Portugal: Solo Travel, Romance, and Manifesting My Future Life with Jenelle Tremblett Artwork

Ebb and Glow

Welcome to Ebb and Glow — the podcast that shows you how everyday people are taking on life’s ups and downs and coming out better than before. Your host, Jenelle Tremblett, will be with you weekly and with special guests, to chat about everything from careers, relationships, mindset, and everything in between. Are you tired of only seeing the highlight reel? Me too. This podcast will instead be peeking behind the curtain to reveal all the steps, pep talks, and glasses of wine that must happen before we become strong, confident, and resilient.

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Portugal: Solo Travel, Romance, and Manifesting My Future Life with Jenelle Tremblett

May 18, 2023 • Jenelle Tremblett • Episode 133

#133: Jenelle shares her experiences and insights from her recent solo trip to Portugal. She discusses why she chose Portugal, the affordable flight deal she found, and highlights the safety of Portugal for female solo travellers.

The host admits that she is not a typical tourist and prefers to immerse herself in local experiences and meet new people. She shares a special encounter with a guy she met in Porto, mentioning the butterflies she felt and their flirty conversation.

She shares her itinerary highlighting areas of Porto, Lisbon, and Algarve. Overall, Jenelle speaks highly of her trip to Portugal, expressing her love for the country and her desire to potentially live there in the future. She encourages listeners, especially female travellers, to explore the world and not wait for the perfect moment.

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Welcome to the ebb and glow podcast. I'm your host, Janelle Tremlett. And I'm a firm believer that even when life doesn't go as planned, it is taking you exactly where you're meant to be on this podcast. I'm here to help you finally release control of what you think you want and begin to just trust in the ebbs and flows of life. Each week, I will show you how to build that positive mindset radiate with self confidence and cultivate an unshakeable resilience. Let me prove to you that even when life ebb. You will glow.'Hello everyone, and welcome to episode 1 33 of the Eeb Glow Podcast. Today is a solo episode with yours truly to talk all about my trip to Portugal recently. So my trip to Portugal was my second solo trip as a female solo traveler. If you are a friend of mine or you have been listening to this podcast, you'll know that my first solo trip was to Costa Rica just this past January. I was there for two and a half weeks, and then I went to Portugal in April for my birthday for two weeks. So the primary reason why I picked Portugal for this trip was simply because there was a flight deal. If you're from Toronto, you may know of the website and Facebook group Y Y C deals. And that's exactly where I found out about it. I ended up paying$500 round trip direct from Toronto to Lisbon, and for any Canadian listening, you know, that's a great price. If you're from Europe or maybe any part of the world such as the US you may think that's so expensive, but traveling from Canada and even within Canada is so expensive. I'm from a different area of Canada and I've paid upwards to$1,500 Canadian to fly to a different part of Canada for Christmas. Sometimes it's so ridiculous, it just further reinstates, the reasons to move to Europe, which honestly I'll talk a little bit more about in this episode. So whether or not you are a seasoned traveler and have traveled all over the world, or maybe you're listening to this episode because you're curious, you're curious, maybe you're a female and want to start traveling on your own. Maybe you have been traveling and just want to see what Portugal is like from my perspective, Whichever side you're on, you're going to love this episode. You're gonna hear it in my voice how much I thought Portugal was phenomenal. And if you are itching to start traveling, you feel like you wanna go explore the world, take it from me. Do not waste another moment waiting and just start. So for my females listening who are questioning whether or not it's safe to go travel, Portugal is actually one of the safest places for female solo travelers. And if you are thinking about traveling and wondering which places to go, I recommend following the website, the blonde abroad, and there's lots of other Facebook groups that can help recommend the best places for females to travel on their own, especially when you're concerned about safety. If you're a guy listening, this is one extra thing that you don't have to worry about when choosing a destination and I'm envious, but as females, we have to narrow it down to just certain places. So I went to Portugal to celebrate my 30th birthday, and it was phenomenal. I loved it. I could definitely see myself living there in the future, and I will tell you why. So my first stop was, and actually, wow. I just had dejavu very randomly, and I haven't had it in a while, but I just had dejavu of like recording this episode. It's probably