Talia's Portugal Reset

A life-threatening medical emergency in 2021 transformed Talia's casual "someday" dream of living abroad into an urgent mission to reshape her family's future. After surviving severe sepsis, memory loss, and a medically-induced coma, she found herself questioning everything about their conventional life in Texas, especially after unexpectedly becoming pregnant during her recovery.

Now celebrating her first anniversary in Portugal's Silver Coast region, Talia reveals how her family completed the entire relocation process in under a year – from quitting her nonprofit job to securing visas and finding housing. She candidly shares that transporting their two medium-large dogs proved more challenging than navigating Portuguese bureaucracy, requiring an elaborate cross-country journey just to catch a direct flight from Miami.

The reality of Portuguese living includes unexpected adjustments – managing indoor humidity, planning laundry around weather patterns, and receiving shocking utility bills due to different meter-reading systems. Yet these challenges pale compared to the profound benefits: her toddler attends an excellent school with meals and extracurriculars for just €218 monthly, everything in town is accessible within a 15-minute walk, and they've built a supportive community that was elusive in Dallas.

Talia's experience highlights the relativity of "affordability" in Portugal – some things like raspberries are puzzlingly expensive while others like childcare are dramatically cheaper. For those contemplating similar moves, she emphasizes researching specific locations through dedicated Facebook groups rather than asking broad questions, and focusing on your true priorities rather than getting caught in subjective debates about cost of living. Above all, her story demonstrates how tragedy can transform into opportunity when we're willing to release our preconceptions about what life should look like.

Has a health scare or major life event ever made you rethink your priorities? How would your quality of life change if you reimagined where and how you live? Join our community to explore these questions and learn from others who've already taken the leap.

Follow Talia's journey: https://www.youtube.com/@TaliaFiona

Chapters

• 1:30 Introducing Talia's One-Year Anniversary
• 7:10 Life-Altering Medical Crisis and Motivation
• 17:30 From Costa Rica Plans to Portugal Decision
• 23:00 The Visa Process and Moving Challenges
• 33:30 Bringing Dogs Overseas: The Biggest Challenge
• 43:20 Reality of Daily Life in Portugal
• 52:30 Building Community and Finding Friends Abroad
• 1:02:30 Affordability, Schools, and Quality of Life

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

I've seen a lot of change, been through a lot of pain. Everyone has very different opinions about the cost of living here and that's because everybody comes from different places and everybody's relation to cost of living is different. Um, but comparatively to other you know European countries um, portugal is more affordable than than many and um has a better climate than many um and a easier visa process than many. And the five-year path to citizenship I think is pretty unique to Portugal. I don't know if many countries have that quick of a path. I think it's the better this time. I thought I would never be fine. I strive just to stay.

Speaker 2: 1:18

Dreaming of a life in Portugal, or maybe you're just curious about what it would be like to move here. My family and I began planning for our move way back in 2020. It took two more years to make it happen, and it has been quite an adventure. Before you pack your bags, listen in to hear the real stories of those who've already taken the leap. Every other Wednesday, we dive deep into the experiences of individuals and families who chose to make Portugal their home, Discover their motivations, the challenges they faced and the unexpected joys they encountered along the way. We'll explore their preparation strategies, navigating bureaucracy and the realities of building a new life in a foreign land, of building a new life in a foreign land. Whether you're seriously considering a move or simply curious about life in Portugal, these authentic accounts will offer invaluable insights and help you decide if this sun-drenched country is someplace you want to relocate to or maybe just visit on vacation.

Speaker 2: 2:31

Welcome to Mover, portugal, unpacked. February 15th 2024. That's the day Talia traded the someday dream for a real life in Portugal. After a life-altering medical event in 2021, the clock was ticking. Someday became now. Today we explore why Portugal, the climate, the cost of living that actually matters, the endless travel and the sheer breathtaking beauty became Talia and her family's escape, their reset, their life. Talia, I'm really excited to hear your story today. Thank you for being here.

Speaker 1: 3:12

Thank you for having me. I am wearing my husband's gamer headset because my laptop sound and mic were not working properly. So that's why and my voice is very much in my head right now, so I'm probably going to get sick of my own voice in a minute.

Speaker 2: 3:32

Well, hopefully our conversation will be so stimulating you will just completely forget it For sure. So you just celebrated your one year abroad anniversary February 15th, like right after Valentine's. Congratulations.

Speaker 1: 3:48

Thank you. Yeah, we actually left on Valentine's Day, but it was, you know, one of those romantic red eye flights overnight and arrived on the 15th, so both days feel like our anniversary.

Speaker 2: 4:03

Yeah, so how's it feeling one year in?

Speaker 1: 4:07

It feels wonderful. To be honest, we feel like we've been here a lot longer and that time has kind of gone by really slow in that sense, and that's probably not a typical feeling people have. And it doesn't mean anything negative. It doesn't mean, oh my gosh, time is just dragging. I think it's more that so much has happened. Getting here was such an extreme journey with so many like millions of steps, and then, once we're here, you know so much has happened with our rental and buying a car and go to school and all the traveling and the visitors and I think it's more just like my brain cannot compute that that all of that has only happened in one year. So it feels like touching down in Portugal and getting here and that whole journey. It feels like it was at least five years ago.

Speaker 2: 5:15

Well, I think that's actually a pretty common experience. Anytime you have any new experience, right, that's the one that sticks in your head and you remember every detail of it. And that's one of the things that I myself have. I don't want it's not a struggle, but it is this constant learning, I mean, just like the most learning I think I have ever done in my life, and that does kind of mess with your sense of time.

Speaker 1: 5:42

I agree that does kind of mess with your sense of time. I agree, yes, so much learning, so many new experiences, so many like it's just so much. And so I think our brains are just like. It just feels like so much more time has passed than it has. It doesn't mean I'm like, oh, I feel like I've been here forever, like I don't even speak the language, so you'll always be reminded that you're a newbie here when you go into, like any establishment and they don't know English and you don't know Portuguese, but so that's humbling. But no, it just feels like it was a very long time ago that we touched down here. But it's been yeah, it's been such a busy but incredible year and, of course, the first couple months were stressful, um, and the stress, you know, like it doesn't ever completely go away, but it's definitely like we got through the worst of it and now we are just just enjoying life in Portugal and feeling more settled, for sure.

