Portugal - a foreign nearby.

We are finding Portugal really quite foreign. Then, it's been  a few years since we've visited anywhere new - Japan and Australia  in 2011 were the last truly new territories. However, if you sit on a plane for the most part of a day you expect things to be exotic and strange at the other end, which, in the case of Japan was true, but in the case of Oz, not quite so. I mean if you shell-out the equivalent of a months salary on a plane ticket only to be greeted by a branch of W. H. Smith as you walk through immigration, surely you have a right to feel slightly cheated?

On the weird and foreign front, so far as Portugal is concerned we don't feel cheated at all. Now this is a little surprising, as we have not gone long haul to get here, but simply hopped across the border from Spain, which is different to the UK, but less different than say Florida is to Nevada; I mean, both Spain, the UK, and everywhere else I have been in Europe in recent years has felt like part of a common political entity. Brussels had been far more successful in its homogenising process than Mr. Farage or Madame Le Pen would like us believe. The reason why they are hot under the collar, is not that Europe is a 'failed project' but that in many respects, outside of the hurlyburly of politics, the disregarded wallpaper of everyday existence in most advanced member states has become ever more pan-European.

So why does Portugal seem so foreign? Actually, neither of us can quite explain it, but it does seem to have something to so with time as well as place. It's very early 80s. The roads are 'lightly' signed, people drive with a kind of maniacal abandon I have not seen elsewhere in Europe for decades. In fact, with one near fatal exception, the last time I drove around the Naples motorway system even the Alfa Romeo drivers were showing a modicum of lane discipline. Rest assured, the suicidal Neopolitan driver is alive and kicking on the roads of Portugal.

Some of the blogs we have read have likened Portugal to Greece. Though there is some resemblance in terms of the impact of austerity programmes, general dilapidation and litter, at least the cooking in Greece is something to savour, and we forgive the chaos and tat because Greek hospitality is utterly disarming. It's fair to say, in terms of demeanour and welcome, generally the older Portuguese are a pretty taciturn, even inhospitable bunch. I sense a big generation gap. The young women working in the supermarkets, the students we sat amongst today in the square in Coimbra seemed affable and friendly. In people of our generation, I don't sense the same spirit, many seem at best severe, or more precisely - austere, others simply downtrodden and impoverished. We've been here a week now, I can't say I have warmed to it. It's odd to find somewhere in Europe that feels more foreign than the Far East. There is no doubt about it, we have not got our heads around Portugal, and it might be we must leave tomorrow.