Minha Morada em Portugal

Where to start to explain this adventure?

I spend a whole lot of time thinking about moving to Europe. When I was younger, it was really about Britain. I was such a BBC and Masterpiece Theater loving Anglophile nerd kid in the ‘80’s that when my initial plans didn’t work out after college, I just got on a plane and toured around the UK, imagining I was living there, happy as a clam. In later years I travelled around to other places in Europe, which were wonderful, but no other place struck me as a possible place to live. And eventually, raising kids and needing jobs and living in the pre-pandemic world, finding a job that could make anything a viable option to just pick up and move certainly seemed impossible. I talked about “taking a year” and going somewhere a lot, but it wasn’t based in reality. Neither my ex nor I had the kind of jobs that would allow for that kind of flexibility. And we weren’t going to break out of that, it didn’t seem plausible.

However, we took a trip Lisbon about 11 years ago and – it felt different. It was so beautiful in this faded, romantic way – everything felt like a set of a WWI movie, or more specifically a crumbling post-WWI movie set – but it felt much more real and low key than London, Paris, Rome. It felt more livable and manageable. It was the first European city I toured where I could really see the people who made a home there first rather than the tourists/students, etc. I loved it so much and felt so comfortable there, even though I didn’t know the language.

Portugal was making a few strategic moves at that time regarding opportunities for foreign residents – coming out of a depressed economy, they opened their doors to foreigners investing in real estate and business, and made it a very attractive prospect. They implemented advantageous flat tax rates, access to a good health care system, and more by taking part in the Golden Visa program, where individuals living outside the country can buy in to resident processes and services. And the initial output of money to do this was not exorbitant – it was really reasonable, so many people took advantage of the opportunity to buy primary residences, 2nd homes, short-and long term rental investments, etc. and many people saw moving to Portugal as a viable option for raising their families for a much lower cost of living, among other benefits.

It’s kind of funny that I am giving this little lecture here as I’m not exactly an expert on these international economic trends, but it is keeping my mind off the turbulence…

Then in 2020, the world exploded, and we all started paying attention to younger people’s lives online. As these people popped up and started talking about their digital nomad lifestyle, I got so jealous. When I was young I was not the kind of person to “travel for a year.” I needed/wanted a job to support myself, and I thought of travel as a vacation. The options that existed then were really just not suitable for me during a time when my life could have been more flexible. But now, there are ways to move around and have a job too, and that makes all the difference. Many people are funding these travels by creating their own content and honestly that is not that appealing to me – I’m not looking to be my own boss in that way. But the idea of having an office job that used to sit at a desk locally and now can be anywhere? That’s appealing. The world seems wide open in a new way and I wish/hope I can find a way to access it longer term. The world has changed and my needs and I have changed too.

Unfortunately just as I started planning for this, the newer administration in Portugal started to significantly change its tune. After 10+ years of their borders being open in these financially appealing ways, so many foreign residents have moved in, that it has created a less than desirable situation for Portuguese locals. Real estate prices have skyrocketed, housing inventory has decreased and is increasingly less available for those working in the country that need housing. Digital nomad and passive income visas changed the landscape so much that the government now wants to limit these options. Restrictions have been put in place over the last year to make the taxes situation less desirable to non-Portuguese residents and to limit the use of housing for short-term rentals. So, a reversal. It does not make buying or moving there impossible to consider, but it is no longer easy as pie.

Tony and I spend an inordinate amount of time watching travel videos about how to pack for an overseas trip with only a carry-on. Really, a *lot* of videos – and they all give pretty much the same information – but it’s like comfort food to me. Every once in a while someone has a new tip we haven’t heard, like you can create a hanging footrest at your airplane seat by putting your crossbody bag over your seat tray! I’ve actually been traveling with this minimalist bag philosophy for years – I remember buying everyone in our family a different color carry-on for a trip to Scotland and Iceland almost a decade ago in winter and being an absolute dictator about making everyone stick to the guidelines of rolling all of their clothes very small in their bags, including all the bulky gear for Iceland, which was a real feat. But, at the time, I didn’t know there was a whole travel community obsessed with one-bag travel. I thought it was just me controlling everything. I guess others like to control everything too.

