Last year this time I was super excited to do something I have always wanted to do for years, travel the world for a long period of time and in my terms, I was a digital nomad for 3 months.
So where did I go? Amsterdam, Budapest, Prague and Berlin. Let me just add that this was in summer so I had the most amazing weather! Lol Now how did I pull this trip off? I planned and paid for most things in advance and I had to get my priorities straight for this trip meaning what do I want to splurge on and what would I like to save on. This was easy for me, this trip wasn’t about shopping and living it up in Europe, it was all about having experiences and living like a local.
The first thing I covered was the plane ticket, I got my return flight ticket on a Black Friday (November 2017) Travelstart deal which set me back about ZAR 6500/ EUR 400 to Amsterdam. I only left in June 2018, so there was more than enough time to save for the other expenses.
Next was accommodation, I opted for hostels because these would cost ZAR 190 – 220/ EUR 11 -15 per night depending on the place. I booked all my accommodation for each country view Hostel World because they have most countries and you can see the reviews for each place, see if it’s 5 or 1 star rated, see the location and pictures of the rooms.
Here are some of the places I stayed at thanks to Hostel World:
Berlin, Germany – Come Back Packers
Amsterdam, The Netherlands – Hostel Annemarie
Budapest, Hungary – Mandarin Hostel
Prague, Czech Republic – Cosmopole
I chose the hostel option because it was super affordable, you meet people and I felt it was safer for me as a solo female traveller. I really did make new friends who I am still in touch with today. I had great experiences and I would recommend this type of travel when you are travelling alone.
Some countries such as Hungary and Czech Republic were very affordable so you could easily get a 5-star place for ZAR 190/EUR 11 per night. My accommodation came up to about R 12 540/ EUR 870 for the 3 month period which is about R 4180/EUR 257 per month.
By covering my flight and accommodation beforehand, this allowed me to focus on entertainment and daily expenses when I got to each country. Let’s just say I quickly realised I couldn’t afford my Gin & Tonic lifestyle when I arrived in Europe and for the first time in my life I was a beer drinker and let’s say after 3 or 4 days, I forgot about Gin LOL Beers were EUR 1.9-4 and Gin was always EUR 9+ … so the decision was OBVIOUS! LOL
In each country, I did city walking tours, visited museums, attended MeetUps, went out for lunch/dinners, house parties and the club. I also cooked a lot and made breakfast/lunch./dinner at the hostel so that I could be comfortable when I went out with friends here an there for meals/drinks. A night out could set you back Euro 10 -20 (±ZAR 250 – 400) depending on where you go and what do. Budapest was by far the cheapest place, my bank balance loved that country! LOL
When I was away I was working remotely for the 3 months, so every morning Monday – Friday, I would go to the Regus office in the city and work from there from 9 -5pm because I had free access to their offices all around the world and in each city I was in I had option of 3-5 different offices so sometimes I would work at a different one cause I could lol. I met so many amazing people at the offices as well and I was truly a digital nomad because the evenings and weekends were for exploring!
All in all, it was really great becoming a local in each city for the period I was there. I spend 1 month in Amsterdam, 1 month in Berlin and 2 weeks in both Prague and Budapest. My friend Nomhle even came to join me in Berlin for 5 days and that was epic!
What I learnt is that where there are people, there’s life. It’s tough to make it anywhere in the world but even in the places where you think life is tough, there are still people doing well and going for it. I also learnt that we are different but yet we want the same as people. Here are examples, parents all over the world want the best for their kids, we all want a roof over our heads and food to name a few.
I had such a blast and believe it’s important to be a foreigner in a different country because this opens up your mind and you learn empathy.
Can’t wait to jet off to a new destination again 😉