Wise

Kristin:    00:00:00    While traveling the world, one of the things that I never leave home without is my Wise account, Wise is a multicurrency account that you can use with 50 different currencies in 175 countries. More than 16 million people use Wise for their everyday living expenses or for work travel and transferring money abroad. You can open a business or personal account and get a debit card that you can use worldwide. Try Wise today and save up to six times when you send spend and withdraw from 50 different currencies all in one account. 

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:    00:01:01    Hey there, Kristin, from traveling with Kristin here and welcome to episode 206 of Badass Digital Nomads. Today I have a special announcement for you that I will share in the following episode, which is from a live stream on my YouTube channel, Traveling with Kristin this week. But first, I just wanted to thank everyone who left a review for the podcast and entered the Unbound Merino Wool $100 gift card contest. I randomly selected a winner and it was Nicole, so congratulations to Nicole from Canada who won. She says, perfect content for Travelers and Nomads. Great podcast for digital nomads, or those who are aspiring to be nomadic, tons of content on different topics and overall really well-rounded. Highly recommend. Thanks, Nicole. And thank you also to Stacy, Kiana, Christine, Jillian, Pete, Marni, Marijka, Mohammed, DeWayne, Nathan, Jeff and Tatsuo. Thank you guys so much for leaving reviews.  

Kristin:    00:02:14    We'll be giving you some more shout-outs in the weeks and months to come and even though we can't have a giveaway every week, you are welcome to leave a review anytime. I'm signed up to a really cool app that's called mypodcastreviews.com, so I get a notification every time you leave a review, whether it's on Apple Podcasts or Cast Box or any of the podcast platforms, Podchaser. I did see that um, I guess Spotify doesn't allow you to leave reviews and only ratings, so whoever left a rating on Spotify but was unable to leave a review, thank you so much, and um, everyone who left reviews on our, our website as well on Badass Digital Nomads, really, really appreciate it. We are two reviews away from 100 reviews on Apple, so let's hit that goal and keep on keeping on. So as I mentioned in today's episode, when I did the live stream, I was feeling a bit under the weather.  

Kristin:    00:03:19    I still am pretty sick, so I'm gonna keep the intro short and sweet for you today. But thank you again to Unbound Merino for donating the $100 gift card for this contest. You can check out their amazing Merino clothing at unboundmerino.com or by using our link in the show notes. I have quite a few pieces from there and have been basically living in their clothes since I got to Manchester. They're leggings, t-shirts, long sleeve shirts. They're really cozy and really comfortable and yeah, highly recommend. Just remember to read the care instructions because I have shrunk a few Merino Wool items in the past. But we've got questions today directly from YouTube subscribers on how to avoid travel itinerary anxiety. What are the top three mistakes that new digital nomads make and much more, enjoy.

Podcast: 

Kristin: Hi there and welcome to a live stream. We're gonna try to get back to these monthly live streams and let me know in the chat where you're tuning in from and also if you're a new subscriber to the channel or a longtime subscriber, let me know if you remember, what was the video where you found my channel?  

Kristin:    00:04:44    Was it the packing video from, was that last week, two weeks ago? That one's really fun. I've been getting a lot of text messages from my friends and family members of people saying that they really liked that video. So that is good to hear. Let me know if you liked it too. We've got Charles in Dallas. Jeffrey confirms you can see and hear me. Hayoung from Finland is here. Michael, Anthony, and Wexford is here. Walt is here, our esteemed moderator, Ford is here. Lots of people. Aiden, Katie, Michelle. Hello, hello, everyone. And if you're watching the replay, then comment below because I read all of the comments, too. The Vagabrothers are here. Buddy's here from Porto, Portugal. Henry's here from San Francisco, California. Mr. Karumen is here. The gang is all here. Love it. So yes, I'm in the UK. I just flew in from Ireland to the UK yesterday in the middle of the coronation.  

Kristin:    00:05:54    Did anybody watch the Coronation? I actually just filmed a video today asking people in my neighborhood if they watch the coronation, why or why not and what they think about it. Because from what I heard in Northern England, people are less supportive of the concept of the royals and the royal family versus the southern part of England. So I'm gonna try to edit that really fast and get it out to you maybe tomorrow, maybe this week we don't know, but that was really fun. So I just got back <laugh> and then I realized I was hungry, but then I realized that everything's closed because it's Sunday and tomorrow is a bank holiday here. So I'll have to wait until after this whole, like being very far north and it getting into summer is kind of messing me up because usually when I travel to Europe, I'm here in the fall or winter, which seems like a weird time to come.  

