Dating as a Digital Nomad - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Sneak Peek: 

Kristin:    00:00:00    Digital nomads tend to prioritize their personal freedom and sovereignty and independence over love. But that doesn't mean that we don't want to find love. You know, I think everybody wants to find love. I think the meaning of life is love. 

Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.  

Kristin Wilson, Host:   00:00:36    Hi everyone. Kristin from traveling with Kristin here. And welcome to episode 145 of Badass Digital Nomads on a very often requested topic that I have truthfully been avoiding for quite a few years now, and that is dating as a digital nomad, or even dating as a traveler. But let's focus on the location, independent nomadic aspect of it, because we like to talk about the long-term life issues on this podcast. So if you're listening, you can take some of these tips for if you're just going on a quick trip or backpacking or traveling short term. But I'm also gonna take a look at the more longer trajectory of the issues around dating as a digital nomad, the solutions and the tips, and as usual, some stories about what has happened in my own life and the lives of some of my nomadic friends. Now, I did write an article about this called Dating as Digital Nomad that was published in 2018 on medium.  

Kristin:    00:01:48    So I'll link to that article in the show notes and you can read that, which has a lot of quotes from a few of my friends and some more insights. But on this podcast, I'm forcing myself to talk about it because it is Valentine's Day this week. And it is a topic that people ask me about so often. And the reason that I've kind of avoided this topic, it's not like love and dating is not really my area of expertise in the way that travel itself is, or online business is, or relocation or, you know, other things that I like to do. Um, creating videos and writing and creating this podcast. So it's a topic that affects everyone, but it's a very personal topic and there's no right answers a lot of the time or ever when it comes to relationships. It's such a subjective thing, it's such a personal thing.  

Kristin:    00:02:50    And as you probably have experienced in your life, we, human beings don't always make the right decisions when it comes to relationships, or sometimes it takes us a long time to make a decision that's in our own best interest. So you might have been in a relationship in the past where you felt like you had to make a change and you talked to your friends and your family members and your therapists and all sorts of people about the issues that you are having in this relationship. Hopefully including your partner too. But then maybe you didn't take that advice or you didn't take your own advice or follow your own gut instinct, or maybe it took you longer than you thought to come to a decision that you felt was inevitable. And so, because I have been a nomadic traveler for so long, and because I'm single, I don't lead a traditional lifestyle.  

Kristin:    00:03:50    I'm not married, I don't have kids, I sometimes feel like I'm not the authority, not sometimes, but I'm not the authority on love and relationships, even though I almost got a job working for Bumble as their global connector be. So I'm the person that a lot of my friends come to for relationship advice, whether or not they take it, that's another story. That being said, I do have some insights and some tips for you from my many years of traveling around the globe and all of the times that I've talked about this topic with my other nomadic and expat friends. So I'm gonna give you a few examples, the pros, the cons, the good, the bad, and the ugly of dating as digital nomad so that when you become one, or if you are one right now, hopefully you can take some of this advice into your own life and just kind of know more what to expect, and even being able to relate to someone or someone like me who has been in touch with thousands of other nomads and try to make sense of some of the things that you're experiencing in your own life.  

Kristin:    00:05:03    So let's do it. I have also been planning to do a video on this topic, but that's even harder to cover in a video because this is a topic that I could probably talk about for hours. <laugh>, we're gonna try to fit it into like 30 minutes or so, but let's get started. So happy Valentine's Day. First of all, hope you have, um, a beautiful week, whether you're with a significant other or whether you're just celebrating some self-love or with your friends and family. But let's just define the problem around dating as a digital nomad, which is more of, I think, a fear. I would say it's a, a fear slash concern that by traveling or by living in other countries or by living no automatically, that you won't be able to meet your soulmate. That maybe your soulmate speaks a different language or maybe they don't travel and you do, or maybe you meet them and then you have to leave or something happens and it all falls apart.  