because I wanted to record this episode for like a week and still haven't, but we're recording now anyways, so the flight end of Toronto leaves at 5:30 PM and you land in Lisbon at 5:30 AM Uh, it's a seven hour flight and because of the five hour time difference, it's essentially 12 hours later. So when I landed in Lisbon, I mean, ultimately whenever you travel, you're not gonna be able to check into a hotel room until probably 3:00 PM. So I thought to myself, well, why don't I use that extra time instead of hanging around Lisbon? Why don't I just go directly to port? So overall, on my trip I did Porto, which is the northern part of Portugal. Then I did Lisbon, which is the middle, and then I did the L garb, specifically Lagos in the south of Portugal. So I landed in Lisbon. I went directly to Porto for four nights, and I actually have a friend in Porto that I used to work with in Toronto. So it was really nice to reconnect with him and hang out with him for a few days. So that was really my reason to go to Porto right away, because when I flew in, it was going into a weekend. I landed our Friday morning, so I said, okay, if I wanna see my friend, he's probably gonna be able to see me during the weekend, would be best for him. So that's why I went to Porto right away. and to give you some more insight on accommodations, I actually always stay in hostels. I mean, some people might not love that at all, but for me, I always stay at the Selena brand hostels, so they're a bit more pricier than the regular hostel. But I find that it attracts an older crowd. It attracts more like the digital nomad crowd. Or the people that are working full-time and just traveling. maybe entrepreneurs working for themselves, but overall it attracts a lot of people. You'd, you'd, I'd be shocked to meet people under 25. It's not really the norm. You're gonna meet a lot of, like late twenties, early thirties. I've met 40 year olds. Uh, it's just an older crowd, which I prefer. Anyways, so, um, I get on the train in Lisbon and I go right to Porto train is about three hours I believe, and the transit system within Portugal is phenomenal. The train throughout different towns is so easy, so simple, uh, so I highly recommend it. Completely different than Costa Rica. Costa Rica trialing within different towns and cities was so, so exhausting. But Portugal, much better. So I get into Lisbon and I go get on the train directly and go to Porto, and oh my God, it was pouring down rain when I travel and I learn this on this trip. I am not a traveler. I am a vacationer. When I travel, all I'm thinking about is beaches, vacations. Swimsuits shorts, tank tops, sun hats, sandals. Did I look up the weather before I went to Portugal? No. Maybe a little bit, but I, I forgot to realize that I'm going to three completely different parts of this entire country, Northern part, middle part, and southern part. Of course, they're gonna have different weather. Anyways, I didn't really think about this one. So I, I land in Porto. It's. 14 degrees and pouring down rain. Do you think I have anything packed for this? No. I didn't even pack a jacket. I completely forgot to pack a jacket. I think I might have one pair of pants and it's a pair of jeans, which when you're traveling, I don't know why I packed jeans anyways. Um, so it ended up being a really rainy day. The first day I got there and I said to myself, well, I need, I need a jacket. I need better clothes. Obviously everything I packed is not gonna work for the four days that I'm here. So my first day in Portugal, I was shopping at Zara. The Zara in Europe is way better. Anyone who's traveled to Europe knows this, but this is my first time knowing it. But yeah, I spent the first full afternoon just shopping and finding a jacket and just finding some like looser pants. One thing that I've heard from many, many people is that if you are going to Europe to travel, especially in the summer pack, so lightly and plan to shop there instead. So go like a day before or whatever, because it's way easier to get clothes for Europe, in Europe as opposed to trying to shop in Canada because we just don't have kind of the summary styles as Europe would have. So I know that now. So Porto, I had such a great time. It was so nice, like I said, hanging out with my friend and I ended up really spending the four days hanging out with him and his friends, and I felt like definitely more of a local within Porto. I didn't do as much touristy things as I probably would have normally, and honestly, I just kind of hung out and bar hopped and explored the city. Porto is. Such a beautiful, quaint city, and I could totally see myself living there. to compare it to something in Canada, I would compare it to like a Halifax or an Ottawa. So, You have everything you need, but it's not your big metropolitan city, but it's big enough where you feel like it's like a bigger town, smaller city style, Down around the river is absolutely beautiful. And yeah, I just really, really loved Porto. So if you travel to Portugal, a lot of people skip Porto, but I highly recommend. Making sure portal is within your