All I can add is that I've been in Lisbon for the past four days and am totally charmed. In that time I have seen 2 beggars and NO gangs of Africans and no one who could be called the least bit threatening. Maybe I've been in the wrong places!!!

Gorgeous city and absolutely enthralling. Like no where else I've been before.

Glad you're enjoying my city, ekscrunchy! No, you're in the right places

Luz: Lisbon is fabulous! I had worried after reading reports of gangs of beggars and all that. Those reports just sound ridiculous now. People have been so kind, and I am amazed at how widely English is spoken by young and old. (Spanish, on the other hand, has not been useful as people we've met speak perfect English)

There is wonderfully varied architecture and music in the streets. And those gorgeous sidewalks!!

One more thing: After hearing reports about open drug use and tourists being approached to buy drugs, I have too report that not only have I seen no evidence of drug use but no one has attempted to sell me anything at all on the street except for one guy who was peddling selfie sticks tag a panoramic lookout point.
I've never even smelled marijuana during my walks around the city!

Also, Lisbon is a lot easier to navigate than I had expected. We have been able to walk everywhere except to Belem, to which we took a taxi for 6 euro. And the streets, with a few exceptions, are not as steep as I had feared.

With a total of 5 days here, we will only have scratched the surface, so I hope to return someday for more time here, and time to explore the rest of the mainland, not to mention the islands!

So pleased you are enjoying Lisbon! But why on earth would you expect people to speak Spanish? Not only do they speak Portuguese in Portugal, there is a long history of bad relations between Spain and Portugal - that's why the train systems barely connect, and why Spanish weather maps leave Portugal blank.

I find that a good number of people here are able to understand and communicate in Spanish. There are quite a few companies here with offices in Spain. And there are a ton of Spanish tourists here, who don't necessarily speak English. Having said that, English is definitely the number one non-Portuguese language spoken, with French being second.

Interesting. The Brazilians I met in Argentina said they coukd understand Spanish, but not speak it.

Thurs, I recently went to the cinema to see a French film, and it turned out that the subtitles were in Spanish, not Portuguese. I can read a bit of Spanish but it was still a challenge. The rest of the audience, however, whether it was from the audio or the subtitles, was getting all the jokes

While in Lisbon, we had no problem speaking English with everyone. And, we found our hosts to be especially gracious and welcoming. It's a charming city, indeed.

We loved how restaurants put seating on the sidewalks and stair landings, creating a lively and fun atmosphere in the evenings.

Loved Lisbon!

I did not expect most people to speak Spanish but I did think that Spanish might be more widely spoken than English, due only to geographical proximity and the similarities in the two languages. (We found many people in the Basque region who were able to speak French.) But when I began to speak Spanish, the locals I met would switch to English after asking me if I spoke that language. (I've now dropped the Spanish!)

In any case, English seems to be very widely spoken and spoken very well, more so than in the case of Spain, I think, at least on first impression and speaking only of Lisbon. Very impressive. But I do wish that I had learned some Portuguese before I arrived, just to be respectful and open conversational doors.

http://www.lisbonlux.com/magazine/th...fes-in-lisbon/

I found that my Spanish allowed me to read some of the Portuguese, but not understand the spoken language.

This was no surprise, though. To me, the similarities of all the Romance languages are more obvious in the writing than in the speaking (as it is with regional dialects of the same language.)

ssander

We spoke french in almost everywhere in Lisbon. Starting with the taxi driver.

A very general rule of thumb for the person on the street is that if they are over 50 or so, French is probably their second language (having learned it in school in that era), and under 50 it is English.

Glad that this thread got resurrected. Lisbon has been on my to do list for the last 40 years ever since I missed going there by a day due to the Portuguese very inconsiderately deciding to have a revolution the day before we were due to arrive [could have been worse I suppose!] but I haven't done much about it since then.

Rick Stein just did a programme about it and it piqued my interest again.

Glad you're having good time, Eck!

How inappropriate. Reminds me of a member of Metallica overdosing the week before I was to go to their concert.

These guys/countries have no respect for their clients/tourists.

Portugal was a great trip.

Agree. Imagine, I had great seats to see Juan Gabriel in Brooklyn and look what he upped and did a couple of weeks before!

thank you for the sympathy, WoinP and Eck. Still, I don't hold a grudge and am still prepared to grace Lisbon with my presence, sometime.

Eckscrunchy- we were advised not to use Spanish, rather English, as the Portugese are not big fans of Spain. We met Cuban-Americans who said they quickly switched from Spanish to English when facing hostility.
We found the Portuguese people to be among the nicest we have met anywhere, perhaps the kindest and most thoughtful of all.

We will be leaving for Lisbon in 10 days. Looking forward to the short visit. I always fret about the weather more than language. It looks like a very pretty city to me.