Kristin:    00:06:15    And so there's this, this fear and anxiety that somehow being nomadic and dating are like mutually exclusive and that you can't do both. But I'm here to dispel that fear because in my experience, especially compared to living in Miami now, for the past two years, my love life and dating life was much more robust. <laugh> while I was a digital nomad, or while I was living in other countries compared to living in the US. And someone asked me in my FAQ form for like video requests and podcast requests, they said, why is it so hard to date in the US compared to other countries? And like, why is it easier for dating in other places? So there's also this perception that, um, on one hand that it would be harder to date if you're traveling. But then on the other it's like, why is it harder to date in your home country or if your, if your home country is the US than like, is it harder to date in the US or is it harder to date abroad?  

Kristin:    00:07:32    It's like asking is it harder to date in New York City or is it harder to date in Nebraska? <laugh>, like, it really kind of depends on your goals. And so from, from one angle, that's the most important part is like what are you looking to get out of your dating experience? Like what phase are you in in life? Do you just wanna have fun and date casually? Are you looking to get married and have kids? Are you looking for a life partner to travel with? Are you just kind of not sure or undecided and looking for something in between? Um, so part of it is what you want. Part of it is I think your attitude and all of us have been sometimes very happy go lucky in love and other times maybe a little bit cynical about love, um, depending on what <laugh> you know, what your experience is at the moment.  

Kristin:    00:08:36    So that's the first thing. The first thing is that dating as a digital nomad is not probably any harder or easier than it probably is in your hometown or what you're used to. It's just different. And depending on the perspective you wanna take, you could perceive it as being harder or you could perceive it as being easier. In my experience, I found it much easier to meet people while traveling and living abroad. And maybe that was partly because I was meeting other travelers who also wanted to meet people. And so they were more open to meeting people even if they weren't outgoing, even if they were introverted, they were traveling and they wanted to meet people either way. Whereas when you're living in your hometown, the main ways that you might meet people could be through dating apps. It could be through like getting introduced to them through mutual friends a lot of times through work bumping into them at the gym or the grocery store or Starbucks or something like that.  

Kristin:    00:09:48    And um, even sometimes when you meet people in your hometown, you might have a connection with them, but then like, not end up dating because you're too busy with work or something like that. And so dating in, let's say corporate America can sometimes be distilled down to meeting up for happy hour or going out to dinner on the weekends or something like that. And that's kind of been the experience that I've had while living in Miami. Now it's a little bit different because it's been the pandemic, so it's been a little bit harder to meet people in a lot of ways, but I've felt like people, there's like a swipe culture where people just like to swipe on apps, but very rarely take action on meeting up. And then the times that I have gone on dates, it's been just that like it's been go to happy hour or, you know, go get a drink or go get dinner, which is all fine and good, like that's a normal part of dating.  

Kristin:    00:10:53    But when you've been a digital nomad for a long time, you, you have these like incredible dating experiences that you can't even imagine that like you're pinching yourself while it's happening, like you're mountain climbing with someone or like jumping off cliffs into clear blue water or hiking up a waterfall or going surfing together or riding on a moped or on a horseback together. Like it's really so cliche. And I've done all of those things and much more gone sailing with people. Um, there was one guy that I met on a boat in Amsterdam and we ended up literally riding off into the sunset together a different day, um, on his motorcycle through the fields of the, of the Netherlands and having drinks in this beautiful island, um, with sailboats everywhere and like birds and the sunset and like, those are the kinds of dates that I would go on when I was traveling or, you know, like at a beer garden in Munich, Germany or going surfing in Bali and like, like long walks on the beach, you know, like holding hands on the beach and with like, the smell of incense and like flowers falling from the sky.  

Kristin:    00:12:18    Like you just have these incredibly, incredibly romantic experiences, you know, walking through the streets of Italy or like cozying up in a pub in like London or Iceland or I don't know, it, it's just really so fun. And so when you meet people traveling and you're both in that spirit of travel, you end up getting to know each other a lot faster then if you met them in your hometown. And sometimes the people that you meet, like if you met them under the, the course of like normal day-to-day life, the daily grind, the daily routine, you're at the gym and everyone has their EarPods in and no one's talking to each other. It's like you might have walked past your soulmate many, many times but never spoken to each other, but yet you might find yourself at a white party in Croatia and like being in a, a mood of meeting people and then end up having like a 14 day fling through the Balkans or something.  

