26/06/2025
Surviving the heat wave in Portugal like a pro:🏆 🥵
Surviving a heat wave requires preparation. There’s no Air Con on roughly 80% of all Portuguese apartments, windows are old, glass is thin and when it’s hot outside, it’s hot inside (while in the winter when it will be freezing inside too, but that’s another story 😩). You want trees nearby, but the nearest one is a good walk from home, hence there’s no shade in the surroundings (unless your building is facing the North, and that means you’re a spoiled privileged already). Energy is very expensive in Portugal and besides the lack of proper insulation in buildings, there’s no budget to buy an air con (and no money left to turn it on). The next heat wave could be historical as temperatures will rise and top 105-110F (way over 40•c which is a lot when you are close to the coast in Lisbon or Porto). How can we survive this?
1) Open every window once the sun goes down to create that air cross breeze. Luckily you have windows in opposite sides of your house and that will do the trick. If you’re not living in the ground floor, keep the windows open all night. No one will sleep anyways, so the noise will be the least of your problems. 🪟
2) Prepare for the next morning. You’ll wake up in a spaceship 🚀 towards Mercury and it will be bad, really bad. You need to close everything once the sun is down (unless you want the fry eggs 🍳 on your kitchen counter) and your house will look inhabited for the whole day. Your neighbours will think you’re out on vacations. Keep all windows down and all estores / persianas aka blinds down. You are not allowed to let the sun inside. As a vampire 🧛♀️ your apartment will be dark as a tomb.
3) Drink water, take a bath, drink water, take a bath, eat something light (watermelon or a fresh queijo fresco with some cherry tomatoes), drink water again. 💦 🛀
4) if you go out, dress white light clothes. Wear a hat 🧢 walk under the shade. Avoid going out between 11 and 4pm unless strictly necessary. I won’t recommend you to walk on Portuguese cobblestones while it’s hot. Your fancy all stars will melt and you will sweat like a pig 🐷 on a churrasco.
5) Consider a sesta. Stay safe 🙌
