It’s one thing to announce that we want to move to Portugal. And it’s a whole other thing to start putting our money where our mouth is.
A thing to know is that the adventure of living as an expat is something I’ve always wanted to do. So, this whole move to Portugal adventure is MY thing. Because it’s important to me, Jill has made it HER thing, too. I mention that because, Jill is totally leaning into this adventure and is willingly taking on the heavy lifting of ticking both the procedural and practical boxes that we need to tick in order to make the move happen.
One such box that is both practical and procedural is finding a place for us to live. In addition to needing a roof over our head, being able to demonstrate that we have lodging lined up was a requirement for the D-7 visa application.
Upon deciding that SMP was our town, Jill set about trying to find us a 12 month rental. She created a custom search area on Idealista (Portugal’s go-to real estate site) and subscribed to multiple Facebook groups. We’d also heard that an inconvenient aspect of Portuguese culture is that they’re not big on returning electronic inquiries, especially from non-Portuguese mobile numbers. After launching inquiries on multiple Idealista properties and getting no response, Jill can confirm that is indeed the case. Potential landlords who don’t respond to electronic inquiries make finding a place to rent in SMP from 4,000 miles away a challenge. And then there’s the added complication of finding a landlord willing to accept both us and our two golden retrievers.
Not to be deterred, Jill refocused on her energies on the Facebook groups in hopes of finding an expat landlord who was more likely to respond. In mid-October Jill came across a high-potential listing on the Facebook and lo and behold our current landlord, Sevilla, hopped on the phone right way and she and Jill chatted for a few minutes. I was in the other room and I heard Jill say “Okay, there may be one thing that’s a deal-breaker. We have two dogs.” A few seconds went by and then Jill said, “No, they’re not under 50 lbs.” And I thought that was that. They chatted for a few more minutes and then Jill joined me to debrief.
It’s funny how things work out. It turns out that Sevilla, who lives in Georgia, was in Wimberley (a small town about 45 minutes from Austin) with her partner Scott at that moment and would be there for a few more days. Sevilla shared with Jill that they REALLY needed to make a run to Trader Joe’s in Austin to pick up some essentials and that they’d be willing to meet with us and interview Woody and Bulleit while in town to see if they would be willing to make a weight-limit exception.
Jill coordinated the meeting that weekend at an outdoor patio at a dog-friendly restaurant. Before leaving the house, we sat Woody and Bulleit down and told them in no uncertain terms that they needed to be on their BEST behavior. We needn’t have worried because Bulleit took it upon himself to launch a charm offensive and spent the entire interview with his head under Sevilla’s hand. We got on well with Sevilla and Scott and now we have two new friends, who are now also our landlords in SMP.
This past Wednesday, January 24th, Jill and I boarded a plane in Austin en route to Lisboa via Newark to bring over a couple of suitcases full of essentials to our new digs. We rendezvoused with Jill’s sister Stephanie in Newark and traveled on to Lisboa together.
The trip went super smoothly, with the only dodgy bit being getting three adults, three full-sized suitcases, and three duffels into our SIXT-provided Renault Arcana for the one hour and ten minute drive from LIS to the rental house.
Speaking for myself, I was a little anxious – just because we’d rented this place based purely on Facebook pictures and a conversation with Sevilla. I can now report that it exceeds expectations!
We ferried all of our assorted luggage into the house did a little unpacking, went down for a tactical one-hour nap, then showered and put on fresh togs.
And then headed for city center for a toastie and a cappuccino!
Then we went to the local Intermarché to load up on a few essentials and were back in time to catch our first sunset from the pool deck below our unit.
Jill could not have done any better in finding this place: Three bedrooms, ocean views, green space for W&B, and a 15 minute walk to city center. We have lots to learn about living in Europe, but we now have a great home base!
Adventure is out there!
Jill and Todd in Portugal 