travels. I tried that really famous dish that everyone wants to try. I'm going to botch the, pronunciation right now, but it's the Fran, Frania, Fran Frana. Everyone listening right now is going to die. I cannot pronounce that correctly anyways. I swear it almost tasted like a poutine to me. Anyways, people absolutely love it. It was okay. I've had many foods that I prefer more. But anyways, that's the really popular one. I didn't really care for it if you travel to Porto, these are the things that I highly recommend checking out. You have to walk along the river, obviously you have to walk along the bridge and just all around that area. You could do a boat tour. I didn't, but you could do that. if you just walk kind of along the river and just keep going, you eventually will walk. Towards a beach. There's a beach town about 15 to 20 minutes outside of Porto. So one of the days we just walked and walked and walked and just explored all day and it was so fun. And then we ended up on a beach hanging out, which I thought was really cool because I didn't expect there to be beaches along Porto or the town is very quaint, so you don't expect it to also have a beach close by. But I mean, if you have both, amazing. The one thing that I didn't do while I was in Porto that I really wish I did was go to the Doro Valley for a wine tour. So I ended up trying port wine when we were hanging out down along the river. But I really wish I went and did a wine tour, but hey, I can always go back. It's funny, as I'm sitting here reminiscing about what I did in Porto, I swear I really just partied for four days. I am not a good traveler that goes and visits all of the sites and the cathedrals, and the monuments. I really just enjoy meeting really cool people and hanging out with them and really experiencing a. City as I would if I actually lived there. I'm looking through my phone right now of photos from the first night, and I have, because it was raining, it was just such a dreary day. I have like a photo from like three o'clock, a couple from like six when we were at the first bar. And then I have one random video from like 11:00 PM and that was it. Um, I mean, it was such, like I said, it was such a dreary day and like, ugh, like I was not in a pitcher mood. And I, after traveling all day for 12 hours as well, and then day drinking all day whatever, we had a great day, but. When I think back to Porto, I mean, any of my friends that are listening right now, I'm sure your guys are thinking like, come on, get to the juicy part. We know what you liked about Porto the most. And I am like, I'm like blushing as I gonna get into this. But I would say, yeah, the best part of Porto for me is I met a guy and I'm getting all shy now while talking about this, and I don't really know why, because I've talked the ear off of all of my friends since I've been home about this, and I've been home for a couple weeks now. Um, but yeah, the first night I got into Porto, I just so happened to meet a guy that became a very, special part of my trip and I'm really glad that I met him. US meeting happened extremely randomly. As I was coming back into the hostel, I just. Literally kind of like bumped into him, or we just kind of caught each other's eye and we chatted for a little bit and I mean, I was on a bit of tequila. I I was day drinking all day, so I was a little tipsy and flirty obviously. but I just remember when we, when we met, I was like, Ooh, I got the butterflies right away. Like, you know, when someone catches your eye, you, you think to yourself, Ooh, okay. Like, I, feel that it's something different. You know, if you're attracted, to someone. And that's exactly how I felt in the very moment that we met. And it's funny, there's actually a video of us. One of his friends was sneakily taking a video of us talking and there's actually a video of us for a minute of us chatting. And when I saw the video back a couple weeks later, I said, that's exactly how I remember that moment. So it's really cute that there's a video of it. So anyways, here's the funny part. So we were chatting, I don't know, maybe for 10 minutes or so, and, and flirting and just hitting it off, And, um, he wanted me to go out after and I said, no. Like I've been out all day. Like I'm coming home, I'm exhausted. This is my first day in Portugal. I have literally two weeks ahead of me. I do not need to be out until 4:00 AM today. It was the typical conversation of like, oh, let me get your number. Let me get your Instagram and flirty silly me. Oh my God, I can't believe I did this. Me trying to be cheeky and funny. I said to him, If we're meant to meet again, the universe will make it happen. And I just walked off, which is so funny in hindsight, but in that moment, I genuinely felt that, Hmm, this is no happenstance. This, this definitely feels like we were meant to bump into each other. whatever this is, it feels like we were meant to meet. And in that moment, in my little bit of a tipsy state, I mean, I ran with it and like I said, let's trust the universe. You'll find me again if it's meant to be, and I just went to bed. anyways, I