Kristin:    00:13:31    Like, you just never know what's going to happen. And so I, I would say that's what I love about dating as a digital nomad is that, you know, whether you're hiking a volcano or meet through mutual nomad friends or travel friends or at a hostel or wherever you can end up having some really, really memorable experiences that even if you don't end up getting married and living happily ever after, you never regret those experiences because they become memories that you can tuck away in your pocket the same way that you would any other travel memory. I can remember exactly a date that I went on in Bali in 2008 <laugh> and like exactly what we did and all the places that we went, but then I can barely remember the name of somebody that I met through Bumble who took me out for a drink after work in Tampa or something like that.  

Kristin:    00:14:33    So that's the upside of dating. The other thing is that when you date as a traveler, you have a lot of different options as to the types of people that you date. So you can date other travelers, other nomads, if you're living in a country, you can date other long-term expats that are living there and you can also date locals. The challenge here is that the person that you date has to be on board with the lifestyle that you are leading, or there's going to come this time where you need to make a decision really quickly as to whether or not it makes sense to continue the relationship, which is usually not even long enough into it to call it a relationship. So you, you end up in this really strange position where you've had these like life, you've made lifetime memories with somebody that you might never see again.  

Kristin:    00:15:37    And they might be the same types of memories that you make with your significant other if you've been together for like two or three years and living together and then you go off on a trip to like hike in Patagonia or like stay at a villa in Jamaica or something like that. So you're having like the honeymoon experience with people that you don't know, um, but then you get to know them really quickly. It's almost like winning money. Like if you're gambling you can win a lot of money and then you can lose a lot of money. It sometimes feels like that with, uh, these dating experiences where you meet somebody quickly, you have a very short but intense, uh, romance with them and then, you know, you go your separate ways and never seeing them again. So that's, I think the biggest risk of dating while traveling is just being vulnerable and opening yourself up to these, um, very memorable experiences that then, you know, you might miss that person.  

Kristin:    00:16:35    You might never see them again and that can be pretty sad. But on the other hand, you can also meet your future husband or wife. I very vividly remember one of my very first relocation clients in Costa Rica and like when I started my uh, poker relocation company in 2011, he met his future girlfriend at a bar the first night that he got there and they ended up getting married and moving in together pretty quickly thereafter. So that's another thing that happens when you date well traveling is that it usually makes sense to travel together or to move in together if you wanna save money and you're already working remotely, maybe you're both working from home, you know, you're both in the same place. You, you start to travel to the same places together and then you start kind of spending all of your time together.  

Kristin:    00:17:32    So I do remember that this client of mine wasn't even in the country for four or five hours before he met his future wife. And I don't know if they're still together, but I know they were together at least for eight years that I knew them. And I haven't been in touch with them the past couple years, but that's a possibility. And then also one of my, so that was a US client with a Costa Rican girl, but it also works the other way around. Um, one of my best friends from the US quit her job in New York, moved to Costa Rica to learn Spanish, fell in love with her Spanish teacher, and they're married with two kids like living in South Carolina now. Um, and he's Costa Rican and she's from the US So you have, you know, the opportunity for these cross-cultural relationships, which I guess you do really in any country anyway.  

Kristin:    00:18:25    Um, but that always, always makes it interesting. And then in these digital nomad, uh, groups like on clubhouse and in online summits and other long-term nomads or representatives from nomad dating sites, maybe nomad soulmates and or, or people who have been traveling the world as families and couples like married with kids as nomads and expats, there's also that option as well where you can meet someone either before or after you start your nomadic journey and then travel the world together for 10, 20 years and have kids in different countries, like multicultural kids. And we've had some of those people on the podcast as well and they've made it like 7, 8, 12 years of um, living together and traveling together as families. And I think that it's going to get easier and easier from now on to date as a nomad because there are just more of us.  