Kristin:    00:06:55    But I really like to be here during the shoulder season, which is like spring and fall. I've only been to Europe once in the spring and it was in Spain, uh, a little bit of France, bit of Italy, and I don't remember the days being as long as they are now and being up here in the north and the north of England, the sun doesn't even set till almost 9:00 PM. So I'm like, oh, I'm eating dinner at 10:00 PM all of a sudden. And yeah, it's, it's not, it's not good for getting a lot of sleep. So I do like the, the later sunset time, but you just gotta remember. So yeah, this is my first time being long-term in Northern Europe during the summer. So it will be an adventure and I'll be here for a few months, be here traveling around. I'm definitely gonna go up to Scotland, definitely gonna travel a bit around the UK.  

Kristin:    00:07:57    I wanna meet one of my friends down in Cornwall to go surfing. Hopefully it's not too cold. I wanna do some hiking, wanna go to some music festivals, fun plans. But like everything is just a general outline of a plan right now. Like no, no tickets, nothing is set in stone except I will be in Amsterdam at the end of this month because I'm gonna be DJing at the top of the Amsterdam Tower. So you know that big tower that's right across from Central Station with a view of the city. I'm gonna be DJing from the 20th floor, 22nd floor, like the top of that tower. So if you're in Amsterdam on May 27th and you wanna come for free and let's listen to some nice music with a view at Sunset, then all you have to do is just go there and tell them that you are coming to see me.  

Kristin:    00:08:55    So you don't have to actually buy a ticket into the Amsterdam Toren, you just say that you're there to see Kristin Wilson DJ and you can go straight up save yourself 14 euro 50. And then come tell me <laugh> that you're from the channel. So I know. So just come up to the DJ and be like, hi, I'm from your YouTube channel. Uh, yeah, so that was not the announcement for it today though. The announcement is is different. Um, so is everybody ready for the announcement? Does anyone know what I'm referring to? Because you might have gotten an email already that disclosed this surprise. Is anyone here subscribe to International Living the magazine? Have you heard of International Living? Have you watched any of their YouTube videos? Have you caught any of their articles online? Let me know in the comments. And while you're commenting, I'll also look at some of these requests for videos.  

Kristin:    00:09:54    Uh, it looks like Norway is on the list. I still have some content. Actually I still have some footage from Norway that I could make some videos about that I never edited during the pandemic, so I should put those out there. Katie wants a video on the Lake district in England. Okay, okay, I have not been there so I could do that. Aiden says travel video on Norway, Denmark or Finland and Iceland and more Latvia. I might go to Latvia in June so that could happen. I haven't been to Denmark, it's on the list. Iceland, I have a few videos on my channel, so if you just click on playlist, there should be an Iceland playlist there or just search on YouTube for Traveling with Kristin Iceland and you should find it. Secret Forest says Ecuador and Mexico. I really wanted to do some videos on Mexico this year.  

Kristin:    00:10:49    I thought I would be there this spring, but I ended up being here in Europe so that might have to wait until later. But I have never been to Ecuador so that would be a great video as well. Marty's asking for Tallinn, Estonia, I actually have quite a few videos and some travel vlogs from Tallinn and Estonia and a house tour there, so look those up on my channel as well. You can just sort by videos or just search on YouTube for it. Aiden wants some retreats or in-person events where that's still in the works. Does anyone wanna go on a trip with me? I might do. I've been thinking about doing a a like a hosted kind of guided tour in Europe that would be at the end of this year or possibly next year cuz they take about eight to 10 months to plan.  

Kristin:    00:11:39    Um, but if you're interested in that, let me know in the comments and okay, we've got Jeffrey Long saw my email, he knows what I'm talking about. Okay, we've got some International Living subscribers. Andrea gets the emails and watches the YouTube videos. People say it's a great resource. Okay, well the announcement is that I'm gonna be joining forces with International Living to be their go overseas mentor. So I'll be writing a lot of articles and creating a lot of content about the process of going abroad and living overseas and my experiences doing that. So I'll be contributing to their magazine for the first time ever. I'll be showing up on some of the International Living TV YouTube videos. We'll be doing some fun workshops and courses to help you relocate overseas. And I'll also be speaking at their conference in September. So I'm really excited about this.  

