Shopping, Health Care, etc.

Well, life must go on and drudgery must be endured.  We had a day of mostly sitting at our computers taking care of mundane matters and shopping online for things we haven't found locally.  

Gerrit got a Numbeo update on the cost of living around the world in his email in-box, which can be found here.  Seattle is apparently the 8th most expensive city in the world, with Porto coming in at 112th.  So we'll be able to enjoy some luxuries here.

We were at a grocery store, and the heads of lettuce were gigantic.  Pat was wrestling one into a bag along with another woman (who didn't speak English), and they were having a laugh about it.  The woman offered in sign language to bag Pat's lettuce for her, gesturing at her holding her cane.  Everyone we run into here is so kind and gracious.

We ventured again to the Oz of department stores, El Corte Inglés, for some more household goods.  We had a lovely experience again with the helpful and friendly staff.  We both used more Portuguese than we have been doing.  Some of the clerks had only weak English, and also we are getting a little more bold about speaking.

Pat has a blood clotting disorder which requires regular lab testing to monitor her medication.  She has been investigating how to do that here.  In the US she had a home monitor which she used weekly, reporting the measurements to her care team.  This home testing cost her $247 a month for co-pay (before she got on Medicare), after insurance which had been billed for $477.  A pharmacy across the street from El Corte Inglés pointed us to an actual testing lab about two doors down, so we stepped over there to investigate our options in Portugal.

A doctor in the modern, sparkling clinic spoke excellent English.  Home test kits are not available in Portugal, she told us, but we realized that this clinic would be very convenient to visit in person.  Pat went straight in to have her blood drawn and then was looking for our Portuguese insurance card to pay.  "Oh, you don't need insurance for this", the médica said.  "It will be four Euros."  FOUR EUROS??  $4.33 for a walk-in, in-person lab test at a clinic??  Our jaws dropped, and the médica seemed to be familiar with this reaction from Americanos.  "Yes, health care is taken care of in Portugal", she said with a smile.  And we're not even residents!   She also said it would be free once we were.

But wait, there's more.  After our very pleasant experience at the clinic we stopped for lunch at Saborear Brasil, a little Brazilian street-front café a couple doors down.  They had simple and tasty meals for a flat €7.  We ordered a single meal and split it, which was plenty for us.  €7 for a nice little restaurant meal for two!

And did we mention the very clever open-parking indicators we've found in some parking garages?  I don't know if you can see it in the picture here (click to enlarge), but there are red lights above parking spots which are occupied and green lights above the open ones.  So you can just head straight for an open parking spot without creeping and peering around looking for one.  Brilliant!

(As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it, scroll through them all, and click in the black outside a photo when you're done.)

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