Digital Nomads in Europe
The following excerpt is a tale of growth, misfortune, up-skilling, cross-skilling, labour and ultimately, love. But Is this just another digital nomad blog? Read on to hear the trials and tribulations of life as a digital nomad.
For todays special, all included in one 12 month package is:
1x snowboarding accident.
1x shady hospital surgery.
1x drone accident.
1x moped accident.
1x house fire.
1x wedding.
1x new remote business
Total value = Priceless
Yours today = FREE
Some things you would expect of a remote working year, and many aspects you may not! Therefore, if you are going to think about a remote working year as a digital nomad. Here are some of our greatest learnings of what to do and of course, what NOT to do!
Another Digital Nomad Blog
Our digital nomad journey started late August 2018 in Hurghada -Egypt, where we started this blog (check out Food guide to Egypt). However, the complete digital nomad experience did not kick it into gear until January during the winter season in Bansko Bulgaria on January 1st 2019.
It is New Year's Eve 2018 in Hamburg, Germany and it’s freezing cold. Still, everybody is outside and no one seems to mind. It sounds like a war zone, fireworks on every corner of every street. This is something that is illegal in Australia, and for good reason. We leave the very next day bound for Bulgaria, slightly def of hearing but otherwise unscathed.
We had heard good things about Bulgaria, in particular Bansko. Also, to live and work in the snow (again) was a long time goal for me ever since my younger days in Canada. We became members of Coworking Bansko, which were an amazing bunch of digital nomads, freelancers and entrepreneurs.
Work hard, play hard was the unspoken modus operandi. The mountain life was amazing, and cheap! It was the end of January and I was a little too excited being my birthday. Trying to keep up with the shredders of the slopes (I'm no longer 25) results in me crash landing a jump and tearing my bicep tendon completely off the bone. After visiting a hospital tht resembles Quintin Tarantino’s Hostel. I have bicep surgery 7 days later. Season over!
Not even 1 month in and our digital nomad journey is suddenly brought to a halt. Freda and I have now been separated for the first time in 3 years. I take up rest and rehabilitation with family in London, and re-assess my current earning ability with one hand (talking about typing here).
Meanwhile, in Germany things are looking up as Freda lands a remote tech support job for a prestige European sound company. This is our first real step towards building a remote career.
Now, winter is nearly over and after 12 weeks my arm brace finally comes off. Time for spring! Croatia looks nice. Plus, it is out of the Schengen zone, a serious consideration for non EU digital nomads. Our bags are packed, we are good to go. And, our flights are delayed by Ryanair (no surprises there!).
Finally, we are about to depart the terminal and our 6 week long prepaid Airbnb accommodation cancels on us. Yes, Airbnb may be more expensive than other accomodation platforms, however their support was brilliant and had re-homed us within a better city, and, a better apartment all within a few hours of landing. Happy days!
Here, we relive our passion of Game of Thrones as we now call the city of Sibenik home (the Iron Bank in the city of Braavos). We see the most beautiful waterfalls in Krka national park, which is like something out of Avatar. I attempt to capture this beauty with the drone. Unbeknown to me, my Mavic Air decides to completely malfunction and take off on its own straight into the middle of a tree! In the middle of the river!
Somehow, it did not fall into the water. Some branches saved it! But now the question, do I save it? It looks do-able? I don't really care for the drone, but I sure as hell care for the memories. So we devise a safety plan and I ever so carefully head out to this lonesome tree in the middle of the Island and salvage the wreckage! The drone is out of action for the next few weeks as we visit Split and Dubrovnik (Kings Landing) while the world complains about the injustice that was done to fans in the season finale. FUN FACT! We could not even pay HBO to stream this in Croatia despite the series being filmed there!
We head back to Germany to regroup and start planning a wedding. This process leads us to believe that there is a huge market for website upgrades and user experience design in Germany. Anyone else experiencing the web in Deutschland would probably attest. This was just a quick trip though, as that darn visa run calls again!
So where is the cheapest and warmest place in Europe that has a beach? Albania!
Suddenly, images of Liam Neeson dodging bullets from rooftops comes to mind. We anticipate the worst, but we were pleasantly surprised! Stunning beaches, friendly people, cheap food and cheap beer! Probably a little too cheap! (Sunset beers on our balcony after a days work became a thing).
Despite poor internet and doing laundry in a kiddy pool by hand, this place was thus far the highlight of 2019!
Its now only 5 weeks until we get married and then SCREEEEEEEECH! We crash the scooter on the way back from Gjirokaster (featured above). The drivers are insane in Albania, and we take some serious skin off of our bodies. Luckily, nothing too serious and quite fortunate that we crashed right in front of a German doctor whom was on holidays and quickly administered first aid. From Albania, we headed back to Germany to stay safe, lick our wounds and finish the plans for the wedding.
Everything is going to plan. Soon, we have 30 Australian’s and some other internationals guests due to arrive in a few short weeks. It is now the end of August an officially 12 months since we started travelling as digital nomads. Today, we close our laptops and open our hearts. We tie the knot in front of 80 of our friends and family from Germany, Australia, UK, America, Ireland, Zambia and Spain. We are overwhelmed with love and support and feel just so grateful for all the people willing to travel to see us get married. Very humbling.
So at this point the newlyweds would usually go on a honeymoon. But our past has demonstrated we choose the path least traveled. So we gather all of our family, and take a 10 day family-moon to Portugal… All 10 of us!
By this point our year has clearly not had enough excitement. So we decide to head back to Bulgaria, this time in summer and this time instead of falling down the mountain, we jump off the Vitosha Mountain (2,290 m) with Red Bull Para-glider- Veso Orachov. I had a sudden flashbacks of the nightmare hospital as he pointed to the edge of the cliff and said RUN! But alas! I was in Bulgaria’s best hands and now have my 2020 extreme goals set! (become a para-glider - DN style).
Just when we think the fun is over, Freda gets accepted into a UX Design school doing an intensive 10 week boot camp in Berlin. Our new trendy hipster home where anything goes transforms from a mild and colourful autumn, to a dark and cold winter! But the music is great, and the start-up scene is plentiful and the inspiration that comes from other freelancers and entrepreneurs is high!
We are now in the 3rd advent of Christmas and head back to Freda’s family home to reflect on what was an eventful year. We had physically, mentally and emotionally pushed ourselves more than we could have ever expected. Now reading over the past 12 months of diary entries, blogs and YouTube videos I cannot imagine we will ever be the same again!
If our main goal was personal growth, then this has been our winning achievement. But our biggest achievement was undoubtedly our love. I can comfortably say that both Freda and I live, breathe, eat, sleep, work, travel, play together without ever skipping a beat.
We set out to transform our lives and our careers. Surely but slowly, through the people we met, the networks we make and the new skills we develop, this is certainly developing into a way of life. And much more than just an adventure.
Today was my birthday. Over the last 12 months discovering how to become a digital nomad been pretty interesting to say the least! Now, at 37, it feels like this is just the beginning! If you are seriously considering the experience of the digital nomad and/or starting a remote work career, our advice of course, is to Just Go!
Learn More about our new business at JustGo.Design
