From growing up in Omagh, Co Tyrone, to years spent in London, Wendy Aldridge and her family now call Porto, Portugal’s second largest city, home.
But how did they get there?
After a career in marketing and events at fashion magazines Dazed & Confused and AnOther, followed by a long stint as head of events with the charity War Child, Wendy found her interior design groove furnishing an apartment she and her husband James had bought in Berlin.
She had picked up pieces at flea markets and vintage stores and found herself returning, even after the renovation was complete.
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“I knew I could sell for more money, as there weren’t that many stores selling vintage online then.”
It prompted her to set up her online store, Homeplace.co.uk, which stocks vintage and contemporary. “For many years I did that. Then Brexit happened.”
Her husband, an IT contractor, could work remotely, and so the couple started thinking about moving.
They first discovered Porto while there for a weekend to attend Primavera Sound, a music festival. They loved it so much that they booked a return trip for the October half-term break, and started looking for a holiday space.
That was 12 years ago. They bought their two-bedroom apartment, which is on the second floor of a building in Bonfim, within walking distance of the downtown area, but far more laid back. Wendy flexed her design muscles decorating and fitting it out too.
The couple talked about moving to live in Porto for several years. They have three children and timing it so that it would be least disruptive to them was crucial, so the decision to move from London to Porto took a couple of years. They put their names down for places in an international school, where lessons would be conducted through English, and the kids could do GCSEs and A levels.
Then, in 2021 James lost both parents during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It was a call change impetus we needed,” says Wendy.
So, in August 2022, they made the move full-time, with their three kids Ida, Arlie, and Elodie, from Walthamstow in east London to Porto.
Were there cultural differences?
“There are actually probably more similarities than differences. Portugal is a very family-orientated country and people have strong ties with their local communities,” she recalls. “We moved here from London, so there is probably a bigger difference culturally between there and here, however one of the reasons we moved to Porto was to be near a city - albeit a much smaller one London.”
The transition was toughest on her son, but he was able to maintain contact with his core group of friends through online games such as Roblox and Minecraft.
She believes the fact that the family had already been travelling to and from Porto for the best part of five years beforehand - staying in the apartment for school holidays such as Easter, Halloween and weeks across the summer, helped a lot with their acclimatisation.
“They were very familiar with Porto as a city, and I think that helped them feel settled quite quickly.”
The family moved from the apartment to a bigger house in an area called Vilarinha south of the city, just a 15-minute walk from the school, and a similar distance to the beach at Foz, near where the Douro river meets the Atlantic Ocean.
By the time they moved to the new house, the kids were aged 15, 12 and 6. Wendy’s business “had been on a bit of a back burner, ticking over and it became much more difficult to do the vintage side”, she explains.
She says she gave herself quite a hard time over the last two years, and wondered where her mojo had gone.
“It took everything to come here, settle, be here for the kids when they got back from school, to network, to bed down.”
Three years now in Porto, and she says the family feels very settled.
“We have been incredibly lucky to make some absolutely brilliant friends within the first two years of being here - many of whom are Portuguese, something that has always been important to us because we did not wish to move to Porto and live in an expat bubble.”
A fog lifted last September, and she started talking to friends about business, and felt her entrepreneurial spark returning.
“I’m coming out of the fog of a major relocation and ready to launch a new enterprise.”
Now she’s set up Estudio Odette, an interior design and architectural practice with two friends, architect Angela Frias, and Isabel Orbach, who lived in New York and has an interior design background.
Does she have advice for anyone thinking of making a similar move?
“Go for it! You only live once”.
She also suggests visiting your desired location out of season.
“We used to visit Porto in October, and whilst we had amazing weather for the occasional trip, it can be super wet at that time of year. So it was good to have an inkling of what to expect when we did finally move here.”
And, from a logistics perspective, moving from Ireland to the likes of Portugal is very straightforward due the European Union.
Of course the better weather makes things easier too, she says. “You can plan.”
Tips for living like a local in Porto
Brunch at cool café Eleven Lab (elevenlabconcept.com), and then browse at The Feeting Room housed in the same building (thefeetingroom.com).
For interiors, one of Wendy’s favourite Portuguese brands is Lagrima Studio (lagrimastudio.com), which makes beautiful ceramic pieces in Porto.
For gifts, her go-to is Florida Studio (floridastudio.pt) and for reasonably priced vintage she’s a fan of @Doarcodabelha
Bring the scent of Portugal home with you, with soaps and fragrances from Claus Porto (soaps start at €18/body wash at €29, clausporto.com).
