Waking up from a red-eye flight over the Atlantic, I lazily departed my plane and touched foot to pavement in Lisbon, Portugal. The last four months of my life had been leading up to this moment. It’s always surreal when moments come into actualization. I was day-dreaming about how amazing this moment was, but I needed to come back down to planet Earth after realizing the airline tagged my bag for Paris. Not a huge issue, they found everything. I snagged an Uber from the airport and began heading to the AirBnb my friends and I had rented. I spoke some broken Spanish with my driver who was from Brazil. Nice guy. He dropped me off in a light rain at the beginning of our street. I was the first person to get to our place. I checked in and dropped off my backpack at the spot while the housekeeper finished up. I had the day to explore the heights of Barrio Alto that overlooked the water with beautiful scenic views of the city.

I was starving and needed a coffee to keep my body moving for the day. I found a small outdoor café and ordered a latté and local pastry. I sat down at the table, and slowly indulged my little slice of heaven. The rain shower had passed and the sun was reflecting on the bay. I left the café and began trekking the wet, slippery cobblestones up and down the narrow steep streets. It was no easy task. I made my way around the neighborhood a few times, getting my bearings, seeing as I didn’t have any internet. Lisbon is everything you see in the pictures and more. Colorful old buildings, small yellow trams going down insanely steep slopes, tiny corridors for streets strewn with cafés, and bakeries with pastéis de nata in every window.

After taking my little tour of the neighborhood, I hung around the apartment until my friends showed up in the evening. There’d be seven of us total: Lori, Salu, Joe, Charlie, Devin, Aga, and I. The first five had flown in together, Aga traveled by herself, and she’d be here late at night. I met my friends at the top of our street and showed them down to our place. We would all be together for two weeks, one in Lisbon and the next in Barcelona. After, Charlie, Joe, and I would travel together for another two through Brussels, Antwerp, Amsterdam, and Milan. By the time they had gotten inside I had some drinks waiting, just some, Super Bock beer and port. The beer and port warmed our hungry stomachs as we got ready for the evening.

We decided we would go check out Time Out Market for dinner. It was a cool old factory space transformed into a modern eatery-stall style market. We tried out a bunch of the different stalls, and ate everything from croquets to local seafood. Aga was touching down at midnight and I had agreed to meet her at the airport and take a cab back into the city with her. I was starting to get nervous while we were out. I was so excited to see her, we hadn’t seen each other for about a month a half, and mind you we weren’t dating yet at this point (spoiler, sorry). We had been working together for a few months in the States, and after she had left we kept in contact. At one point she asked if she could come see Lisbon with me, of course I agreed, and we were finally on the cusp of being together again.  The guys tried to keep me cool, tell me everything was going to be good. I half believed them while I downded another beer to calm my nerves. Devin had always had a genuine ability to keep me cool, but it didn’t seem to be working in this moment. It was about 10:45pm by this point, my boys gave me one last reassurance that things would be fine, we dapped, and I left.

After getting asked if I wanted to buy coke right in front of the local cops, I hopped into my Uber and used my broken drunken Spanish to communicate with the driver. He had lived for five years in Barcelona. I got to the airport, and waited anxiously for the next fifteen minutes. It was easily one of the most nervous moments of my life. Aga walked out of the terminal. I headed her way and we embraced and kissed. Well I’m not quite sure if you can call it a kiss, I was smiling so big I think my teeth just touched her lips. Either way, it helped break my nervous tension. We laughed, and took a taxi home.

Luckily, my friends were right, things went fine. We spent the next week exploring Lisbon together. We checked out the sights of the local neighborhood, hung out at cafés, drank a lot of wine, got lost/separated from our friends plenty, and genuinely embraced local Lisbon culture. Though plenty of it seems like a lost blur in memory at this point, I know it was dope. It’s crazy to think four months can fly by so quickly, and that even as I sit here typing right now, this is a continuation of the same trip. At that point I had such a different conception of what my time in Europe would look like. I thought after Charlie, Joe, and I parted ways I would meet up with some friends in Poland for a few weeks, maybe celebrate New Year in Lviv, then travel on my own for the next few months. But, things change. And for me they changed for the better. I convinced Aga to come to Barcelona with us, and while we were there we decided we would give dating a shot. I still don’t know how I got her to agree to it.

I tried to get her to come to Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, and Greece with me but to no avail. So we were apart for the next two weeks. But we’ve been living and traveling together ever since I touched down in Poland. I guess the point of this article is to show that life is always unexpected, and we should remain open to changes. Four months ago I would have never guessed this is where I would be today. But life is a strange ride, try saying yes and don’t question your decisions, just see where it takes you.

Shout out to Salu, for many of the dope pictures, aka photocred: Salu.