Speaker 2: 6:50

And there's a lot to enjoy here. So can you kind of take me back though, walk me through your journey, like your? Why? How did you get here? What made you decide to take the leap, and then what did that leap look like? What made you decide to take the leap, and then what?

Speaker 1: 7:04

did that leap look like? Yeah, like, as with many people, my husband and I, you know, would always be like, oh, someday, wouldn't it be nice to move abroad? We should totally do that someday, and I think a lot of people do that, and it doesn't ever come to fruition and you don't ever really take that thought seriously. Um, and then, in February 2021, I had a very scary, very serious, um medical emergency that I almost lost my life to and, um, I won't go. I could talk about that forever, but, um, I know that, like, that will bring a lot of curiosity and I do not mind talking about it.

Speaker 1: 7:54

Um, I had severe sepsis and um, and it was not caught and not diagnosed for a while, so it was allowing it to just get worse. And I had some pretty negative hospital experiences leading up to me my husband having to, like, find me in the midst of a seizure, unconscious, had to call an ambulance. I had multiple seizures. Getting to the hospital, at some point I picked up viral meningitis because my body was just fighting the sepsis, and I came out of that. I was in a medically induced coma for a weekend and then spent a week in the hospital recovering.

Speaker 1: 8:42

I had severe cognitive issues. I had memory loss. I could not remember the last 10 years. I did not know that my husband was my husband. I did not know that I lived in Dallas. I thought I lived in Austin. I thought I was 23. Three Um and uh. So I had a lot of neurological issues, um, and neurologic and neurologists working with me.

Speaker 1: 9:13

Um, thankfully, my long-term memories are started coming back just after a few days of being at home, just kind of like, oh, I suddenly remember my house and I suddenly remember my dogs and everything just started clicking. Um, and then, um, it took in small doses, having to look at photos and videos of our experiences over the past 10 years for things to start like clicking in. And um, I had to start. So I started getting my memories back. I had to do a lot of speech therapy, um, mostly for the cognitive benefit, like cognitive therapy basically. But I saw a speech therapist a couple months and I continued to rehabilitate but went back to work because I just felt like I needed to go back to work, because I truly couldn't even remember what it is that I did and it was freaking me out. Um, so I went back to work, continued doing rehabilitation. But it was once our lives got back to normal and I was back in the daily grind and it was. It was so much harder to just adjust to like day-to-day life, and then the nine to five and the you know, and just everything felt very mundane. Um, and it was. It was just I felt like a square peg in a round hole.

Speaker 1: 11:02

Just going back to our normal lives, what were you doing for work? If you don't mind my asking, I worked in nonprofits. So I at the time had been working at an animal shelter, running the foster and adoption programs, and then, a couple months after my medical event, I surprisingly got pregnant, and we had been trying for like two, like a year and a half before my medical event. So we did not think that this was just going to happen so quickly on its own after my medical event and we joke that like, I thought I was 23. So my body thought I was 23 too and I was suddenly very fertile or something. Um, that's our little running joke. But um, so I um, so my job was a little bit too stressful.

Speaker 1: 11:59

Once I remembered what it was that I did, uh, got back into it and so I left to um, work at a different animal shelter in the fundraising um side and ran their um, their special events, their, their galas and um, and so that's it was a great job, but I, um, we just.

Speaker 1: 12:27

It was a great job, but I, um, we just, and I now I was pregnant and then I had a baby and it became even more so. It was just so hard to get back into like, oh, this is this, is it we work, and then we're tired, um, and so we started just very seriously thinking about, like, changing our circumstance and it just became that much more appealing and motivating to have a fresh start somewhere and not take life for granted and and not just accept, like what we're working with and and change it. And we have also a lot of the same motivations as other people regarding, you know, political climate and affordability, like we had all of those same motivations that bring a lot of people abroad. But I think that the, the underlying trigger behind all of it was just, yes, just having kind of like a new look on life and what we want, especially with a child, um, what we want our lives to look like and day to day and um, and so sorry I feel. Now I feel like I'm talking so much.

Speaker 2: 13:41

No, no you know, but as you're talking, I'm just thinking like I'm talking so much. No, no, you know, but as you're talking, I'm just thinking. I don't want to sound hokey, but this was almost like a whatever you believe, um, if you believe in God, a God thing, a universal realignment, um, spiritual awakening, whatever you want to call it, because I'm just thinking the chances of you going through the medical event my grandmother had sepsis, so I know what a journey that is but then to basically have to relearn what your life was and then have to really feel that maybe that wasn't aligned with where you wanted to head and then get pregnant.

Speaker 2: 14:30

I mean wow.

Speaker 1: 14:33

Yeah, wow, yes, yeah, and I don't know what I believe, but I do feel like all the cards were aligned and it's one of those things where, obviously, that experience was extremely traumatic, maybe even more so for my husband, who had to find me and who remembers all of it and everything leading up to it, and I don't I still don't, um, have those memories back, um, but it's, I don't, I I don't have so much good came from that experience, um, that I can't, I can't look back on it with anything, but just being grateful, grateful that I didn't die and grateful that it encouraged us and motivated us to really reevaluate our priorities and perspectives and to take this leap.

Speaker 1: 15:38

And being here now and working like the life that we kind of are working towards, the life we want, just has turned a lot of the negative things and the bad luck we always thought we had, and it's like, well, if we didn't have all of the other things too, like, just like, oh, we should have done this, we should have kept this house, we should have, you know, like should have taken this job, like just all of these shoulda, woulda, couldas, have rolled, none of those things, maybe they wouldn't have let us here and so now none of it matters, because we're here now. These things that were used to get us down and think what bad luck, why is this happening to us? And we spun it to our favor.