So, I am going to Portugal for a month with just a carry-on and a very overstuffed little backpack. I chose a large (we’ll see) 4 bedroom apartment in Coimbra, which is the third largest city in Portugal and has the oldest University in Europe. It is in central PT, on the Mondego River, and is full of medieval UNESCO sites. It is also the home to its own kind of Fado, a particular kind of music in Portugal. Fado is an emotional, wistful, woeful kind of singing with acoustic instrumentation that is very – deep. It is mournful and full-bodied. It is usually sung by women, but in Coimbra, it’s lovelorn men. Maybe it is the vocal equivalent of Spanish Flamenco? I’m not sure of that. It’s kind of Edith Piaf-y too. My brother and sister-in-law went to Portugal on their honeymoon 24 years ago and Coimbra made a lasting impression. I didn’t go there when I visited, but their description stuck with me – so, when there was an opportunity to carve out this little adventure for a few weeks, this felt like the right choice. A city, but not a huge one. Things to do, put not a big tourist spot. People just live there. And there are tons of students to keep it interesting. I’m not going there to be a tourist. I’m going there to live there and see if I would like to do more of that someday.

My IT department at work has FedExed me a monitor, dock and a keyboard (cheap ones that won’t matter if I can’t bring them back) and those will show up at my Airbnb on Monday. I have my Surface laptop with me, as well as my iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, Kindle, Echo Dot… many modes and methods of communication are available. There is supposedly good WiFi at the apartment and as long as I can get that going, I should be able to work just like I do from Queens when I work from home. I should even be able to do most of it even if there is a delay with FedEx for any reason…

So… we are in the air, and the turbulence has been bad enough right from the get go that they are not even starting the cabin service and they think it will be 90 minutes until it calms down. I mention this because since Tony and I started traveling after the pandemic in 2021 (or actually during, we still had to get negative Covid tests for our Iceland trip), I had noted that there has been barely any turbulence on the long haul flights we have taken – so of course I am not loving how bumpy this one is, as I am historically a pretty nervous solo flyer…

At the suggestion of my Airbnb host, I booked a shuttle to take me right to the apartment in Coimbra. The other option is to take a cab into Lisbon and then a train out for a 2 hour trip. This shuttle ends up being, at most, $20-30 more and hopefully a bit quicker so I am hoping it is the smart option. We land at 8am, I’ll get the shuttle at 9:30 and should be at the apartment before noon.

Monday is MLKJr Day, so no work. I have no set plans until work starts on Tuesday morning, which will be 14:00 Coimbra time. I’m not going see any sights until bff Maurala comes to visit on Thursday (or Friday depending how she’s feeling), so this Sunday and Monday are going to be all about walking around, finding the supermarket, the bank, cafés to work in, laundromat, figuring out the buses, etc. I’m going to inhabit my digital nomad-ness and act like I live here and not be a tourist. Next weekend, we will be tourists.

I didn’t have time to get a haircut before I left so I need to find a place to get it cut there. I probably won’t find anyone to do my specific dry curly Ouidad cut there, but since I just started over in Queens with a new stylist, I can get a European haircut. It will be very stylish, and they have curly hair in Portugal too. (I just realized I may have given my mother a heart attack if she’s reading this, she doesn’t trust haircuts. Sorry Mom❤️)

I joined a few Coimbra/Portugal related Facebook groups this past year in preparation for this trip. One is specifically Coimbra Expats and they have meetups and events. There is a monthly expat dinner meetup on Saturday night at a restaurant called Beer’s that I’m planning to go to – Maura will be here but she is ok with me going solo if she isn’t feeling it. This Facebook group also has lots of detailed information about what is needed to make the move to Portugal and the steps of the residency visa process. I got a referral for a realtor from that group and reached out. She lives outside of Coimbra but will be able to meet up in town during the week of 1/23. I’ve been looking at listings on idealista.pt all year and have a few current listings I would like to see-

More bumpy air… ugh, this is pretty bumpy…

I would be interested in looking at 2- or 3 bdrm apartment in old charming apartment buildings (but well maintained and not dilapidated). Studios are called estúdios and larger units are called T1, T2, T3, etc. Not sure what the T stands for, since bedroom is quarto in Portuguese, but will ask when I connect with Kirsty the realtor. Who would live in this fantasy apartment? How would I use it? I’m not sure yet. Retirement is not imminent, but with kids out of the house and no desire to buy any property in New York or really anywhere in the US, maybe this could be exciting.