Digital Nomad: Travel Blog

[Butters]

I started living as a digital nomad in January of this year. That means I canceled my rent (or got kicked out, whatever) and started traveling around while working on my laptop. 

Here I will talk about the places I visit and some of the lifestyle and challenges I guess. 

Feel free to post here and participate! 

I'll try to summarize one place or topic in one post in here to keep it somewhat organized. 

[Butters]

Chapter 1: Porto, Portugal

Tis early January of 2026 and I am really, really sick of living in the Netherlands. There was a snowstorm going over the country as I moved my stuff out of the house and towards the garbage dump in a little van I rented for the day. I almost broke my hip as I slipped and fell in front of a lady taking a selfie of the 'beautiful snow'. Everything pissed me off. I wanted to go to the sun!

My original plan was to move to Bali. I've been to Bali before, but that was 12 years ago, before the word Digital Nomad even existed. But I wanted to go there now, and live the Nomad Lifestyle: morning coffees, gym, swimming pools and co-working spaces. And tropical heat! Lots of tropical heat. 

But for some odd reason I decided to go to Porto first. It just felt safer to stay within the European Union while my money was low. Then, hopefully a month later I'd have more money saved up and can safely travel to South East Asia (spoiler: I didn't). 

Anyway, I made it thought the snowstorm and on the day of my flight all trains were canceled. Not a single train went, except for the one going to the airport. I don't know if this is faith or luck but I guess I'm going to Porto. 

Had minor / major fear of flying. I hadn't flown since I lived in Indonesia 9 years ago (not getting into that right now). My fear of flying was purely mental. Sometimes I'd expand this fear into other areas such as the train or cars. It's the same fear, and it is exactly this reason why I wanted change in my life. I'd been stuck in the same place for too long! My mind has become lazy and stale. I wanted to throw my lazy stale mind into the deep end; immersion therapy baby! 

At the airport I was actually pretty calm (so all this meditation was good for something after all, huh). The girl in front of me seemed nervous. I wanted to say something but didn't. She was cute and spoke French with the customs guy. A lady cut in line by asking everyone if she can go in front of them; a strategy so bold it is only tried by few. Went through security, got on plane and flew. Was still kind of nervous on the plane. Not nervous but ... groundless. I guess that's fitting. It just weirds me out that I'm stuck in this tube with other people and can't even move around freely, but whatever. 

Landed fine. Had to buy a tram ticket but the machine confused me. It's funny how when you arrive in a new country you're often just confused. This is what it must feel like when a pigeon accidentally gets on the subway and ends up underground. Asked a girl to help me and figured it out. Went outside to wait on the tram.

First Impression:

My first impression of Porto was mixed af. On the one hand it was nice since there's palm trees and stuff, on the other hand it was still kinda cold. Not freezing cold, but it felt like going to a waterpark while they're changing the water, or a beach resort in the winter, or a ski resort in August. Idk. 

(...to be continue cause turns out I write WAY more than I thought I would)

[Butters]

Hell Week:

First few weeks sucked. I had booked a private room in a hostel for the first few nights but everything went wrong. I locked myself outside of my room in my underwear when taking a shower so I was stuck in the freezing cold in the common areas for about 3 hours until reception arrived at 10AM. 

After so many years of having my rigid daily routine, guess I wasn't used to change anymore. Things continued to suck. I couldn't sleep at night because of the noise coming from the street.

Had to move to a regular hostel bed because the private room was fully booked and I was already low on money. Here I briefly started living the 'hostel life' of socializing and hanging out. The problem with that was of course how pointless it is, and it distracted me from work. 

When I say 'work' in these early days I really mean I had no idea what to do for money. I had some ideas but they weren't that great. I was vibe-coding basic 'SaaS apps' (if you can call it that) and sold them on Flippa. This didn't bring in much money and I was broke. 

Anyway, hanging out with a bunch of hostel people didn't help me make money and it was just a distraction. These people were young and had no purpose. We've all been there, but I had no time for that. One night I went out drinking with these people and got sick. That was the last time I drank alcohol. 

First few weeks sucked. Now I had a fever, sick at a hostel, broke, rain everyday. 

C'mon now, it ain't so bad:

Just like I did at home, I walked a lot. I enjoyed the scenery and noticing the subtle differences in culture. Things I noticed in Porto:

• People and objects smell good
• Buildings feel nostalgic
• Abandoned buildings galore
• Tourists annoy me
• Every street is a total climb
• People dress fancy
• People make eye contact (more on that later)

(abandoned buildings in Porto)