Speaker 2: 16:33

Well, it sounds like you guys had a huge shift just in your journey period. You had a shift.

Speaker 1: 16:41

Yes, yeah, 100% to shift. Yes, yeah, a hundred percent. And yeah. And so we, when we were very our first plan was Costa Rica actually, and we did a couple of scouting trips there we were almost certain that we were moving to Costa Rica and we had looked at houses and everything and done all the research. And after our last trip there even though it was an amazing trip, like I swear the look on my husband's face when I told him I was like it was like a week or two after and I was like I don't think Costa Rica is the place, um, and I think it was because we had always been like, oh, we'll do Costa Rica now for maybe five or 10 years and eventually we're going to make our way to Europe. And you know, once you do the research and you realize how much goes in to moving abroad, yes, it's not something that you want to do twice if you don't have to.

Speaker 1: 17:45

Europe seemed unattainable. It's so far, it's such a different time zone and I think that's why we didn't take that option seriously at first. But I was like we need to look at it as an option now and because who knows what's going to happen in five or 10 years and, um, if that's where we want to end up like, let's just do it, let's just do it now. And so that's when we just switched gears and started researching. It didn't take long to narrow it down to Portugal, but, um, yes, and everything. It just checked way all of the boxes, that, um, that we were looking for and and starting a new life, and I think that once once I convinced my husband of that he was a hundred percent on board, but it was a little bit stressful for him to switch gears like that.

Speaker 2: 18:39

So tell me a little bit about what some of those boxes that you checked, because I know that a lot of people usually the ones I hear and I think it's because the pathway to living in Spain, italy and Portugal tend to be easier than some of the other countries in the European Union. So what was it about Portugal? What were those boxes that it ticked for you?

Speaker 1: 19:04

Yeah Well, even ease of access is important because a lot of countries are just off the table, like there's just not, you know. So that really rules out a lot of places because they're very difficult to get visas, if not impossible. So once you kind of narrow it down to the countries that are even options, it became a matter of affordability, climate, etc. That's probably the most important things. You know, like, um, we didn't want to move somewhere that had, you know, kind of not so great weather year round.

Speaker 1: 19:45

Um, but affordability and I don't mean to say like, oh, portugal is so cheap. I know that's just one of the um things people are everyone has very different opinions about the cost of living here. Everyone has very different opinions about the cost of living here, and that's because everybody comes from different and like from different places and everybody's uh relation to cost of living is different. Um, but comparatively to other you know European countries, um, portugal is more affordable than and has a better climate than many and an easier visa process than many. And the five-year path to citizenship, I think is pretty unique to Portugal. I don't know if many countries have that quick of a path. I think it's usually about 10 years, and so it's very appealing to be able to try for citizenship.

Speaker 2: 20:46

Can you speak a little bit about what that path looks like, the five-year path?

Speaker 1: 20:52

Yes. So we, you know we're all here on temporary two-year visas, which we can renew again for three years and then, after five years of being a resident here, you could either do permanent residency, I believe, or you could apply for citizenship, and I do think it takes, especially here in Portugal. I'm sure it takes at least a year or two, so it's maybe more like a seven-year process, but I believe you could start it at five and it does include like a language certification. You do have to be able to speak some basic Portuguese, I believe, and then I love the idea of that, just so that I hope that we can stay in Portugal long term. But it is very nice to know that once we have our citizenship, if for some reason we want to move somewhere else in the EU, we have that option.

Speaker 2: 21:52

If I want to follow my son to college one day, I can follow him one day I can follow him, and so, yeah, that was definitely an appeal as well. So you gathered the personal belongings and you applied for the visa. How long did the process take you? Once you chose Portugal, how long did it take to get here?

Speaker 1: 22:20

Yeah, I think I might from just anecdotally from people we know we might have had the quickest like overall process. So we were very motivated. I left my job in March Twenty twenty three, 2023,. We did an obligatory scouting trip to Portugal the next month, in April. Basically, to say that we did like we were already pretty sure that we were moving here, but we're like we should go and explore the country and at least narrow down where we might want to live, and so we did a scouting trip in April. We began working with a. We had a consult with a relocation company shortly after that, shortly after that. So April 2023 is when we got the ball rolling and we were here February 2024.

Speaker 2: 23:37

That is a very quick process. Do you think part of that is because you did use a relocation company, or was the? I guess my question is was the relocation company helpful in that process? Because this is another area. You can pay whatever you want for these services.

Speaker 1: 23:50

Yes, and I think you'll also hear some people be like you can do everything yourself. Don't waste your money on a relocation company or a lawyer. Don't waste your money on a relocation company or a lawyer. It's true you can, but we are so happy we used a relocation company. I don't know that they helped speed up the process as much, but they were really helpful making sure that we were putting our best foot forward for our visa applications. I do not. We did not feel like we were shoo-ins. We do not have a ton of like passive income coming, you know, from all sorts of streams, and so we were very worried about our eligibility and you hear all sorts of different things and I think that they were very helpful in making sure that we our applications were thorough. We that we were setting things up in a way that VFS, which is the visa application center, in the way that they would want to see things application center in the way that they would want to see things Um and so, for the peace of mind alone, and they are much more. Our company was much more affordable than like using a lawyer. So I think, um in in our situation, like it was 110%, uh, worth it to use the relocation company. As far as to why the process was so fast, I think that's because most people are a little more responsible than we are. I will say that we might be good inspiration for people who do not have their shit together Sorry, that's fine and just want to move abroad and then figure it out, save, work longer in the U? S and save more before they come, or make sure that they have a very steady passive income source before they come, like just making sure they have all their ducks in a row and financially and and relationship, you know, and like their relationships with their family and like. I just think that a lot of people probably do a lot more planning and just making sure that everything is more financially stable.

