Could You Move from North America to Europe?
Part One - What Type of Person Are You?
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Life at Large
Welcome to 2025! Every time I say, “2025”, it still feels like I’m talking about the future. Yet, here we are—living in it. In some ways, it really IS the future I used to dream of. I can easily recall my past self, sitting with my financial advisor about ten years ago, planning out scenarios that could let me retire early. Five years ago, I set a countdown app on my phone for “Freedom 50” and gleefully showed my coworkers exactly how many years, months, and weeks I had left—probably annoying them in the process. Back then, I didn’t know exactly where I’d be in 2025, but I knew it would be somewhere different from where I was at that time.
If I wanted to retire early, I couldn’t stay in Canada, the numbers didn’t allow it. I had accepted that, and didn’t see it as a setback, more of an opportunity. Single at the time, I was prepared to make a big move on my own.
Ultimately, through a series of zigs and zags, and meeting my now-husband Michal, here we are in Portugal. Ten years ago, Portugal wouldn’t have been on my radar, but life is funny like that. After living here for almost two years, it feels like home.
I follow several online forums about living/moving internationally. It seems a lot of people are considering making big moves as affordability, or politics, or weather changes in their home countries. I also see people move to Porto, stay a while, and realize it’s not right for them.
In response to these trends, fellow Substacker Gregory Garretson posed a question (that I have paraphrased) in his publication “Living Elsewhere” in a post on November 15, 2024:
Could You Move from North America to Europe?
He followed it up with 10 additional questions to consider. Here is Gregory’s original post:
I contacted Gregory after reading his post and asked if it would be ok if I expanded on his questions, and used them as a basis for a series of reflections on my own experience of moving from Canada to Portugal in 2023.
He said to go for it, so here it is, the first post of a ten-part series on how I experienced my husband Michal and my move from New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada to Porto, Portugal.
To kick things off, let’s consider Gregory’s first question: “Are you a Security Person or a Discovery Person?”
I like the simplicity of the question. Do you like the comfort of routines and familiar surroundings, or do you enjoy experiencing new places, cultures, and foods?
The question is simple, but for many people I doubt there is a simple answer. I’m certainly one of those people who can identify with both ends of the continuum; I love trying new things, and I also draw comfort from familiar routines.
Reflecting on past experiences helped me predict how I would experience the move to Portugal. I recalled that I moved fairly often as a young adult, that taught me I adapt to new routines easily. I quickly feel at home in new communities and enjoy discovering “favourites” – whether it’s restaurants, scenic spots for walking and thinking, or local businesses.
I also generally view the world as safe and interesting, rather than dangerous and dull, and I think that is an important distinction for anyone planning a big move.
In a previous post I expanded this question to consider it through the lens of “primal beliefs”. Primal beliefs can be boiled down as the core beliefs humans hold about the nature of the world. The most basic primal belief sits on the axis of “the world is generally safe”, with the opposing belief that “the world is generally dangerous”. Neither belief is wrong, but depending where you sit on that continuum, you will experience the world differently from the next person. Primal beliefs can be shaped by culture, societal norms, personal experiences, and our parents’ beliefs, among other factors.
Researcher Jer Clifton has done a lot of work in his quest to understand how primal beliefs influence our well-being. He has designed several surveys you can use to see where you sit on the continuum of beliefs. Here is a link to a summary of his work (if you scroll to the bottom of the article, you can take his surveys if you would like to see where you sit on the continuum).
People who believe the world is dangerous are inclined to see risk where others may not, and to be more distrustful and pessimistic. They may experience more anxiety and depression related to this belief. Because of their focus on the negative and dangerous elements of life, they also may spend more time researching and planning for adverse events, which can be a good thing to some degree.
On the other hand, people who predominantly believe the world is safe tend to be more optimistic, trusting, and curious. They often experience a higher level of well-being, and while they may be less prepared for adverse events than their more pessimistic counterparts, they tend to have more resilience when they are faced with difficulties.
All that to say, personally, I lean toward the belief that the world is generally safe, and I’m a pretty optimistic person. I know from past experiences that a new place will begin to feel familiar to me quite quickly. I also know that I’ll be ok, better than ok perhaps, during the early weeks and months after a move when everything is new and unexpected.
A related question to ask oneself, and one I think about a lot as I hear people’s stories about why they have moved to Portugal, is “am I moving away from something, or toward something?” The difference is subtle, but I think it influences your expectations of how life will be in your new location. If you are moving toward something, a new lifestyle perhaps, it may be easier to embrace the different culture and pace of life you will encounter. If you are moving to avoid something undesirable in your previous home that one aspect of life may feel better in your new home, but it might be more difficult to accept other unrelated and unexpected differences you will certainly encounter.
When Michal and I moved to Porto in 2023, for the first month or two it really felt like we were on vacation. Part of that may have been because we had rented an Airbnb for the first six months after arriving in Porto, so there was no immediate action required to find housing. There was so much to see, learn, and do in our new city! Even a basic task, like figuring out where to buy a basic kitchen item, was an exciting challenge. Slowly, we became familiar with the city, how to get around, and where to find the things we need. We found new favourite restaurants, we came to know which grocery store is more likely to have to have a particular item, and where to go to find more unusual items. We developed routines.
