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Well I didn't realize that sitting at the table for several hours for a dinner was that odd! Here it's pretty common, because you go out to dinner, but in fact it's a convivial affair, where the objective is actually to spend time talking with your friends and loved ones over some good food. So it can be drawn out. Here in Portugal that is normal. Just we don't separate things quite like the Spanish do.
When I go to my aunt's for a lunch I know it will be at least 2 hours. We will sit down to eat at 2pm and finish at about 4.30pm. My favourite meals are those with fiddly things where you can spend hours poring over your plate of food, eating slowly and savouring the meal, and chatting with friends or family. Seafood is rather good for this purpose! It doesn't mean you get stuffed, if you do it right then you eat the same as if you were in a rush. Only you savour it more and you probably drink a little more wine (heh) and you just take the time to appreciate your surroundings.
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Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.
Fernando Pessoa, 1918
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