Megan - Lisbon, Portugal June 2025

I “met” Megan in a women’s travel Facebook group at some point… and then, well, I forgot.  

But, luckily, she didn’t. 

She reached out to me on Instagram while she was in Lisbon and asked if I wanted to go to a festival with her. 

I knew nothing about her.  

Not where she was from, how old she was, what she was like, nada.

So, of course I immediately said yes. 

Megan graciously covered my ticket and was open about wanting to go to the festival but being hesitant to go alone. I was more than happy to go along… What was the worst that could happen?

In the couple of days leading up to the festival, we exchanged a few messages and she definitely seemed like a cool person and someone I would get along with.  I learned she was from Australia, would be in Portugal for a few weeks touring different areas, and was a bit new to solo travel. While I felt I had a good background and that we would get on well, I was still surprised when we finally met. 

Surprised by how much we had in common and how easy it was to be around her.  We have similar backgrounds; from education and career aspirations, family dynamics, belief systems, even tattoos. 

Even with all that, the defining moment where I knew Megan was my people was when I bought a pasta salad to eat on the bus on the way to the festival and realized it was lacking a fork. I (half) joked that I was going to eat it with my hands and she said “What else are you going to do? You need to eat!” #soulmate

It was an instant connection that carried on through an evening of drinking, laughing, dancing, more eating (with utensils), and equally frequent porta-potty runs until 3am. 

To say we had an absolute blast would be an understatement. 

The next day I slept all day (I am 41 afterall) and she was a champion tourist and explored the city some more, but we agreed to grab a coffee the following morning before she was heading to another part of Portugal. 

Over coffee, we agreed the universe had put us in each other’s path and that this wouldn’t be the last we saw of each other. 

This is both the beauty and the struggle of this life, we meet the best people in the best places, and then…

We hope the universe puts us back in each others’ paths. 

Sometimes it does and sometimes it just gives us a really amazing human for a really amazing moment. 

Time will tell.