That didn’t mean we stopped exploring. One of our main motivations for moving to Europe was to travel—visiting cities and towns, learning about history, and experiencing the culture. Sometimes we take a train, bus, or rent a car to explore new places within Portugal. Other times, we visit neighbouring countries. For instance, last week we celebrated the New Year in Vienna with Petra, Michal’s daughter. It was a short flight from Porto for us and just as convenient for Petra by bus or train. We love how close everything feels in Europe and how relatively affordable travel is compared to North America.
Not all our adventures involve international trips. On a smaller scale, we enjoy discovering new neighbourhoods in our own city. Just before Christmas, we explored an area with a local friend to see where the new high-speed train line connecting Lisbon and Porto will link up with an existing station in Porto. Exciting, right? Life has settled into a comfortable balance between the familiar (security) and the new (discovery), which feels just right for us.
In my next post I’ll discuss Gregory’s second question, “Do you have the patience and perseverance necessary to deal with setbacks?”. We have had a few, so there will be lots to write about!
If you are only here for this discussion of Garretson’s “10 Questions” here is the link to the next post.
Projects and Events
The main events of the last two weeks have been New Year celebrations and visiting Michal’s family. I have made little progress on my ongoing projects, but we are home now, and it’s time to tuck in and get Mom’s story finished! I’m currently working on Chapter 14, and have four more to go. They are in rough draft, and need a lot of work.
Once Mom’s chapters are complete, I’ll get going on to Dad’s story.
I’m also delighted that the Cluster Photography and Print Exhibition in London is back on! There is a new venue, and new dates. I see the event team has started loading my Google drive with promotional materials for me to share over the next few months, and I need to begin preparing the images I will be exhibiting.
If you are interested in browsing the works that will be exhibited by photographers from all over the world, here is a link to the list of exhibitors.
Writing
I’m still working my way through the lecture series “Building Great Sentences: Exploring the Writer’s Craft”, by Professor Brooks Landon from University of Iowa.
There is a lot to process from each lecture. I think I will have to listen to each lecture several times to really absorb all the ideas and tools and put them to use. I really enjoy learning something, then immediately trying it out. The cumulative, just-in-time approach to learning works for me.
I have set aside the month of January to really dig in and finish Mom’s story. It is completely possible, the schedule and plan I have mapped out confirms it! I just have to keep my butt in the chair, as they say and get it done. Wish me luck (and attention span)!
Photography
The last few weeks have been good for photography. Vienna is a beautiful city, and the crowds had thinned out over the holidays. Perhaps that is because Vienna dismantles its Christmas markets on December 26th, or perhaps it was because there was freezing rain in the forecast over New Years. Either way, it was wonderful to wander through uncrowded streets. Here are a few of my favourite photos from Vienna:
From Vienna we carried on to Košice, Slovakia to visit Michal’s family. As we arrived it began to snow, and it stuck around for a few days, which was a treat! Here are a few images from Košice:
Yesterday we joined a street photography group we are part of for a photocrawl. Before meeting the rest of the group, Michal and I took a short walk through Jardim do Palácio de Cristal, in the neighbourhood where we lived on first arriving in Porto. The weather was interesting. It was transitioning from fog and drizzle, to what would become a sunny afternoon. Here is my favourite photo from the garden:
I have also spent a bit of time experimenting with new ways to display and share my photographs. Over the holidays I tried two different approaches; the first being quite basic, but adds visual interest to the right photograph, and the second time-consuming and detailed, but quite enjoyable to do. Let’s see if you can spot the tedious one:
If you guessed the first one, you would be correct! I took a photograph of the cloisters at Westminster Abbey, and in Photoshop I chopped it into 300 pieces. Each piece became a new file. Now, I know it can be done in Photoshop, but I didn’t know how, and I was only doing this as a proof of concept, so I took the ‘easy’ route and moved all 300 files over to Canva.
After a bit of trial and error, I managed rearrange the small pieces of the image, create a layer that looks a bit like the grout between tiles, and set the whole mess on a background. It took some time, but it was enjoyable time, quite like doing a puzzle. I’d love to hear what you think of it.
The second image was MUCH easier. I have always been drawn to any art form that spills off the canvas, or that extends beyond an intended border or constraint. That was the thought I had as I thought of ways to display a rather dark image that gave it more impact.
I have more photographs in my archives for which I’d like to try creative presentations. I’ll share what I come up with in future posts.
Last Thoughts
Thank you for following along as I share odds and ends from life and creative pursuits, and to those of you who opted in for a paid subscription, THANK YOU! There is a small token of my gratitude on its way to you in the mail for new paid subscribers.
There is also a little “bonus” at the end of this newsletter for paid subscribers, this week it’s a video talking about the experience of making friends in a new city and country.
As always, I love hearing from you - your comments, questions, suggestions, or just a quick hello, they are all very welcome!
Até à próxima! (Until next time!)
Kathy
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