woke up the next morning and I thought to myself, dammit, I don't know anything about this guy. How the hell am I gonna find him? How the hell is he gonna find me? I woke up not really trusting the universe anymore to say the least, and so I remember sitting at brunch with my friend and just being like, how am I gonna figure out who he is? Like It ended up, he actually worked at the hostel that I was staying at, so I thought, Hmm, okay. Like maybe, maybe I'll meet him again because he works here. But then I thought to myself, I'm only at this hostel for a couple days. There is a huge chance that he's not working the rest of the days that I'm here. And I mean, if we don't meet again, well then I mess that one up for myself and it is what it is. but I definitely woke up regretting my cheekiness for sure. there's many, many, many more stories to the next 24 hours that all of my girlfriends know, but I won't waste diving into this episode with that. But anyways, we did end up meeting again and in funny circumstances once again, which just added to the whole narrative of us meeting anyways. So we ended up continuing to hang out for those couple days and it was amazing. We definitely got along and there's a lot of things about him that I really, really like And I had a fantastic time, but for anyone who's traveled before, you know, you're not in that one place for two to three weeks, you're, you're probably leaving to go to the next place in a couple of days, and there's no guarantee that you'll ever see them again. So we enjoyed our time together while I was there, and I loved every second of it. My favorite part about meeting him is that I realized I've been single for like a year and a half now, and that was probably the first time that I felt my heart opening up again, and even being open to the idea of dating or meeting someone or just going down that path of relationships again and it made me really happy to feel that again, because I was very closed off for the last year and a half. And in that moment I wasn't. And another thing I really loved about this guy, Anyone who knows me knows I'm extremely independent. I tend to operate in my masculine a lot because I tend to work a lot. I run a podcast, you guys know the drill. It's really hard to get into my feminine and I find it even more difficult to meet a guy or meet a man that. Brings out that feminine energy in me. And what I would say about this situation, I would say he is one of the only men I've ever met, that made me feel comfortable and made me feel very feminine. And that was huge for me. And I should say that is huge for me. So it's something that really caught my attention and really made me notice and wonder, What about this guy or this situation makes me feel safe and comfortable enough to want to lean into my feminine more. And I really took notice of that. I suspect more stories about this guy will tend to trickle into future episodes, so I don't think it just stops there. So anyways, we'll come back to that. so anyone who's following this episode that wants the itinerary part of it, I was in Porto for four nights, then I headed down to Lisbon and did Lisbon for three nights, I think. I think three nights. Um, I loved Lisbon. Lisbon is fantastic, but it definitely wasn't my favorite. Lisbon reminded me a lot of Toronto and I love Toronto for sure, but. I noticed when I was in Portugal, I was really evaluating whether or not I would live there, if this was a place I would live, and it's definitely on my radar. And so while I was there, each place that I was in, I thought, okay, would I live here or would I live there or would I live there? Or maybe not any of them. And for me, when I thought about Lisbon, super, super cool city, but when I thought about it, I thought, no, I wouldn't live here because if this is the type of metropolitan city that I want, it's just as well to stay in Toronto. It felt very much like a Toronto to me. And if I'm gonna uproot my life, it's not gonna just be for another version of Toronto. But that's just me. I know there's lots of people that have traveled to Portugal that say Elizabeth is one of their favorite places in the world. Without a doubt. It's a cool city. the other reason why I feel I don't love Lisbon as much as the other places is I lived in Halifax in Canada for over four years, and Lisbon also reminded me a bit of Halifax because it is a port city. So I just felt like Lisbon in general, I just felt like, hmm, I feel like I've done this part of my life. I'd want something different. But overall, Lisbon super, super cool. The amount of walking I did was insane. trying to use Google Maps in Lisbon is so crazy. Using Google Maps in Portugal in general was near impossible. You look at the map and you're like, oh, yeah, you'd go up, but no, you go like, you like tipsy, turn all around the street, and then you end up on the right street. But yeah, you'd had to be using Google Maps the entire time. so then I took the bus down to the l Garv and I knew I was going to love the L Garv. The reason why I knew that is because ultimately I'm a beach girl. When I travel or go on