Life in Portugal! 🇵🇹
My new newsletter about life as an Aussie expat in Portugal.
Ola amigos!
Welcome to ‘Ruby Writes’, where I’ll be sending out a weekly newsletter about my life as an Aussie expat in Portugal.
I moved to Portugal about 7 weeks ago, with my partner Nelson, and I decided I wanted to share the journey with you via a newsletter!
This newsletter will be a collection of stories all about life as an expat, travel tips, advice on moving overseas, and more. Feel free to subscribe below so you get this sent to your inbox each week :)
Hope you enjoy! x
A little bit of background…
At the end of February 2024 my partner, Nelson, and I packed up our lives in Melbourne, Australia and headed off to travel the world for a few months before arriving in Portugal.
We didn’t have jobs lined up, or a house to live in, or know anyone in Portugal, but we decided we wanted an adventure and are planning on living here for a year.
Currently, we’re living in Lisbon but only for a short while! We initially thought we’d just pick one place in Portugal and live there for the year but once we got here we realised we wanted to do things a little differently.
We decided that this year we wanted to do and try as many new things as possible. And we both have remote work back in Australia at the moment so that gives us the flexibility to live wherever, which is a real privilege.
I’ll fill you in on our plans as they happen, but as of today we have started our first Workaway in Lisbon! Workaway is where you work for someone in exchange for a roof over your head (and sometimes meals). We did something similar in Thailand a few years ago but that was on a remote farm and only for a few days so I expect this will be quite different. For this Workaway it sounds like we’ll just be helping this lady with general stuff around her house, gardening and moving furniture. I’ll keep you updated how it goes!
A quick recap
We’ve been in Portugal for almost two months already so here’s a recap and photos of some highlights we’ve had up until now:
Going to Porto for the Sao Joao festival (everyone has one of these squeaky plastic hammers and you go around the city hitting each other on the head with them - don’t ask me why, it’s just a tradition of the festival!!)
Spending a weekend in Ericeira, a small surf town near Lisbon
Having my cousin Michelle come to visit for 4 days
Exploring Sintra
Partying in the streets of Lisbon for their San Antonio festival
Watching the 2024 Euros
Doing a quick 2-day trip to Marrakech, Morocco
I also made my first-ever YouTube vlog documenting our first couple of weeks in Portugal which you can watch here:
I hope you enjoyed my little recap for this first newsletter, and next week I’ll be writing a bit more about what it’s actually like to be an Aussie expat in Portugal. Everything from why we decided to move to Portugal, what I love the most about it so far, the logistics of living here, and things that took me by surprise.
Don’t forget to subscribe to get it in your inbox weekly!! x
Great start Ruby!