Our story

Olá, todos! We are Raymond Langevin and Lukus Zuker, and we’ve created this blog to document our life on Terceira Island and the journey that brought us here.

At the height of the Covid-19 lockdowns, and suffering from cabin fever in our tiny 18th floor condo in downtown Minneapolis, we had a dream of buying a so-called “1 euro house” in Italy. After some research into the participating localities and considering cost of living, we discovered other reasonably priced properties for sale in Europe, namely Greece, Bulgaria, and Portugal.

At this point, the practicality discussion of SE Europe vs. SW Europe started to arise: the cost and ease of travel to each region (far more expensive to fly from the USA to Athens or Sofia than to Lisbon); ease of learning our new host country’s language (added difficulty when the language has a different script, i.e. Greek and Cyrillic vs. the familiar Latin alphabet for Portuguese); and lastly, the livability and safety for a same-sex couple (internet research revealed Bulgaria to be notably less-tolerant for LGBT people than Greece or Portugal). The final tipping point was reading about Portugal’s #3 position on the “Global Peace Index” due to its lack of border conflicts and wars, low crime, trustworthy police and justice system, and low ownership of guns.

Curious to see Portugal for himself, Lukus took a brief trip in December 2021 to scout out the country and view some properties for sale. Staying for a week in an old farmhouse in the mountains, it was a perfect introduction to a beautiful country, a fascinating culture, and a friendly people. After Lukus returned from the trip, we decided to start the momentous process of downsizing our possessions and listing our condo for sale. Our dream was starting to take shape!

In June 2022, after 14 years together, we were married in a beautiful, small outdoor ceremony in southern Michigan. The following month, having closed on the sale of our condo, we flew to Portugal for an extended honeymoon. We got a great sense of the country between month-long stays in the central region (Coimbra), the northern region (Porto), and the island of Madeira.

This experience only galvanized our desire to move to Portugal. We continued our search of properties online and, though we loved Madeira, we came to realize that the homes were out of our price range. In January 2023, Lukus returned to central Portugal to study Portuguese at the Universidade de Coimbra (the oldest university in the country).

After the program, Raymond met up with Lukus in the Azores. We spent six weeks on Ilha Terceira (“Third Island”), exploring the volcanic interior, meeting friendly locals, and looking for the perfect place to call home. Right away, we were impressed by the outstanding natural beauty and sun, sky, and sea!

A Bit of Geography: Azores Islands, Portugal

The Azores are an archipelago of 9 islands in the north Atlantic and an autonomous region of Portugal. Created by volcanism, they form the tectonic junction of the European, North American, and African plates. The Azores are considered the place furthest north on Earth that has never had a frost. For a comparable latitude, think Washington, D.C. or Louisville, KY.

Here are the central group of islands (5 of 9):