vacation, I really just wanna be swimming in the ocean and laying on a beach. I know that's so basic, but, mm, I love it. And, uh, so I ended up doing four more nights in Lagos and I wish I did a full week of my trip there, whether or not I extended the entire trip. That would've been fine. but I really just wish I spent longer in Lagos. My favorite parts of Lagos were a lot of the activities that I did One of the days we went and saw the cliffs that are very popular. Everyone knows about them. And then another day we did some kayaking and then kind of kayaked all around the water and all throughout the cliffs. I think that was one of the best days of my entire Portugal trip. I'm very outdoorsy, so any type of activity involving the water or doing hiking, those are gonna be my absolute favorite parts without a doubt. A lot of my time in the Algarve as well was really just laying on the beach, even though it was the end of April, it was still high twenties, like high 28, 29 degrees Celsius, and I was in the water. The water was obviously cold. It is the Atlantic Ocean still, but I mean, I loved it. I'm, if I'm gonna go all the way to Portugal and it's gonna be warm enough to be in a bathing suit, you better damn well believe I'm gonna be in the water. And I was in the water as much as possible, so I loved it. That was the best time. One of the biggest things I discovered about myself was definitely in the L Garv I found. So when I was in Costa Rica, I found that I met a lot of really good people that I spent a lot of time with, and I found that I had a. Pretty good group of friends that I really enjoyed hanging out with, and I met a good handful of people that I think I'll stay in touch with for the rest of my life. However, I didn't really experience that as much, just overall on the Portugal trip, definitely a few people. obviously this guy that I spoke about, I have been keeping in touch with and I will continue to keep in touch with, but. In terms of friendships, I didn't meet as many friends as I did in Costa Rica, and that kind of made me a little sad, to be honest, when I was in the Algarve, um, I didn't stay at the Selena Hostels in the Algarve because they don't have any locations down there, so I stayed at a new hostel. And it was fantastic. The host is called Soul, A Soul, and I loved it. There was amazing family dinners on the rooftop every night, and it felt very homey. Like I really, really enjoyed it. I had a private room there as well, which was fantastic, especially kind of towards the second last part of my trip. I needed some time alone. but the interesting thing I discovered about myself while being there is It brought out old patterns of needing to be liked, And I thought I sorted all of those out, and I think I mostly have, because I wasn't as triggered as I think I normally would have been. But it definitely brought up some self-doubt and some self-worth issues. And so to give you a little bit more context, when. I was at the hostel in the L Garve. I just found I wasn't connecting with as many people as I feel I normally do. I wasn't meeting as great of friends. It was definitely more like transient friends, and there were so many, like, I thought really cool girls in this hostel and it really seemed like they all hung out together and not really including me. And it's fine. Like I, I spent a lot of time on my own and I, I hung out with other people, but. I wasn't, I didn't find them as inviting as I would've expected. And it's interesting, there was a bunch of people from Canada and the us, like that was the majority of the group. So I felt that I would get along with them instantly, but I guess I didn't. And in the moment when you're solo traveling, I mean, that's your world. That's all you know. That's all that's around you. So if you're not being included in stuff and you see everyone else hanging out without you, it can really. It can really get you down. But what helped me is realizing, okay, I'm doing this trip for me. I came as a solo traveler with no expectations, so I should be okay with the idea of hanging out alone or going out and doing things on my own. But when I spent the, pretty much the first half of my trip around so many people and hanging out and always having plans, sometimes it's weird when now you're in a different place and you almost have to start over again and re-meet people and that can be extremely draining sometimes. So yeah, it kind of got me down a little bit and definitely got in my head a bit of wondering. Like, what's wrong with me? Why don't they like me? Why don't they wanna hang out with me? And it's funny when, when I'm, I'm, as I sit back and think about those feelings, I'm 30 years old. I don't know why I would care about that. And also, I had to remind myself in, in four or five days or less than a week, I'm gonna be back in Toronto to quote unquote my real life where I have fantastic friends. I loved my job, my family is back in Canada, So why do I care whether or not these people like me or not? I'm genuinely never, ever going to see them again, so why do I care? So something that I will continue to