Talk about a roller coaster ride of highs & lows! Such was this past week – and why this post is too long.

The high point of the week was our appointment with SEF to apply for and get (yipeeee!) our first one-year residency permit. The Porto SEF office was a zoo. We had appointments for 9:00 & 9:30 which we expected to be first-thing. But, the place was jam-packed with immigrants of various needs and appointments already when we arrived at 8:15. The girl at the desk said we could not “check-in” for our appointment (get a number) until 15 minutes ahead. Fortunately, when I went to get mine, she offered to give me a number for Wayne as well. Then, when I was called, we were both able to go together and share paperwork with one desk person. Previously, each person always had to have separate interviews. Our person was quite pleasant in spite of her limited English. She scanned our paperwork into the system at super speed. The only slight hiccup was that we flew in through Munich and did customs there so we did not have a stamp showing our arrival in Porto. The law states we were to have gotten a stamp within 3 days of arrival. Ooops. She graciously said it would not be a problem because we (Gail) had called and scheduled our SEF appointment the same day we arrived. We were out of there at 10:00 with temporary permits in hand. No idea when the permanent cards will arrive by mail.

The low point of the week came before our SEF appointment on Tuesday night. We went out with friends for drinks & dinner which was great fun. We took an Uber back to out apartment.  Unfortunately, seconds after the Uber sped off, Wayne realized he’d left my backpack in the back seat. It contained my wallet with all my US and PT bank cards, credit card, driver’s license, metro tickets, and the 400 euros we had just pulled out of the ATM to take to SEF for our residency permits. Plus a pair of glasses and other items. Thank goodness I was carrying my camera and hadn’t put it in the bag as I sometimes do. We freaked out, of course. We contacted the driver through the Uber app which took about 30 minutes before he answered. He claimed there was nothing in the car. Swore he was pulled over and searching the backseat. He’d had 3 or 4 fares since us.

This lead to a depressing and sleepless night for both of us. I stressed about having to cancel all my bank cards just as we were in the middle of transferring funds from the US needed to close on our new apartment. We could not afford to have any problems getting the cash and the timing was already tight. I constantly checked all my accounts to watch for fraudulent charges. Nothing popped up over-night.

Annual Event in Matosinhos. Small, but cute.

The next morning, Wednesday, Wayne went back to the restaurant to see if maybe he’d actually left the bag there. Nope. We decided to tread water for a couple days to buy us time to come up with a plan. That night at 7:00 we were to meet the seller of the apartment at the real estate office in Matosinhos and pay our 10% deposit. Just hours before we were to meet, the paranoid seller decided that getting the money in two transfers from our PT bank would not do and she wanted a certified check instead. So, off we went to the bank to figure out how to get that here on short notice. The fee was an annoying 20.80 euros, but otherwise it was relatively easy. The signing of the promise to buy and meeting with the seller went smoothly. By the time we got back home we were dog tired and twitchy about our SEF appointment the next day. Another rough night.

Minutes after coming out of our SEF appointment, I got a Facebook messenger request from someone I did not recognize. I decided to accept it anyway. Good thing.  It was a police office who said in limited English that  he had found my “wallet” at a bus stop and it was now at a police station across town. We raced over in an Uber and were stunned to find my backpack there with everything in it – except the 400 euros, of course. Still, I was thrilled to have all my bank cards and license back so I could avoid all that hassle. I just hope whoever stole the money really needed it.

The next low point of the week came when I emailed our landlady to officially let her know we’d be ending our lease on March 1; much earlier than our June 15 maximum in the contract. She got completely bent and insisted that we owe her the whole thing. Fortunately, we’d had the contract reviewed by our attorney before we signed it and again before we started looking at apartments to buy. He assured us (twice) that we are only required to give her 10 days’ notice. We will meet with him this week to discuss it but he believes that the landlady is just trying to shake us down. We have paid all of March rent already plus a month’s security deposit. We hope to get both (mostly) back but are not counting on it. She doesn’t care what our attorney says. This could get ugly.

Saturday we rented a car for the day. Rental cars are super cheap here in the off season. Some compact cars were as low as 5 euros for the day with limited mileage and a lesser-known rental company. We opted for Thrifty with unlimited mileage for about 20 euros. We drove to the small town of Paços de Ferreira about 20 minutes from the airport. It is known as the furniture capital of Europe with countless manufacturers; many have showrooms/stores selling directly to the public. Buyers come there from many countries – especially France.

We spent the whole day Saturday driving from one furniture store to another and seeing an absurd amount of furniture. We logged 6.6 miles and 13 floors on the app. We decided to order a sofa, ottoman, dining table with 6 chairs, and a rug at one place we liked. Everything is made to your order and specifications. We lucked out in that they called the only person who spoke good English to assist us and he turned out to be the manager of the stores (they have 3 or 4 stores there.) He was a delightful young man who worked very hard with us even though we are definitely low-budget compared to most of their clients. We found a sofa style we liked but it was a little shorter than we wanted. “No problem. I can make it 10, 15, 20 centimeters more. I can change the feet. You can choose from hundreds of fabrics. I can design an ottoman to match the curves of the sofa…”  “Don’t like the wide arms? I can make then narrower.” The dining table was a bit more money than we wanted to spend. “No problem. I can make it fixed without the drawer you don’t want anyway and it will be 200€ less.” “You can’t decide on a color for the 2 sofa pillows I am giving you free? No problem. I will have my designer choose and surprise you.” The prices weren’t cheap, but significantly less than we’d pay for equal quality in the US and they include delivery to our 3rd floor apartment (up the stairs) and set-up.  He said the normal time to build and deliver is 8 weeks. He felt sorry for us since we were going to be moving in with nothing but a mattress on the floor in 2 weeks, so he said he’d try to get us our sofa in 3 weeks. That’s impressive since we waited 3-4 months for both the last custom sofa & dining set we bought. Plus, the delivery added quite a bit.

Sunday was more shopping at a local mall and big box stores. We bought a clothes washing machine & dishwasher to be delivered after closing plus some basics like towels, sheets, and such. It is so fun & challenging trying to translate everything and learning how different everything is done here versus what we are accustomed to. I sit here now looking back at the crazy week as Wayne cooks a yummy dinner while we share a delicious  bottle of Vinho Verde that cost 2.49 euros. What a great ride!