Uncategorized – Page 3 – A Modern Odyssey

Movers and Moving

Back in 1995 when Kristie and I moved from Portland to San Diego, we were young, strong, and foolish. I hired a couple of guys in Portland to help me load a 24’ truck, and then we drove it for two days (over the Siskiyous in winter) while towing a car behind it on aContinue reading “Movers and Moving”

Finding an Apartment

One of the most anxiety-ridden parts of any move is find the right place to move to. When you’re doing a long-distance relocation, this becomes somewhat challenging, but it can be done! While we were still in the, “Is this possible?” phase of thinking about the move, I started looking at long-term rentals in Valencia,Continue reading “Finding an Apartment”

The Next Milestone

We’ve just returned from a productive, whirlwind visit to Valencia — and we’ve got the paperwork to prove it. Moving can be a real pain in the neck. Even moving across town can be challenging, so you can imagine how moving cities – and countries! – can require a higher level of planning and coordination.Continue reading “The Next Milestone”

Bacalhau to Bocadillos

I’m back – and with big news. I originally started this blog back in 2020 to chronicle our move from the US to Portugal. But it’s hard to keep the momentum going, and I didn’t have much that was exciting to talk about after we moved from Porto to Lisboa in 2021, so things haveContinue reading “Bacalhau to Bocadillos”

Uma piada em portugues

Um famoso cientista de anfíbios estava fazendo uma apresentação na sociedade zoológica local. “Boa noite, senhoras e senhores. Eu tenho aqui um sapo simples. Observem!” Ele colocou o sapo na mesa e ordenou: “Pule, sapo, pule!” O sapo saltou dois metros. “Como vocês podem ver,” disse o cientista, “um sapo pode pular dois metros emContinue reading “Uma piada em portugues”

The Taberna Típica Quarta Feira (or, Why I love Portugal)

A few years ago, when we were still in pre-move investigation mode, we arrived at the airport in Lisboa and stepped up to the Immigration Control desk to pass into the country. The official looked through my passport and said, “Hmm. You’ve been here before.” “Yes, I have,” I agreed. “And you came back.” “Yes,Continue reading “The Taberna Típica Quarta Feira (or, Why I love Portugal)”

Bureaucracy Update: I Have a Driver’s License!

Despite the best efforts of the IMT, combined with a brilliant assist by CTT (the Portuguese Postal service), I received my driver’s license, good until 2026, in today’s mail. If you’ve been following this blog, you know how much of an uphill struggle this has been (See “The Worst of All Bureaucracies” for details). TheContinue reading “Bureaucracy Update: I Have a Driver’s License!”

A successful move

Well, we did it! We are now in our new Lisboa apartment for a full week, and loving it. The move itself was remarkably trouble-free. The moving team was supposed to be at the Porto apartment on the 12th at 8:30 AM. This being Portugal, I expected that meant sometime before 10:00, but to myContinue reading “A successful move”

More milestones on the journey

We managed to get some things checked off the list this week towards the move to Lisboa. We drove down Monday morning with a carload of breakables. We’ve got movers who will be lifting and loading on 12 August, but since we had to be at the apartment for a series of appointments, Kristie wantedContinue reading “More milestones on the journey”

Roman Ruin Road Trip

One of our major motivating factors in deciding to move to Europe was our love of traveling. We always envisioned regular excursions from our home base. There were so many places we wanted to see, but trips from the US had to be huge, concentrated affairs – but if we LIVED in Europe, nothing wasContinue reading “Roman Ruin Road Trip”