Beijinhos Ajuda

Farewell to Our First Home in Lisbon

It’s time to pack up and say goodbye to our first Lisbon neighborhood. We first arrived a year and a half ago, toting suitcases and wonder and excitement and a dawning realization that this place would be our new home. In those first days before the school year began, our empty apartment was a cocoon from which we ventured out and explored our new neighborhood, city, country. Tentatively trying out a new language as we tried to learn the rhythms and quirks of this new place.

Our visa process required us to rent an apartment sight unseen before even applying for a visa. One of the many leaps of faith one must take when one decides to immigrate and place their fates in the hands of another country’s bureaucracy. Thankfully, it worked out, and we fell hard for our little traditional neighborhood away from the center of the city.

The first few weeks here I filled my phone camera roll with shots of the April 25^th bridge (the Golden Gate bridge doppelgänger) as it peeked out at us from various angles while strolling around the neighborhood. Indeed, having spent a good chunk of my 20s as an apartment-dweller in San Francisco those early days in Lisbon at times gave me a feeling of déjà vu. The hills, the bridge, the trams, the occasional fog bank, can lend Lisbon a similar feel. But, more so, I felt like I had circled back around to my San Francisco lifestyle in some respects—renting an apartment, assembling IKEA furniture, walking with my groceries, riding (and waiting for) the bus to get around town. So really, it wasn’t that Lisbon reminded me of somewhere else, it was that moving to a new place allowed me to glimpse a different version of myself.

I have loved living in Ajuda, with its village feel and predictable rhythms—the way the main commercial street near us bustles with old people running errands on the weekday mornings. The way people gather in the little park near the church with their dogs and kids, and where our son liked to practice his football skills against the church wall in the evenings. The calm and stillness on a Sunday morning, a welcome respite before the afternoon ‘transito de frango’ as I’ve dubbed the double parking and honking that commences as everyone lines up for the best chicken in the city. Enjoying a prato de dia a fora in the nearby square. Searching for household items in the basement of the China shop across the street. The GNR on horseback in regalia clippty-clopping down the street once a month for the changing of the guard down in Belém.

We’re moving a couple of train stops away to a sleepier neighborhood, trading urban convenience for more space and a shorter school commute. A new place, a new routine, and roots in this beautiful place where we feel lucky to be. But I will miss the charm of this little neighborhood. Beijinhos Ajuda e obrigadinha por tudo.

1. Jacaranda in bloom outside our living room; 2. the church park where we spent so many evenings; 3. my favorite unexpected flowers; 4. tiled buildings across the street; 5. our neighborhood tram; 6. drying laundry on our balcony.