Speaker 1: 26:28

And we I left my job like almost a year before I moved here so that I could focus on this move full time, and that's why it that's one of the main reasons that it happened so fast. I left my job and I was like this is my job. Now I'm going to move, I'm going to get a support tool and it involved having to Um and it involved having to to apply for the passive income. We had to rent out our house that we were living in um to get the passive income visa, and so you have to. We had to show three months of that income before we could even apply. So we listed the house in the summer and spent a few months just packing, tossing, selling things, really downsizing.

Speaker 1: 27:33

Rented out our house in the summer I think it was August moved in with my in-laws in their retirement community, which was off the hook. It was actually wonderful. They have great amenities. So we stayed with them for about six weeks. That was close by our other house, so we could easily kind of get our things over to them, continue to downsize. And then we moved in with my brother in Bastrop, near Austin, yeah, and that was where we kind of lay low until our visa appointments and those were right under the wire. I don't even think we had that third month of rent yet, but they thought it would be okay and so they got us an appointment. I think it was around Thanksgiving, like late November. We're still in 2023.

Speaker 1: 28:48

And so, yeah, we were just doing the visa application. There's just a lot of things that you have to get done with the FBI fingerprints, setting up your Portuguese bank account. You got to find a rental property in Portugal, which is probably one of the most stressful things. Like you have to already be paying rent on a property in Portugal before you even apply for a visa that you may or may not get approved for, so that's stressful, Unless you're lucky enough to find a rental that, like, has a future start date. But that doesn't really happen around here, it's true, yeah.

Speaker 2: 29:24

You chose an area called the silver coast to settle into. Was there any specific reason for choosing that area?

Speaker 1: 29:36

Our scouting trip was useless because we, we fell in love with every city that we went to. Yeah, um, we were like, well, that didn't narrow anything down, we could live in any of these places. Um, we settled on silver coast because I, it's a real we thought it was just going to be like a landing point. We can move, you know, just like land, figure out where you want to land and then you can keep exploring the country and if you want to move somewhere else later, great. So we wanted to be somewhat central so that we could go North, go South, um, and be able to see, like more easily, explore um, portugal, you know, our first year or two here, and so silver, so somewhere central. And then inland was just too. We were there in April and just like it was so hot, it was like, even if it was only like 70 degrees outside, if you were just like in the sun in April walking around exploring it was, and we came from Texas, so, um, that's kind of. But I, the person, we hired someone to help look for properties for us and to just commute, like she's not really a realtor but she's more like a personal concierge and she's in Kaldish and so I feel like she's not really a realtor but she's more like a personal concierge, um, and she's in caldish, and so I feel like she was mostly just finding us things in caldish and we're so glad that that she did and that she found us um a place that we liked here.

Speaker 1: 31:30

We were concerned that caldish wasn't going to be an option, because we had two dogs, um and uh, and a lot of the apartments downtown are not like super dog friendly and apartment living is kind of hard for two dogs. But we're just we. She found us this great house that has a little yard and very close to downtown, and so that's how we settled on Caldas Durania and I'm so glad that we did, because yet we still were in that great, you know, we're all in that spot where we can easily there's so day trip opportunities like crazy, just like we can go anywhere, and I just love this quirky little city that we're in and we're so close to Lisbon with all the you know, all the amenities and resources that Lisbon has to offer. But we have our own little, a mini, like our little mini metropolitan city, um right here.

Speaker 1: 32:29

Yeah, so, so what would you?

Speaker 2: 32:32

say, was the most challenging part of your move.

Speaker 1: 32:38

Um, if you had to pick one cause I know there's many, but there is many and um, everybody you know goes through a very similar visa application process and it's stressful for everybody and getting here is very difficult, but for us. But for us. We kept saying that if we didn't have two medium large dogs that we had to get here. Everything else seemed like it would have been a piece of cake in comparison.

Speaker 2: 33:22

So it was. Getting the dogs here was definitely the most challenging and stressful part for us. So can you tell me a little bit about what made that, you know, such a challenge? I, to be honest with you, I know, but for our listeners.

Speaker 1: 33:30

Yes, so for all pets coming in, there's already a lot of different time-sensitive steps that need to be taken. Just making sure that you find a USDA certified veterinarian who is familiar with the process of filling out these USDA forms, submitting them at the exact right time so that you get them back at the exact right time, because they need to have an exam within 30 days of entering the country. And then the exam, like these official USDA forms, have to be filled out by the vet and they have to be sent to USDA and stamped, and that has to be within 10 days of entering the country. So you just need to make sure that you have this veterinarian that knows the process and will knows to do things at the exact right time. And there's lots of stories about people like they're leaving tomorrow and they're like waiting and by their mailbox for their USDA um paperwork, um, so that that is really stressful. Um, you have to. You also have to coordinate um with the airport, um customs on and let it, letting them know that you're going to be bringing pets and they have to basically make an appointment for you and they have to examine your pets upon arrival. So, and all of this you have to do yourself.

Speaker 1: 35:10

There's the hardest thing for us, in addition to all of that, was that our dogs were too big to you know, uh, fly in the hold. They had to fly cargo. Um, it's the same exact spot of the plane, but if, but if they're larger, it's a totally separate place that you have to drop them off, maybe because they're heavier and they need I don't know more equipment. Um, and so that was significantly more expensive. Um, you're coordinating on this side with tap uh air. Oh, we flew tap, so we were coordinating on on the U? S side with tap USA, but there's a huge disconnect with tap uh portugal and a huge disconnect with the cargo. It's technically a different company. You get told very contradictory things um, you don't, you have to like request the flight. You don't even know for sure, um, if they're gonna get approved and in the meantime, like you're hesitant to book your own flight until there's a secured, um, you gotta be on the same plane as them, obviously, um, and so they uh, we, and we were told oh, you have to get there four hours early to the cargo place. And we got there four hours early and they told my husband no, you were supposed to be here six hours early. They almost didn't even accept them. It's just. It's just. There's just not like seamless communication between departments, between TAP USA, tap Portugal, and cargo, like there's all different. So that was really complicated, very stressful.