Kristin:    00:19:30    Uh, this is something I talked about in my article from 2018 is that once the number of remote workers reaches a critical mass, it will no longer be as important where you're living. What will be important is connecting with people in the remote community and being able to find that common ground with them. So you might be from California and you meet a digital nomad from Japan, but you're both living in Barcelona and you connect through the, the nomadic community and you both work remotely and you both have the flexibility to be able to go anywhere and, and work from anywhere before when there were only a few thousand digital nomads, that was a lot harder because there wasn't as good of communication tools. There weren't as many online communities, there weren't as many digital nomad events. And so the dating pool among nomads was just smaller.  

Kristin:    00:20:30    But now, you know, there could be millions or hundreds of millions who knows how many digital nomads there will be in the next few years. Or even location independent remote workers who are like part-time nomadic, part-time home basis. This like hybrid lifestyle that, that was so strange before is becoming mainstream as we knew it would. Um, but it's happening a lot faster of course because of the pandemic, but it's also presenting more opportunities for nomads to be able to date each other rather than being in a situation where you are a digital nomad in this particular year. But the people that you're dating, one of them is on vacation, one of them is at a bachelorette party, one of them is backpacking through Europe, one of them is a local who has a regular nine to five job. Like those were the things that could complicate things.  

Kristin:    00:21:27    And and with the guy who I rode off into the sunset with on his motorcycle, he ended up breaking up with me because I wasn't Dutch and he knew I was leaving within a another month and you know, he was looking for something more stable, more long term. And even though we had a good time and we got along really well, we had a lot in common. Like my nationality and my passport and my visa status was a big issue. So I don't think you need to be so afraid of not being able to meet people. It's just being able to find the common ground with the people that you meet and setting those expectations upfront. If you, if you meet someone on a dating app but you're only there for a week and they live in that country, then you know, being forthcoming about that at the beginning rather than presenting it as like, oh yes, I live here, but then you're really leaving in 10 days.  

Kristin:    00:22:24    But an interesting hypothesis that I formed when doing a deep dive into the topic of dating as a digital nomad a few years ago was that ironically there seemed to be a lack of intensity of desire to date among my nomadic friends compared to my traditional friends. Let's use that term I guess. And what I mean by that is that the essence of a location, independent lifestyle is so inherently enjoyable and fulfilling that very few people who I've talked to have expressed to me that they would be willing to give up their lifestyle to be able to date someone long term. And I found that very interesting because, you know, maybe my mom or my parents' friends or even my, my regular friends might or, or YouTube subscribers, like a lot of people have said this to me, they like think that it's sad that I'm traveling or that I'm single, but from my perspective and the perspective of many nomadic friends we're so fulfilled with our lifestyles and our careers and our hobbies and like working in our passions and maybe preoccupied with travel, maybe distracted with travel, who knows?  

Kristin:    00:23:58    But we have so much going on that we don't really feel a big void to fill with a relationship. And in the traditional lifestyle and, and really the course of human history, it's been so important to find a mate for survival, for procreation. And we just live in a really weird time right now where people can decide to get together and not ever have kids. People can choose really any lifestyle that they want and it doesn't really matter what the societal expectations are, even what biological tendencies we might have as human beings, we can kind of override that. And so in talking to my nomadic friends, of course love is a very important part of being a human being. And Ive had long-term relationships like five years plus and you know, I know what it's like, of course I'm not married so I, you know, maybe haven't found my lifetime soulmate, but I know both sides like I know what it's like to be in a relationship.  

Kristin:    00:25:15    I know what it's like to be single, I know what it's like to be casually dating and even though it's always so fulfilling and rewarding to meet a compatible person and to be able to share a time of your life with them, whether you're traveling or not, I, I guess I just, I don't feel like I need to put my life on hold in other areas specifically to find a relationship. Like the other nomads I've talked to have said that they don't want to stop traveling to stay in one place for the perceived increased chance that by staying there they might find a long-term relationship, if that makes sense. But people who haven't had nomadic lifestyles, they might feel more palpably the absence of having a partner because it's just normal to get in a daily routine when you're in one place, which is another thing I've experienced here in Miami is that, you know, not traveling has given me a lot of time back in some respects and like less distractions through travel.  