discuss with a therapist, but I feel like I've kind of sorted it all through as of now. Throughout my trip to Portugal, I really, really thought about, hmm, how would it look like if I perhaps maybe sold real estate in Portugal and. It's interesting when you put those things out to the universe because when I was in Lisbon, I ended up meeting a real estate agent and he said to me, if you can sell real estate in Toronto, you can sell real estate in Portugal. Real estate's real estate. Learn the language, move here and just start And he said that so easily that it made me realize, yeah, if I want to achieve a goal like that, why can't I just get up and, change things? And yeah, if I can do it here, why can't I do it there? If I set my mind to it and something that I really want, I can make it happen. And so, like I said, it really, really got me thinking as I came back on my trip. What do I want my real estate career to look like three to five years from now? Do I want to move to Europe? Is that something that I want to explore? And if so, what are the next steps of how to do that? So it's definitely something that is heavily on my mind ever since I came back. So after the Algarve, I went back to Lisbon for two more nights to finish off my trip because I had to fly out of there. I mean, I would've loved to just spend two more days in the Algarve, but um, I'm pausing right now because there are so many parts of my trip that I am not discussing and and I want to, don't know how I want to share them. My friends that are listening right now are thinking, oh my God, why don't you just say it? And I think it's a part that I'm going to keep secret for now until I see how everything plays out. Yeah. Obviously, you know, it's relating to what I said in the first part of the episode, but. Yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna see how things play out before I start oversharing. I'm trying to learn to keep some parts of my life a little bit more private, even though I do love to overshare and, I mean, I've run a podcast, so it's about sharing your life and I want to, but there, there's, there's some things I wanna keep hush hush for now. Anyways, I'll come back to this. So I went back to Lisbon for two more nights. I ended up doing a full day trip to Syra, which was really, really cool. I had a fantastic tour guide, so if you do go to Portugal and want to explore Centra, let me know. I will recommend him. He is fantastic. After the tour, all throughout Centra and the castles, we ended up going to this very typical Portuguese style and it was so good. But I will say I noticed in Portugal they do not season and flavor their food as much as. I don't wanna say Canadians, but definitely not as much as I do. And I ordered the salted cod for my dinner I was like eating a bunch of it and I was like, oh my God, this needs lemon, this needs salt, this needs pepper. And I ended up asking for lemon in the waiter brought me out like two full size lemons, cut up, ready to squeeze. And boy did I ever squeeze those lemons. my tour guide was sitting next to me. He's like, really? You really need that much lemon? And I'm like, yes, this cod tastes so much better now. No offense, but it's so, so, so much better now. so. Did that for a full day and I was by the time I got to Lisbon the second time, those last couple nights, I really just wanted to chill and watch a movie. it's interesting, when I'm in Toronto doing my regular life, I don't do two full weeks go, go, go, go, go with no rest. So I don't know why we think we can do that when we're traveling. But yeah, that last couple nights, all I wanted to do was sit in a bed and catch up on my shows. But there's something in you that when you're traveling you think, okay, I've spent all this time and money to get here. I really had to experience this city. I can't just be chilling in my room watching a show. but my God, did I ever want to? So, that's mostly the itinerary. Again, when I did Lisbon both times, throughout this trip, I also stayed at the Selena Hostels. So yeah, if you're ever looking at hostels as an option when you're traveling, highly, highly recommend reach out and ask more. But overall, I would say this trip really taught me about romance, obviously. and opened up my heart again, which is really nice. It's a good feeling. Uh, me and this guy are still talking a lot and it makes me wonder like, Is this just something that was a little vacation fling and it'll die out in a few weeks? Or is there really something there? I mean, this wouldn't be the first story of someone meeting someone on vacation and then end up moving places and getting into a long-term relationship and getting married. Like that's, it's not gonna be the first story of that, There's a really romantic side of me that thinks, you know, trust what you felt in that moment and you never know how things could play out. I mean, as I said very much in the beginning, if it's meant to be, it'll figure itself out. And I still trust in that in this very moment. so we'll see. All I know is I am really happy in this moment regarding that and whether or not it dies