think this is a mixture of all the things I need to sort before leaving my home for three months, and the fact that I’m ABOUT TO MOVE TO LISBON. Living abroad is something I’ve always wanted to do, but that doesn’t make it any less frightening.

This week has been mad. On Monday, I got final confirmation of my place on the Erasmus+ programme. I had a Skype interview with the company I’ll be interning with, Monday. They’re a digital marketing agency in Lisbon who also focus on business consultancy. It sounds perfect for what I want to get out of this, and I’m looking forward to meeting them in person and getting started. I also had a Skype call with Euroyouth who sort the programme’s admin at the Lisbon end. They were really nice and put me a bit more at ease!

So with exactly two weeks to go, suddenly everything seemed real. A monstrous task of trying to sort everything out presented itself to me. But I knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Luckily I’ve managed to tick most things off my list by now, but there are things I still need to do or keep remembering to add to the list! (Like calling my bank, so they don’t think see my card being used in Lisbon and think it’s been stolen…)

I’m also a bit nervous about the language. Everyone from my current workplace got told about my three-month sabbatical this week, and one of the girls in our office is from Lisbon. I was trying to explain to her that the office of my workplace was in “Baixa Chiado”, the main tourist bit in the centre. I remembered the name from when I visited back in 2017 but was pronouncing it obviously far too Anglicised. The poor girl had no idea what I was saying, despite trying several different ways. I typed it out on my PC and she said “ohh Baixa Chaido” in her perfect lovely Portuguese accent, sounding a million miles away from what I’d been saying. 

To prepare, I downloaded the app Duolingo* which is a free language-learning tool. It’s really good; I can tell I’m picking bits up (reading, not pronunciation, obviously). But the way it tries to teach you phrases and grammar is a bit odd, and one ‘lesson’ it kept getting me to repeat “I am a man and she is a woman” which is a sentence I don’t think I’ll need while out there. My favourite phrase it’s asked me to translate to English though was “you are not a shark”. Really can’t see me needing that. Unless I strike up a conversation with a fish at the aquarium? 

Sometimes I feel apprehensive about going somewhere totally alone. I’m no stranger to solo travelling – I’ve been on trips to France, Latvia and Germany on my own and loved each experience. There is something freeing about being alone, especially in a new place to explore. But these trips each lasted the maximum of a week, so the prospect of going somewhere alone for three months is a bit daunting.

However I’m told there are three other people on the same programme as me. I’m not living with them, but we’ll be able to met up, and will be sharing a flat with other international students too. Back at home I am in a gospel choir. I’ve done some digging online and found an English speaking choir in Lisbon who rehearse on Monday nights. Once I’m settled I’m hoping I feel confident enough to pop along and meet some new people there. My choir at home is doing a wedding in June, including the song with my solo, so keeping my voice in good condition isn’t the worst idea!

I also did a bit of googling about other UK people who moved to Lisbon. The cold winter evenings came up more than once, so it seems like I need to pack jumpers and maybe buy a blanket once I get there. Most homes don’t have central heating, because they don’t need it for most of the year, but it can get cold.

Probably my biggest source of nerves is leaving behind the people that I’m closest to. I am trying not to think about spending three months apart from my boyfriend because it’ll just make me sad. I know that it will be ok but that won’t make it any less hard to not have him around. He’s been amazing about the whole thing and so understanding.

Early morning at Greenwich Observatory on the way to pre-placement training

I’m writing this from my hotel room in London where I’m staying for a few days for the pre-placement qualification: Principles of Social Media for Business. It’s been a really good course and I’ve learnt a lot in just a few days, plus made some nice friends with others on the programme going to either Lisbon, Seville or Dublin next month. The training is in Greenwich so I chose to get up early and hike up to the observatory, which was totally worth it for this early-morning view.

While I could go on and on about my pre-adventure feelings I better stop here before I overwhelm myself. Ultimately living in Lisbon for three months is going to be fantastic, and as a photographer it’ll be a great project. I’ve promised myself to undertake a photography project every year – originally I had “give up supermarkets for Lent” lined up but that will have to wait until 2021! And I’m obviously looking forward to interning in digital marketing – I’m still new to the field, and there is a lot to learn.

See you in a week, Lisboa. 

*While the DuoLingo app was useful for a week or so before I came, it turns out it’s Brazilian Portuguese which has different pronunciations. So download with caution!

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