Portugal - The First Couple Months

Our nearby beach in Estoril

After months of preparing to move overseas, doing the actual moving, and finally getting settled into our place in Portugal, I am finally starting to feel human again. Uprooting one’s life and moving to a new country where you don’t speak the language (yet) is not for the faint of heart, and it is a humbling experience to say the least. BUT, and it’s a big but, we feel so privileged and lucky to be here pursuing our dream of life in Europe!

The trip over was quite an ordeal with our 2 dogs, cat (collectively know as the Smallivers), and 9 pieces of luggage including my husband’s giant wing foil bag. Holy excess baggage fees Batman! We looked like a traveling circus, but somehow we navigated the cross country flight, a night in a hotel (thank God for portable litter boxes), and another trip over the pond to Lisbon. PSA: if you ever do something like this, be sure to book transportation to and from your hotel. We didn’t, and it was nearly impossible to find a vehicle that was big enough AND wiling to pick us up with three animals.

We arrived in Lisbon on a very rainy morning and thankfully our friend Luisa had arranged transportation for us. We were incredibly anxious to get the animals to our rental house so they could stretch their legs and we could all finally get some sleep.

Unfortunately our rental was absolutely filthy, having never been cleaned after the previous tenants, so after a trip to the store for basic groceries and cleaning supplies, we spent the first several hours trying to make the place livable. Our landlord is very kind and he has fixed several issues, but this place has a ridiculous amount of deferred maintenance and it was far from ready to rent. I should mention that they have had months to sort everything out since the place was sitting empty for nearly 4 months before we arrived. You have to prove your place of residence for your visa application, so we had to pay rent until we got our visas.

Eventually we got the place clean and we’ve spent the last few weeks getting the basics we need for the next couple of months until our stuff arrives. The weather has been awful at best and everyone here keeps reassuring us that this is NOT normal, so we were cautiously optimistic. Then, only 4 weeks after our arrival, Portugal was hit by storm Martinho which brought winds of up to 98 mph taking out an estimated 100,000 trees, disrupting transportation with blocked roads and railways, and leading to insurance claims of roughly €50 million.

I really underestimated the toll that this move would take on me, maybe because I was so excited about it, and maybe because I was in denial, or just too swamped to think about it. Either way, the last couple months have been a practice in self-compassion and flexibility. All my routines went out the window and the habits and rituals that keep me grounded were temporarily inaccessible, so I had to roll with it and find other ways to nurture my body and regulate my nervous system.

Thankfully the food here is mostly local, seasonal, and minimally processed (aka more nutritious), and there are plentiful possibilities to connect with nature and other like-minded people so we don’t feel isolated. We finally just joined a gym and this week I got my first real weight workouts in in about 2 months. A good workout feels like such a luxury to me after not being able to keep up with it during the moving process!

A lot of people have asked me about the language barrier, and honestly, most people in the Lisbon area speak English, so it’s not a big problem. However, older generations and people in more rural areas and blue collar jobs don’t speak English, so it can be very humbling and challenging to navigate everyday tasks like calling a utility company or asking for help in shops. We’ve been using language apps and will start our local Portuguese classes soon, and I’m very eager to get beyond the basic greetings.

I have always admired immigrants for their courage and tenacity, but now I have an even deeper respect and appreciation for the struggles that people go through in pursuit of a better life. My experience may have it’s challenges, but it cannot be compared in any way to the hardships faced by people who have no choice but to flee their homes because of violence and political upheaval.

Portugal faces it’s own issues with immigration, racism, and xenophobia, but in general the people here have been gracious and welcoming to us. However, we might get a very different reception as foreigners in more rural areas, or if we were not obviously of European heritage.

I read something very interesting recently about the difference between an “immigrant” and an “expat”. Technically the terms are defined as such: An expat is a person who lives outside their native country, usually for a limited period of time, and may or may not intend to return to their home country. On the other hand, an immigrant is a person who moves to a new country with the intention of settling there permanently. According to these definitions I am technically an expat, but if I decide to stay permanently, I will then be an immigrant.

However, in this excellent post on Girl Vs Globe, the author Sabina unpacks our perception of the two terms and I think she makes very good points.

Another aspect of moving overseas is figuring out new options or workarounds for basic things that one took for granted at “home”. Things like cleaning supplies, snacks, where to shop for what, and weird stuff like different dimensions for bedding and no screens on windows (especially bad for mosquito magnets like me!). Sometimes it’s fun to find new products and alternatives, but sometimes it’s downright frustrating when you think something should be easy to find but it’s just not a thing here.

All in all we have no regrets about the move, and in spite of the weather, Portugal has far exceeded our expectations. It’s not as polished and manicured as other parts of Europe, but the warmth and kindness of the people and the spectacular natural beauty more than make up for it.

I can’t wait to explore the country more and share our experiences here. I’ll try to write another update soon and share pictures, so stay tuned.

See you next time!