September 2021 – Lisbon, Portugal

I matched with the Local Looking for a Wife on Bumble the same day I matched with The Photographer, but seeing as he wasn’t leaving the next day, the Local and I made plans to meet up later in the week.

Also in vast contrast to The Photographer, the Local was looking for love. He was very clear from the beginning that he was looking for a wife, and he thought I would be the perfect one for him (pause for laugh track).

I was also VERY clear that I was not looking to be anyone’s wife, or even girlfriend, and was only visiting. He seemed confident he could change my mind, and who was I to destroy this man’s confidence before at least letting him try? I agreed to go out with him, strongly reiterating that I was not looking for anything serious.

He said he would love to show me around Lisbon and some surrounding areas, and who was I to pass up a free tour with a kind local gentleman?

After an initial swing and miss as to how/when we were meeting up, we decided on an evening to head out to Estoril/Caiscas, or at least he decided on that and I went along with it because I had no idea what/where he was talking about.

He said he would pick me up at the designated time and I agreed after doing thorough research on kidnapping and murder rates of 37 year old , overweight, moderately washed up Americans in Portugal and felt pretty confident I would be just fine. I sent a pic of the Local Looking for a Wife to my friends with the time he would be picking me up and shared my live location with my best friend, just in case (again, you can take the girl out of NYC…).

I was picked up up the street from my Airbnb, and immediately got “friend vibes”; no spark for me. Unfortunately, I could tell there were immediate sparks for him.

Being the rather blunt, I told him to calm down and reminded him this was not “that”.

That being established, he proceeded to give me a tour of Lisbon, explaining land marks and popular areas. We then headed out to Estoril, a little beach town outside of Lisbon, where we walked around a bit, then headed to the Estoril Casino, of James Bond fame (or so I was told).

We had a drink in the beautiful Casino and wandered around a bit, watching all the “fancy people”.

Being not-fancy people, we left shortly after to head to Caiscas for pizza. The Local Looking for a Wife took me to an Italian restaurant overlooking a gorgeous beach that he swore had the best brick oven pizza within 100 miles of Lisbon. It may have been the view, or the Sangria, but that really was some of the best brick oven pizza I have ever had.

The Local and I talked about my stay in Lisbon, which at that point was still planned for 6 weeks. He gave me tons of recommendations on things to do and see. He told me how amazing he thought it was that I had just up and gone to Portugal and that he would happily be my “guide” again.

The Local Looking for a Wife was everything a lady looking to settle down would ever want; kind, respectful, funny, family oriented… and if I was in the market for being a wife, and if there was a spark, I would have jumped at the opportunity (as I am working through the Portuguese visa process now, I have some regrets about).

I was not, however; in the market for being a wife, and reminded him of that when he asked if I wanted to get together again. He said he understood, but I wondered if he did.

We chatted a few times after he dropped me off, and he was an awesome resource and acquaintance when I needed some Lisbon insight, but we never actually got together again.

We have stayed in touch via Instagram; commenting on each others’ posts: him saying how much he loves me and is ready to marry me even if it is just for Portuguese citizenship, and me commenting on how adorable his niece is.

He is still looking for his wife, and a part of me thinks he really still hopes it will be me (cue laugh track).