Having lived/worked in Carv.Lagoa,Porches,amongst Portuguese,Ive mostly experienced kindness&made many friends of all nationalities.Just1 or2 occassions I was treatedwith obvious dislike/indifference-my Portuguese friend said theythought i was German(as she did)-I shrugged it off,and following incident made me laugh.
Applying for residencia,my accountant(Joao)who was handling it,said to myhusband"You have to go to British Consul",turning to me,he said"You have to go toGerman consul",on asking why he said"Because youre German".i said no Im English(Im a Peckham girl(Del boy&allthat!) &couldnt be more"London").He blushed to his roots-embarrassed.Hes smashing blokeand we laughed it off together.Im naturally very blonde&it happens all the time;Im now learning German as so many people come up & speak it to me!
But Ive had nasty experience in N.France.AsI entered a cafe for lunch a man stood up&gave me nazi salute&murmed Le Bosch are here(I speak& understand French).I soon put him in his place,but felt upset for Germans who still have to put up with it;whyis it still going on this behaviour?
My younger son teaches English in Holland-the block of apartments hes in have stones thrown at windows at night.He reported it to Head,whosaid they think youre Turkish.My son said"So,does that make it right?What if next ones a petrol bomb?

Continued from above:
The Head just shrugged his shoulders saying"It happens"-the police didnt want to know!
What I love about Carvoeiro &Algarve in general is its mix of all nationalities& cultures its marvellous! and im very proud of being a Londoner with its great mixture of all races,creeds & colour,and find it very sad & worrying when people are picked on because of appearance.
One of my heroes, the courageous Martin Luther king said he hoped one day men/women would be judged by the content of their character & not by the colour of their skin.
That goes for everyone,whether they be black,brown,yellow &white and in my case blonde!
Vielen dank,
A Cockney Sparrow!

amen

I holiday a lot in Turkey and, because I am a blue-eyed, natural blonde (watch it - I'm male!) I am often mistaken for German.

I am not complaining, I actually prefer to be 'German' a lot of the time. It helps to distance me from the scum that have now discovered Turkey - yet think it is the Costa Brava. These loud-mouth, drink-sodden cretins are the reason I go to Turkey - to get away from them; and now they have tracked me down to drag me down to their pitiful level.

So, being a German has its advantages

Herr Michael Crane

Refreshingly direct, Michael.

Rest assured, ze germanz have their fair share of "loud-mouth, drink-sodden cretins", as does every other nation on the planet.

Nobody should be judged by colour, race or belief. Judging a book by it´s cover is a mistake everybody is guilty of to a certain extent.

People should be tolerant enough to give every person a chance beyond first impressions (yes, even the loud-mouth, drink-sodden cretins).
You don´t know why they are acting like that. Who knows what they are escaping from.
If 60% of the UK´s or Germany´s population says they would move away given the chance, I am not sure we should do much more than feel sorry for them. Two weeks vacation is escape time for a lot of people.

Peckham girl:
A german boy grows up in the Algarve in the 80s, goes to an international school and learns to speak fluent english, german and portuguese. At a certain age (around 8-10 years) his international colleagues start to turn around to him every so often and call him a nazi. For his nationality he gets beaten up, cast out and ignored.
Who, if not the parents, will teach these children tolerance? I believe a lot of them will turn into nazis themselves. Looking down upon people who are different with the same feeling of superiority that they have developed from a young age.

I thank my parents for teaching me tolerance to the point of not actually becoming what I was accused of being from the start.

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peckham girl...that problem he is having is called "racial profiling" or, as they say in texas, driving while black/brown...(d.w.b.), i thought that was onlya problem in the u.s.of a., but i guess not. gambrinus, ( what does that mean?) it is nice that there are people like you in the world....(as to what this has to do with carvoeiro....nothing.)