The Portuguese Myth

An wold woman who refuses to be helped . A bus driver who shouts at passengers . A person who works in a store and doesn't say anything when we say : " good morning ! " . These three people are just three examples that the so-called "Portuguese hospitality " is nothing less than a myth . We love to see ourselves as being extremely friendly even towards people we've never met , something that its not entirely true . A typical portuguese certainly won't invite a person he doesn't knows well to his house , even if they had been friends for months ( trust me ! i'm one of those ! ) . A typical portuguese will probably suspect if you approach him with a smile on your face - he probably starts thinking that you're going to rob him . A typical portuguese says that he isn't racist , and all those other europeans are , especially the english and the germans , are . A typical portuguese welcomes foreigners who come to Portugal to spend money , but despises those of us , who just like him share the burden/bless of being portuguese , because we're poor .

I'm not trying to say we aren't friendly and welcoming , but I do have to say that nothing in Portugal is what you think it is , if you look at it briefly . We may be nice and giggly ( i don't know if such word exists ! ) but certainly , we're not as open minded and welcoming as we think we are . Sometimes we end up behaving just like to those who we like to criticize : the english . But we keep on smiling at them , because we know that they're willing to spend loads of money here .