Author Archives: Phil Gold

So, moving is always a big deal, right? Imagine that multiplied by a factor of I-don’t-know-how-much … that’s what moving internationally is. I started to try and do a day-by-day breakdown of everything we accomplished in week one, but as I was getting it all written down, I realized how much we overdid it. Basically,Continue reading “The first week in Porto”

On Sunday 26 July, we left Lisboa on the final leg of our travels to our new home in Porto. I have to step back in time for a minute and talk about luggage. Because it’s going to be so long before we see the stuff from the container, Kristie and I decided to takeContinue reading “Welcome to Porto!”

We devoted our first few days in Portugal to financial and business matters, although we did take time for some great food and wine and to connect with friends. As I’ve mentioned in earlier episodes, I’m moving my consulting company to a Portuguese business. This company is the catch-all for my LinkedIn class authoring andContinue reading “Takin’ care of business, Lisboa style”

I’ll start with the good stuff: we are in Portugal, staying at a lovely hotel in Lisboa. We arrived when we planned, and our luggage miraculously made it, too (more on that in a bit)! Travel started at 3:00 AM PST on Monday the 20th. Originally the flight had a 10:30 AM departure, but thatContinue reading “The complications of Coronavirus Travel”

I am posting this note the night before we leave the country. We’re jumping out of our skins excited. We’re sad. We’re nervous. Forget about sleeping tonight! The past few days have been a blur: Thursday morning, I took the kids to get their final “Healthy to Fly” papers, and then had to FedEx someContinue reading “It’s finally happening”

I’m a pretty good planner and organizer. I actually enjoy it. My normal mode of operation is to have as much stuff planned ahead as I can, typically with at least two contingency plans if things don’t work out or circumstances change. I’m also an early planner. Our social calendar typically has things scheduled weeksContinue reading “Details, details, details”

Now that the temporary crisis about entering the country is apparently resolved, we return to the regularly scheduled broadcast. One of the top five questions that I get asked about the relocation is, “How will you move your pets? Won’t they have to be quarantined for months?” This is a lot simpler than most peopleContinue reading “Our furry family”

My next article was supposed to be about the pets. Unfortunately, there’s something a little more critical to report. All this week, we’ve been seeing news about the possibility of the EU closing their borders to travelers from the US, Russia, and Brasil because of our climbing Covid rates (and our overall inadequate response toContinue reading “Special COVID bulletin”

We suffer from the same problem a lot of people have – too much stuff. We have furniture, kitchen appliances, books, and electronics.We have an overabundance of musical instruments, paintings, and arts and craft supplies. We have clothes – and since we live in a four-season climate, plus we like to look nice, plus bothContinue reading “Divesting of our worldly goods”

International relocation can be challenging, even when everything goes smooth. Wouldn’t you just know that as we got close to the end of nearly four years of planning, a massive monkey wrench would drop into the works in the form of Covid-19?Our original goal was moving to Porto around the beginning of July this year,Continue reading “House hunting under lockdown”