Speaker 1: 37:04

Um, we opted to do it ourselves instead of using a pet relocation um service, which a lot of people just want to pay money to, yeah, and I understand that. But in our situation those companies are limited on what airlines they can partner with. There was a pet relocation company that will put your pets on a tap plane and most of them do not, a lot of them. You won't be on the same flight as your pets, and so they'll pick your pets up, they'll send them on a plane and there's usually a layover and it's probably Lufthansa, like Germany or whatever.

Speaker 1: 37:56

And so for our dogs, who one is like very old and one is very fearful and um it not only would that route have been very expensive, but the trap overall travel time would have been a lot longer and they would have had to um have a layover in another country and then get back on a plane. On a plane, and um, we so, because we're crazy dog people we were in Texas and we booked a direct flight with tap out of Miami and I flew to Miami with our toddler and my husband drove our dogs and all of our belongings, cause we did not do a shipping container, so we packed our lives into eight bags and he drove that all to Miami on a road trip. We all met up in Miami, spent the night there and then we all flew direct because we wanted our dogs to have a direct flight in the lowest amount of travel time.

Speaker 2: 39:03

These are the portions of the journey that don't get told often enough. I mean, if you have your pets or your family members, right, and I don't know about you, but I find it amazing that a country that is full of, let's just say, suggested timetables on everything has such specific time requirements for immigrants.

Speaker 1: 39:31

So yeah, yes, yeah, it's like.

Speaker 2: 39:34

this is the area we're going to be this way in. Okay, it's like this is the area we're going to be this way in. Okay.

Speaker 1: 39:39

Yes, it does not compute. Yeah, the very stringent timelines are just like. Why Like it's?

Speaker 1: 39:46

so stressful and, in some cases, not even possible, and a lot of things contradict each other with the rules, and so you have to be really strategic. Um, and so you, you have to be really strategic, like, and because our flight was on the 14th and we were arriving the 15th, we had to be really careful with the veterinarian, cause he was going to make sure he was going to submit it on the fourth and we're like no, no, no, no, 10 days. It's going to be the 14th and we arrived the 15th. That will be the 11th day. So you have to make sure that you're timing it based on when you arrive in Portugal and not when you leave Portugal. And yeah, there's a lot that, even with a consulting company, there's a lot that's just on your plate and there's a lot that they cannot do for you, especially your pets.

Speaker 2: 40:45

And you know, being part of the expat community here, we both have heard the horror stories of people who just weren't micromanaging every single piece of everything and then that one little piece caused them all kinds of headaches. But you've been here a year now, so how has living here been different than what you anticipated? And that could be good or bad, right, but I think for myself it was not what I envisioned, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Um, there were lots of things that were different. So I'm asking you what things were different for you?

Speaker 1: 41:26

Um, I feel like we tried to keep our expectations relatively low so that we weren't like super surprised by any, by by too much Um, but I think that you can't help. You can't help but feel like life is going to be a little bit of a vacation for a while. When you move to Europe, you know like, um, and the first couple months of living here was just anything anything, but it was um.

Speaker 1: 42:07

I can see why people have such a hard time at the, at the very beginning, and have these like what did we do things? Because the stress is so high and, um, you have a lot of bureaucratic things that you have to do at the beginning, and that is not something that Portugal is well known for having like a easy or efficient process when it comes to bureaucracy. And so I think that, no matter what you read and hear, like you're always it's really hard to prepare yourself until you go through it. You just don't know how hard it's going to be until you go through it. You can try to mentally prepare and read and everything. Your experience is somewhat different from someone else's and you feel unlucky and you know like you're always going to be a little bit caught off guard with with how things move.

Speaker 2: 43:07

Well, because it can change from place to place, right? I mean, yeah, this was one of the things that I and you and I both saw each other at. I can't remember the name of the agency the one where you have to go to get vaccinations, and you know, and every time, every time I went there, I got a different person and a different expectation, and then I would have to go home and get a different document and come back and start all over again, and that was very challenging for me, because I have an expectation that things are going to be. I'm trying to think of an example.

Speaker 1: 43:48

Consistent.

Speaker 2: 43:49

Yes, yes, and that is something that was a protocol. Yes, yes, but really it's based on the person.

Speaker 1: 43:58

It's based on the person that you that is there. It's also like if you ever need to borrow my toddler. We always have the best luck when my toddler is with us.

Speaker 2: 44:12

I need to get my social security number so I may I may babysit for you that day. Yeah take him for a little trip.

Speaker 1: 44:19

Yes, yeah, Whenever he's with us, they seem to be a lot more flexible. They're like. They're like oh, did you bring this document? And we're like no, and they're like it's fine. And that happens the most when I'm holding my, my child, and I'm like okay, but I know that people get turned away for not having that document on them.

Speaker 1: 44:42

But there's been several times that they wouldn't even let me in the door, the security guard, like because I couldn't explain to him what I was there for, and like he wants to make sure you have the paperwork before he even lets you in. But once you're in, the people at the front desk have a completely different protocol, like they're much more lenient. And so, um, yeah, it's, you're. It's very inconsistent across cities, across the day that you're there. It's just every. You know you can't rely on the same experience, um, twice, and that's definitely not something that, uh, we're used to. And so, um, that has been an adjustment.

Speaker 1: 45:26

Um, I think there's also just some almost like funny uh, rite of passages that happen to a lot of expats when they move here, that are unexpected, like I don't know how many of us have had very, uh, shockingly, uh surprise, energy bills after a few months.

Speaker 1: 45:46

Um, it happened to us, it's happened to a few people we know where, uh, where we and we got here in February, so it was kind of cold, so we're like, oh, yeah, we'll run the heaters and we're kind of cautious about it.

