Olá from Lisbon, Portugal!

Two months ago, my partner and I decided to visit Europe for the 3rd time, but this time we'll be exploring some countries that I've been dreaming of for about two years now: Spain and Portugal.

So far, we've explored Barcelona and Porto, but I'll be sharing my thoughts on Spain.

Getting to Spain gave me a scary a feeling, because it was so important for me to like the country.

I was scared of getting disappointed when I arrived.

I had a picture of what Spain needs to feel like: vibrant but calm, alive but relaxed.

And when we got to the city, my first impression was, “this city is dirty and I want to go back home”. The streets weren’t clean and there were a lot of homeless people in the streets.

But as we spent more days in the city, I've come to love its imperfections.

From where I'm from, Toronto, everything is so rigid and organized. The streets are blocks of squares and it's quite easy to navigate. It’s also mostly clean. Yes, that's good, but it can get boring really fast.

In Spain or other European countries, it's usually very messy.

One second you're walking in a wide street and the next, you're walking in a very narrow street.

But to be honest, I'd rather be walking in unexpected streets.

It's fun and definitely more exciting.

Sure, you'll never know where you'll end up but a lot of times, you end up being surprised by beautiful sceneries and big plazas that you didn't expect.

This whole experience made me think about why I've been delaying coming to Spain for a long time.

A part of it was that I was scared of being disappointed.

The other part of it was because I felt like I don't deserve it because of something called tomorrow thinking.

Tomorrow thinking is a term coined by Kara Lowentheil, the host of the podcast Unf*ck your brain. She explains in one episode,

"tomorrow thinking is when you create a perfectionist fantasy and you tell yourself that you'll start tomorrow or next week or next month or next year."

In my case, my perfection fantasy was that I wanted to have a successful online business before I could give myself permission to come to Spain.

But really, who knows when that will happen? What if I became “successful” online in 10 years?

That's a very long time to deprive myself of this dream experience, especially if I have the means to do it now.

It was easier to put off my dream by saying, “I can't go yet because I'm not successful yet.”

For many of us, it’s easier to stay in wishful thinking and make our dreams unreachable than to actively make things work.

So this week, I'd invite you to ask yourself, what are the things you've always dreamed of doing, and why haven't you actively pursued them?

👣 3 Favourite Travel Finds

I've been travelling so I can't share any new tips. Instead, I'll be sharing some favourite finds that sparked joy while I was traveling.

One place: Porto.
This tiny but charming city in Portugal was enchanting.
The houses in the area were so vibrant, and because it's so close to a Port (where it got the Porto name from), it’s also nice and cool in the summer. We only spent about 48 hours here but I will definitely come back because of how beautiful the place is and how CHEAP things are. You can get a glass of wine for 2 euros 🍷!
One food: Pastel de Nata.
It's a famous Portuguese pastry (you might know it as egg tart), that’s made with cream filling. The quick history: this recipe was invented covenant nuns in the 18th century. Nuns were stuck all day long inside a convent without anything to do and they got into baking (kinda like 90% of the world last year),
using simple resources they had: flour, salt, butter, eggs and a marble table...they made an amazing pastry that's so creamy and tasty.
My husband and I did an Airbnb experience to make it and would definitely recommend it 🥮.
One notable person: Antoní Gaudí.
Gaudí is one of the architects behind La Sagrada Familia (i.e., the unfinished church from 1882) in Barcelona, Spain. But besides this really popular building, he also commissioned other works in Barcelona, like park Güell, Casa Milá, and Casa Batlló. What makes his work so popular is that each building has its own character, designed for the person that hired him 🏗.

🤔 A question for you this week:

What would happen if you pursued your dreams in the next year or so?

Free Photo of People Walking in the Street Stock Photo — Photo by Cátia Matos from Pexels

With online love 💌 ,

Jerine

P.S. Let me know what you're up to this summer, I'm curious.

And…if you've been to these cities: Lisbon, Seville, Granada, Madrid, send your best recommendations!

The Roaming Heart

💌 Why are you making your dreams wait?