Moving abroad to a foreign country can be a scary experience for everyone. Having to adjust to the culture, the language and the way of life are all huge challenges people face.
The people that are living in the country can make this change easier and that was the experience of Natalie Turner and Carl Hinds, two expats who moved to Portugal.
They said: “We were just blown away by the kindness of these people. What’s nice is the authenticity and just this willingness to help.
“To this day, we just still can’t believe that some of these people just did what they did for us and they don’t want anything from you.”
The Algarve is one of the biggest tourist hotspots in Portugal
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The British expats said that they took a punt when moving to Portugal, but it was one of the best decisions that they have made.
They said: “We got the iPad out and saw that Portugal is the best place to live right now in the world. I wanted to be back in Europe but not in England and it was focusing on where is the best place to live if you’re a foreigner.
“Neither of us knew Portugal at all and because of Covid we couldn’t travel so it was literally just pack up our stuff and go.”
They described the experience of living in Portugal for the last two years as absolutely fantastic and feel they have really settled there.
“We are absolutely delighted, I mean every day I just feel so grateful and so happy that we found this gorgeous town and this beautiful house. We’ve settled very well here,” said the expats.
“We’ve made loads of great friends, both foreigners and Portuguese and we are having a really good life.”
The pair do not consider themselves to be outsiders anymore, but just foreigners living in Portugal because of the community spirit they feel.
The Britons said: “It feels like we are living in a neighbourhood. We can just walk out the house, down the cobble streets, we say hello to people we know.”
The expats said the experience of moving to Portugal has been absolutely fantastic
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“We know people in the restaurants and everyone’s very friendly. I think it is that sort of very welcoming neighbourhood and where we feel part of it,” said Natalie.
Another expat had a similar experience when moving to Cyprus.
They said they went to Cyprus for just two weeks and ended up staying for a whole decade because of how much they loved it there.
The expat said: “The reason why it was so easy for me to relocate to Cyprus, I think number one is the weather. It is beautiful.”
