Mark Burns
[ 00:00:06 ] Hello, and welcome back to Portugal Junkies!
Meredith Burns
[ 00:00:14 ] Hey, hey, you guys.
Mark Burns
[ 00:00:15 ] Hope everyone's well, and we have some lovely sunshine today. We normally start off with a quick story as well, so do we have a story? I was gonna just put you on the spot and say what story do you have? I do have a story, oh goody surprise!
Meredith Burns
[ 00:00:30 ] So, shocker one thing that made me feel really good this week was that so our apartment is across the street from this amazing iconic restaurant in Porto called Gazela. Anthony Bourdain actually kind of put it on the map back in the day when he visited Portugal and he came in for a Chouraço, which is a Portuguese hot dog. So, it's like, picture. Kind of like a tiny, weak sausage, right? That's what it is; it's cut up in half inside this small, long piece of bread, but the bread is crusty-like the bread is pressed. Oh, it's so good! It's kind of like a hot dog panini type of thing because it's very crusty. They, of course, put butter all over it and they put the Portuguese sausage inside. But it's also known to be served with the famous Franceschini sandwich sauce. So, Franceschini is completely different; we can talk about that another time because it is like one of those things where it's like everybody loves a Franceschini, and I'm like, 'I don't know.' Anyway, um, we get Our cachonino hot dogs, and then we get the Franceschina sauce on it because it's like the spicy sauce, and I'm telling you, like we cannot find spicy food very often here in Portugal, so it's kind of like our band-aid to the need for spicy food. Anyway, I digress.
Mark Burns
[ 00:01:59 ] This place, Gazella, um, took a two-week holiday, um, as many restaurants do, good for them, I know how bloody dare they, I know that's like our staple.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:02:12 ] So, what did we eat for two weeks anyway? Um, so they took holiday, gave everybody two weeks off, um, so they've been closed and when we went out the other day it was Monday and it was their first day back, and we noticed because there were people outside they had this great outdoor seating area and the umbrellas are off and we were like oh it's open because we were out doing something else we walked toward the the area and we realized the gazelle was open and we look at each other we're like yay and then we see Marcio who is one of our favorite people there at gazella and it's like we're all buddies yeah like we walk up mark shakes his hand and we're like hey it just felt like Community yeah it felt like I don't know it it it it felt exactly what it was we knew the names of the guys who work across the street in the in the gazella and they know us now because This is our neighborhood, and oh, they know Charlotte. Charlotte's the most popular girl on the block, but anyway, it felt good; it felt like this is I don't know, it felt familiar, and like we were again, as I've said a hundred times, so welcomed, and like acknowledged, and loved, and things came back into balance. Yeah, it felt really good, yeah.
Mark Burns
[ 00:03:34 ] So that's my gazelle.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:03:35 ] You just snorted; listen, we love we love Gazelle, and we love our neighborhood, and um, it's just... I don't know, it's gonna be hard to leave it. Yeah, that's the part that's gonna be hard to leave, but we have to think that wherever we go, we'll do the same thing and create the same kind of We will experience and friends, for sure, yeah, so anyway, that's my story. Excellent, today's the Q&A episode, it is, whoopee! Your favorites, everybody loved the Q&A episode, yeah, I'm not surprised. We're gonna definitely do this, I did some good talking on it, you did, yeah, that's why I'm talking good talking, good talking all right, so what questions do we get?