Kristin:    00:12:44    I've actually been following International Living myself since I first moved abroad back in the early 2000s. And so I've been, uh, seeing their, um, trajectory over the years and I've also commented on some of their videos and like my Where to Retire video and Places to Live Abroad videos. So I think it's a a really great opportunity and I'm happy to be joining their team. So if you're on their uh, newsletter list, then you may have gotten an announcement about that today in your inbox, but I haven't announced it yet, so I'm announcing it right here, right now and you might have some questions about that, so let me know. But I think it'll be great to be able to share more content with them and also to meet many of you in person if you're going to be at their conference in September. So make sure that you're on my email list, which is at travelingwithkristin.com/subscribe because I will be, uh, sending out some offers, maybe some bonuses, discounts to be able to attend that conference in person. So make sure you are subscribed. I will put that here in the chat travelingwithkristin.com/subscribe.  

Kristin:    00:14:15    Oh my gosh, I think I'm getting sick. It's not good. You know that feeling when you just feel like it's coming on. I'm trying to fight it off with a lot of vitamins and water and tea, but we'll see you tomorrow hopefully I am not sick <laugh>. So a lot of people saw the email and thank you so much for all of the congratulations. Really appreciate it. So yeah, if you're subscribed to the magazine then you'll start seeing articles from me and travel stories and things like that probably in the next month or so. And if you have any questions about how that will affect this channel, well the good news is that it won't, I will continue to make videos here on Traveling with Kristin. I'll continue to publish the Badass Digital Nomads podcast every week and business as usual, but just more travel content, more information and it's a a new challenge for me as well.  

Kristin:    00:15:24    So I think it'll result in a lot of different types of stories and articles and videos that I wouldn't otherwise have ideas for by myself. And so it'll be kind of creating this whole new thing. Um, it looks like Ravi got got disconnected, but if you're just joining us now, the announcement is that I, uh, have joined International Living as their Go Overseas mentor, so I'll be contributing to the magazine, uh, making videos, um, speaking at their conference in September, which is their Living Overseas Conference. And yeah, new year, new you, new things to do and yeah, thank you for that. And we got a super chat from Henry. Thank you so much Henry. He says, Kristin, hope your day is going well. It is, it's a beautiful weather outside. Is September a good time to visit Dublin, Ireland And overall is Ireland cheaper than England?

Kristin:    00:16:26    I would say I haven't been to Dublin in September, but typically like in, especially in the, the past year that I was just traveling through Portugal and the Netherlands in September and October, it was a lot warmer and sunnier than it usually is. Sometimes September can be really cold and gloomy and rainy, but last year it wasn't. So there's a chance that this year it could be like that too. It's kind of been like this extended summer. I was in Dublin in February and I was just there this week and the weather was great. So hopefully that's a good time. And is Ireland cheaper than England? Yes, I would say with with the Euro it's, it's more affordable than the pound. The prices are a lot, well not a lot lower, but I would say at least 10% to 20% lower than here. Like let's say if you pay 10 or 12 pounds for an Uber there, it might be 10 or 12 euro over there, so it's a little bit cheaper.  

Kristin:    00:17:33    And I find that, well the grocery stores are pretty comparable, like food and going out to eat is a little bit cheaper there, but the housing in both England and Ireland, at least where I've traveled, has been very expensive even here in Manchester. That, the housing, I was surprised by how competitive the housing market was here. It, it was, it's mostly long-term unfurnished rentals. It was really hard to find a fully furnished rental and for short term rental. But yeah, everything was like at least 1,500 pounds that the house that I really want wanted was like 3,700 pounds, which I don't know how much that is in US dollars. I think it's more than like, like $5,000 a month or something. So I didn't, I did not rent that. Yeah, that's almost, it's like $4,700 a month. So <laugh> we went with no, does anyone have any travel questions since we're here now?  

Kristin:    00:18:41    We'll kind of do like a little ask me anything sort of thing. And then right after this we're gonna do the Patreon after party hangout and I'm gonna do a little house tour on my phone, uh, zoom call. So if you wanna join that, then join us on patreon patreon.com/travelingwithKristin. So we're gonna do that in a minute. Um, I'm about, I guess I'm about 10 or 15 minutes outside of Manchester. It's a nice quiet neighborhood. I really wanted to be out in the countryside, have a little garden back there because I think coming from Miami and living next to construction and lots of traffic and things like that, I just wanted to be in a quiet area so I'm not in the center. It's a trade off, right? It's not as walkable over here. I am close to things like grocery stores and stuff, but like to actually get into town can take 10 to 20 minutes.  

