Seems odd in a country of low crime that we all have bars on our windows.
When we arrived three years ago we didn't have bars, however, after being burgled within two weeks of moving here, it was either move back to the UK (seemed a bit like falling at the first hurdle) or increase our personal security. After conversations about the prison aspects of bars on all the windows we decided our valuables, and ourselves, were more important so out came the jackhammers (all building work in Portugal involves copious quantities of jackhammering) and moments later we were all barred up. I say 'moments' as our builders were all superbly hard working eastern europeans - of course!
We also installed an alarm, the portuguese installer said that local people dont believe in alarms as their belongings were worth less than the alarm itself.
The portuguese variously blame gypsies or eastern europeans for all these problems (sound familiar?), but I have a sneaky suspicion that its actually mainly the portuguese themselves.
When I collected my crime report from the local GNR station the officer said that we were unlucky as theft in our area is very low, he then proceeded to sift through a pile of crime reports a foot high on his desk rather contradicting his view.
Now we all have bars as the reality is that there is lots of theft here, but not much physical violence. We can rest easy in our beds knowing we won't get hurt, but our ipods will probably be nicked tomorrow.
When we arrived three years ago we didn't have bars, however, after being burgled within two weeks of moving here, it was either move back to the UK (seemed a bit like falling at the first hurdle) or increase our personal security. After conversations about the prison aspects of bars on all the windows we decided our valuables, and ourselves, were more important so out came the jackhammers (all building work in Portugal involves copious quantities of jackhammering) and moments later we were all barred up. I say 'moments' as our builders were all superbly hard working eastern europeans - of course!
We also installed an alarm, the portuguese installer said that local people dont believe in alarms as their belongings were worth less than the alarm itself.
The portuguese variously blame gypsies or eastern europeans for all these problems (sound familiar?), but I have a sneaky suspicion that its actually mainly the portuguese themselves.
When I collected my crime report from the local GNR station the officer said that we were unlucky as theft in our area is very low, he then proceeded to sift through a pile of crime reports a foot high on his desk rather contradicting his view.
Now we all have bars as the reality is that there is lots of theft here, but not much physical violence. We can rest easy in our beds knowing we won't get hurt, but our ipods will probably be nicked tomorrow.
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