Speaker 1: 45:59

And then, like our, our energy bill comes in and our gas bill and we're like, oh, it wasn't so bad. We'll keep running the heaters, you know. And then, like four months later, they actually come out to read the meter and which they haven't done in months, and they're like, oh, we need to adjust. And then you just get like a 1,000 euro bill out of nowhere because you did not know that you had to submit your readings or that they were just going to take the average from the months prior before you moved there and no one was living in our house before we moved in. So I've heard a few people have stories uh like that. Um, I think many of us have been locked out of our houses in the early days and needed to call and locksmith to come open our doors, because most of our doors here they just lock.

Speaker 2: 46:58

Yeah, when you shut them they lock automatically, automatically.

Speaker 1: 47:01

And there's no, shut them, they lock automatically, automatically. And there's no, our houses are very secure. There's no just like back door. Every single door in your house will automatically lock. So you go get the mail, you got to bring a key or leave your door open, and so we've. We've gone through that. So there's just lots of like little adjustments and surprises Coming from the US, where we're very used to our central air, and even Texas, which is so humid. I've never actually felt what it's like to live indoors in a house that struggles with the humidity. Humidity where the humidity comes inside, yes, it does.

Speaker 1: 47:46

Where you live with it you coexist, you coexist with it and, um, and yeah, now you know you have to adjust. Our lives are like, okay, like looking at the our weather app and looking at, hour by hour, what is the humidity outside, and then what time of the day do we need to go open our windows to allow the humidity to drop inside our house? Like, it's just very strategic and, um, you save. You know, uh, utilities are pricier here. Um, we knew that. Um, but it's not only the cost of electricity and gas, it's also that you need more. You need to run more electricity here to bring down the humidity in your house, and so you have to have all these dehumidifiers running like all the time. And these dehumidifiers running like all the time. And we learned we shut off our gas, we do not use our heaters anymore, so we bought, like electric space heaters, which still like runs up a lot of electricity and it gets quite pricey, but nothing, nothing compared to the gas prices here.

Speaker 2: 48:58

So when I went back to the United States in the fall. That was the first time I had been back for over two years, and it's very hard for me to explain to my family members that. There's no other word I can use to describe it, except that sometimes things are harder here. So, and that doesn't mean that I don't love being here, it just means that you're talking. All the things you're talking about is what I mean when I say it's harder.

Speaker 1: 49:29

I haven't done.

Speaker 2: 49:31

Yes, I have not done laundry for a week now because it won't stop raining, actually, sun's out today. I'm going to be doing a load of laundry when we're done here today, but even that has to be planned out. I mean, there's no dryer. I'm going to be doing a load of laundry when we're done here today, but even that has to be planned out. I mean, there's no dryer. I don't have a dryer in my apartment.

Speaker 2: 49:47

Oh, that's hard and that's pretty common here that you don't have a dryer and you see people with their laundry hung out all the time. But sometimes with the humidity it takes days for it to dry and then it smells weird. And I mean, there's just all. I just remember in the United States, if I was like oh, my black dress, I wore that to work today, I'm going to need it for the weekend. It was an hour and a half and I had my black dress ready to be put on and worn, and now it is a lot of planning and it is a lot of preparation just around laundry, you know, and that's one of many things.

Speaker 1: 50:29

Yeah, and it's not something, it's not a deal breaker, it's not a deal breaker. It's not something that, like, adds so much stress to our lives. It's just these things that we never we had the luxury of never thinking about before, that we have to, that now we have to think about, um, that we, that we completely took for granted and um, yeah, and it's, it's a little it's and it's harder, it's like you can't just live in your house and just do laundry when you need to do laundry.

Speaker 1: 50:56

You have to plan these things. You have to plan when you're going to open the windows and when you're going to shut them, so that you're not running your dehumidifier when you don't need to be.

Speaker 2: 51:08

Yeah, yes, well, but it's not all bad, right, because it's not all bad. These things are harder. There are other things that are easier for me. In ways, the walkability is huge for me. We don't have a car. I love the ease of being able to walk around town.

Speaker 1: 51:28

Wow.

Speaker 2: 51:30

But we live, I'm impressed. We live right in the city, so, and you know that's been. I don't think I've ever had a moment in my life where I was like I'm, I am a 15 minute walk from anything that I need and I'm in better shape and it's nice. We have a lot of sunshine here. This last few weeks we have not, but most of the time we have quite good weather and just the ease of that. I never realized how far things were in the United States until I went back and I was like this is not even possible.

Speaker 1: 52:11

So, yeah, everything is so far apart and we get so spoiled here that things that are like 15 minutes away are like far and sometimes like and it's funny because we, when we look for resources and doctors and things like that, we're like always just looking like what's in, what's in Caldish, like what's in our little town, as if like driving to like Bomberall or Alcobaza, like you know, like I would go that far to go to the grocery store in in in Texas.

Speaker 2: 52:41

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 52:44

Yeah, we get so spoiled here that even 10 or 15 minutes is like, oh, that's quite far. But not only is it not far, but the drives here are amazing. Sometimes I love having a reason to get in the car and drive for 20 minutes, whether I'm on the highway or taking the side roads beautiful, no matter what. I love driving here, except for downtown areas. I hate driving in downtown areas.

Speaker 2: 53:10

Well, you can come park at my place and then walk.

Speaker 1: 53:14

Yeah, I can walk downtown easily from my house, which I love to do, and I love having that, that luxury that I did not get to have in the States. To live anywhere where you could be downtown and have this walkable experience was just always out of our price range, um, so I love that that we have that here, that I can walk downtown. I am usually too lazy to walk back up, though.

Speaker 2: 53:39

You have a toddler, you're getting your exercise in.

Speaker 1: 53:42

Yeah, yeah, so yeah, it's all downhill, going downtown so easy, feel really good about it and then coming back up. I did it a lot at the beginning and it's yeah, I got lazier and lazier.

Speaker 2: 53:54

Well, or you I'm guessing you were pushing that stroller, or you had the you know carrying your child.

Speaker 1: 54:03

Yeah, a few times did it with him. That's probably what put me off of it. But speaking of like luxuries, though, I mean I do it without him a lot now because he's in school and I have so much more freedom, and that's a luxury that I wouldn't have in the States that I have here.

