If you want to establish yourself in Portugal, we can tell you; it is amazing, yet at a different pace! Things go different here. Slower. If you set up a meeting with your construction team they might not show up or just a little later. For shopping you’ve got to calculate a few hours of driving hours since everything here in the Algarve is spread out. It is still the country side. The pace in the shops is slower. Stock is not always available there so you have to drive back more often than you wish for. There is the always ever lunch time from 12-15 that shops are closed. So yes, we’ve had some furstrations along the way. It takes a lot of energy.
What it teaches us? A lot of patience, flexible mindset and just a very solution oriented mindset! We always go on the road with a longlist and when we have ticked 5 of the 10 open items we are happy! So we changed our mindset of what is possible to achieve on a day. It’s not efficient as in the Netherlands. But on the other hand; it gives time to go slower. to feel in if we are going the right direction and it also make us a bit more relaxed. Things will eventually be build anyway!