Kristin:    00:19:41    And then I also got a bike, so that's about 20 minutes over there. Thank you for the congratulations. Scott is here from Patreon. Good to see you Scott. How are my book sales? Pretty good actually. They asked me to write another book. So should I write another dummies book? Comment below. We'll see. It's a lot of work writing a book, but I would love to write another book. I'd love to write many books for the rest of my life. So Walt has a question. He says, what do you think are the top three mistakes that new digital nomads make? Well, I actually think I have a video on this, an old video <laugh> from like five years ago. I don't remember what the mistakes were, but you could probably find it if you scroll back to the old videos on my channel or just like type in digital nomad mistakes.  

Kristin:    00:20:36    And I think I have a podcast about this too, but maybe my, maybe my answers would, would change now I, I still think that the biggest mistake, like the first one that comes to mind is like people doing too much too soon, like traveling too much, too many conferences and events and it can kind of result in some burnout. I think it's really important to remember that traveling for fun and traveling for vacation is different from traveling as a digital nomad because uh, when you travel as a nomad, it's assumed that you're working at the same time. And when you think of how many hours you work per week, like let's say you work 40 hours per week, you might only have time to work, eat, commute, take care of the kids, go shopping, run errands, you know, just doing like life stuff, have some fun, have some Netflix time, whatever.  

Kristin:    00:21:33    But when you add that schedule on top of traveling it, it can become unmanageable if you're traveling super fast. So I have seen a lot of people with like a lot of excitement that just wanna like change cities every day or every week. And I've even heard people on podcasts that say that they are in a new city every week and they're working full-time and they're taking sales calls from a boat when they're in their wetsuits from scuba diving and like things like that. And I just think that's a mistake because you're not fully present in your work and you're not fully present in your fun time, in your leisure time. So that's something that you know to each their own if you wanna change cities every day. But I think that's one of the big ones cuz it's a great lifestyle, you wanna be able to sustain it forever.  

Kristin:    00:22:29    So that's why I'm like such a fan of slow travel and like really pacing yourself in this lifestyle so you can continue to enjoy it and you don't burn out. What are some other mistakes? Probably, uh, like one that I've seen people do on the internet is, is adopting a digital nomad lifestyle without having a job. So it's, I think it's really important to have your finances and your income set up before you go abroad. Now there's definitely exceptions to this rule and there's people that can move with maybe a couple months of savings and the idea that they want to establish themselves with a remote income stream once they get there, but I think it just creates extra stress. Like it's hard to create the time to be able to go sightseeing around a place and meet people and enjoy the lifestyle if you're worried about where your paycheck is gonna come from.  

Kristin:    00:23:27    Um, so that would be another thing. And a third mistake would be doing what everyone else is doing. So only going to the places that are the most popular places or only going to places that, you know, you saw someone, um, on YouTube like, or me or somebody and be like, oh well if somebody's there and they like it, then I'll go there. Or only going to the places that are the big digital nomad hotspots. I just heard on Rick Rubin's new book, which is the Creative Act: A Way of Being and he talks about when you hear recommendations from people and opinions to process it as information and not necessarily something that you should definitely do. So I do notice like humans are, we are a collective species. Like we like to be in a community, we like to be around other people, we don't wanna be left out.  

Kristin:    00:24:31    And sometimes that can contribute to digital nomads only going to places where there's other digital nomads and not going somewhere because it's somewhere that, that you wanna go and you might not even have a reason for why you wanna go there, you know, so maybe you only go to Bali or Chiang Mai and like places with big digital nomad hubs and you can miss out on having experiences that don't have anything to do with digital nomads and remote workers and that kind of community. Like you could have a really cool experience in like a tiny village in Peru where there's no other foreigners for miles, but you would never go there if you were just going to those big, um, popular hubs. I mean even in a place like Manchester, I -I didn't actually do any research to see if there were uh, other digital nomads here or a big expat community.  