Kristin:    00:26:40    So when you're, you know, riding your bike through the French countryside with wine glasses overflowing in lavender fields and like making friends and going out to dinner and all of these fun things that you can do when you're traveling, it's like that can kind of distract you from not having a relationship, especially when you kind of randomly date people along the way. Or even if you have a very intense, uh, long-term relationship that you travel with somebody for years. Like I lived with my ex-boyfriend in Costa Rica in the US and Canada and Europe and we worked together, we traveled together like we had a really great time and we're still friends to this day, but I think the desire to have a more domesticated and traditional relationship is, is more present when you're living in one place versus when you're traveling. So I'm not saying whether that's good or bad, you know, that's sub subjective.  

Kristin:    00:27:47    And I have read what other people have written about dating as digital nomads and some of them flat out admit that by changing countries they're running from solitude. And I have podcasts about how to cope with loneliness while traveling. So I bring that up cuz I think it's really important to be aware of your feelings and your emotional states and any point in life so, or any point of the day for that reason. Um, just to be able to like track how you're feeling and detect patterns and things like that and, and it can become a habit to change locations and to change your environment. Uh, kind of starting over with Maslow's hierarchy of needs with food and shelter and working your way up that pyramid to the point of relationships, but then leaving that place before really getting to create those relationships. So one of my friends who has been divorced and in another long-term relationship of five years since she got divorced, that relationship ended.  

Kristin:    00:29:07    She lives in one place in the United States. She was introduced to another guy through a mutual friend and he knew both of them and set them up together because he thought that they would be a good couple and he was right. And I've done that too. I've set up friends as matchmaker because I saw things in them that I knew would be compatible even though they didn't meet yet. And so that is one of the things that you lose when you're changing locations often, even if it's just a few times per year, because the people that you meet don't know you as well. They only know the you that they're meeting in that moment, that night at the hostel or that day on the museum tour or the walking tour or wherever you happen to meet them in your travels. And so you might meet someone and feel like you've known them forever and you become best friends or, or you start a romantic relationship or something like that.  

Kristin:    00:30:13    But, uh, you, you kind of lose that mutual friend connection where like someone from work or, or one of your friends introduces you to someone else because they know both of you really well. And so that's something that can definitely plague you as a digital nomad the longer the you're traveling. And that's why I'm so excited about the potential for a bigger semi or partially nomadic community and just a more widespread acceptance of location, independence and a remote lifestyle, uh, is that you really won't have to choose either or you'll be able to meet more people who are living a similar lifestyle as you and who are at least understanding of your lifestyle, whereas that really wasn't the case pre pandemic. So when looking at the issue of dating as a digital nomad, pre pandemic versus post pandemic, one of the silver linings of the pandemic is that more people can work from anywhere.  

Kristin:    00:31:26    And that creates the, the size of our community now creates the conditions to where you can make these lifelong friends that you're gonna see again in other places or that you're more likely to interact with on a regular basis in Facebook groups or in Slack channels and see them at conferences and events. And this is a whole new layer to dating that really didn't exist before. There's pros and cons to that as well because you know, you might now end up, uh, dating somebody, it doesn't go well. You break up and then like your best friend who's also a nomad ends up dating the same person. It kind of brings you back to like high school in a way, but um, but hopefully it's for more of a benefit than a negative. And then outside of the nomadic community, the challenges with dating are obviously language barriers, cultural barriers and cultural differences, but that's something that can be overcome as well.  

Kristin:    00:32:31    A resource that I've given before in podcasts and videos is the Hoffstead index because you can look up the cultural differences between your home country culture and the country that you're living in. And this can help you make sense of their dating scene as well. Some countries are going to be more open than others. Some countries are going to be more religious than others and much more conservative. And so these are really important things to know about before you go to a country or when you get there to try to understand, uh, what their culture is and what the dating is like there. That's another reason why it's really important to learn the language. If English is your native language, it does make it a lot easier because so many people speak English in different countries. Um, you can, you know, date someone in England or you can date someone in Norway or Sweden or Germany and chance chances are they're going to speak English as well.  

