From São Paulo to Ireland, France, Belgium and Portugal. The story behind Andre On Digital.
In July 2022, my wife and I stood at the airport in São Paulo with two suitcases and a thousand thoughts running through our minds. We had a destination, but honestly, we didn’t really have a plan.
Like many people who decide to move abroad, we had created this picture in our heads of what Europe would probably look like. We imagined opportunities, learning English, building a better future, and finally stepping into a different chapter of life.
What we didn’t realize was that moving abroad doesn’t simply change your address. It changes you.
At the time, we weren’t thinking about websites, digital work, travel tools, or creating content. We were simply two people trying to figure things out.
Ireland became our first home
Ireland was where our new life actually began. Both Nicoli and I arrived as students hoping to improve our English and create opportunities that felt difficult to find back home. Like many people moving abroad for the first time, we arrived carrying a mix of excitement and uncertainty. We knew where we were going, but we had no real idea of what daily life would actually look like once we got there.
The first months felt exciting, confusing, and overwhelming at the same time. Everything felt unfamiliar at first. The weather was different, the culture felt different, and even small everyday situations somehow felt new. Things that seemed simple back in Brazil suddenly required more attention and effort.
The biggest challenge at the beginning was definitely the language. I didn’t really speak English when I first arrived, which made even ordinary situations feel more complicated. But over time, what initially felt difficult slowly became part of the process.
Very quickly, the excitement of arriving turned into everyday reality. Rent had to be paid, work had to be found, and life became less about taking photos and more about building stability. I started working in restaurants, and later we both worked at McDonald’s, where I eventually became a manager.
Looking back now, those years taught us much more than English. They taught us patience, resilience, and how to adapt to completely different situations. They also introduced us to people from many different cultures and backgrounds, friendships that eventually started feeling like a second family.
Without even realizing it, Ireland slowly stopped feeling temporary and started feeling like home.
Travel started becoming a bigger part of our lives
As life became more stable in Ireland, we naturally started traveling more whenever we had the opportunity. One of the things we quickly realized after moving to Europe was how accessible traveling suddenly became. Places we had only seen in photos before were now just a short flight away.
Over time, we visited different places across Europe, including cities like London, Amsterdam, and Portugal long before we ever thought about moving there. Traveling slowly became part of our routine and one of the things we enjoyed most about living abroad. Each place brought different experiences, different perspectives, and different memories that slowly became part of our journey.
In 2024, we decided to do something different and took our first trip to Asia, visiting Turkey and Thailand. At the time, it was simply another adventure and an opportunity to experience a completely different part of the world.
Looking back now, what stands out most isn’t necessarily the destinations themselves, but the practical side of traveling that we started paying attention to more and more over time. Things like staying connected while moving between countries, navigating unfamiliar places, and making travel feel smoother slowly became details that mattered much more than we expected.
During that trip, we used an eSIM for the first time. At the time, it simply felt like an easier way to stay connected while traveling between countries. We weren’t thinking about reviews, websites, or creating content around any of it. We were simply trying to make travel easier. Later on, after traveling more frequently across Europe, we ended up sharing some of our experiences using different eSIM options while traveling abroad.
Only much later did we realize that many of the things that would eventually become part of Andre On Digital had already entered our lives naturally, long before we imagined creating something around those experiences.
Looking for something different
After spending years building our lives in Ireland, we eventually reached a point where we started feeling curious about experiencing something new. Ireland had become a huge part of our journey and, in many ways, it had become our first real home in Europe. It was where we learned English, built stability, created friendships, and adapted to life abroad. We genuinely loved being there.
But at the same time, after a few years, we started feeling that desire many people probably experience after living somewhere for a while — the desire to explore something different.
Because Ireland is an island, we often felt curious about life on the European continent itself. We had already traveled to different places and experienced different cultures during our trips, and little by little we started asking ourselves what it would actually feel like to live somewhere else.
Since Nicoli had her Portuguese citizenship, moving within Europe was something that was possible for us, which made the idea feel much less distant. We weren’t trying to escape Ireland or leave because we were unhappy there. It was more about curiosity and wanting to experience another chapter of our journey.
That decision eventually brought us to France.
Like many things in our story, we arrived excited and optimistic, imagining what our next experience would look like. But moving abroad has a funny way of reminding you that every place comes with its own reality and its own challenges.