Speaker 2: 54:25

Yeah, so that's what's going to be my next question what are some of the best things that have happened to you and your family since moving here?

Speaker 1: 54:36

It's so funny. We've actually had, like we've we've had some not great things happen to us since moving here, but like they would have happened anywhere and we'd rather them happen here. Um, so I think some of the best things that have happened and we're we're so fortunate for the community that we've built here Um, I think that's just so important for our satisfaction of like feeling like we made the right decision and just feeling like our lives are, um, you know, we're not just parents anymore. That's in the U S like we don't feel like we had the bandwidth to be more than just parents and like working. Um, and here we have a community, we have friends, and what's really nice about making friends I was hoping this would happen, but I didn't know if it was like a naive thought is that it's hard to make friends.

Speaker 1: 55:35

As an adult, it was very hard for us to make friends in Dallas.

Speaker 1: 55:38

We had lived in Austin and had a good group of friends, and then we moved to Dallas and it was hard those last five or six years to make good friends, and I was hoping that it would be easier to make friends abroad, because we're all on the same page, we're all in the same boat. We're all looking for friends. We don't have our families here and our besties from home. We're all here with a fresh start, with this very, very significant thing in common already that we all got here ready, that we all got here, um, and so I was really hopeful that that would allow us to make friends more easily. And it has, and it took, you know, a while to just get find those friendships that are those you know, deeper, like those deeper friendships, um, but we've, we've, you know we found our people. We're still meeting new people all the time, um, and having that community here has been has been so, so helpful in helping us feel at home and acclimated and I feel like I have more of a community here than I did.

Speaker 2: 57:00

Um, interesting that you say this, though, because I don't know if, in the US, we are set up anymore to establish those communities as we were just talking. You know, things are so far away and I can remember, like my grandmother's generation. First of all, people didn't move around. You stayed in the same neighborhood, you had the same neighbors, and they kind of established what we have here in Portugal, which is this group of people that are your go-tos. They don't necessarily have to be best friends, but they are people that you can call and say my gosh, my car broke down, Can you recommend a good mechanic? And that's something that has gradually started leaving US society. You know people are involved in so many different groups and so many different areas. It makes that meaningful connection and work as a community really hard to achieve community really hard to achieve.

Speaker 1: 58:05

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 58:06

I feel like um, and I I think the culture of of work has also kind of played into that where I think everyone's very far apart.

Speaker 1: 58:12

Everyone is like working, mostly traditional, you know, monday to Friday, all day, nine to five jobs Um, everyone's very I don't know like a little bit more segregated and hanging with friends and have being social. It always felt like it needed to be something that was like planned in advance, that goes on your calendar. It was not, it wasn't um, like I don't want to say natural, but um, there wasn't a lot of like, hey, you want to grab lunch? Like it just got further and further away from from that and yes, and just and just feeling like you had that person to call Um and and a lot of people do have that and a lot of people do struggle with the idea of moving abroad because they have those communities and you know, and so it was a bummer that we didn't, but maybe if we had a better you know community, if we had all of that in the States, it might've been harder for us to to appear. So, again, one of those things that we're like it's okay.

Speaker 2: 59:21

We're all on our own journey, right? So this was our journey, but it might not be everybody else's.

Speaker 1: 59:27

Yeah, and it got us here. But I know some people you know feel the opposite. They get here and they miss their community and they feel like they had more of that back home. Um. So again, just bringing it back to how relative this whole experience is, Um, and that's why it's kind of important to do your research, but also to like hear stories from people who have similar backgrounds and experiences to yours as well, as not just because everybody's stories are different, everybody's perspectives are different. It's all relative, what they had, what they're coming to Like. So it's really hard to decide things based on just one person's experience.

Speaker 2: 1:00:17

Absolutely so. Would that be your advice, because that's my last question for you.

Speaker 1: 1:00:32

What do you want listeners to know about moving here? What is your advice for people who maybe are on the fence about this and whether it's right for them the joining? If you don't have Facebook, you probably kind of need it to move abroad right now. It's just I couldn't imagine I'm not even big on Facebook in general, but I couldn't imagine having done the move without it, because there are so many resources on these groups that I feel like there was just so much information that I got from these, uh like expat groups or moving abroad groups, um, and also being able to connect with people Like we met up with, um.

Speaker 1: 1:01:14

We met up with a couple of people during our scouting trip, um, just to get more information about what their lives are like here. So it's also just a way to kind of also meet people beforehand and while you're and when you are here. It might feel a little isolating otherwise finding other ways to do that, but I will say that as helpful as all as these groups can be, they are, also you have to take a lot of things with a grain of salt and um kind of like it's about asking like the right questions. Again, a lot of things are so relative and um, and people are very opinionated and I will say there are some groups you have to be careful, like if, if there's just like moving to Portugal and there's 50,000 members, those groups are just full of trolls.

Speaker 2: 1:02:08

And people trying to sell stuff sometimes too. And so buyer beware there because, like I said earlier, with the transition companies you can pay what you want to pay. Um and sometimes you get good services and sometimes not as good.

Speaker 1: 1:02:27

Yes, and so you hear yeah, you hear a lots of horror stories about people who hired reputable, reputable lawyer and then got completely screwed. So it's just you have to be really careful about the feedback and the information that you're getting, um, and, and knowing that everything is relative, like avoiding like vague, like like, is it expensive in Portugal? Um, that's just so relative to, based on where you're coming from and how much money you're making, and what you consider expensive. And it's also depends on what you're referring to in Portugal. Um, it is. There's, it's kind of all over the place what things here are weirdly so affordable and what is strangely just so expensive here, like, like, from housing to utilities, um, restaurants, food, groceries and things like that. There's just some things that you're like why, why are raspberries so expensive? You know, but, but we don't have to worry about the cost of eggs. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:03:40

Um, so it's yeah, there's some things are, some things are more expensive, Some of these are less. So it's just having very specific things that you want to know. The answers to that are not subjective. Um, I think, I think is key and, um, and just, I, I highly recommend like, uh, when you narrow down, like like cities that you're interested in, those are kind of like the best Facebook groups to join, the ones that are like the call this Durania expats are like, if there is one, the ones that are, um, really more localized and small cause. Then you'll just get a better idea from the people who like live there of what life is really like there.