Kristin:    00:33:34    It can be less common, especially throughout Asia in parts of Latin America. But I remember even the first time that I went abroad when I was 17 years old and I went to Italy for my high school graduation. Uh, the other girls that I met on, on this tour, uh, it was a Cosmos tour through Italy. There were three, three girls. We had all just graduated from high school. We were with our parents and you know, we were out having fun and, and meeting Italian boys and they didn't speak any English and somehow we all communicated. So there is a way to communicate with other people even without speaking the same language, but it can be very motivating to help you learn the language if you start dating a local, either learning it just through dating them or by taking classes and using language apps and really making an intention to learn the language and then also just in conversation with your significant other to help you brush up on those skills.  

Kristin:    00:34:41    And as far as ways to meet people, there are the international dating apps like Tinder and Bumble and I think now Hinge as well that are in almost every country. But then specific countries might have their own dating apps and also their own messaging apps. So not everyone's using WhatsApp, but like WhatsApp is a, is a messaging app that almost everyone uses, but then there could be specific apps that you can download in different countries where people communicate more often. So just Google those in the place that you're going to so that you can get a little bit of the lay of the land. There's also the question of safety as well, while dating internationally, and a lot of times when you're traveling or living abroad and you're feeling more open to meeting people and maybe you let your guard down a little bit, you can sometimes feel more casual than you would at home or maybe take less precautions.  

Kristin:    00:35:43    So one thing that I used to do is travel with this mace bracelet called the Little Viper, and it's kind of not legal in some countries, like in some countries you can't bring mace over the border or through the airport. So just check the restrictions of those countries. But that always made me feel safer to have this bracelet on if I was going to be out, even just walking down the street or out on a date or something like that. Luckily I never had to use it. But I also share my location with all of my family members. Um, you should tell people if you're going on a date because if they're, especially if they're in another country, like they don't know what you're doing that day. So always report what you're doing or where you're going with a trusted person and um, try to find out who it is that you're going with.  

Kristin:    00:36:38    Like there might be cases where, you know, you meet Jason on Tinder, you don't really know if his name is Jason. So try to look these people up on social media, even ask for their passport. I don't know, like find out where they're staying if they have other friends there, if they're living there. Like try to see if you have any mutual friends with them. Look them up on Facebook. You don't have to do a whole background check on them, but just try to know who it is that you are hanging out with. And of course, protect your drinks. This goes for men and women, whether you're out on a date with one person or you're just out at a bar or something. Like, just be really careful that you're aware of your drink, that no one's put anything in it. I've had a few guy friends tell me that they woke up with like their wallet was gone or something like that.  

Kristin:    00:37:34    So be careful with that. And as well, with getting rides with people, other travelers tell me that they were with a girl who got a taxi and that taxi was her friend and they just robbed him. And so you try to stay in control of, you know, if you're gonna get the car, like get it on your Uber app and don't let someone else, uh, be in control of that. And another issue that you might face is that what if you want to be become a digital nomad and you want to travel but your significant other doesn't? Or what if you want to travel longer than your significant other? And so these, you know, relationships are messy and these are questions that you're gonna have to come across at one time or another. And some people have also asked me, what are the best countries for dating as a digital nomad?  

Kristin:    00:38:26    And I don't think that there is an answer for that because everyone's gonna be looking for something different. It depends on what you're looking for. It depends on what phase of life you're in. You know, maybe going to Santorini or Mykonos Greece or to Ibiza. Um, the other people there might not be looking for a long term relationship. They might just be there to party and get drunk. You wanna think about if you're looking for a specific type of relationship, then maybe you want to avoid party destinations or maybe you wanna apply for a digital nomad visa or a long-term work permit somewhere so that you can stay in a country long-term, put down some roots there, meet locals, but also meet other travelers. And then keep the window of opportunity open and open-minded for in case you meet somebody. What are you willing to do?  

