Wow, where has the time gone? My blog is officially 3 years old and somehow still alive, even after I neglected it for months at a time. Honestly, this is proof I should never have been a mother. Good thing it’s just a blog! And for the record, Bodhi and Wednesday are thriving, so we’re all good.
Three years ago, someone suggested I start a blog. At the time, there was so much interest in moving to Portugal, and I figured, hey, I might as well share what we were going through. Our situation was also a little different from most of the stories I was seeing online. We aren’t retired, we aren’t wealthy, we just really wanted to move to Europe, so we made it happen. On top of that, I’d always dreamed of having a travel blog and actually getting to share my experiences along the way. So here we are.
Where in the World Has the Blog Taken Me
In three years, this little blog has taken me (and hopefully you) to some really incredible places. Here’s a look at everywhere we’ve covered so far:
Europe has been keeping me busy. Paris, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Barcelona, Malaga, Cordoba, Sevilla, and even some smaller Spanish gems like Ayamonte and Isla Cristina that don’t get nearly enough attention.frinsagrada Oude Kerk Amsterdamfam
Adventures in the UK. I went on a couple of short trips, one to Manchester and once to Newcastle Upon Tyne
And then there’s Portugal, which obviously has my whole heart. Lisbon, Porto, Beja, Setubal, and all over the Algarve. There’s still so much of this country I haven’t written about yet, which brings me to my next confession…
I really dropped the ball on writing last year. Several of these places are still sitting in my “I’ll get to it eventually” pile. But that’s changing in 2026, because I have a lot of catching up to do and even more places on the horizon.
We are just getting started.
The Great Blog Rewrite (aka My Villain Era)
I’ll be totally honest, I thought writing a blog was going to be easy. I’ve always liked to write, so how hard could it be? Turns out, a lot harder than I expected. There is SO much more to it than just writing. If there’s one thing I’d add to any list of blogging tips for beginners, it’s this: learn SEO before you write a single post.
Here’s the embarrassing part: I have a marketing degree. I knew SEO existed. I just didn’t bother to actually learn it before launching a blog. Rookie mistake. Better late than never, I guess.
If you’ve been following along for a while, you may have noticed some changes around here lately. Over the past few months, I’ve been going back and rewriting basically every post on the blog. Actually applying SEO this time. Structuring things properly. Writing content that is genuinely helpful rather than, as I lovingly described it to myself, my 6th-grade diary.
The goal is to get the blog monetized and growing, and that means putting in the work I probably should have done from the start. No shame, just a villain era redemption arc.
What I didn’t expect was how much I’d actually enjoy the process. It’s been a crash course in everything I should have known sooner, but it’s also reignited my excitement for the whole thing. And honestly, revisiting three and a half years’ worth of memories from life in Portugal has been really sweet.
3 Lessons in 3 Years
Three years in Portugal means three years of lessons learned, sometimes the hard way. Here’s one for each year.
Lesson 1: I was actually going to have to work.
Between the COVID lockdowns, coming back part-time after being sick, and then uprooting my entire life to move across the world, I basically didn’t work for about five years. And honestly? I loved it. But it wasn’t exactly sustainable, so I got a job. These days, I work for a boutique advertising firm and do social media management on the side. Speaking of which, if you need a social media manager, you know where to find me!
Lesson 2: Good friends are everything, especially when family is far away.
I moved away from home when I was 18. New Mexico to Miami to Las Vegas. I’ve always been good at building friendships along the way. But moving to Portugal felt different. I was genuinely scared I wouldn’t be able to connect with people here, and hopping on a quick flight home when I got homesick wasn’t exactly an option. What I found instead was something I didn’t expect: real community. People I can actually count on. That is truly priceless.
Lesson 3: Assimilating is hard, and also kind of amazing.
The language barrier, the cultural differences, the bureaucracy… living in Portugal has had its challenges, I won’t sugarcoat it. But it has also been one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I’m still working on my Portuguese and still occasionally losing battles with paperwork, but here’s a fun bonus I didn’t see coming: my Spanish has improved dramatically, too. Which is honestly a little embarrassing to admit, because I’m Hispanic. Spanish was all around me growing up, I took it all through school, and somehow I still couldn’t really speak it. Moving to Portugal, of all places, is what finally made it click. Progress is progress, even if it takes a detour through Europe to get there!
Keeping a Blog Alive With ADHD
Here’s what nobody puts in the beginner blogging tips guides: you actually have to post. Regularly. Consistently. Like, all the time. If you want it to grow, you have to show up for it even when you don’t feel like it.
For someone with ADHD, that is… a lot easier said than done.
I get ideas constantly. Great ones, actually. And then I forget them. Or I write them down and don’t know when or how to use them. Or the blog just slips into “out of sight, out of mind” mode, and suddenly three months have gone by, and I’ve posted nothing. It’s a real cycle.
What brought me back was, honestly, a bit of a reality check. I’d been paying to keep this thing running without actually giving it a real shot at growing. That felt like a waste, but more than that, I realized how much I actually want this to work. I don’t want to spend my life working for someone else. I want the flexibility to work for myself, on my own terms, from wherever I happen to be. This blog is part of that plan.
On the practical side, two things have made a huge difference: Yoast for SEO guidance (seriously, install it immediately if you have a WordPress blog and haven’t already) and AI for when I need help organizing my thoughts or cleaning up my writing. No shame in using the tools available to you.
The lesson here is simple: learn SEO from day one, use the tools that help you stay on track, and don’t give up on it before it has a real chance.
What’s Coming Next
Three years in, and I am just getting started. I have so much content to share, and for the first time in a while, I actually feel inspired to write it.
There are trips I’ve already taken that still need their own posts, and more adventures on the horizon. Spoiler alert: I’m heading to Marseille this weekend, so stay tuned for that one.
My goal is simple: show up consistently, keep sharing what life actually looks like when you pick up and move to another country, and hopefully make this little corner of the internet genuinely useful for someone out there.
Whether you’re here because you’re planning your own move, because you’re living vicariously through mine, or because you just stumbled across this blog today, welcome. I’m glad you’re here.
If there are topics you’d love to see me cover, drop them in the comments below. I’m always looking for what’s actually helpful to you.
And to everyone who has followed along since the beginning, thank you. Truly. Here’s to year four.
Follow Me
Want to see more of my life in Portugal? Come hang out with me on Instagram @vegas.to.portugal for the curated stuff, and find me on TikTok @expat.in.portugal where I get a little more real and unfiltered. Follows are always appreciated!
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