My reflections after 6 months living overseas
The highlights and lowlights of our time living in Portugal
Can you believe we’ve lived overseas for 6 months?! Time really does fly when you’re having fun.
Living in a new country has been so fun; learning a new language, meeting great people, and experiencing the European lifestyle. Being in Europe also has the perk of being able to pop over to another country for a few days which is something us Australians are definitely not accustomed to.
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It’s been so nice reflecting on all the incredible adventures we’ve had so far, so I thought I’d share some of our highlights, and lowlights.
Highlights
Summer in Lisbon
Our first 3 months in Portugal were spent living in Lisbon, and my gosh is that a fun city to live in during the summer. There was so much going on all the time and we had a blast.
Exploring Porto
Porto was the first place we visited in Portugal and we had the best time. We then went back later in June for their famous São João festival which was one of the best things we’ve been to so far.
Having my cousin visit
My cousin Michelle came to visit about a month into us living overseas and we had a great 4 days together in Lisbon. She lived over in Edinburgh when she was 20 and I visited her there during my gap year so it was so nice she could visit me during my overseas living experience.
Portuguese lessons
While in Lisbon, we did a 5 week Portuguese language course, where we met some lovely people. The language school also organised weekly activities for students which were always fun.
Making some lovely friends
We’ve met some wonderful people overseas and had some fabulous times with them.
Beach days
I’ve never been much of a beach gal before but summer in Lisbon changed that for me. Buying a beach umbrella was also a game changer.
Living on a vineyard
Having the experience of living and working on a vineyard in Portugal during the grape harvest was like nothing I’ve ever done before and it was a great experience.
Festivals
The San Antonio festival in Lisbon, the São João festival in Porto and the drunk donkey race in Peniche (not sure of it’s official name, but just to clarify the jockeys are drunk not the donkeys!).
Football games
From watching the Euros in pubs in July, going to a massive Benfica game (Portugal’s best football team), and going to some local games in the Azores and Portimão, we’ve loved getting around football culture in Portugal.
Van trip in the Algarve
We did a 5-day van trip in South Portugal in September which was so much fun.
Adventures around Europe
Other highlights include the trips we’ve done outside of Portugal during the last six months. We spent two weeks exploring the Peloponnese in Greece, had a 4-day stopover in Paris, and went to the Olympics in Marseille for a weekend. I also did a solo trip to Denmark, we road-tripped around Italy, and spent 10 days in the beautiful Azores.
Lowlights
Now this might seem strange to include, but I don’t want to sugarcoat living overseas because it’s not always sunshine and rainbows. Our lowlights are all relatively trivial, and most have honestly just ended up as good stories to tell, if nothing else.
We had a rental lined up in Lisbon to live for three months but it fell through a couple days before we were supposed to move in, which led to a mad and stressful scramble to find somewhere new.
After our rental fell through we found a work exchange with a lady in Lisbon and we arranged to work and live with her for 6 weeks. When we moved in though, we realised she was a hoarder, and also not a very nice lady so we only lasted two days there!
When my toiletry bag got stolen from my hostel bed :( just super annoying and inconvenient really.
Our work exchange on the vineyard during grape harvest was a great experience, but after that we went to another work exchange on a big property that hosted events, and it was not a fun time.
Overall the past 6 months are ones I will never forget. We have had the most wonderful time so far and made so many incredible memories and I can’t wait for the next 6 months we have to come. To anyone thinking they might like to live overseas, even just for a little while, do it. It really is the best adventure.