Kristin:    00:39:25    Like what kind of changes in your life are you willing to make? Are you committed to that one country? Are you open to traveling with somebody? Would you wanna move in with them very soon? So these are all things to think about. Maybe they don't happen exactly how you plan, but just to have an idea of like what you're looking for. And, and I think what I've seen with, with a lot of nomads is that maybe we haven't been so intentional about wanting to find a boyfriend or girlfriend because we're so fulfilled with, with traveling or with working for ourselves or following our passions and hobbies. But there's also plenty of examples of people who have made detours in their lives and in their careers because they met that special someone. So maybe they're on a layover in Sao Paulo and then they end up staying in Brazil because they meet someone at the airport.  

Kristin:    00:40:25    In my article way back when, four years ago I wrote that digital nomads tend to prioritize their personal freedom and sovereignty and independence over love. But that doesn't mean that we don't want to find love. You know, I think everybody wants to find love. I think the meaning of life is love, but I also think it's more than possible to live a very fulfilled life without necessarily experiencing the idea of a traditional relationship. So besides using those international dating apps and also location specific dating apps that you wanna search, depending on which city or country that you're going in, uh, the longer that you're in a place and the more that you naturally get involved with the lifestyle there, uh, whether you're volunteering, whether you're joining a gym, whether you're signing up for a work travel group or you're living in a co-living space, these are all great ways to meet people in general while traveling and I have some videos and podcasts about how to meet people and make friends while traveling, you're going to end up meeting people organically in your daily life.  

Kristin:    00:41:43    It could be through going to networking events or co coworking spaces and coworking events, tech conferences. My friend met somebody at a, a pottery class where they were having pizza and wine <laugh> the other day. Um, it really can be anywhere, but it's also good to, you know, keep in mind that the, the slower you're traveling, like the more space you're giving yourself to meet people naturally instead of just, you know, popping in or putting yourself in a virtual location on Tinder because you know you're gonna be there for five days next week and you wanna line up some dates. And also keeping mi in mind, serendipity. One of my cousins got married to a British guy because they met while she was getting out of a taxi cab in London and he was flagging a taxi. So really anything can happen. I met one guy, um, after I was surfing in Costa Rica.  

Kristin:    00:42:48    I was at one of those beach front bars getting a smoothie or something when I came in from the water. He was sitting at the bar. We started talking and we ended up dating for like six months and traveling the whole country together, going on surf trips together, packing up the dog and like our surfboards and going on all these adventures. So be open to that serendipity as well. And don't be afraid to talk to people that you meet along the way. So I'll link to some dating resources in the show notes. Nomad Soulmates is a really popular one for Digital Nomads. Fairy Trail has a Facebook community and I believe they have an app that's to help travelers meet each other and then really embracing the friendliness and open-mindedness of other travelers and embracing the time of history that we live in where so many of us are not restricted on choosing a partner based on an arranged marriage or financial status or race or religion or class status or nationality.  

Kristin:    00:43:59    Like we're really living in this borderless global society, especially if you have the freedom to work and travel wherever you want. And so no matter what kind of craziness is going on in the world, just being uh, aware and grateful of the freedoms that we have right now that our parents and grandparents didn't have is really significant in my own life. Whether I am single or not. My friends Krista, who I interviewed for my article, uh, she says, the world isn't so big anymore, oceans can be crossed. So take advantage of the freedom that the digital nomad life allows you. Stay open-minded and take chances on people because maybe you won't have that many. So I would love to know what you think about this topic. I am going to make a post in Badass Digital Nomads Facebook group when this episode goes live so we can start the conversation and people can add their resources and tips for dating while traveling, dating, while living abroad, or dating as a digital nomad. And I'll also link to some of my friends' podcast interviews where they have talked about that more in detail and even interviewed people from nomadic dating sites about, uh, what their perspective is and what their tips are. Sending lots of love to you wherever you are in the world, listening today and see you again next week.