shlomo Posted May 14, 2022 Share Posted May 14, 2022 https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-05-12/california-expats-portugal-relocation-lisbon CASCAIS, Portugal — Jamie Dixon landed in this hilly seaside town nine months ago, ditching her luxury trailer in Malibu for a two-floor rooftop apartment that’s twice the size for a fraction of the rent. Her escape from her native California came amid growing costs of living, encroaching wildfires and a waning sense of safety after the burglary of a neighbor’s home. The fitness-trainer-turned-startup-worker decided it was time to reinvent herself in a foreign land, but like many American expats she didn’t want to feel too far from home. In this wealthy enclave about 15 miles from the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, she found her slice of California on the west coast of Europe: ocean breezes, mountain views, hot spring days on palm-tree-lined promenades, and the glow of sunsets that seep into the night. “Things were just becoming too much back home, but I didn’t want to leave everything about L.A. behind,” said Dixon, 37. Dressed in yoga pants and cross-trainers, she sipped white wine at an organic cafe that overlooked waves crashing into Big Sur-like cliffs a short walk from the rental she shares with her actor husband and 7-year-old daughter. “With Portugal,” she said, “we could keep the parts we liked and leave the rest.” Dixon has plenty of company in a country that has become an international destination for tourism and residency alike. This once seafaring empire known for Port wine and Fado music can feel a lot like California. Except it’s much more affordable on a U.S. budget. That’s one reason the slender nation on the Atlantic has attracted — and even advertised to — Americans who are packing up. In the last decade, the overall population in Portugal has declined even as the number of foreigners has grown by 40%. The ranks of American citizens living in this land of 10 million shot up by 45% last year. Within the mix of retirees, digital nomads and young families fed up with issues including the costs of housing and healthcare, Trumpian politics and pandemic policies, Californians are making themselves known in a country once considered the forgotten sibling of Spain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Money Frugality Posted May 14, 2022 Share Posted May 14, 2022 I’ve been considering Portugal after first holidaying there a few years back.. It’s a lovely place I was always a bit concerned about the quantity of other expats but this is good news. Even more so since a multinational has an office there. I constantly wake up in Britain to grim weather and do wonder how everyone is capable of living their entire existence here with the depressing grey sky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shlomo Posted May 14, 2022 Author Share Posted May 14, 2022 Therese Mascardo, a 39-year-old therapist from Santa Monica, flew to Lisbon in 2019 after experimenting with online sessions to cut down on her four-hour daily round-trip commute to Orange County. Frustrated with the Trump presidency, mass shootings and a car-bound lifestyle, she said she sought out “the antiquity and charm” of an old European city that was walkable. Mascardo was attracted to the fact that right-wing parties have not made the same inroads in the nation as they have elsewhere in Europe. Today, she can afford to work just two days a week — on a California schedule — while building out an online social media therapy content brand in her free time. She has money to spare after paying her monthly 1,000-euro rent. One Sunday a month, she leads a rotating museum tour for digital nomads on stopovers in the city. From the streets outside her three-bedroom apartment that straddles the Estrela and Lapa neighborhoods, Mascardo, who grew up in Orange and studied at UC Berkeley, can look downhill and spot the the 25th of April Bridge. Modeled after the Bay Bridge, it is painted in the same red as the Golden Gate and reminds her of home. But despite twice-yearly trips to Los Angeles, where she lugs in cheap Vinho Verde and stocks up on Anthropologie candles and Trader Joe’s pea chips for the return, she has no plans to leave. “I love my weekly stroll to the farmers market and being within a 15-minute walk of most of my friends,” Mascardo said. “I love the kindness and hospitality of the Portuguese people, especially when they graciously endure my nascent Portuguese language skills and gently offer corrections and tips. I love that people eat bread here and aren’t always talking about the restrictive diet they are on. I love that dressing down is the standard way of existence here. I feel happier and not just trying hard to be happy.” Jamie Dixon feels the same way. Walking recently along the Avenida da República, the cliffside road near her new home that’s lined with cafes overlooking the ocean, she was for moments convinced she was back in Malibu at a sort of Point Dume on the Atlantic. But as she crossed the road and glimpsed the Portuguese street signs, she was reminded that it takes time and patience to build a new life in a distant land. I miss knowing people when I go out to a restaurant or bar. I miss frolicking in the desert. I miss Palm Springs. I miss how easy it is to pay bills or renew my license. I miss being fluent,” Dixon said. “It’s taken months to just feel like we are barely settling in. But I feel safer here going out alone. I’m excited my daughter will speak other languages.” She was on her way home to pack for a family trip to Mallorca, something that would have required a week of time off and thousands of dollars when she was back in the U.S. From here, it would be a quick weekend jaunt on the cheap. “I thought L.A. was the end-all, be-all and the only place out there,” she said. “But, sometimes, you have to take a leap and realize America isn’t home forever.