E-VITA

As a German citizen, my first trip from Germany to Portugal took place during my semester holidays in July 1967, a time when Portugal was still a dictatorship. I remember being fascinated by the diversity of landscapes all the way on the roadtrip and it took us several days to arrive. I was interested in learning Portuguese as I was studying languages at university, and I became fascinated by the Portuguese language following a previous trip to Brazil, where I first got in touch with the language. Portugal is totally different from Brazil in many aspects, yet there is a lot in common because of the language and history. I became fascinated with Portugal, as it was so different from Germany in many aspects, at that time.

When I arrived in Lisbon, and in order to make some extra pocket money, I gave German lessons to students. As it was examination period, I had many students. Lessons usually took place at their homes; therefore, I had to travel a lot by taxi trough the city, in order to arrive on time to my appointments. However, compared to Germany, the Portuguese living standard was quite low. I had quite a hard time to get used to this new reality, and I could not use money the same way as I was used to in Germany. Therefore, I would have to charge local rates for my lessons, which were very low compared to what I could charge, for example, for an hourly lesson in Germany. In order to spend my money wisely, I decided for example, not to spend more than 10 Escudos for a taxi ride. And when the taximeter reached 10 Escudos on a ride, I dropped off and walked until my final destination. At that time, 1 German Mark corresponded to 7,5 Portuguese Escudos.

I kept in touch with my family and friends in Germany by mail. In Portugal, a phone call abroad had to be registered and made at a Post office, and could not be made from an average home phone. I would have to wait in a long queue at a Post office in order to make a call. Therefore, the mail was the most common option.

A couple of weeks later, I received good news from my university in Germany: I was approved for a scholarship for 9 months, in order to make some research for my final Dissertation. I received a monthly sum, which I had to pick up at the National Bank, presenting each time an official authorization from the university. It was a very bureaucratic procedure. Also, as a foreign citizen, I was obliged to register and show up regularly at the PIDE, the "international and state defense police", also known as the secret police under the dictatorship. At the end of the first month, and before I could pick up my monthly scholarship sum, I had to hand in my passport at that authority, in order to get a visa extension. However, I could only receive my passport back, once I paid a certain amount of money, and I needed the scholarship money to be able to pay that amount. Therefore, this was a very unpleasant situation: without paying my visa extension, no passport back, and without my passport, I couldn’t pick up my monthly allowance! After a long discussion with the desk clerk (my attempt to carefully beat the Portuguese bureaucracy system), he finally gave me my passport, authorized me to pick up the money at the bank first and then come back, and pay my visa extension. I was quite relieved at that point, as I was told by many friends in Portugal that I had to be very careful with the PIDE, not discussing too loud with any officer or get into any unpleasant discussion, as they could deport me at any time, if I was not following their rules.

During the following months, and after finally figuring out how the system worked, I was much more careful with spending and saving money, in order to avoid this kind of situation with the PIDE.

My first 9 month long experience in Portugal ended up being very pleasant and after graduating, I came back for many years, married my Portuguese boyfriend and acquired the citizenship, and worked as a translator for many years.
 

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