Once upon a time - How i ended in Portugal

 Once upon a time - How i ended in Portugal

Hi! My name is Iris and i moved to Portugal on the 27th of august, 2019. I would like to give you an idea of my choose of Portugal and take you on this journey. Enjoy! 

Before i went to Portugal   

 

I always lived a normal, kind of standard life in the Netherlands together with my 2 sisters, my mom and dad. I studied Marketing and communications and after i started my bachelor Learning and Development in Organisations. When was writing my theses i received a message from my old internship with the question if i wanted to apply for a job there (How cool!). Ofcourse this was great but the following was stuck in my head: 

´´Do i want to live here the rest of my life, work 40 hours a week, come home, eat at 18.00, watch tv, go to bed and do the same thing over and over again until i can retire?´´ Well, the more i thought about it, the more i was sure this was not what i wanted. 

I decided to apply for a job in Portugal.. Exciting and a big adventure!

The preperations  

Off we go!

I will write another, more detailed blog for you later about the job itself and how the apply process worked. For now, i was hired and i had my start date. The only thing that i needed to do was book a flight ticket and pack my suitcase. The company would pick me up from the airport and i would live in a shared appartment. Good thing, because i didn´t wanted to have all this stress and an important thing: i was planning to go for just a year.. Well that didn´t went as plannned.

The arrival and the first days  

There i was on Schiphol, saying goodbye to my family and friends and cried, a lot! Everything went according to the plan and the plane left, but not for long. There i was in the air, cried the last bit that was left, said goodbye to the Netherlands and ready for my adventure in Portugal. Then.. The flight attendent told us that a bird flew into the engine and we needed to go back. So far my adventure.. 

After a while we could finally go and i arrived safe and well in Portugal. My shared appartment was in Almada, on the other side of the bridge in Lisbon. My room was tiny, but nice and i had the greatest english roommate ever. Thanks to her i had a warm welcome. 

I don´t know if you know Almada, but i never heard of it. It is close to Lisbon, but more a place for locals then tourists (to live) To be honest, at the beginning i really didn´t like it. Everyone was staring at me (i´m blond and do not look a tiny bit like a Portugese), no one spoke a word of English and i had the feeling that i was far away from the lovely city Lisbon. I needed to travel 1 hour to work and the most people from my work were living in Lisbon. I was thinking about moving to Lisbon until..

 

- I found out that one of my favorite collegues also lived in Almada. 

 

- I met the love of my life and he happens to live in Almada too. 

 

 

- I discovered that Almada have amazing places and great sunsets. 

 

 

- I got learn about the Portugese culture, learned some Portugese words that would help me.

 

- The public transports between Almada and Lisbon are very well arranged. 

 

 

- My parents in law are treating me as their own daughter. 

 

 

 

After one year

 

Everyone was expecting me to come back after 1 year, but yeah.. Life happend. I was feeling so happy here, i was less stressed and i felt home. And also, i did´t want to leave that great Portugese guy. I decided to stay. Now, 1,5 years later i am still here in Almada together with my boyfriend, i have a great job, a great family in law, great experiences and a happy life. I am home. 

 

Love, Iris