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shlomo Posted May 14, 2022 Author Share Posted May 14, 2022 3 minutes ago, Money Frugality said: I’ve been considering Portugal after first holidaying there a few years back.. It’s a lovely place I was always a bit concerned about the quantity of other expats but this is good news. Even more so since a multinational has an office there. I constantly wake up in Britain to grim weather and do wonder how everyone is capable of living their entire existence here with the depressing grey sky. The reason they are leaving the US https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-05-14/supermarket-shooting-buffalo-new-york BUFFALO, N.Y. — A gunman with a rifle and body armor opened fire in a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., killing at least 10 people before being taken into custody Saturday afternoon, law enforcement officials told the Associated Press. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeanutButter Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 I suppose having Spanish language lessons at school in US helps pick up Portuguese? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jolly Roger Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 They're leaving California because of a mass shooting on the opposite coast? Trumpian politics? Trump isn't in power. They're leaving California for places like Texas, a gun toting state that's been red for over forty years. And I guess now Portugal too. Will miss playing in the desert and Palm Springs, a rich yuppie enclave that's 80 percent white, unlike California as a whole. Lol but no doubt it's the republicans that caused them to leave places like LA and San Fran, not the gangs and homeless people shooting up and defecating in the street. Funny how these people want to abandon a democratic state that's got more diverse with each passing year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odysseus Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 6 hours ago, PeanutButter said: I suppose having Spanish language lessons at school in US helps pick up Portuguese? Not really. I have a decent grasp of Spanish and French but Portuguese makes no sense to me whatsoever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shlomo Posted May 15, 2022 Author Share Posted May 15, 2022 19 minutes ago, Jolly Roger said: They're leaving California because of a mass shooting on the opposite coast? Trumpian politics? Trump isn't in power. They're leaving California for places like Texas, a gun toting state that's been red for over forty years. And I guess now Portugal too. Will miss playing in the desert and Palm Springs, a rich yuppie enclave that's 80 percent white, unlike California as a whole. Lol but no doubt it's the republicans that caused them to leave places like LA and San Fran, not the gangs and homeless people shooting up and defecating in the street. Funny how these people want to abandon a democratic state that's got more diverse with each passing year? It is not diversity that is the problem it is gun crime and the cost of living and cost of housing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob8 Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 52 minutes ago, Jolly Roger said: They're leaving California because of a mass shooting on the opposite coast? Trumpian politics? Trump isn't in power. They're leaving California for places like Texas, a gun toting state that's been red for over forty years. And I guess now Portugal too. Will miss playing in the desert and Palm Springs, a rich yuppie enclave that's 80 percent white, unlike California as a whole. Lol but no doubt it's the republicans that caused them to leave places like LA and San Fran, not the gangs and homeless people shooting up and defecating in the street. Funny how these people want to abandon a democratic state that's got more diverse with each passing year? There has been movement to Idaho also. California is 40 million people. Lots of them, like me, moved for work and will move out again too. People also move from Texas to California. I suggest, the main issue California has in its cities is they have designed urban sprawl, and even mandated it. This means unaffordable housing, lengthy communtes and extortinate rent. And, homelessness and associated social problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
debtlessmanc Posted May 15, 2022 Share Posted May 15, 2022 38 minutes ago, shlomo said: It is not diversity that is the problem it is gun crime and the cost of living and cost of housing Same tectonic problems as California though roughly every 200 years Lisbon has been completely anihilated by an earthquake followed by Tsunami, 1321, 1551 and last time was 1755. The next is overdue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1755_Lisbon_earthquake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shlomo Posted May 15, 2022 Author Share Posted May 15, 2022 22 minutes ago, debtlessmanc said: Same tectonic problems as California though roughly every 200 years Lisbon has been completely anihilated by an earthquake followed by Tsunami, 1321, 1551 and last time was 1755. The next is overdue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1755_Lisbon_earthquake I have a feeling that 2022 wil be Annus Horribilis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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