My Nomad Diary, Week 1: I think I like this little life
You’ll recognise that sentence from countless viral TikToks, however, a friend of mine, who’s a frequent traveller whom always finds herself in a spot of bother, would always sing that line when something went wrong. But I’ve found myself humming it to myself all week, just not ironically.
After pining to leave my island home for the last couple of years I finally bit the bullet last week and packed my bags.
Rewind to Christmas Day 2023 and I was sat in the coworking area of my hostel in Lima, catching up on emails and that was when the penny dropped. “This is what I want to be doing” I thought to myself, I was fed up of sitting in the same office 5 days a week for 8 hours a day, or having to explain why I was working from home today or why I wanted to work from a coffee shop today.
Fast forward to October 2024 and I’m sat on the sofa of my Airbnb in Valencia writing my first diary entry.
It’s now the end of my first week and I endeavour to post a weekly blog about the trials and tribulations of selling everything I own and packing my most prized possessions into a backpack, all the while trying to make a life as a digital nomad.
From offices to crossing borders, to visas, to exploring cities and just about everything in-between, I’ll detail everything I can about transition from a quaint (and painstakingly boring) little island life to being a (excuse the cringe) citizen of the world.
Personal highlights from the week:
Asking for a coffee to arrive (para llegar) instead of a coffee to go (para llevar).
A ninety minute flight taking close to four hours due to a medical emergency and an aborted landing.
Repeatedly asking somebody to open (abrir) a open door instead of close it (cerrar) and have no idea what the problem was.
Having my first, relatively successful, conversation fully in Spanish.
What I’m reading this week:
Vagabonding – The Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts
My week started last Thursday, October 3rd, as I walked out of court in Guernsey having just sold my apartment, my final worldly possession. A few hours later I headed to the airport with a backpack and a suitcase to fly to Exeter to visit my dad and drop off some luggage for long term storage. I’m going to be moving around quite a lot over the next few months so I’m just taking the basics; I’m leaving my homeware, paperwork and winter wardrobe in a suitcase at my dad’s.
After about 24 hours in Exeter, on Friday afternoon I boarded a train to Gatwick via Clapham Junction. It was a four-hour journey, so I upgraded to first class for an extra £20 to benefit from a desk & power and started working on content for LinkedIn and my blog. Arriving at Gatwick shortly after, I stayed over at Bloc and took advantage of the 20% discount at Giraffe in Gatwick airport, before my Saturday morning flight to Valencia. Bloc works out about the same price as Yotel, but you get various discounts around the airport plus free fast-track security, it’s well worth it.
Saturday arrived, this was it. The first proper step of everything I had been working towards. I got on my EasyJet flight and when the stewardess spotted me in my very trendy aircast boot, moved me to the row in front and I had a whole row to myself. Result.
Alas, my luck ran short as we taxied towards the runway, a passenger behind me fainted. Back to the gate we went and it put us behind by about 90 minutes.
Onwards to Valencia and we had an aborted landing last minute (unsure as to why) and had to circle around. Finally landing in Valencia just over 2 hours behind schedule, at least I had a lot of content written to show for it.
I was finally in a taxi and on my way to my apartment, just as we were about to pull up, my taxi driver wasn’t exactly sure where to go, I felt my heart rate increase… this was it… my time to shine… “el edificio amarillo a la derecha”
*** SPANISH NATIONAL ANTHEM INTENSIFIES ***
“OK” he responded. No fanfare. No adoring fans. Maybe I simply wasn’t Spanish enough?
I met my Airbnb host and when asked, I confirmed I could speak Spanish and then I spent the next 30 minutes utterly mortified because it turns out, I cannot speak Spanish. In typical British fashion, I nodded all the way through without saying a word.
I didn’t do a great deal on my first weekend, unpacked, explored the immediate neighbourhood and did some grocery shopping.
After settling in for the weekend, I started my first day of Spanish school with Don Quijote on Monday.
Tuesday came around and it was back to school again. I’m signed up for three weeks of Spanish school which takes place every weekday from 9-1pm. There’s multiple packages available, but this one in particular costs circa €250 a week. I’m in a, what I’ll call an upper-beginner class, that is focusing on high A1 and due to start A2 level Spanish next week. After class I did some grocery shopping and headed home to get some work done.
I’m working towards creating two income streams for myself: as a high-level freelance chief marketing officer for businesses that need a few hours of expert marketing help (think: branding direction and marketing strategy, rather than updating Facebook pages) and the second as a remote consultant, I want to help companies build hybrid and remote frameworks and also advise people looking to follow the same path as me.
With that in mind, my afternoon consisted of creating an appointment page, updating old LinkedIn posts with CTAs and hooks plus coming up with new content.
Wednesday was Valencia’s national day “Dia de la Comunitat Valenciana”, a celebration of the conquest of the muslim city of Balansiyya and the creation of the modern Kingdom of Valencia. And public holiday means, no school. I hired a bike using the Valenbisi service which charges you €13 a week for a membership and then you can cycle for up to 30 minutes for free (or €1 for an hour), a really great and cost effective service.
I went straight to The City of Arts and Sciences (La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias) and walked around the science exhibit for about two hours, which has a massive space exhibit – my life was complete.
On Thursday I went to school as normal and then headed out for paella after class with a few classmates which then spiraled into drinks at a boujee rooftop bar followed by singing Engelbert Humperdinck at a local karaoke bar.
Friday was far from enjoyable as a result, but I did make it to San Tomasso for a late lunch, an amazing Italian trattoria in Valencia’s old town.
Heading into the weekend I finally took a rest day on Saturday, which just so happened to be Spain’s National Day. In all honesty, I had seen enough festivities for one week already, so I called it a day.
Wrapping up my final day of the week, I headed back to La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, but this time to see Europe’s largest aquarium, Oceanogràfic. I saw penguins, beluga whales, sharks, dolphins, sea lions, seals – you name it! I also spent 7€ to sit in a VR pod for five minutes whilst I “swam” with humpback whales, worth every penny. You can see a quick video of the aquarium, here.
To wrap up the afternoon I cycled along the Jardín del Turia, a 1.4 million square metre park that stretches for almost 10km across the city. Interesting fact: it used to be a river but due to a severe flood in 1957, it was eventually redirected and after the government announced plans to convert the old riverbed into a highway, citizens banded together and it became parkland instead. The park now hosts some 3 million visitors each year and it’s a central meeting point for many people throughout Valencia.
And that’s a wrap! Week one is done and tomorrow I start my second week of Spanish school, where we’ll be making a start on level A2 Spanish, wish me luck! 🥳
