Lisbon

Recently I’ve had so many people contact me asking about life in Portugal, it feels like the whole world is moving there, so I thought it easier to write a blog post to point people to rather than just not being able to answer their calls and emails! (sorry)

Obviously if you’re not moving to Portugal then I suggest you stop reading….unless you’re just a bit nosey.

Why did we move to Portugal? Why would anyone move to Portugal?

We moved because we’re crazy. No, seriously, the short story is we went on honeymoon, found a ruin for a ridiculous cheap price that we couldn’t resist, got a mortgage super easy (highly recommend the little known but very helpful Millennium BCP Bank as they also have a branch in London) and thought why the hell not.

Other reasons to move to Portugal are, it’s still a relatively cheap place to live, the weather is unbelievable (reportedly the sunniest city in Europe), the people are the most down-to-earth, modest people you’ll ever meet and the food’s not bad either. Also people who have a real business brain move there for the favourable tax situation but you’ll have to ask someone else about that.

Where’s a good place to move to?

We moved to Lisbon. I’m a city girl at heart and that city is hands down amazing. Cobbled streets, plenty of scope for creativity and small businesses, cheap rents and a sudden influx of young people from all over the world (especially France, Sweden and UK). Correction we actually moved to a place called Penedo in the Sintra national park which is equally amazing but in a different way. Mystical, spiritual and somewhat more temperate climate which might suit some people better. Plus the gardens are more lush owing to the climate. Cascais is a good option if you can afford it as you have access to Lisbon (20 minutes) by train but it’s also still baking hot (if that’s what you came for). Plus it’s very English! You don’t really need to be able to speak Portuguese in Lisbon and the surrounding areas, I tried to learn, if you do good luck to you. I have a languages degree and found it hard. In terms of areas within Lisbon the waterfront areas are great and still somewhat undeveloped and places like Santos are trendy. If Lisbon is too pricey for you now there are some beautiful areas further north near Ericeira and Nazare where you also get the big wave surfing too. Where we were Praia das Macas and Praia Grande were beautiful and amazing for surfing but due to a deep sea trench the weather north of Lisbon is wetter (obviously not a patch on England) so if you want dryer heat the Alentejo region or Park Natural d’Arrabida south of Lisbon are good options. Arrabida is a hidden gem if you ask me.

If it’s that great why did you move back?

We never intended to move back. We moved every possession we owned out there. However, I realised I was pregnant 3 days after arriving and although we had every intention of raising a child in Portugal and especially with all the international schools it would have been a wonderful place to have lived with the kids, the one thing I couldn’t do was give birth in Portugal. For some reason (probably the fact they’re 20 years behind the rest of Europe thanks to Salazar) the medical system currently doesn’t allow in any way for birthing pools or natural births and is generally extremely medicalised. It wasn’t for me, so we flew back to have Eric in the UK with the aim of going back to Lisbon 3 months later. One weekend while we were back in the UK we came down to Dorset and the next thing I knew my husband’s homing instinct had taken over and we put an offer in on a beautiful bungalow a stones throw away from the house he grew up in. So we never made it back to our Portuguese sanctuary. That said I would go back in a heartbeat and envy anyone moving out there.

Yoga/Yoga retreats in Portugal

I hosted retreats in Portugal. What a place to have a retreat centre. If you want a good massuese or chef (or builder, structural engineer or lawyer) message me or if there’s other questions I haven’t answered as apologies I’ve written this very quickly (before school pick up with a couple of people in mind!)…

IN A NUTSHELL IF YOU’RE THINKING ABOUT DOING IT, DO IT!!xxx