I often find myself stopping to think of how fortunate I am to live in Europe. The beauty, the varying cultures, the history, the food, ....the weekend trips to Portugal. "What?"- you say, "weekend trips to Portugal?" Ok, so let me rephrase: the beauty, the varying cultures, the history, the food, the occasional weekend trips -- this past one being Portugal. There really is no better way of life.
We arrived in Lisbon on Friday afternoon and I was basking in the sound of the Portuguese language from that moment on. I loved.... LOVED... walking down the street and hearing nothing but Portuguese being spoken. And, since my friend Mathea doesn't speak the language, I was able to play translator the entire weekend.
That said, Brazilian Portuguese and Portuguese from Portugal differ slightly in a few words, and a lot in pronunciation. The Portuguese make a lot of "sssshh" sounds when they speak, so I had to listen carefully and filter out all the excess "sssshh-ing" in order to understand everyone. I'm sure if we had spent more than 3 days down there my ears would have acclimated and I would have understood every word. But, that just provides yet another reason to return.
We arrived in Lisbon on Friday afternoon and I was basking in the sound of the Portuguese language from that moment on. I loved.... LOVED... walking down the street and hearing nothing but Portuguese being spoken. And, since my friend Mathea doesn't speak the language, I was able to play translator the entire weekend.
That said, Brazilian Portuguese and Portuguese from Portugal differ slightly in a few words, and a lot in pronunciation. The Portuguese make a lot of "sssshh" sounds when they speak, so I had to listen carefully and filter out all the excess "sssshh-ing" in order to understand everyone. I'm sure if we had spent more than 3 days down there my ears would have acclimated and I would have understood every word. But, that just provides yet another reason to return.
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