Learning Portuguese Customs
And paying dearly for it…
Happy new year! I hope you didn’t miss this newsletter too much over the holidays. I was traveling and living in the moment. But am excited to be back in Porto and getting into the daily adulting routines.
How was your holiday season? Let me know!
What life lessons did December teach me?
Learning all about Portuguese customs
Amsterdam and Brussels are thoroughly charming during the holidays
The magic of Christmas in Paris
New Year’s Eve with Portuguese family and friends
So let’s start with the adulting part…
Portugal customs are notorious
I’m not talking about local ways of doing things. I’m talking about customs and border control. What, you thought I was going to enlighten you on some sort of weird cultural phenomenon? This is adulting.
I heard rumors that the customs/import process here is grueling. Regardless, last October I decided to press my luck and place an online order from a US clothing brand.
Within a week or so I get a tracking number confirming that the parcel has already made it to Portugal. Too easy!
Then nothing… for a month.
So I put on my detective hat, find the CTT Correios (local postal service) website, and locate my package, sitting in customs, “expired” and ready to be returned to sender. No notice… nothing.
After a few days of fretting about it and contacting everyone I can find in the chain of custody, I suddenly get the green light to start the customs process, which surprisingly can be done online.
All I have to do is declare what’s in the package from a drop-down list (all in Portuguese), state the value, and enter all my info.
That’s when they hit me with the 23% VAT tax, customs duties, and 12€ processing fee… yikes! All-in, it adds 50% more to the cost of the order. All for the pleasure of getting zero notice.
Unfortunately, this all happened about a week before heading out of town for the holidays.
Of course, they attempted delivery the day after we left, and they informed me it would be held at the local office in Porto until… drum roll… 3 days before I return from my trip. If I don’t pick it up by then? Return to sender.
Sadly, there was nothing I could do from afar to hold the package. I even tried calling, and according to customer service, the only way to ensure they would hold the package for me is to have someone physically go in and talk to them.
So I get on Taskrabbit and hire a random guy for 15€ to go talk to them for me. It was my last option. And it WORKED.
Upon arriving back in Porto, my first stop was to get my package. After 10 weeks and 108€ in fees, I had my shirts. And I learned a valuable lesson about American ecommerce hubris and Portuguese customs.
Now that I’m empowered on the CTT customs process, I helped usher through a package from Hilary’s mom (hi Elaine!) in just under 5 weeks. A new record. It had crystals and incense in it. The declared item from the customs drop-down list? Minerals: Other.
Amsterdam and Brussels are absolutely charming during the holidays
We had some of our besties meet us for the holidays in Amsterdam - a quick, 2.5-hour flight north. The days are far shorter up there in December - sunrise at 8:30 and sunset at 4:30 - and the temps were below freezing. Coming from the high-50s and raining, it was a bit of a shock.
This was our first visit, and will not be our last. Canals, adorable buildings, and fun local bars made for a great time. We indulged in stroopwafels, Dutch apple pie, and panekkoeken (Dutch pancakes), and made a day trip to Haarlem, which I strongly recommend.
From Amsterdam, we caught a Thalys train south 2 hours to Brussels, which is known for being the political center of the EU (booooring) and home to the largest winter market in Europe (yay!).
This is my kind of winter market - it’s spread around the city, and about every third booth is selling either genever (like gin, but better), gluhwein (hot mulled wine), Belgian beer, or melted raclette cheese on a baguette. Sure there’s Christmas-y stuff to buy, but you know where you can find me.
The central square also puts on an absolutely fabulous light show every hour after dark, and we made sure to catch that both nights. Mind-blowing stuff.
From Brussels, we headed south again by train to Paris.
Paris shines at Christmas
Our last stop was a week in Paris. We checked into an Airbnb with our crew and immediately dove into croissants and champagne.
We enjoyed a great mix of wandering the streets and seeing the big tourist highlights.
The list included the Eiffel Tower (we didn’t go up, the top was closed), Versailles (which was rainy and crowded, but grand as always), and Sacre Coeur (charming and wonderful). The winter markets in Paris are a far cry from Brussels, but the city does a great job of putting on lights and sparkle for the holidays.
I skipped the group outing to the Louvre (crowds and art don’t mix for me) and went for a nice run along the canal. I also caught up with a friend of mine who has been living there for 4 years. She gave me some great insights into the city and we talked about expat life over a delicious French lunch.
Hilary and I said goodbye to our friends and stayed a couple of more days, which consisted of wandering, eating lots of vegan food, having a fun night out with two different sets of friends in town from Portland, and more croissants.
Here’s a list of some of the spots we enjoyed in our sector of town - the Marais.
New Year's Eve Party!
Our friends Miguel and Marta invited us to their place for New Year’s Eve. It was a big party with around 20 people that included friends, their kids, and their new 3-month-old puppy, Barack Obama.
We got to know a lot of incredibly nice people, ate a new years feast, enjoyed wine from Miguel’s cellar, and danced the night away in his basement-turned-disco. We couldn’t have asked for a warmer welcome, and are really grateful to have been invited.
What’s next?
Getting driver's licenses, registering as a tax resident, finding doctors, and more… the adulting continues.
Until then, how was your end-of-year? Do tell!
Until next week,
—Don
Had Covid and flu in the family just around Christmas so Christmas celebrations were cancelled. We slept through New Years and left the next morning for our big trip.
The customs story was crazy! Expensive shirts but a good lesson.
I just love hearing about y’all’s adventures !!