Living There
The tourism argument, without picking a side
Lisbon has a real and unresolved tension about visitors, and understanding it is more useful than feeling guilty about it.
Living There
Longer stays, admin, seasons and the city underneath the tourism.
20 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 1 of 2
Living There
Staying longer: the admin nobody warns you about
Beyond a few weeks the city becomes a place with paperwork, and the paperwork has its own rhythm.
More in Living There
Living There
Housing pressure, explained mechanically
Rents in the city rose fast for several connected reasons, and knowing which are local helps you read the argument.
Living There
Becoming a regular, and why it takes three weeks
The neighbourhood cafe rewards repetition rather than friendliness, and the shift when it happens is unmistakable.
Living There
Winter indoors: damp, cold and the standard responses
The most common complaint from people who move here is about being cold in a warm country, and the reasons are structural.
Living There
August, and the city that leaves
The month everyone visits is the month residents go somewhere else, and the city runs on a skeleton of itself.
Living There
Learning Portuguese past the ordering stage
The gap between café vocabulary and actual conversation is large, and the pronunciation is what makes it large.
Living There
Making coffee at home in a Portuguese kitchen
The equipment, the water and the beans available locally push you toward some methods and away from others.
Living There
The supermarket coffee aisle, decoded
A wall of vacuum bricks and capsules follows a logic, and almost none of it is about origin.
Living There
The shape of a residential week
Once you stop sightseeing, the city runs on a weekly rhythm that is easy to miss and useful to know.
Living There
Why friendships here take a year, not a fortnight
Social warmth is immediate and social integration is slow, and confusing the two is the standard newcomer disappointment.
Living There
Old shops, heritage listing and what protection actually does
The city has a scheme for protecting historic shops, and its limits explain why some of them still close.