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With the Euro 2004 football championship, and being Portuguese, I feel in the obligation to help perspective visitors by giving a few advices so you can better enjoy Portuguese hospitality. Tourists overall may find these advices useful as they will allow you to mingle with the community:
Don't worry about traffic signals and traffic lights, no one does. Italians will feel at home. Spitting to the floor is common in Portugal, do not pay attention. People helping you park your car in the street are actually beggars. It is legal in Portugal to fire, runover, and beat them to death--ok, it isn't but one can dream. Briding police officers is a national custom. Please collaborate. If you happen to go to the Aveiro stadium during Euro 2004, please close your eyes until you are inside the stadium. Otherwise you can be struck by bad taste. In Portugal, littering is allowed. Do not visit Porto unless you must. Sort your priorities and only visit Porto after going to Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, Barcelona, London, Rome, Florence, Venice, Prague, Budapest, Berlin, Heidelberg, Cambridge, York, Edinburgh, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Bruxelles, Monaco, Avignon, Antwerp, Amesterdam, Wien, Genebra, Split, Valencia, Kopenhagen, and Istambul. If you are British, you may find it strange that food in Portugal actually tastes like food. It's normal.
Please note: do not feed the Eastern Europe beggars.
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