I was returning from taking our recycling to the bins down the street the other day when I saw a mother and her small child getting into their car. It was early in the morning, they were likely heading to work and school. What turned my head toward them was the little girl’s loud giggle. It made her Mom laugh too, and truth be told, it made me laugh as well. The woman turned to see where the other laugh was coming from, and we all laughed together, and I said, bom dia, with a big smile on my face.
I have to say that was one of the best mornings I’ve had in a long time. The laugh brought us together for just a moment of joy.
Since we are living in Portugal, mornings now mean waking up to the news from across the Atlantic. Lately, it’s not good. It’s filled with frightening, anxiety-building stories that I often don’t know if we should believe or not.
Four Years And Counting
We moved to Cascais, Portugal, on April 25th, 2021. We didn’t know when we made our plane reservations that the date was a national holiday in Portugal. The day of the bloodless Carnation Revolution, as it’s called, marked the start of Portugal’s democracy. As it turned out, it was the perfect day to arrive in our new country, our new home.
We didn’t know then what a good decision that would turn out to be. After Biden won the election in 2020, we, like many others, were happy but didn’t know what to expect beyond those four years. No one could have expected the U.S. to be where it is now. Without getting further into politics, let’s say that we’re glad we decided to move to Portugal when we did.
It’s Not All Rainbows and Unicorns
In the four years we’ve been here, we’ve seen so many articles/videos/social media posts about how moving to Portugal is easy, fast, and cheap. None of that could be further from the truth. I’m not sure what the incentive is to make these unbelievable claims. Clickbait? Monetary gain? Probably. We even sell a book, “101 Tips On Moving to Portugal and Once You Arrive,” but honestly, we don’t make much money from our friends at Amazon, and we primarily wrote the book to help others decide if making the huge decision to move to another country is really for them. It is loaded with a ton of useful information, especially at the price point of $4.99. We have also done a wee bit of consulting for people who want even more assistance.
However, we’ve kinda moved past all that. We’ve changed, as people do, in the last four years. Living in Portugal, we value our time more, realize we don’t have all the answers, and, frankly, don’t want to spend these days researching for other people. It’s not our jam. We’ll share our journey when it suits us, hope that people enjoy reading about it, and learn a little about us and the decisions we’ve made. That doesn’t mean we won’t help people when they reach out; it just means we’re not in the business of helping people move to a new country. We never were.
The main reason for moving to Portugal for us was to move somewhere we could live out our “golden years” in peace and safety among people who accepted us for who we are and whatever gifts or talents we bring with us. It wasn’t about running away, but rather going into a new phase of our lives. We were fortunate to be able to do that when we did.
We’re Not Retired
We’re both still working. The threat of losing our social security has made us concentrate on earning and saving what we can. I’m still teaching, we’re both writing, and Diana is still running her consulting and hypnotherapy businesses. We are not retired, but we’re not working full-time either. It’s a nice blend for us right now.
We still write here on Food Travelist, but not as often. As many of you know, the Google empire switched its algorithms a while back and made many of us small publishers non-existent, taking away web traffic and swiping our content to further build their kingdom. We pivoted time and time again to try and regain our ranking, but it’s a losing game. Now we’re here to share our stories with our fans, friends, family, and anyone else who happens to stumble upon us (anyone else remember StumbleUpon?).
Portugal is Portugal
The Portuguese bureaucracy continues to be slow, and those waiting for their residency cards or AIMA meetings can attest that patience continues to be the most important thing you bring with you to Portugal. We are now used to waiting in lines, taking numbers, and daydreaming while waiting. We’ve grown accustomed to the occasional water outage or broken garage door that can sometimes change the best-laid plans.
Overall, we’re still happy we made the move. Our original reason for moving where we did, our love of Portugal and its people, is still the same. Some Portuguese have become frustrated with the increase in immigrants and the rise in housing costs. We get it. But most welcome us and know that we bring money and, most importantly, more people into this small country with a shrinking population.
We are respectful of others. We’re not those loud Americans screaming about how “cheap” everything is here (spoiler alert: they’re not). Learning about the culture and people, and helping where we can, is very important to us.
The One Question Everyone Asks
What is the hardest part of moving and assimilating to Portugal? For us, it has been the language. While we have taken several classes, passed our A1/A2 Portuguese tests, we still struggle to have real conversations in Portuguese. As hard as we try to keep up with lessons and practicing, we just are not around enough Portuguese people to have the opportunity to learn. Portuguese friends talk to us in English, and while it’s very accommodating, it doesn’t help us learn more of the language. Portuguese shopkeepers and clerks notice our struggle and instantly change to English, wanting to practice their language learning skills.
The area that we live in is loaded with people who speak English, even more so than when we first arrived. We notice that even the local grocery store has many more English speakers roaming about, and some clerks now speak English as well.
It’s a conundrum. We’ve committed that this year we will improve our language skills, come hell or high water, stop saying, “estou a aprender português,” and know what someone is asking or saying.
And Another Thing
People ask, What do you miss from the U.S. while living in Portugal? As time goes on, we miss less and less. We have found alternatives at the grocery stores for old favorites and created new favorites here. As we’ve talked about in the past, fresh markets are loaded with wonderful produce, fish, meats, and spices. Eating seasonally is delicious and much more sustainable. Some items are only available at certain stores or markets, but you quickly learn where to find things by asking and discovering on your own.
When people now ask what they can bring us, we find ourselves saying “nothing.”
Bottom line, we miss no “things” living in Portugal, only family and friends. We’ve been fortunate to have plenty of family and friends come to visit. We hope that continues. Portugal is a terrific vacation destination. If you’re planning on coming, let us know. We’re happy to share our favorites with you and meet up if we’re in town.
Looking Forward To Living In Portugal
Like all of you, we have no clue what the future will bring. While living in Portugal, we try our best to stay healthy, visit new restaurants, travel when we can, take care of our cats, and work on things we like to do.
Costs have risen in Portugal, as they have around the world. Housing is tight and more expensive than when we first arrived. Healthcare costs are higher, and some specialty doctors – dermatologists, pulmonologists, and the like – are harder to get into than before. However, the care we get is good, and we have been very happy with our doctors, hospitals, and healthcare here in Portugal.
We are blessed to have made many good friends here in Portugal who have become family. We share holidays, old and new, with diverse people, making for wonderfully enriching cultural experiences. The Facebook group we created Queer Women and Friends In Portugal has grown to over 1,000 members. Building community here has made our lives here full and rewarding.
We have plans to travel more, explore more of Portugal, and taste everything there is to taste. We’ll see more of Europe – Spain, Greece, France, Italy, Germany – and any other places we may roam. As we get older, we continue to learn more ways to make travel easier on ourselves and the planet.
We often ponder moving to another part of Portugal to experience other areas and cultural variations. Who knows? What I do know is that we will enjoy each day to its fullest and love each other the best that we can. I can’t think of a better way to go about life.
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