Mark Burns
[ 00:04:12 ] So, the first question came um was what kind of work opportunities are there? Oh, yeah, we do get this question a lot um we do and we also not just that we get it but you see it in some of the Facebook forums as well, yeah, because it's the number one thing like it's the number one I want. To come there and what do I do for work, um how do I survive? One of the things I know you've got some things you want to say, but one of the things I would say about it is, and I saw this from two or three Portuguese people that are within the Facebook group, um where they were basically saying, really you know, you need to speak Portuguese in in a lot of the surroundings, and I don't know how true that is. I think it's true; I've had a diverse reaction right to that comment, but you know, I don't know that it has to be that way, um it's certainly helpful; it will definitely help you for sure if you want to be in the service industry, if you or any. Industry really, but yeah, I wanted to just say a couple of people had said you need to speak Portuguese. I don't buy that completely.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:05:22 ] Um, I think clearly if you want to work in the doctor's office or vets practice, something like that, you're going to struggle or you're really going to need to to have everything about you, but yeah, I think that um, well what we found and what we will reiterate because we've said this on the podcast before, but our experience, especially in Porto, in the big cities, even as travelers, um, we have not been reliant on speaking Portuguese in order to survive or thrive. To be honest, that doesn't mean That we don't feel that we should be learning it, which we are, but it is not a make-or-break type of situation when it comes to work opportunities. I think the the big overarching comment that I would make is you know the you've got a lot of young people here in Portugal who are leaving Portugal, yeah, because the work opportunities for them don't exist the way they envision them and want them or they don't pay as well as it's about it's about salary. And it is something that is a problem here in Portugal, and it's affecting young people because they're kind of forced to move somewhere else for work that meets their needs in terms. Of minimum wage, even just a decent salary, to all of that, to say you know as an immigrant coming over here, that is what you'd probably be faced with, so if you're thinking about coming here and snagging a job like a local job, that's going to be a tougher situation than you coming here with an employer who says 'yes, you can work remotely.' That would be a D-8 visa not a D-7 visa, like the path that we took. If you do a D-7 visa though, you are allowed to work yes, on that D-7 visa locally, here in Portugal; a D-8 I'm not sure you can, because they're your your freelance rights, you're basically saying 'I am a digital nomad, I'm working remotely and I'm' Working for some some other kind of company that's not Portuguese-based, I'm not working in a company that's not Portuguese-based basically. Um, if you own your own business, for instance, um, that is an ideal situation too. And that would likely be a D-7 because it would be more passive income, I think, but it might be, you can certainly shake it as a D-7.
Mark Burns
[ 00:08:04 ] Yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:08:05 ] So higher, I mean, again, this is, uh, it's a tough one, right? Because I think you coming here and expecting to get local work doesn't really work with the visa, right? You can't, you have to prove to them that you have income in order to get your visa. So, um, if you're not in a situation where it's like a retirement passive income type of situation, and then you want to actually work while you're here, let's say you're retired, but you want to work part-time. That's a situation that can absolutely happen. Um, but part of the visa process is proving that you have income so that they're not giving you a visa and then you don't have a job and you are now, um, causing a burden on the country and the resources.
Mark Burns
[ 00:08:55 ] I mean, there's a separate one. I think it's a D-2. It's a, it's a student. I know it's a, um, work seeker.
SPEAKER_3
[ 00:09:02 ] Okay.
Mark Burns
[ 00:09:03 ] I think it's D-2, but I forget the number. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean, there are a number of different ones out there, but if you're going to come and look to work here, then having some level of Portuguese is, um, I would say that even if you didn't need it for the day-to-day stuff, being able to walk up to somebody and say, 'Hey, you know, I'd like to work here. Is there a job going?' But to actually do that in Portuguese, I think that's going to be like massive. Um, but again, I don't think it's not a requirement, but take it as you find it. And that's, that's also just talking about Porto. It's going to be different in different cities.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:09:44 ] The more rural you get, the less English that's. Yeah.
Mark Burns
[ 00:09:48 ] It's, I mean, we're going to find that out on Friday when we go to Pinel, um, which is out on the Douro. And it's a, you know, it's, it's kind of, um, tourist area, but the Quinta is all put by and large all Portuguese people. So again, it's just going to be very interesting to see the different dynamic of work and what you need to know in terms of Portuguese language to, to make an opportunity to work.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:10:17 ] Right. And a little plug here, uh, for those of you who don't know what visa you may fit under, go to VFS global. That is where you would start. So put in, I am an American. I want to go to Portugal. And then you can start to see what options are available in terms of visas. Um, again, we did a D7, which is a retirement slash passive income visa. Once approved, we can work here, right? So right now we've been approved. We're here. Mark could go out and get a job. I could go out and get a job, whatever it is. Um, locally in Portugal, the D8 is the digital nomad visa. So you have a job and they're sponsoring you and saying that you can work in Portugal, no big deal, or you have your own business. That is your income for that. So there are other visas out there. We're not as familiar with those, but that at least gets you started. All right. What else? What's the next question? Next question. Who ever asked it?
