In October of 2023 I started the process of moving out of my apartment I had bought in France. If you haven’t heard the details of why and how I decided to leave France- you can read all about it in my post Starting Over- Just or Be Pushed. I made my temporary home in my then-girlfriend’s apartment in Switzerland and as of February of 2024, we both embarked on the adventure of being homeless.

The year started off with moving boxes from France to Switzerland, from one apartment in one city to another apartment in another city and from one basement to the next. The process took us weeks and by the end of it, we were at wits ends with weak arms and tired legs. At that point, we were both from that point on- homeless. Without a place to stay and with the world as our oyster. We didn’t have the time to rest for even a second, and followed the move by packing our few remaining belongings into tiny backpacks and running off to Portugal. We had the intentions of find our next home there, and spent three weeks travelling down the coast drifting from city to city. We stayed in cheap hostels for the nights but spent our days discovering the Portuguese lifestyle- attempting to see if it matched our taste. Though the scenery was beautiful and the salty sea breeze was refreshing, we just couldn’t see ourselves living in any of the town’s we visited.

We did try everything- starting with Porto. The city sang of seagulls and bars lined the river serving port wine and salty and fishy tapas. We enjoyed the sun and busy streets but were not convinced by the culture and nightlife of the city. We moved down the coast, passing through towns like Nazaré and Figueira da Foz, enjoying the bright sunny weather despite being in winter- but still were not convinced. We chilled in the normally touristy towns of the South, like Lisbon, Cascais, Lagos and Faro, getting tattoos along the way to remember our trip. If that wasn’t enough- we even got engaged in a Portuguese grocery store, right in the aisle of bacalhau. We then celebrated the engagement on a beautiful and deserted beach, of course. We strived to fully integrate into the Portuguese life, with me learning the language and Nana actually being Portuguese herself. Regardless- we just weren’t convinced.

The trip had to go on, and we left Faro with a pinch of doubt in our hearts as we tossed our backpacks into the storage compartment of our Flixbus. We planned to continue on to Spain- with hostels booked in Sevilla and Malaga. What happened there… is another story.

Now, we are officially no longer Homeless, but we will get into how we found our ‘home’ in another entry.

All my love.