out. I mean, I'm gonna enjoy it for every moment it has, and I know how I felt when I was in Portugal, and I know how I feel today, and I have to trust those feelings and see where those feelings take me. it's really teaching me a lot about romance and living in the moment and right now communication when you're still talking to someone that lives in another country. It's teaching me things such as chemistry and compatibility. It's reminding myself of what I do want in a relationship long term, what I'm willing to sacrifice, what I'm willing to compromise on, what I'm willing to absolutely not compromise on. And I think it's also testing me in a way of don't forget what you really want in life and. Double check that that is compatible with someone. Just because you really care about someone, you have to really check in with yourself that you and that person want the same things in order to have a successful relationship. So this whole situation is reminding me of all of that. But overall, I am very happy, very giddy, and uh, Just vary in the heart eyes, part of getting to know someone. The other things that this trip really taught me is keep dreaming big. There's no reason why where you are. In life today has to be your life forever. You can get up and move anywhere in the world. You can change careers, you can pivot, you can restart your life at any age whatever it is in life that is calling you. Start going after that. And for me, I can really see myself in three to five years living somewhere in Europe or Latin America. One of those is definitely in the cards for me, and I don't know how that's gonna play out, but it definitely feels right and it definitely keeps calling me back. So I want to really trust in that process and start dreaming and thinking bigger and thinking of the possibilities of what my life could entail. and the other really big lesson that this trip taught me was getting used to being uncomfortable and really taking notice of your comfort zones versus times that you are uncomfortable. You don't really grow when you're comfortable all the time. You really only grow when you're out of your comfort zone. And that example I gave in the moment when I was in the Algarve and wondering, why don't these girls like me? Like, why aren't we in a big friend group? Why do I feel like I'm kind of isolated out of this? It gave me some time to check in with myself and think, okay, I'm being triggered in this moment, even though I'm on this beautiful vacation and in a place I love, I'm still being triggered a little bit in this moment, and I have to sit with these feelings and wonder why. So don't think just because you're on vacation and away from your quote unquote real life, that uh, you'll be able to avoid all of those triggers that often come up. So there you have it. that is my solo trip to Portugal and it was phenomenal. As you have very clearly heard in this podcast episode. The place I really wanna go next I think is Spain. Whether I go. This fall, or maybe wait until the beginning of next summer. And then I definitely plan on going back to Latin America this December slash January for a similar length trip as I did in Costa Rica. I just don't know where. I'm kind of toying with the idea of Peru, Guatemala, Panama. Yeah, something like that. I'd like to do two countries this time if I can. We'll see. As you know in other episodes, I've been studying Spanish a lot lately, and I'm hoping by the time I go on that trip in December slash January that I will be at least conversational. So it's a goal that I'm really working towards anyways. I know within this episode I am holding a lot back, but it's more so just a little bit protective of my heart in the moment and just trying not to overshare as much as I tend to do with my friends and whatnot. Trying to keep a little bit, little bit close to the chest, even though it's like. Gushing out of me. but we'll see. We'll see as updates happen that I feel comfortable sharing on the podcast, I will definitely share them. Like I said, I'm sure stuff from this trip will trickle over into future podcast episodes, But yeah, if you are listening to this episode and you wanna know more details And maybe just logistics and itinerary stuff of my trip to Portugal. Please feel free to reach out. I am more than happy to share. But without further ado, let's call it here. I've loved sharing with you. And cheers to another solo trip in the books. All right, wherever you are today. Have a fantastic day, and thank you for listening. Bye. Did you know that I'm not only a podcast host, but in my full-time career, I met Toronto based real estate agent. If you are someone, you know, is a busy professional looking to get into the Toronto real estate market, I highly recommend reaching out to me. You can go directly to my website@wwwdotjenelletremblant.com. And you can click the let's talk button to book a call with me. I work with buyers, renters, and sellers in the downtown and east end areas. So don't hesitate to reach out to me and I would love to help you find your next home. And in the meantime, we'll see you here back next week.