Why You Shouldn’t Visit Portugal

As I got on the plane from Miami bound to Madrid, I was ecstatic. Not only would it be my first time in Europe, but I would be visiting two European countries: Spain and Portugal. My family is from Spain, so I had heard stories on what it was like, the food, the countryside, and the cultural. But Portugal, to me, would be what I was looking forward to the most. New language, new food, and new architecture.

To get to Portugal, we drove through northern Spain, specifically Galicia and made a stop in A Coruna before heading south to Portugal. We stopped at the border and took pictures of the sign that said Welcome To Portugal (in Portuguese, of course). The difference between Spain and Portugal was immediate. Spain was advanced, clean, industrial, bustling. Portugal was everything Spain was not: poor, unpaved roads, rural, dusty, and unkempt.

I felt as if I had just entered a Third-World country and I did not feel as if I was in Western Europe. I figured that maybe things would start looking up as we neared the capital, Lisbon. My family and I made another stop at a roadside restaurant with empty stomachs, so we were down for pretty much anything edible.

Maybe it was bad luck, or maybe it was not, but the tomatoes at this specific restaurant were rotten. The establishment looked decrepit and the service — wait, what service? When I got home from Europe I did some research on Portugal and actually found that their restaurant codes are not strongly enforced, especially in rural areas. No wonder.

Lisbon was a trash dump! Literally. The streets were very filthy and pollution was obvious. While the people were warm, kind, and ready to help any traveler, their capital was not something to boast about. The central plaza had graffiti all over it and traffic was impossible. Everything looked aged, not in a good architectural European way, but in a forgotten, crumbling way. Many stores were for sale as if they were going out of business.

The streets in Lisbon were definitely not in grid format, but in the typical European fashion, going in all directions and intersecting other streets in weird angles. Finding our hotel was a nightmare. And when we got to our hotel, there was another nightmare. Our room did not have air conditioning and everything was very plain – this was a four star hotel in Lisbon. It looked appealing from the outside, but the inside was much different. Maybe it was bad luck, again? I began to doubt Portugal.

Portugal does not have a very large travel industry – no wonder. The pseudo-European nation relies on agriculture and everything has been haywire ever since the introduction of the Euro in 2002. It has made the Portuguese poor, poorer, and the rich, wealthier.

There was not much to see in Lisbon, but a large steel bridge that crossed over a river. My mother was afraid to cross it because it looked unstable. I felt as if I was in Brazil, where such a scenario would be acceptable, but not Europe. We hurried to get out of the country and back to Spain as promptly as possible. We headed south to southern Portugal where shanty towns lined the roads, many without electricity. There were many potholes on the main highway which only consisted of two lanes.

Upon reaching the Spanish-Portuguese border, we quickly snapped a picture of the “Welcome to Spain” sign and drove to civilization. Hallelujah!

There are many other, developed, beautiful European nations that are worth spending your Euros in. Portugal is still struggling to be fully integrated into the European Union because of its flat economy. Maybe it will be worth visiting in the future someday when it flourishes, but for now, Switzerland is next on my list.