Mark Burns
[ 00:11:12 ] I haven't. Don't even remember. I don't know. I should start writing down. You really should. Yeah. Yeah. I'd be like, um, this question was, um, what's our experiences on the health care, um, and sorry, health, health care and sort of insurance, health care insurance.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:11:30 ] What's your experience so far with the health care?
Mark Burns
[ 00:11:33 ] I love it. Um, absolutely. You love what? I love the, okay. So I love the fact that we have a very good hospital within 10 minute walk from here. Yeah. Um, I love the fact that, I can go in there and I can get seen or I can make an appointment. You can probably get an appointment that day. I can probably get an appointment that day, um, to be seen. Now this is a private hospital. Yeah.
MEREDITH
[ 00:11:56 ] So we'll come back to that in a second.
Mark Burns
[ 00:11:58 ] Um, excuse me. When I go in there, um, you know, whatever I want to talk about, there is no, okay. You're in, you have 15 minutes and then you're out the door. Nothing like that. You know, you can be in there for 45, 50 an hour. Um, and you're not felt rushed. I love that because then I'm getting a sense that I'm being heard. Um, and that somebody genuinely cares.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:12:19 ] Absolutely. No language barriers with the doctor.
Mark Burns
[ 00:12:22 ] No, but it is funny though, because in the reception area, um, the, obviously everybody's Portuguese, uh, and only a couple of them, uh, speak English in the reception area. What you have to do when you go in, you put your, your NIF number in, you get a ticket, um, as to which counter to go to, and you're watching the board and it says, you know, ticket number eight, 27, go to counter number four. I'm looking at four and thinking, damn, she doesn't speak English. But they are just genuinely so nice. They really are. And I know this is, but I think this is important as well because you're not just talking about the healthcare. Do I get the drugs? You know, you're talking about it from end to end and that's from the starting to the end of, of walking out, uh, of the hospital through the reception area. Um, everybody is just so warm. Yeah. Yeah. I genuinely want our experience has been really good.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:13:19 ] I cannot fault that they, they, the actual, you know, like for instance, our doctor speaks as clear English as I do. I have not been concerned about a language barrier. I was, I felt like she listened. I felt like, um, we got the care that we absolutely needed so far. It was fast, efficient. It was, uh, affordable.
Mark Burns
[ 00:13:46 ] I was going to say. Inexpensive.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:13:48 ] So let's, let's take it back a step though. So Mark is referencing the hospital here that is near us and it is a private hospital. This is not a public hospital that would be on the national healthcare system or system. So Portugal does have national healthcare. Um, I hear that it can have some of the same challenges that for instance, in the UK they do, where it's like, it might take longer to be seen. And this is not emergency situations. I'm talking about like, if you need to set up an appointment with someone or a specialist or whatever, it may take a couple of weeks in order to get you in, um, on the national. Now, the reason why I keep saying private is because when you move here, you have the option to purchase private health insurance. And we chose to do that. Number one, because we wanted to. To not be as much of a burden on the system. Yeah. Um, we wanted to, we basically want exactly. We wanted to make sure that if we could, as immigrants, be cognizant of that and buy a health insurance policy in order to go to a private hospital, rather than always depending on a public stressed system, that we were going to do that. So we did. Um, I think that our it's somewhere around 200 and something euros for both of us, both of us a month. And we didn't buy the, uh, the cheapest plan and we didn’t buy the most expensive plan; somewhere in between. So again, lots of different options to choose from there. Um, but that was our choice and we also get faster, quicker access in the private system. Yeah. I'm so impressed with the hospital that we've gone to. Um, it is like super high-tech, like with the kiosks and the tickets and the boards and all of that stuff. I’ve been impressed with that, but here’s what I’m impressed with was as a woman, I went and got my mammogram, um, maybe a month or two ago. And not only did they do the traditional mammogram situation that I'm used to in the U. S. but they also did a part two. Which was a sonogram. And that was just how they operate. Like it wasn't like something extra. It wasn't, I didn't pay extra for it. I, I, it literally was just how they operate to make sure that they take another step in order to identify any concerns. So I was impressed. It felt like I was probably even getting more testing done than I was in the U. S. Um, and I felt very comfortable. Yeah. So that's been our experience so far. We have not had a whole lot of health situations. I mean, so we haven't had any emergent knock on wood situations we haven't had because anything emergency, like if you were to call, um, an ambulance here, one, one, two, then you're, they're going to take you to the public system. Yeah. You're, you're, um, and so, because all emergency situations are taken. Yeah. Are national like that. So anyway, but if we were, we wouldn't be paying a penny. So every time we go to the doctor, what is it? Like 1750 euros or something. Um, and then we pay for our prescriptions and our prescriptions, which have been extremely cheap.
