Lots of Airport Information, Random Pics, and Expat Humor

The Portuguese just had an election and now there’s talk of bringing back the NHR tax scheme. This would allow retirees and (digital nomads) to live here for ten years (spending money, not taking jobs, not committing crimes) without having to pay Portugal taxes on passive income we already pay taxes on back home in the States.

Plan B? We’ve discovered an Italian tax scheme aimed at retirees. If we move to one of the designated southern states, to a city with a population under 20k, we can pay only seven percent taxes on our passive income. Hmm, I think I can handle southern Italy! Right now we’re looking at Otranto in Puglia. Have you heard of this town? Have you been there? What do you think? The three states we’re interested in are Abruzzo, Campania, and Apulia (Puglia). [Red dots are states involved in the 7% tax, the white dots are the states our Italian friends advised against us for various reasons]

Airport advice: When coming from San Francisco to Lisbon on TAP Air you will land at Terminal 1. In our experience, you turn right as you exit the plane to go through immigration and customs. Follow the signs, and people, to get to immigration. A giant set of arches are in front of you. To the right is the one you will be tempted to take. That is a really slow line. The one in front of you that says electronic passport is probably for you. There are lots of English-speaking employees standing around for you to ask if you feel nervous about which line you should be in. When it’s your turn, you will hold your USA passport against the scanner, stare at the camera, step forward to have your passport stamped, and be done. This will save you about an hour. Go down multiple flights of stairs to the luggage dungeon.

If there’s no line you can get your sim card at the Vodophone shop by the luggage carrousel, but no worries, there’s more shops elsewhere. If you don’t plan to be here for more than a month, this sim will work fine for you. If you plan to be here longer, like us, you may want to wait for a regular cellphone shop (Vodophone or MEO). This is only because the airport plan is just for one month, but after that you can put money on it and see how long that lasts you… when it runs low just pop into any cellphone shop and reload it (they’re everywhere) or download the app. After our month was up, we stepped into a camera-shop with Vodophone and MEO stickers on the window and put €15 on our cards. We’ll see how long that lasts. The Lisbon Airport has free WiFi, so you can order an Uber or Bolt, etc., without a new sim card.

Once you get to the really nice food court and shopping center inside Terminal 1, stay to your right until it comes to an end (past another Vodophone shop on the left) with “My Bistro” and escalators in front of you. To your slight left is a set of glass doors. Go out those and turn right. On your left is the metro entrance. Inside is a bank of ticket machines. For some reason, we prefer the ticket counter with its short line. Now you buy a metro pass-card and put money on it. When it runs low, put more money on it, but don’t throw away the pass… it costs money. These work on buses, ferries, local trams, and local trains all in the Lisbon area. I’m not sure about the fancy funicular trollies—we’ve never tried it.

When you are going back to the USA, you need to be aware that you will actually go through what seems like two security portals with a first one to get into the terminal and a second one to fly to the USA. We’ve made the mistake of thinking we were done and sat to enjoy breakfast and coffee. We almost missed our flight because we had to stand in a massively long line for forty-five minutes. But we got plenty of exercise before the eleven-hour flight by running to our gate.

My final advice is to purchase food for the flight home (from SFO to LIS you should bring food also). This is because TAP Air doesn’t give you very much food for the long-long flight. They will provide one hot meal and one mostly bread sandwich. I don’t eat bread, so I always bring food on the plane. I peel the slice of meat and cheese out of the bun and roll it up—which is about as big as a cigarette. Also bring a water bottle and fill it before getting on the plane. The attendants don’t come by very often. If you like beer or wine for the flight, you should know that the Portuguese government forbids the ordering of alcohol other than with food service on flights. I order two glasses of wine (Joe gets two beers) with the dinner service and I let the second one sit there until I want it an hour or so later.

Right now I sit at a café trying to write while a really nice Belgium man who was born in Scotland and living in Portugal talks to me in English. He’s telling me all about his dog… a Portuguese Podengo. It’s a hunting-dog breed, and his dog is deaf. He got it from a rescue center. Welcome to the world of a writer :) Another topic in town is the tsunami alarm that went off at six this morning for ten minutes. Normally it goes off once every day at noon. Ten minutes was exceptionally long. Joe and I got dressed and stood nervously watching the bay and listening for the resultant chaos from such a serious alarm. Not a soul stirred. Occasionally someone would stroll by at a leisurely pace. No one we spoke to had any idea what it was all about. Later our Portuguese waiter suggested that a fireman got drunk and accidently set the alarm and couldn’t figure out how to turn it off again. Whatever it was, I’m really surprised no one reacted to it!

A couple of fighter jets just flew overhead. They’ve done that a lot this last month. The friendly Belgium said it was Portugal’s entire military fleet. Then he chuckled for several minutes before adding, “One of ‘em is probably from Belgium.” One of my favorite things is when people joke about their own, or other, countries and politics. Fortunately, I don’t know enough about what’s going on to be offended.

Sometimes conversations take a more serious turn. In Lisbon we got into a discussion about mental health. We’d just seen a teen dragged from the street by the police—who had gotten tired of trying to reason with him. Cops came from everywhere. People stopped and watched. No one pulled out a cell phone to record it for social media. Our friends said the mental health problem in Portugal was a result of drug use. He made the comment that all people have a degree of mental health issues. Drugs just trigger it. I imagined us all with various types of flammable material in our minds… some have pinecones, others kindling, and others wet oak. With the right amount of flame, we all eventually ignite, but that’s enough philosophy for now.