Same Same, but Different
Adventures in Portuguese Craigslist (OLX)
Hi everyone!
June was jam-packed with events, visitors, travel, and an annoying summer cold. I’m back this week with a silly tale about ordinary life in a foreign land:
Adventures in Portuguese Craigslist (OLX)
Quick Hits
Let’s dive in!
Adventures in Portuguese Craigslist (OLX)
Using Craigslist was a routine part of life for us back in the States. It was often a saga filled with delusional sellers, flaky buyers, super random items for sale, scams, and plenty of hassle. But it was familiar, and it worked.
Portugal has OLX (pronounced oh-ell-SHEESH). Same same, but different.
It’s just as rife with scammers, flakes, and the uncertainty that comes with buying online from strangers. But it has some interesting upsides as well, like a partnership with CTT (the Portuguese postal service) to deliver packages a cobrança (cash-on-demand) with verificação de conteúdo (the ability to open the package and inspect before paying), which helps cut down on scams a LOT.
I’ve had a few different in-person buying experiences on this site, all fairly straightforward.
Then a couple of weeks ago, I bought a camera for our upcoming Africa trip. It was listed by a camera shop in Lisbon for a great price. But due to travel and other schedule challenges, I couldn’t make it down to Lisbon to pick it up in person.
After checking the seller profile (looked legit - plenty of listings going back a while) and negotiating through the chat, I asked them to send it a cobrança with verificação de conteúdo.
This is where the adventure gets really Portuguese.
The package was sent overnight for delivery Tuesday but got delayed (no explanation from CTT) until Thursday morning, the day we were flying out on a trip. I anxiously waited at home until the last minute, then left for the airport. I got the call while at our metro station - CTT showed up 5 minutes after we left. Womp womp.
Fortunately, they held it for me at a local CTT pickup spot, a bookstore in our neighborhood, until the following Monday.
The seller was in contact with me the whole time, fuming at CTT, apologizing to me, and stressing out about the whole process.
The following Monday, after returning from our trip, I went to the bookstore to retrieve the package. “How can I pay?” I asked. Only cash. No electronic transfer. For something over 1,000€!
So off I went to get a wad of €€, and when I returned, I was told: “Whoops, our CTT system is down, sorry, you can’t pick it up now.”
I call three times throughout the following day. “The system is still down; we called CTT tech support, sorry.”
I text the seller the name and number of the bookstore so she can confirm. She’s beside herself at this point, not knowing who to believe about this cursed delivery that she overnighted more than a week earlier.
Then I hear back from her - they fixed it! I went straight up and grabbed the camera, paying in such an inefficient way. What are they gonna do, mail the cash back to her? Lol. The crazy part is that if I had been home for the delivery, I would have needed to hand the postal carrier all that cash right on the street.
What a process! Another example of simple things we took for granted in the US - like that the Post Office functions at least somewhat rationally.
Quick Hits
June was a crazy month, so I’ll try to keep it short:
We attended our 3rd Primavera Sound music festival in Porto, June 11-14. We don’t normally do festival concerts (too many people, lines, and price gouging), but this is different. It’s in our big city park, not far from home, and is surprisingly comfortable and easy. Tickets, beers, and food are all reasonably priced, and there’s plenty of room to roam and sit comfortably on grassy hillsides while watching various bands. Highlights from this year were Gorillaz, The XX, Sudan Archives, Mike D (yes, the Beastie Boy), Nation of Language, Sensible Soccers, Duquesa, Mari Froes, and Baxter Dury.
The following week, our good friends Josh and Melissa came to visit with their two adult daughters, Kadence and Kennedy. Their weeklong stay included a crazy busy run of events - Porto Beer Fest, Air Invicta airplane races over the Douro River, multiple festivals, and the feast of São João - Porto’s biggest party of the year. It was a tight 7 days in our little European flat, but we had a ton of fun showing them around.
The time in between included backyard pro-rasslin’ at a local Porto bar, never-ending World Cup matches at fan zones and big screens around the city, a drone and pyrotechnics show over the Douro by Cai Guo-Qiang, and more. This city really shifts into high gear in June.
Then on July 1st, we hopped on a plane to Warsaw for a long weekend to celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary. We promised each other that we would never spend our anniversary in the same place twice - to ensure we never lose our passion for travel. We’ve kept that promise, even though we don’t need the motivation. We travel a ton anyway, but it’s a great excuse to get away. Warsaw is a very modern European town with a vibrant vegan and bike scene, a nice river promenade complete with pop-up BAR-ges (floating summertime bars), and solid public transit. It reminded me of Portland.
June was a month of heat waves in Europe, and somehow we dodged them. The week that Josh and Melissa visited, the rest of Europe was baking, and it was very pleasant here in Portugal. The day we flew to Warsaw, a heat wave hit Porto, while it was unseasonably cool in Warsaw. By the time we returned home, no more heat wave. But our apartment was still hot from the week prior. We lucked out.
We have foster kittens! Meet Clementine, Kiwi, and Diogo - a trio of young dudes (two boys, one girl) rescued from the street with various medical problems and a desperate need for human socialization. Hilary is getting them fed and healthy so they can be adopted out. Anyone looking for little bundles of furry fun?
This week’s music is a two-fer:
The new Vince Staples album is a jam:
The new Genesis Owusu album is eclectic (rock meets electronic meets hip-hop) and good:
What have you been up to? I’d love to hear from you!
Until next time,
—Don
I visited Warsaw in 1990. It was the end of the communist era and so different than what it is now! Keep up the adventures!