Mark Burns
[ 00:17:32 ] One of the things that I would say as well, from my perspective, when, when I've been is they're not, you know, you never have a conversation with the doctor. We have the same doctor. Um, and, and she is absolutely fabulous. Um, when talking about, you know, a particular condition or whatever is it comes down to her wanting to know, so what do you want to try and do about it? It's a collaboration. Yeah, you're right. And I, I found it so nice that I could say, look, I don't want to take these tablets yet. I'd like to try and fix something myself, um, over the next three months, but let's say, well, we don't do tablets now because I'm not dying, but in three months when I come back, if things haven't progressed in the right direction, fine, I'll go onto the tablets. Right. But if I have, then we'll reassess again. Um, yep, that's fine. And I just found it so nice that they weren't like throwing pills at you and saying, 'Here, go and buy this, you know, and keep the farmer in big, uh, in big money. And again, different situations suit for different people. I thought you said farm.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:18:43 ] Farmer. You said pharma, didn't you? Pharma.
Mark Burns
[ 00:18:47 ] Pharma. What?
Meredith Burns
[ 00:18:49 ] It's just funny. I thought you said you keep the farmer in something and you were talking about farmers.
Mark Burns
[ 00:18:57 ] Yes. Oh, right. Anyway. Gosh. Got it. Okay. All right. What else?
Meredith Burns
[ 00:19:04 ] What's our last question?
Mark Burns
[ 00:19:06 ] Um, last question was how are the locals welcoming us? Yeah. Are they welcoming us?
Meredith Burns
[ 00:19:16 ] Ah, this is a big question. I feel like we get this a lot. And if you've listened to our podcast before or up until this point, you will know that, um, we have had the best experience. Yeah.
Mark Burns
[ 00:19:30 ] I mean, you can even tell that from this one, you know, the story with you can tell that from the receptionist at the hospital, you know, everybody, the guy, the restaurant owner the other day, who's saying American pie to me.
MEREDITH
[ 00:19:43 ] Bye, bye, Miss American Pie. As I was walking out the door. Yeah. I mean, come on. I don't think we've never been there before.
Mark Burns
[ 00:19:50 ] Never been there before. It's a little hole in the ground or hole in the hole in the wall. Um, this is a sort of cafe or bar behind this decrepit-ish style of building. Um, and that's not being insulting. It's just what it is. It's pretty old. It is old. Uh, and you just walk through it. You walk through this alleyway and it's just opens up into this garden.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:20:15 ] Um, anyway, we got to know him while we were there. And by the time I left, he was singing to me. I feel like I have said it a hundred times in person, our experiences here in Porto and, and as travelers with Portuguese people has been nothing but loving and open and welcoming and all smiles and helpful, especially the minute you are, you know, you try to speak to them in Portuguese, they get to know who you are, right? You're not the traveler or the immigrant who's trying to change the country that you're moving to or saying, I'm not going to learn your language or I'm not going to assimilate the minute you show them that they, that you're not that kind of traveler or immigrant. They are 100% welcoming. Here's my caveat: The keyboard warriors show themselves. And again, can you tell over the past couple of episodes where I keep referencing, like I, you guys, I, I've always been a social media person, but now that we've launched Portugal junkies, I'm much more active on TikTok and Instagram and YouTube and all that other stuff. And you know, what happens the minute you put yourself out there with any content, right? Right. I mean, it is; it can get really ugly. Um, and so what I want to say about this question, and social media is that you've got a lot of keyboard warriors, even here in Portugal, right? Who have something to say about immigrants moving and the bigger picture about that is that it's happening. I mean, immigrants are moving here because this country is lovely. The problem is, is that, um, as I referenced before, you've got, let's just say you've got people. You've got young people here who are forced to move out of their country because they don't have, they can't even get the kind of salary that allows them to live.
