WE MOVED TO PORTUGAL!
Hello there! If you read our previous post, then you know that our D7 visas were approved in May! We worked extremely hard from May-July to get our house ready to rent, sell/donate all of our possessions and actually get on the flight to Portugal with the items we deemed necessary. Our flight to Portugal was July 6th so we have officially been in Portugal for one week as of today. This post is all about our move to Portugal!
Flight from Austin to Lisbon
There was a lot of stress and chaos with our flight from Austin to Newark due to bad weather. After circling Newark airport 18 times, our flight was diverted to Harrisburg, PA. The plane was re-fueled and then we were on our way to Newark. Well, we arrived in Newark, but were stuck on the runway for 3 hours! Yikes! That is something I hope to never repeat in the future. We were worried that we would miss our flight to Lisbon and then have to stay the night in Newark and re-do our Covid tests. There were so many key factors at play here. Thankfully, because of the awful weather and so many flights having similar issues, our flight to Lisbon kept getting delayed. Our flight finally took off at 3:30 a.m. Oof .. what an exhausting night! After arriving in Lisbon at 3:30 p.m. and breezing through customs and immigration, we waited and waited for our checked luggage, which never arrived.
Arriving in Cascais
After talking to the lost baggage personnel and filing a claim, we were able to meet our driver, David. He was a joy to talk to after such a tumultuous night and day. After a half-hour drive to Cascais, we arrived at our lovely little, cozy rental apartment. The apartment is right in the middle of town and a short 5-minute walk to the beach. Despite being thoroughly exhausted, we powered through so we could regulate our sleeping schedule right away. Fernando and I walked to the closest supermarket, Auchan, to get food and water since we hadn’t eaten anything in more than 24 hours. We were pleasantly surprised by all the vegan options at the grocery store! We came back to the apartment, made some sandwiches, and ate some heavenly fruit. Then, we went on a short walk around the town and to the marina. We came across this gorgeous area with Casa Santa Marta and the blue and white striped lighthouse. Also, near here, there is a tiny beach area where locals hang out and jump off the bridge. We greatly admired the views!
Cascais is amazing!
We have now been in Cascais for a week and it’s truly beautiful! The weather has been pretty spectacular, especially coming from Austin, TX where it was hotter than Hades when we left. Cascais is full of charm with lovely beaches with soft golden sand, a beautiful boardwalk that extends all the way to Estoril with workout stations along the way, and enchanting parks and palaces galore! We’ve explored and walked everywhere, including a huge rock arch with dramatic views, Boca do Inferno.
Cascais Farmer’s Markets
One of our favorite activities so far in Cascais is going to the Saturday Organic Market and Saturday/Wednesday Farmer’s Market at Mercado Da Vila. The colorful array of succulent fruits and veggies is truly a feast for the eyes. The produce here is delectable and the prices are quite economical. Going to the markets is a terrific way to practice your Portuguese, especially numbers and money. I feel a bit overwhelmed with the language right now, but I’m also really glad that we have a foundation of Spanish. Many of the words are similar, but the pronunciation is different and thankfully, the sentence structure is the same. We use iTalki for a private European Portuguese tutor. What’s your favorite way to learn a foreign language?
Learning Portuguese
So far, we are definitely enamored with Cascais and what we have seen in Portugal! The Portuguese people have been friendly, and very accommodating, and even if there is a language barrier, we somehow work through it so we both kind of understand. Most of the people we have talked to speak English really well, but I always feel better if I speak the native language when traveling and living abroad. We will be making every attempt to learn conversational Portuguese as soon as possible!
update 2023
After living in Lisbon for over a year, we bought an apartment in Almada (the other side of the river from Lisbon) in September 2022. Our teens go to school in Lisbon and commute via tram and train.
Are you thinking about moving to Portugal? Or have you already moved to Portugal? What is something that you would like to know more about?
** If you want to know more about how to move to Portugal and how to apply for the D7 visa, check out our previous post where we detail exactly what we did: HOW TO MOVE TO PORTUGAL
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THE 5 ITEMS WE WERE SO HAPPY TO HAVE FOR ALL OF OUR TRIPS:
- Merrell women’s light hiking shoes – these are amazing because they are lightweight, but are extra grippy and helpful! I also have this pair that I always get compliments on: Merrell Rainbow shoes. Fernando loves his Asics trail runners which are also grippy and perfect for walking on cobblestone streets.
- Thermoflask water bottle – like a Hydroflask, but more affordable! We don’t go anywhere without these water bottles full of purified water.
- North Face Aphrodite 2.0 capris – Seriously, I wear these pants every.single.day! I couldn’t live without these ultra-comfy, lightweight pants that dry so quickly. They are 100% worth the money!
- Osprey Day Pack – this is an awesome lightweight backpack! We easily put the belongings we need at hand for traveling around the city and on public transportation.
- Travel-friendly chewable toothpaste tablets – these are so fantastic for keeping your teeth clean on the go!
OUR FAVORITE EUROPEAN SERVICES:
- DISCOVER CARS – If you want to rent a car while you’re in Europe, our favorite car rental aggregator is Discover Cars. We frequently rent cars, and they always have the best prices and great quality vehicles.
- iTalki – if you want to learn another language before traveling to Europe or while you’re there, we love iTalki. We highly recommend their language services.
- NORD VPN – perfect to use your technology in other countries!
- Airalo E-Sim – this let’s you use your phone anywhere in the world without having to get a physical sim! We use this all the time when we travel outside Europe!
- For fun activities in each city, check out Viator and their recommendations.
- Big Bus Tours – the perfect way to see the city when you first arrive!
- Get Transfer – transfers between all of the airports and cities
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How to have an insanely fabulous weekend in Ericeira
Beautiful blog and content. We are planning on doing the same. But we have 3 choices: doing it ourselves soup-to-nuts, vs hiring a professional for soup-to-nuts, vs a hybrid approach which, please correct me if I am wrong, seems to be what your family has done. If you don’t mind sharing, how much did you spend on professional help? What help did you get for that spend?
Congrats! Portugal is a lovely place to live! We had to hire some help in obtaining some key documents needed for the D7 visas, such as NIFs and bank account. We hired two highly recommended Attorneys to complete these tasks for us so my recommendation would be to reach out to them to see what their fees are. They charge based on the job and how many people so your fee may be less or more depending on what you require. Feel free to email me for the names and contact info of our Attorneys: veganfamilyadventure@gmail.com. If you plan on doing it all yourself, you will need to travel to Portugal prior to submitting your visa application to do the above tasks. It wasn’t an option in our case due to Covid. Best of luck! – Tara