Very quickly, the language became one of the biggest difficulties we faced. After spending years adapting to English and finally feeling comfortable with it, suddenly finding ourselves in an environment where communication felt difficult again brought back memories of our first months abroad.
It almost felt like starting over once again.
Not long after, our journey continued to Belgium. Looking back now, Belgium became much more important than we realized at the time. It wasn’t necessarily because of the place itself, but because of the stage of life we were in.
By then, we had already adapted to different countries, different jobs, different routines, and completely different situations. For the first time, our conversations slowly started changing.
Instead of only talking about work, rent, or what came next, we started asking ourselves bigger questions.
We started wondering what kind of life we actually wanted to create.
We started wondering if we wanted to continue following the same path forever.
And even though we didn’t have all the answers yet, that period quietly became the beginning of something much bigger than we imagined.
Portugal gave us the space to build something of our own
Eventually, our journey brought us to Portugal, and looking back now, it feels like we arrived there at exactly the right moment in our lives. By that point, we had already spent years adapting to different situations, different jobs, and different countries. We had gone through the uncertainty of starting over, learned how to build stability from zero, and experienced what it felt like to constantly adjust to new environments. Even though every stage of the journey had taught us something important, we had slowly started feeling that we wanted something different for our future.
When we first moved abroad, our goals had been very practical. We wanted to improve our English, create opportunities, and build a more stable life. Over time, however, our perspective slowly changed. We were no longer thinking only about finding the next job or deciding where we wanted to live. Instead, we started asking ourselves bigger questions about the kind of lifestyle we wanted and what we were actually trying to build for ourselves in the long term.
Portugal felt different almost immediately. We eventually settled in Figueira da Foz, a coastal city with a much slower pace of life than what we had become used to. After years of constantly moving, adapting, and thinking about the next step, living somewhere quieter brought a completely different feeling. Being close to the ocean and having a simpler routine created a kind of balance that we hadn’t really experienced in a long time.
More than anything, Portugal gave us the time and mental space to slow down and think more intentionally about what we actually wanted next. For the first time in years, it felt like life had slowed down enough for us to stop reacting to what was happening around us and start making decisions more intentionally. Looking back now, that period became much more important than we realized at the time because it was where the first ideas about building something of our own quietly began to take shape.
The beginning of Andre On Digital
Andre On Digital didn’t begin with a detailed business plan or a perfectly organized strategy. In reality, it started in a much more natural way and grew out of experiences we had already been living ourselves for years.
After moving across different countries, adapting to different cultures, and learning how to navigate life abroad, we realized that we had spent a lot of time figuring things out through trial and error. There were many situations where we wished someone had explained things in a simpler way or shared practical experiences rather than generic advice.
We also started noticing how many tools and resources had quietly become part of our everyday lives. Things that initially felt small, like staying connected while traveling, organizing life between different countries, or making certain aspects of travel easier, gradually became normal parts of our routine.
At some point, we started realizing that many of the questions we had during our own journey were probably the same questions other people had as well. We knew what it felt like to move abroad without knowing exactly what to expect, and we understood how overwhelming certain parts of that process could feel when you’re experiencing them for the first time.
That idea slowly became Andre On Digital. Rather than creating something focused only on products or travel recommendations, we wanted to build a place where we could share experiences, lessons, and practical information based on things we had actually lived ourselves.
What started as a small personal project eventually became something much more meaningful to us — a way to document our experiences, share what we continue learning along the way, and hopefully help other people navigating similar changes in their own lives.
Looking back at everything now
Looking back now, it’s interesting to think about how different life turned out compared to what we imagined back in 2022.
When we left Brazil, we thought we were simply moving to another country to study English and create better opportunities for ourselves. We had no idea that decision would eventually take us through different countries, different cultures, and experiences that would completely change the way we looked at life.
Moving abroad taught us much more than how to adapt to a new place. It taught us patience, resilience, and the importance of staying open to things that don’t always happen according to plan. Some of the moments that taught us the most were not the ones we expected. Some happened during difficult periods, some happened while traveling, and others happened quietly during everyday life.
If there is one thing we learned through all of this, it is that you don’t need to have everything figured out before starting something new. Looking back, we certainly didn’t.
We left with two suitcases, many doubts, and no idea where life would eventually take us.
And if you’re reading this while thinking about making a similar move, starting over, or creating a different path for yourself, maybe the most important thing we can say is this:
You don’t need a perfect plan to begin.
Sometimes you only need enough courage to take the first step.
