Erika - Porto, Portugal October 2021
I was introduced to Erika when a friend from NYC came to Portugal to visit, and we decided to go to Porto.
She told me her friend from Paris was going to come too and thought we would get along great.
I’m always up for new friends and the prospect of a new friend from Paris was both exciting and a little intimidating.
I’ll admit, I prejudged.
I had been to Paris once, and while everyone had been kind enough, it is hard not to lean in to the stereotypes of “the French”.
I will also admit, that I was still very new to European travel and even having lived in NYC for many years at that point, I’m still a small town kid at the core. A whole Parisian felt scary.
Then, I met Erika.
Within 5 minutes we were deep into conversation, laughter, and a bucket of Sangria.
While l will admit, this tiny redheaded human can certainly be be intimidating, it had nothing to do with her being French… especially because she isn’t.
Ara was right, Erika and I did hit it off. We realized we had a lot more in common than I anticipated. Both being lovers of food and booze, and in a place that had a plehteta of both to offer; we were off to the races from the moment we met.
When Erika toppled out of a swing and we all laughed until we couldn’t breathe, I knew this was one of my people.
When Erika went in to Ara’s bathroom after copious amounts of wine and came out holding all of her make-up asking “what the fuk is all of this for?” then proceeded to apply it all and be shocked by the results… I knew this was one of my forever people.
I quickly realized the similarities between Erika and my best friend were unmistakable, so we had to FaceTime her to virtually join the party too.
After a laughter filled FaceTime, I said it was too bad Peri was coming to Lisbon after everyone left.
Erika, in her very serious Eastern European way, said: you will both come to Paris.
And… we did.
A month later, we flew to Paris. Having met once for a few days, and having never met Peri, Erika arranged the most incredible time in Paris, hosted us in her home and balked at any suggestions it was “too much”.
Since that time, some of my best times and memories on this wild journey have been with Erika.
We have met again in Portugal, I have gone to Paris several times, she and her brother (and Peri) came to Berlin for my 40th birthday, we met in Budapest last summer.
We jave eaten the most amazing food together, gotten dumb drunk, walked endless kilometers, screamed marriage proposals at Lenny Kravitz under the Eiffel Tower, and just fallen in to step like no time has past wherever we are.
We most recently, 4 years from our first meeting, took the most epic road trip through Romania together.
I was introduced to her family’s village home and given a glimpse of how Erika grew up and shared parts of how I did with her. There are not many people I can spend 2 weeks with, especially in a village house without WiFi, TV, or much entertainment outside of each other, but the time both flew by and stood still effortlessly.
Most times we part ways, we don’t exactly know when we’ll see each other again… but we know we will and that it will be equally epic and ridiculous.
