@israelijoshua said:
@korvus said:
I'm sorry you had such a bad experience in Portugal. That's not my experience of it but being a native there are things you just don't see (learned that lesson the hard way when I became an immigrant). Where in Portugal were you? I know people in the interior tend to be more adverse to what they don't know (that goes with increase in age and decrease in culture as well)
oh I didn't know you were a native Portuguese, then you should fit in fine, because they really want a country that is 100% the same. I assumed you weren't Portuguese when you said you were planning to live there soon.
I wouldn't say it was a bad experience, but rather I just accepted it for what it was. Some people want to just stick with their own only. Portugal is sort of the hermit of Europe. Some other countries are the same way, think of North Korea, they are like 99.999% North Korean.
I was in Lisbon, Porto, Algarves, interior.... all over ..., it's not like UK or France or Scandanavia where there is an accepted variety of people. And my friends of all different backgrounds can attest to this.
You got your people confused there ^_^ I'm not the guy who wants to live in Portugal, I'm the guy he was asking if I had ever been there and got caught in your quote :p I'm from Portugal, living in the Netherlands now :) Like I said in a previous post, Portugal is still a very racist and homophobic country, but I wouldn't call them "hermits". My wife (Dutch) was walking around Lisbon like a goddess just because she knew how to say please and thank you in Portuguese.
One thing Portuguese people hate is people who interact with them with the "Learn f*cking English already, everybody speaks it" (not saying that's what you did) and while I agree with the sentiment you don't go to someone's house and say that to them. So she learned 5 words and was getting free stuff from stores...conversely I moved to the Netherlands, the "everything is accepted" country and spent the first 3 months being told to "go back to wherever I came from".
Don't get me wrong, I love the Netherlands and it's a step up from Portugal in every way; my point is that sometimes you're just unlucky with the people you meet. The mentality here is miles ahead of Portugal, which matches the hype, but I had to filter through a lot of ignorant people. Just like Portugal can earn its reputation of one of the friendliest places in Europe but you'll have to filter out the "blacks are thieves and gays ares disgusting" crowd...if you're in touristic regions you'll also get heat if you're loud and drunk...Portuguese people tend not to like that.
Lastly it's perfectly possible that you're absolutely right and it's just a side of Portugal I just haven't seen...after being told repeatedly that I was imagining stuff and that there's no discrimination in the Netherlands I will be the last person to tell anyone they are wrong in their experiences. A bit of an anecdote...I lived in Portugal for 26 years and never saw a trace of drug selling anywhere. When I went back to Portugal for a visit with my brother-in-law we had been in Lisbon for less than 3 hours and we separated for a minute...when he came back he says "some guy just asked me if I wanted to buy pot". Wtf kind of people do you attract, dude? XD
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