Speaker 2: 1:04:24

I agree. Do your research, make sure that the questions you're asking are those things that you really need to know before you make your choices, and not those things Because you know for me I'm going to pay however much the raspberries are, and then in other cases I'm going to find a replacement, but if I don't have certain services for my daughter, that's going to be a game changer for me. So kind of knowing your why, what your non-negotiables are. And you are so right, Talia, Do your research and get connected.

Speaker 1: 1:05:04

Right, Exactly, and for us, affordability. We were mostly concerned with school, with healthcare. Those were the top priorities for us, as well as rent, and that was one of the surprises. Our rent is very affordable but the utility is they make up for that. But school, that's what really mattered to us. If we were in the States, we couldn't even be sending our kid to school right now, and he's been at school since he was two and he has an amazing school. They feed him, which is amazing. They feed him his snacks, his lunch. They're going to start potty training him for us soon. He's in all these extracurriculars. He's doing gym class, dance class, yoga, music, all through his school, and I'll just as a reference, all of that. The school itself is $2.18 a month for us. And then with the extracurriculars which happened during school hours not like I'm making my three-year-old go, you know places at five o'clock, Um, he also does the dance and yoga and hip hop for like about eight to 10 euros a month each. So altogether it's two, 50, like for everything.

Speaker 2: 1:06:35

I do feel like Portugal is a country that is uh child centric and they do try to make things accessible to children.

Speaker 1: 1:06:46

Yeah, and that's huge for us.

Speaker 1: 1:06:47

That's where our priorities are, and so for us, having not only affordable education or nursery school for him, but also such a well-rounded experience for him that we can afford, and it gave us, like, in terms of quality of life, for us, so, so pivotal I mean, like we're already used to it now, but it was, you know, back in the States, if my mother-in-law would watch my kid for just a couple hours and we could go to the bank or go see a movie, it was like we don't have a kid with us.

Speaker 1: 1:07:25

It was so freeing and so rare that we could have that opportunity and it's such a game changer for our quality of life to be able to get work done, be able to go see our friends for lunch and, like um and just I know that he's just having also the most you know, amazing fun experiences at school. We have a, you know, a babysitter that we can afford, um, um, and that's a luxury that we that we didn't have before, so we could occasionally have a date night, and so these are things that for us, you know, have really impacted our, our quality of life, and the things that we do find more affordable, that we prioritized Um yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:08:22

Well, is there anything else that you would like to say before we bring this to a close?

Speaker 1: 1:08:31

I don't know. I just I feel, you know, it was the best decision we ever made, but of course, it's not for everyone, but I think that anybody who's interested in moving abroad, whether it be Portugal or somewhere else, I hope that like these things inspire them to, you know, to do the research and make sure it's the right decision, but I also hope it inspires people to like actually to actually take the leap and know that it's possible. And, like I said, a lot of people were more responsible about it than we were in terms of getting everything in place beforehand and we were more like let's move there and then figure it out, um, um, but both avenues are are possible, um, and yeah, I do. I do have one video posted to our YouTube channel, a whole video.

Speaker 2: 1:09:26

Are you going to add more? Because I was going to say I think, if it's okay with you, I'll link that to this episode and people can just check it out.

Speaker 1: 1:09:35

Yeah, feel free, I hope to add more. The plan was always to do more. I was like, oh, we'll do a six month update and like a nine month, okay, and we have a two month update there of life in Portugal and our goal is to at least get a one year update on there very soon and then hopefully, once I have that under my belt, I'll feel like like I can knock out more of them. But I don't know where the tightwood. But yeah, if anyone wants to watch my one video maybe almost too soon my handle's at Talia Fiona on YouTube and I think my Instagram is public as well, if you want to see Portugal through the light, the eyes of my toddler, because that's mostly what I post about on my Instagram.

Speaker 2: 1:10:20

And I will put those links in today's show notes for this episode. Talia, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:10:30

Yeah, thank you for having me. It was a fun conversation. I'll keep my head up high through the downs and lows, and where I'll go in life Still nobody knows. But I'ma choose what's right and take what comes and goes, and ain't no one in life holding me back?

Speaker 2: 1:10:47

no more. Today's episode was produced and edited by me. The theme music is the song A Year Ago by Nefex. If you know someone contemplating a move or visit to Portugal, please share this podcast. It's as simple as copying the link you use to access it and sharing it with others you think would benefit from it. You can find Mover Portugal Unpacked on Apple, spotify, amazon, youtube and Buzzsprout at totbuzzsproutcom. A final place you can access this podcast is on the Path to Portugal community, located in the school platform that's schoolskoolcom. On this platform, you can also access Ask Rudy, a tool to answer your most complex and simple questions about relocating to another country. If you want to understand the move abroad process, simplify the steps for efficiency and save money, ask Rudy. And for those of us wanting this to be part of a bigger life change, the Path to Portugal community also offers the Living Brave program. This is a program offering you the tools to move forward and align your life through brave action, as well as the community support and accountability you've been needing. All links to all platforms can be found in today's show notes and at taughtspotcom. Be sure to comment, like and subscribe. Just a gentle reminder. Mouverre, portugal Unpacked is for entertainment purposes only.

Speaker 2: 1:12:35

It should not take the place of professional or legal advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed by the host and guests are their own. They reflect nothing more than that. All experiences are expressed through the filter of the individual. And hey, this is Portugal. We can all have very different experiences doing the exact same thing here. So please do your own research and discuss your options with qualified professionals before making this or any other decision. And a final note any opinions or thoughts expressed during this podcast are not meant to malign any group or organization. This is Melissa LaFleur. Thank you for unpacking today's portion of the Path to Portugal with me way back a year ago.