This was my first visit to Portugal, a country I would return to more than once. As a Portuguese speaker, it felt both familiar and foreign—I could understand everything, yet I was still an outsider, discovering a culture close to mine but not entirely my own.
It became a trip of lessons learned. After a seven-hour flight and a full day of work, we set out on a four-hour drive from Lisbon to Porto. In hindsight, fatigue and unfamiliar highways were not the best combination. That night in Porto, an unexpected knock at my Airbnb door brought an aggressive demand to open it. The brief, tense exchange ended as abruptly as it began, with a kick to the door and the person vanishing.
Portugal's beauty more than balanced those moments. The food was unforgettable, from simple pastries to fresh, flavorful meals. Sintra's misty hills felt like something from a fairytale, while the ancient ruins of Conímbriga revealed the country's Roman roots. Lisbon, with its tiled facades, steep hills, and rattling trams, closed the journey with a charm that lingered long after I left.
In many ways, my experience mirrored the relationship between our two countries: familiar yet distinct, full of admiration, yet marked by subtle differences. It is a place I cherish, with a quiet awareness of its complexities.
