Karin moved from Rotterdam to Lisbon in 2019 for what was supposed to be an 18-month fintech contract — six years later she's still here, now with a Portuguese boyfriend, a rescue cat called Bolinha, and an unreasonably strong opinion about which bank has the least painful app. She covers the Portuguese economy, taxes and housing for Mercearia Portuguesa, usually from personal experience — she's been through the NIF queue, the NHR paperwork and the great Portuguese bank-account saga more than once. When she's not untangling Certificados do Tesouro, she's cycling along the river to Belém or working through her ongoing, deeply serious pastel de nata ranking of Lisbon bakeries.