Andreia White Tavares (1974)
Born and bred in the Lisbon area to a Portuguese father and an American mother, I am pretty much a hybrid of the two cultures, though Lisbon will always be home. After high school, eager to expand my horizons further, I left Portugal to study in London before heading Stateside to live and work in New York. Eventually, Lisbon pulled at my heartstrings, so I packed my bags once again and returned on Christmas eve, 2001.
An inate wanderlust means a suitcase is always close at hand (in fact I don’t think I have space left in my apartment for more trinkets from my travels), but Lisbon is the place I always come back to. Perhaps it has something to do with saudade, that quintessential Portuguese term which translates loosely to nostalgia, longing, desire – yes, there is a certain drama to being Portuguese.
I live in the city center and, after sharing rented apartments since I was 19, I finally bought my own a couple of years ago, complete with a terrace and lemon tree that produces more fruit than I can handle. Lemonade or margarita, anyone?
