Why Lisbon?
For context, I've been nomadic since 2017 and have lived across cities in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. After living nomadically for 4 years, in 2021, I decided to find a city to settle down in.
At the time, I wanted to focus on finding a more stable career and entering a serious relationship. Most of my family are in London and Istanbul, and I love the Mediterranean lifestyle, so I decided my options were: Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece.
In 2021, I traveled to Barcelona, loved it, stayed for 3 months, wanted to stay for at least another year, couldn't (due to Brexit), and reluctantly left for the next best option: Lisbon.
In Lisbon, I fell in love with my now fiancé, who's also Armenian but originally from LA. Like me, she works remotely and has been nomadic for a few years – living across Europe, traveling to Asia, and trying some options in the U.S., including New York, Miami, and Atlanta.
Lisbon was our base for ~1 year. During this period, we traveled to Istanbul x3, London x3, LA x3, Venice x2, Barcelona x1, Berlin x1, Zermatt x1, SF x1, Denver x1, and all around Portugal. Our parent's joke that we never really lived in Lisbon.
~8 months into our time in Lisbon, we decided that we liked but didn't love it and wanted to explore other options. We also agreed that we love Europe, but it's not where we wanted to settle down or "live" in the traditional sense. For us, it's better for a vacation or a few months workation / cultural escape.
Why Miami?
Family
Lara's family's in LA and my family's in London/Istanbul. Miami's timezone and location mean we're equidistant from our respective families, and we have no family in Southern Europe.
Work
We both work remotely in web3. Miami is a web3 hub, and living here makes it easy to travel to major industry conferences. More critically, sharing timezone with the people we work with is a huge productively unlock – in Lisbon, for example, we'd have meetings as late as 10PM.
Weather
Weather in Europe (including Southern Europe) is kinda cold and bleak for 6 months a year (Nov-Apr). Europe also has far fewer sunny days than the US, and Miami has ~3.2K sunshine hours per year, and its high-temperature range through the year is 24° – 31°.
Lifestyle
We love running, swimming, playing tennis, cycling, nature, and being outdoors. Miami offers that lifestyle year-round, with loads of tennis courts, beaches, cycling, and running routes. Meanwhile, in Lisbon, there are hardly any parks or outdoor spaces; you need to go out of the city (and you can only really do that when the weather's nice).
Infrastructure
In my experience, the US has the highest and most diverse social, technological, and economic infrastructure globally. Practically speaking, supermarkets and malls are accessible and stocked with the best stuff. More importantly, most of the books and blog posts I read, podcasts I listen to, films I watch, and the research that drives all this is conducted and produced in the US. It's exciting to live in a country that has so much impact and where things are constantly getting built and innovated.
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