Arrival in Benfica

Today is officially the second anniversary of my arrival to my new apartment in Benfica, a suburb of Lisboa.

When I visited earlier in 2023 to explore Portugal and decide whether I would really want to live here, I did spend a little time in other parts of Lisboa. But when I was looking at easy proximity to the airport, this part of town seemed way way out there.

I’m obviously not going to pinpoint my address on here, but the Mercado Municipal de Benfica is a useful reference point.

My flight landed around 6:30am, and I had to stop at the airport vet before I could leave the airport. Unfortunately, I think this was the time when I was stuck in line behind a woman who failed to get her paperwork in order before arriving…

When traveling into Portugal with an animal, you have to have documentation of your animal’s microchip number and rabies vaccinations. Within the EU, vets provide a Pet Passport, where they enter their official stamps to validate your vaccination history, which makes it a lot easier to travel between member states. Coming from outside of the EU, I had to get a USDA health certificate. That meant that I had to visit a qualifying vet, have them do a general health exam and then fill out a form with Mocha’s info, and give them a self-addressed overnight shipping label. Then they send it off to the nearest USDA office where it gets signed, stamped, and embossed, then sent to me. This all has to be done within 10 days of my arrival, which is why it needs to be overnighted!

You’re also supposed to email the airport vet with a copy of these documents and your expected arrival time at least 48 hours in advance. I don’t know how important that step is.

Anyway, when I arrived at the vet’s office, the vet was dealing with this woman, and there were 2 other people in line ahead of me. I had plenty of time to get my checked bags onto a cart while waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

This woman kept arguing and pleading with the vet, but in Portuguese, so I couldn’t understand what she was saying. So I can only assume it was because she didn’t have the right documents!

Whatever the case was, it felt like it took hours for the vet to finish with her. She definitely took more time than the next 3 of us combined.

When I finally cleared the vet, I used the airport wifi to Whatsapp the consultants who helped me rent the apartment. I had let them know my travel itinerary in advance, but with the caveat that I couldn’t know how long it would take to see the vet.

Again, I took a taxi, but this time I had cash in euros!

I wish I had written this out when it was fresher in my mind, because this part is kind of a blur. But I remember feeling this mix of excitement at all of the new scenery and a little apprehension, like I hope I didn’t just make a huge mistake, along with a lot of exhaustion!

I splurged on a first class ticket for this flight so that I could get a seat that reclined all the way flat. It was a long distance to share foot space with a 23kg / 50lb dog, and I’ve never been able to sleep at all while sitting up. Even so, I was only able to get maybe 2 hours of light sleep on the flight. And really, my arrival time was only around 1:30EST, which is around the time I normally go to sleep, so that made it even more difficult to get any sleep on the flight.

So I wasn’t in terrible shape yet when I arrived to my new apartment, but I was pretty tired!

When the taxi dropped me off, there was a woman standing outside – I assume waiting for someone to pick her up. She was very friendly and seemed to know someone would be arriving to move in, but didn’t speak much English.

She opened the front door to the building for me, so that I could put my bags inside and possibly wait in the lobby for Miguel, one of the consultant team, who was on his way to deliver my keys. But, with my bags safely stashed, I messaged Miguel that I was going to take my dog for a short walk while I waited.

I assume I must have given Mocha a chance to pee outside of the airport, but that memory has faded… Regardless, I assumed she had more business to take care of. No matter how many times I tried to get her to relieve herself in the pet relief areas in airports, she refused.

I had been checking my map app, and saw a nice little park just a couple of blocks away. So we walked over there in hopes of finding some grass. We walked past the Mercado on the way, and found a nice patch of green space with a paved trail around it, just a couple of meters from the edge of the park so you have greenery on both sides. There’s a children’s play area and some outdoor fitness equipment at the closer end, and then a covered area with tables and a concrete ping pong table at the other end.

And even at this ridiculously early time – around 7:45am – there were people out and about using the park.

It seemed so bright and vibrant and alive!

When we got back to the apartment, Miguel had taken my bags upstairs and was waiting for me.

In addition to hiring the consultants to help me rent the apartment, I hired them to take care of getting all of my utilities set up for me. So the electricity and water were already all set, and my telecom was ready to finish setting up. Miguel helped me connect to the wifi and activate my new SIM card. And I had to physically sign and initial each page of my lease – I had signed digitally in advance, but needed this version to make it fully official.

And then, here I was in this unfurnished apartment with just two checked bags and one carry-on bag. Each was the max size allowed, but still, that’s not much to set up a new life!

Before leaving ATL, I had gone to the IKEA website and ordered a mattress and sheets, and scheduled the delivery date for the 28th.

In one of my checked bags, I packed a king size quilt that I bought shortly before I decided to make this change. On one level, it feels like a silly thing to waste so much luggage space on bringing, but I really do love it.

And I brought one of my latex foam pillows. Those babies squish up to take up way less space than you’d expect, and they hold up like nobody’s business! One of them is old enough to drive 😂 I bought it in 2008 or 2009, and the foam is starting to degrade around the edges, but it’s still in surprisingly good shape!

Anyway, it turned out to be useful, because I was able to fold the quilt up and lay it out on the floor to try to nap as I waited for my Ikea delivery…

And waited…

And waited…

Finally, around 4:30, I messaged the consultant team to see if they knew of a place I could get a mattress delivered that day if the one from Ikea didn’t arrive. I don’t know what I thought I would do about the Ikea delivery if I did that, but I was desperate! I had tried to nap, but didn’t accomplish more than light dozing, because a quilt on the floor just wasn’t enough of a barrier against the cold concrete.

I also went on the website to chat with Ikea’s customer service, and was informed that my selected delivery date was not a guarantee, and my items would arrive within 5 days 🤨

Thankfully, Miguel was able to lend me a twin size air mattress until my Ikea delivery arrived! He also brought a blanket and some sheets.

It wasn’t the most comfy bedding situation ever, but I was FINALLY able to actually get some sleep!

I don’t remember what, if anything, I was able to eat during the day. I’ve always had issues with food – messing with my routine messes up my appetite, and sleep deprivation counts there! Plus, I was afraid to go anywhere for any length of time, just in case the delivery person might arrive.

But after it was clear the delivery wasn’t coming, and after I had the air mattress set up, I took Mocha out for a walk and stopped at a churrasqueira for a super simple dinner.

The chicken was good, and I stop there fairly regularly. It’s cooked over a charcoal grill, and you can get lemon sauce, piri piri (hot sauce), or both. I always do both. It’s not exactly lemon pepper (I did move here from ATL 😂) but it’s really good.

When I contacted these consultants about finding an apartment, air conditioning was not on the top of my list of requirements – mainly because I didn’t realize just how hot it gets here in the summer. But, even tho this was December, it was incredibly fortunate that this apartment does have it!

Most Portuguese homes do not have central heat or air. That was something I was a little worried about before I visited earlier in 2023, but I learned that it’s not too bad if you have good room heaters.

But, that wasn’t something I even thought about as I was preparing to move here. I’d like to say that was because I knew the wall-mounted a/c units also function as heaters, but I don’t think that’s true! I think I was just overwhelmed with everything else, and was lucky to have these wall units!