In this episode we talk about how to make friends in a new country and how we did it. We share how we met and what our first impression of each other was, what the hardest part was of making friends abroad, the cultural differences in our friendship, how to overcome loneliness when moving alone to a new country and much more.
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With love, April Betts & Anna Jirina.
About From Lisbon With Love
Welcome to From Lisbon With Love! A podcast about real stories of love, laughter, and life in Lisbon — from women who have left it all behind. We share real stories about moving to Lisbon, starting over and figuring life out along the way. We talk love, dating, friendships, breakups, healing, growing, all of it. Basically, the stuff we usually talk about over coffee ☕️ or vinho 🍷. If you’re thinking about moving abroad, already here or just love honest conversations with heart: you’re in the right place! Learn more about our story here.
We hope you enjoy our second episode about how to make friends in a new country! Don’t forget to rate the podcast and leave us a review at your favorite podcast platform, like Spotify – it will help more hearts find our little corner of the world.
How to make friends in a new country
Making friends in a new country can be challenging – especially if you’re moving alone at an ‘older’ age, like we did. With no classmates and no colleagues (we both have our own businesses), life can be very lonely: not only in a new country, but everywhere. You really have to put yourself out there if you want to create genuine connections, which can be very challenging if you’re in a new place ánd if you’re an introvert.
Luckily there’s many ways to find likeminded people, especially in a city like Lisbon. Lisbon is home for many expats, digital nomads and immigrants.
Are you struggling with making friends in your new homecountry? Or are you dreaming of living abroad and you want to know how to make friends in a new country? This episode is for you! Of course we will tell you how we created quality friendships and we will share the different ways to meet new people abroad – trust us, there’s plenty. You just have to find out what works for you. In this episode we’ll talk through the options and we share our own experience with meeting new people in a new country.
Friends from different cultures
What’s so interesting about leaving your hometown and moving to a city with many nationalities, is that you’ll get to know so many different cultures! It makes you experience different traditions, foods, music and ways of living that you might not encounter otherwise. Also it broadens your worldview – you’ll get more openminded, more adaptable and more flexible as a result. You’ll get a deeper understanding of others’ backgrounds, which builds sensitivity and a greater ability to see things from another’s perspective.
We now have friends from all over the world, as well as friends that grew up in Lisbon and have lived here all their life in Portugal – the real locals ;-). It’s an interesting mix with a challenge from time to time, as we’ll discuss in this episode. Curious how to make friends in a new country? Listen our episode on your favorite podcast app (we’re on Spotify, Amazon Music & Apple Podcasts) or use the audio player above.