SPEAKER_3
[ 00:22:19 ] Right.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:22:19 ] And yet you've got immigrants coming in with some money and it's forcing all of the change in the economic, um, status and the housing costs and all of that to rise. And it sucks. It 100% sucks for Portugal. And yeah, I mean, we get criticized all the time by keyboard warriors about this because we've moved here. Um, and they feel like we're maybe aiding in that shitty situation. Um, but their blame is misplaced. I mean, that's how I feel. I feel like I am, we are 100% respectful of this culture and this country, and we are assimilating as best as we can. Yeah. Um, and we want to even more, right. But I can't control, um, the housing. I can't control the rate of rent. I can't control what the landlord, um, charges us. And so I feel like, um, the bigger picture of this is that you're going to have some people who do feel that way about immigration in general, just like the United States. It is, you've got some people who welcome immigrants and feel like they, you know, they're going to add to the culture of the melting pot of the United States. And you've got some people who don't want any of y'all in our country. And I think some of that still does exist here. Um, all I'm going to say is that the only time I've ever experienced that is like literally somebody commenting behind a keyboard. It has never been in person. And we live in a big city here.
Mark Burns
[ 00:24:06 ] Right.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:24:07 ] I, you know, I would think that by now we would have experienced some of that. You would have felt safe.
Mark Burns
[ 00:24:12 ] Yeah. It existed on the ground in, in. I'm not saying it doesn't exist.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:24:15 ] I'm just saying we haven't experienced it.
Mark Burns
[ 00:24:18 ] And that's not because we don't go to places where we might. We, we love going to some of the smaller, obviously mom and pop shops because that's where you get the authentic.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:24:28 ] That's why you're helping the culture and you're, you're putting your money into all these people.
Mark Burns
[ 00:24:33 ] And Portuguese is a language. Number one is very difficult to learn. But number two, when you have like the older generation, shall we say, talking to each other about. Yeah. Something that happened or whatever it is. They speak so quick. You just, yeah. Okay. I mean, I love listening to it. Don't understand a damn word or maybe one word. But yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:24:57 ] We haven't experienced literally one person.
Mark Burns
[ 00:25:02 ] Nobody has pointed a finger at me and said, 'bugger off.' Not at all. And for that, I'm truly grateful. Yeah.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:25:11 ] I think you just have to temper it. Right. I am not going to sit here and say that there isn't like some rising irritation and tensions from some people in Portugal, because that would be ignorant and that would be not, it would be not true because it is happening. The gentrification and all that stuff, but the government hasn't done what it needs to do about it. And I can't change how I'm charged and what rate at which. In order to find housing. Like I can't, I would be happy to help. Tell me how to help. Right. But I just feel like those people are going to be against immigration no matter what. That's how I feel about it. They are. They're going to be that type. And so, I think that you can't ignore that it exists and you have to do what you can as an immigrant to give back to the community, support local businesses, all that other stuff as much as you can when you can't really do anything else. Anything else about the bigger problem. So, but I don't want to, I mean, it obviously exists. It just, we haven't experienced that. So hopefully that answers the question. Thank you guys so, so much. Keep them coming. I love answering your questions. We love answering your questions. It gives us some things to kind of like toss out there. If we're missing key things that you guys are just like dying to hear about, we've said it all the time. And we're an open book.
Mark Burns
[ 00:26:40 ] Yeah, I mean, you can look through our past videos. You can see that we're open at our own expense quite often, but that's fine. You know, whatever we are. Yeah, for sure.
Meredith Burns
[ 00:26:53 ] Anyway, come back and see us next week. Thank you very much. We are so appreciative of you joining us and listening; please share, tag, like, comment, and all the things we appreciate you guys. All right. See you next week. Thanks very much. Bye. Bye.