Hi so our video today is about 10 scary things about Portugal well happy Halloween Tina
oh thanks no shutting up that time of year happy Halloween to you too now if you stay until number
10 to our scary number 10 tip to find out we will tell you where the skulls were on our thumbnail
so sit tight till number ten exactly and if you haven't subscribed to our channel we would be
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we would love for you to subscribe to our channel so you won't miss any future content
and i wouldn't want to miss any so do you know we're saying scary things about
Portugal partly tongue-in-cheek because it's Halloween that time of year and these are
things that first-time visitors to Portugal might not know yeah and even might find a little scary
exactly and the first of those would be when you go to pick up your rental car could you
imagine getting in that rental car and suddenly realizing it's not an automatic transmission yeah
that is a big shock to a lot of people because the cars over there are manual standard transmission
the majority of rental cars are and if you've got a real smoking hot deal on a car rental
it's going to be a five speed believe me it's not going to be automatic because you pay a
lot of money for those yeah in fact they're about two to three times the cost of a manual car they
are indeed wow so keeping with the car theme teen try and say that after a glass of scotch
you've got your rental car so you want to go park and go see the sights so you find a car park
and even if it's a pay car park yeah there's nearly always a scary looking
homeless man and he's he's waving at you and you think oh is this a long-lost relative
but no it's it's somebody who's made a job for themselves who
Portugal has relatively high unemployment so you see a lot of guys in parking lots of
shopping malls and town centers and they'll find a spot for you and they'll wave you over to it
well they expect a tip yeah you think it's this nice friendly person guiding you in but there's
a method in his madness it's probably the only way that he can make some money so just slip
him a couple of euros and um something to be aware of isn't it yeah and and they're not scary
and they're not homeless either but it just struck us like that
so one thing that is very close to my heart is be very careful of the tiled sidewalks when
it's been raining oh they can be killers Tina they can the sidewalks are beautiful
where they're all made up of gorgeous tiles a lot of them and there's some really pretty patterns
but after it has rained they are lethal it's just it's just like a skating rink they are so
slippery and we've been caught out a few times haven't we i'm not only that Tina
but if you're walking they can be quite uneven as well and you can trip very very easily so we've
seen a few people do that haven't we we have so scary sidewalks you have to be careful of those
the other number four we're at now is oh this is this this is the tourist trap because
you might know Portugal quite well we might even have some words in the language but culturally
things are different so you go to a nice restaurant they give you the menu and then
they'll come over and they'll put some bread and butter and olives all the yummy things that i love
so little appetizers so that you can just nibble as you're looking at the menu well what's the
catch Tina they're not free they will charge you for them and they will add them all to your bill
and then and in some cases they can be more expensive than the dish of the day you're going
to order so you do have to be very careful so you can either politely refuse them or just don't eat
them but they will charge you if you just have even a nibble of the bread yeah you'll be charged
with that you're gonna pay for it well one of the things that uh um we were really surprised at
particularly on our last visit was the smoking on patios outside the restaurant so we're not talking
about inside we're actually talking on the patios because when we go over there the weather's still
nice it's not blisteringly hot but a lot of the restaurants still have patios open a couple of
things that struck us is it seems a lot of people smoke in Portugal so what we noticed coming from
Canada because they banned smoking in restaurants in Canada then they banned smoking and patterns
in restaurants so we can go to any patio that we want obviously not at the moment with the COVID19.
but in Canada we can go to any patio that we want and we won't be bothered by cigarette smoke
so that was one thing we did find quite unusual wasn't it was the amount of people smoking and
if you're not a smoker then it could be it could be off-putting off-putting for your life so
just just be aware of it just don't be downwind of any smokers and you'll be fine
so we've got a theme going here so that was the restaurant patio so how about ordering a coffee
what's going to happen well if you drink black coffee which Norm does
and you just order a black coffee thinking you're going to get an American coffee a nice sized black
coffee what you'll actually get is a tiny little expresso coffee a really small one won't you well
it's a standard sized espresso but that's what Portugal runs on yeah in is espresso coffee
right so it's small compared to the large coffee that we're used to in Canada it is and and a lot
stronger so you should really try and learn the different names of the coffees like the Galão
that's my favorite an Americano and you should get something quite similar to what you used to
unless of course you love espresso and then you'll be right here at home in Portugal you will
because it's excellent coffee one so we're up to number seven now one one of the real scary things
Tina is beer at McDonald's with your burger it's like heaven it's like wow we went into
actually we were trying one of their new veggie burgers the last time we were in Albufeira which
by the way the burger was delicious it was an added plus was when we went up to order it
Norm got his beer with the burger which he thought it was in 7th heaven so it is unusual because we
don't get beer here in Canada with McDonald's Portugal is one of 15 countries that McDonald's
sell beer in their restaurants and although it was a nice touch isn't it it was and it washed
the burger down really really nicely so Norm was keen to go to McDonald's a little more than normal
so number 8. that is one of the most interesting things the first time we went there we went
grocery shopping and the one thing we saw in the car park was laundry machines both
the washers and the dryers huge ones like really big sized ones so what people do is they do the
laundry while they go inside to do the grocery shopping they throw their clothes in go shop
come back perfect time management we thought it was great we'd never seen anything it was
it was shocking to us just from the point of view that we don't have any outside plumbing in Canada
because of the the winter time it will freeze solid so it it kind of was one of those double
takes that we weren't expecting to see it but i think most people in Europe know about it yeah
but coming from Canada or the us you probably wouldn't and it's a big added plus especially
if the place you're staying in doesn't have laundry yeah if you're on a long stay vacation
and one of those hotel apartments um at least you know where you can go and get your laundry done
now they do actually have laundry in a lot of the shopping malls as well don't they no
they do so you'll be able to keep everything squeaky clean so number nine oh my gosh
that's uh well this one's near to our heart because this one's to do with drinking wine Norm
oh yeah we're never far from that are we these days that's retirement for you so Portugal is the
largest producer of cork now you may have known that you see cork trees in the countryside they're
everywhere there aren't they they are but Portugal produces more than 50 percent of the world's
cork which i think is a phenomenal amount it is it's a great industry for them and it's illegal
in Portugal to chop a cork tree down yeah they're kind of preserved aren't they yeah
very well taken care of so we've reached number 10 we hope you stuck with us to uh this point and
where were we when we went inside a chapel and it was lined with human bones and skulls yes that was
creepy it was very scary we were in the bone chapel in Faro and if you Google that you'll
you'll be able to see the pictures of it and uh and and it's well worth the visit oh absolutely
if you're gonna be visiting Faro do go to it because it was an unbelievable chilling sight to
see and we thought we would just use a photograph that we took there for our Halloween special
we have indeed so thank you for joining us at halloween we hope you all get chocolate sweets
candies whatever you call them in your country yes i know Tina always has a little supply
obviously won't be trick-or-treating uh as we yeah we've been done in previously the same this year
will it they're not letting the children into the apartment reception area as we normally do
which is a shame because we used to do a really big thing for Halloween didn't we
so we're looking forward we're having our Granddaughter come she'll come visit
and i will give her some some treats so stay safe keep well and we'll see you in the next video bye
bye