October 2012 we said goodbye to the UK and said hello to Portugal.
We never imagined we would be living in Portugal but we are so happy we decided to make the change we desperately needed.
Life in the UK
We lived in Kent for about two years before we made the move overseas. It was a change from London but not a drastic change. Adam and I were leading busy lives and with three children and full time work. Adam would leave for work before any of us woke and returned from work when the kids had gone to bed. He felt like he was missing out on so much and I wanted to share the things he was missing.
Adam and I had completely different upbringings. I grew up and lived most of my life in London. I didn’t have the opportunity to attend university and so began working from a young age. Adam was born in the UK but spent the first ten years of his life in Zambia. He traveled a lot with his family and attended university in Portsmouth before making the move to London to start his career.
I worked in a fertility clinic in London and although I loved my job, I hated all the travel in and out of London. My maternity leave was almost over and I was planning to go back to work before we moved. Megan had just started secondary school so it was a tough age for her to move somewhere else but we had to make a decision and we both agreed that something needed to change.
Portugal
An opportunity arose for us to move to Portugal and it was something we needed to consider very carefully. I would need to give up my job to look after the children or at least until they were old enough to attend school.
We would have to rely on Adam as a freelancer working from home but it would give him the opportunity to watch our children grow and develop whilst working from home. We didn’t speak the language or know much at all about Portugal and our biggest concern was Megan. At the time she was 12 years of age and had just started secondary school in the UK. We knew it would be tough for her but we knew it was the right thing to do in the long run. Megan will disagree with me, she didn’t adapted well to Portugal. She was young and just starting to make friends at her new school and she had to adapt to the Portuguese way of life, language and culture – very quickly.
Taking the plunge
Neither of us had been to Portugal before. I remember saying to Adam, “What’s the worst that can happen? We have to return to the UK.” With that in mind, we began to make plans.
It also dawned on us that we had never actually taken a family holiday. We decided to book a week away in the Algarve before we headed north to our new home. We made the decision to move in July 2012 and by October 2012 we were saying goodbye to the UK.
We sold all our furniture, packed our belongings and began our journey. With 10 boxes, three kids, two extremely large suitcases and a stroller, we were finally ready to go.
We made it
We arrived in the Algarve (south of Portugal) for our first family holiday. We had read that October in Portugal is still fairly warm and all the tourists tend to have returned home by then. It was also a cheap time of the year to travel which suited us. We were all excited but Megan was not convinced. She hated the idea of living here but the holiday helped ease her into it a little. She was only twelve and we had taken her out of her comfort zone. We were determined to make her feel differently.
It was very late by the time we arrived. We found our hotel which was on an gigantic hill. This made pushing a stroller, pulling two large suitcases and carrying a sleeping two year old quite challenging and we even had a stroppy teenager in toe. It was pretty exhausting, but we were glad we had made it.
Our first day
Our first morning in the Algarve and the sun was shining. It was unbelievably warm, even at 11am when we decided to go and explore the beach. When I look back at the photos I think it must have been hot as we were all in swimwear on the beach and of course I was looking a bit like a lobster in no time. The first day was great. Luckily many people speak English in the Algarve because we didn’t have a clue how to even start with the language. That evening we went for a meal which was disastrous! After all the travelling the day before and a full day at the beach the kids were tired and hungry. We arrived at the restaurant around six and back in the hotel room less than 45 minutes later. We had tears and the kids were acting up. Adam decided to sample one of the local meals which was so spicy he couldn’t eat it. As we all know, children crying seems to attracts an audience. Time for bed!
As first the kids struggled a bit with the heat – they certainly weren’t used to it living in the UK. Then the rain came. The rest of the week was a wash out. We stood at the top of the hill, watching the water build up and run down the hill. Before long the holiday was over and we made our way to the station to get a train to the Alentejo.
Our home, the Alentejo
It was a pleasant journey and we couldn’t help wondering what to expect when we arrived. We had no idea about our new home, we had only seen the place via FaceTime. As we drove I admired the beautiful surroundings. Trees everywhere, birds in the sky and farm animals of all kinds scattered across the landscape. I have to admit I started to feel a little unsettled. This really was different to what we were used to.
We turned onto a track that seemed to go on forever and then we finally reached our new home. I felt a little better when I saw the property. We had a swimming pool and a bathroom in each room. That was a bonus! The views were breathtaking and all we could hear was the sound of nature. The lady that rented the property to us lived in a little house about ten meters away. She had a pet sheep which was a good ice breaker for the kids. You could call the sheep by her name and she would come running! Oh and I forgot to mention our new neighbors were my in laws. Adams parents had decided to move out here too, giving them the opportunity to experience Portugal, spend time with us and watch the grandchildren grow.
The kids had so much space. We were able to go on long walks and enjoy the surroundings with no shortage of muddy puddles for the kids to jump in. The kids seemed to like the change and we spent most of the time outside.
The downside to our new home was the power situation. The house wasn’t hooked up to mains electricity so we used a generator – a real pain in the butt!
Ourique
Not far from the house was the small town of Ourique. We began to explore and the first stop was the local school. We knew Megan had to enroll but we had no idea how to do it. Entering the school, I turned to look at Megan and I could see the dread in her eyes. As a mother, I felt awful but she knew she had to attend school at some point. We met the headteacher who, luckily for us, spoke English. He was so friendly and put Megan at ease. It turned out there were other English speaking children at the school, which helped. We did what we needed to and as we were leaving, the headteacher said, “Megan, we will see you tomorrow” Her face was a picture!
The next day she was off to school. The kids were all so friendly, showed her around and helped her where she needed it. She was thrown in at the deep end with the new language and had to start picking it up quickly. Education in Portugal is very different to the UK but its amazing how quickly children can adapt. Then came willow’s turn. She attended the local nursery and picked up the language in no time at all.
The community were welcoming and accommodating. Everyone would say good morning or good afternoon to us as we passed. We made many new friends and continue to do so. Teaching yoga in my local community has given me the opportunity to meet a lot of new people.
I’ll be honest, it’s not all plain sailing living here. The Portuguese are obsessed with paperwork. Whenever you try to do something you have to endure the paperwork! It was quite tough to begin with but it got a lot better over time. There are so many people here who are always willing to help.
As Cody turned three it was time for him to go to school too. Unfortunately he was the one who would cry every morning when we left him. Tearing at our clothes, begging us not to leave him at school. It wasn’t anything to do with the language as he had been around it for some time since he came here as a baby. Most children go through this but Cody never gave up. He was pretty much like that for the whole year. Of course, no sooner we left he was ok and had a great day while Adam and I felt terrible all day.
Our new life
After a year in Portugal we moved to a bigger house about ten minutes from where we lived. Another sleepy town – Garvão. We made the most amazing memories there. This is where our kids really grew up. We adopted a little lab puppy – Sky. The most gentle and loving dog a person could hope for. We had so many adventures and of course our families would come and stay with us. Life was good and we felt we had made the right decision. We decided to ‘add to our collection’ of children and along came Oscar in 2015. It was after Oscar that my health really deteriorated and had an impact on our lives. Anyway, that’s another story!
In 2020 we bought our first house. We knew it needed a lot of work but it was livable to start with. We loved the thought of doing it up and it being our own – we didn’t manage to get on the property ladder in the UK.
Of course the years have flown by. We came with the intention of staying for a year to see how things went and its been ten years and we still love living here. I had my doubts on the drive up the day we arrived. I remember thinking how isolated everything was. I can honestly say I wouldn’t change a thing. Life throws so much at us, we have to deal with it, but dealing with the tough parts of life and doing what we wanted to do has got us where we want to be.