So, Why Portugal?

As we get closer every day to our long-awaited move to Europe, I’ve decided I’m going to try and keep a record of the experience. My intent is to share regularly with friends and family – we’ll see how well I can keep up as we go along.

Once question I get a lot – “Why are you moving to Portugal?”

There are actually a lot of layers to this, but I’ll try and break them down for you.

The first consideration: Kristie and I have more or less always anticipated retiring out of the US, in a large part for economic reasons. We were kind of poor for a while, and didn’t have anything in the way of savings, so we were looking at a retirement more or less dependent on Social Security. Combine that with the high cost of health care in the US, and it meant we were going to be living in poverty.

The good news is that our financial health is better, so we don’t have those worries – but the US is still the only developed nation where you can go bankrupt from health care expenses. The cost of living is much more manageable in a lot of countries, and there are many places where you can participate in quality health care at a fraction of the price of here.

And there are a LOT of places that are safer than the US – even some very affordable places.

Another factor in our decision: proximity to places and things we’re interested in.

When we started thinking about our eventual landing place, we looked at Latin and South America. Although there are some places that are unsafe or unsuitable, there are a number of very nice possibilities down south, many with large expatriate communities.

However, we always dreamed of Europe. We’ve loved our trips across the Atlantic, and each place we’ve visited has had its charms. By preference, we would rather be there than South America, since there would be more access to the museums, castles, gardens, monuments, food, and other things we gravitate towards.

Unfortunately, we could never quite figure out how to make it work. I tried to get Nike to transfer us to Hilversum on multiple occasions, and sometimes it almost looked like it was happening, but every time the plan collapsed.

And then, the breakthrough occurred … and a path opened.

One of our favorite places to visit is Spain; there’s not much we don’t love about it. Spain was very high on our list of places to dream about living in, especially Valencia. However, it was Córdoba that hit me the hardest.

For those of you who don’t know, Córdoba was the capital of the Moorish kingdom of Al-Andalus and was for centuries the brightest cultural and intellectual light in Europe. While other places were struggling through the Dark Ages, Córdoba was busy collecting and sharing knowledge. Frankly, the Renaissance would not have happened if the works of the Greeks and Romans hadn’t been saved (and translated) by the scholars of Al-Andalus.

During Córdoba’s Golden Age, Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived together in relative peace and harmony, too. One of the two synagogues still standing in Spain from those days is in Córdoba.

I have to get a little woo-woo for a minute. When we were in Córdoba, I had the strangest sensation of belonging – more than anywhere else we had traveled, I felt completely at home there. It was honestly a little creepy, and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with these feelings.

So, imagine my complete and utter shock on returning from that trip to learn about the Spanish (and Portuguese) Sephardic Repatriation laws.This is a long story in and of itself, but the short version – Spain and Portugal felt really bad about expelling the Jews in the late 1400s. They felt so bad, that if you could show descent from a Sephardic (as the Iberian and “oriental” Jews were called) bloodline, you were entitled to citizenship!

Final, and huge factor in moving to Portugal: we love it there, and they want us!

As soon as I found out about the repatriation programs, I got to work on it. Once again, long story and years of effort, but the short version is that the Portuguese program is much simpler to navigate than the Spanish one. I was accepted and am now a dual citizen of the US and Portugal.

I have to admit that when we started, we really didn’t have much experience with Portugal. That has changed over the years – we’ve been there repeatedly, staying in apartments in neighborhoods so we could see how the real people live. We’ve checked shops to get an idea of what we can and can’t get, explored the fresh markets, walked the streets and ridden public transportation until we know some areas quite well.

We’ve also formed some strong ties with the people there. The Portuguese are kind, welcoming, and have a real sense of community that is hard to find in the US. We are extremely optimistic that we will be able to integrate well and contribute positively to society.And as an extra added bonus – the cost of living is about 40% less than the US, and we get free national health from one of the best systems in Europe.