small world, part 2

Lisbon, 2023

On our last day in Portugal last month, we had one of those experiences that was truly unbelievable. But believe me, it happened.

Let me back up a bit and offer some background.

My husband and I are seriously considering moving to Portugal in the next few years. We’ve wanted to move abroad for several years and after visiting Portugal for the first time in 2019, we fell in love with the country. Not wanting to rush into anything — and the first two years of the pandemic really made rushing impossible — we went back for a longer visit in 2022. And then, again just recently. We know now that our love for Portugal is not a passing fancy.

As a result, we’ve been learning a lot about Portugal and expat life. I’ve started following various expats here on Substack and on Instagram. While we were in Nazaré in February we had three different meet-ups with expats I had met online.

There was one other couple* whose Substack I read and I always forward the posts to my husband, who finds them as interesting as I do. Consequently, we felt like we kind of knew them, even though I had only ever interacted with them via comments on Substack posts.

(* I am not going to name the couple here in case they prefer to remain anonymous, but maybe they’ll self-identify in the comments.)

Anyway, getting back to that last morning in Portugal. We were in Lisbon and walking to a metro station to go to the airport. As we walked, I offhandedly said something like, “Wouldn’t it have been wild if we had bumped into [their names] while we were here?”

So help me, not 10 minutes later, as we were about to cross an intersection, I looked across and saw two people who looked a lot like the couple in question.

I gasped and said, “Hey, I think that’s [their names] across the street.”

My husband said, “Should we introduce ourselves?”

The couple walked toward us and I said, “Excuse me, are you [their names]?”

Y’all, they were.

What are the odds?

We had a lovely conversation and then had to go our separate ways, which made leaving Portugal just a little bit more difficult. I am so looking forward to going back.

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Related: Small World, part 1