Kristin:    00:25:29    I just came here for very personal reasons which have to do with like just a desire to want to explore Northern England and Scotland wanting to see where my, uh, ancestors were from wanting to be in a, a place where I could stay for more than just a month or three months. I could kind of come in and out for up to six months per year. And yeah, just a lot of different reasons I wanted to be around the music scene here. I DJ - I'm learning how to produce music and it's a really great place for that. So it might be a bad place for you and that's kind of how it can be when you see what what other people are doing. Like Bali is a place I've been to twice and I really loved it, especially when surfing was really important to me and yoga was a big part of my life and hula hooping and kind of like a lot of the things that are going on there.  

Kristin:    00:26:26    I actually went to a hula hooping retreat once in Bali, but because of the time zone and because of like changing priorities in my life, it's not a place that would make the most sense for me to go now. But it might make perfect sense for you to go there cuz you wanna be in a place with a good nomad community and beaches and stuff like that. So just check in with yourself and don't be afraid to go somewhere that makes no sense or somewhere that no one else wants to go to because you'll meet people. Like just today I'm just walking around my neighborhood talking to people in their front yards, talking to people who are walking their dogs, talking to people that were like going grocery shopping and yeah, you can make friends with locals, uh, anywhere. Aiden's asking, could you an please interview Andrew Henderson from Nomad Capitalist.  

Kristin:    00:27:16    He has a great personal story which leads him to what he's doing. I actually have talked with Andrew's team quite a few times. We've never been able to schedule an interview, but feel free to comment on their channel and tell them you want him to come on my podcast or on my, on my show and, and maybe we can get that scheduled this year. Robert is trying to decide which country to move to to escape the us. So far the focus has been not the US but that hasn't narrowed things down yet. Hmm. Well Robert deciding where to go, there's like an art to it and there's a science to it. The science includes a lot of the practical things like budget visas, residency, um, work permits, things like that. Digital nomad visas. The, the art of it is more your, your interests, like your subjective interests, your opinion, your goals in life.  

Kristin:    00:28:22    So important to know that you can change your mind. Like you can go somewhere and then you can change your mind. So when I first started traveling, I had no idea that I was gonna go to 62 countries one day or who knows how many I'll go to in, in my total life. But I just wanted to go somewhere and my first like big overseas trip was to Italy and that was at the top of my list. And as you travel you will get tips from other travelers on places to go and yeah, your, your goals and your desires and your lifestyle might change and you might come up with different ideas. When I first moved to Costa Rica, I thought that I might live there forever. That was in 2002 and I lived there for many, many years. But then eventually that chapter of my life closed and, and from Costa Rica I was able to travel to a lot of other countries, to Columbia, to Honduras, to Nicaragua.  

Kristin:    00:29:25    And so yeah, focus on where you can go, like where you can travel to with your passport, what you can afford, and also what you're looking for culturally, climate wise geographically. Like what season can you go there or can you go forever, permanently. So hopefully that helps. Charles is asking what was the worst thing about your European travels? Hmm. I don't know, like Europe is one of my favorite regions of the world that I find myself. I keep coming back here and I don't know if there's anything I really don't like about it. I mean I don't even find it to be expensive anymore compared to the US like it used to be, you know, I had to save up a lot of money to be able to go to Europe, but now I feel like I save money when I come to Europe so I can't even think what I don't like about it.  

Kristin:    00:30:25    I mean I really love the time zone I guess. I mean it is kind of far from, from other places, like if you wanna go to the US or if you wanna go to Asia or Australia, like it's quite a long flight. But when I come to Europe I just kind of stay in Europe. I don't then travel halfway across the world to go somewhere else. So I kind of just like to really immerse myself here. Yeah, yeah, sorry, I can't think of anything. I don't like <laugh>. I find the people to be nice. I find the culture to be really interesting. I find the food to be very good. I like it. Christoph likes the Philippines. I actually just met a girl last night who had a layover in the Philippines, 13 hour layover and then she didn't leave for six years. <laugh>, now she's married with a five year old and she's back here, uh, she's from uh, Manchester.  

Kristin:    00:31:18    So she really loved it. I went once for for fun, but have never lived there. Michael says International Living wants people to pick one of their top locations and then get set up to move there. Do you have an opinion on if retirees ever spend two months in multiple places before making a final choice? Well, I think that final might not be final, you know, final could be an intermittent choice. But I do think that if you're planning on moving somewhere long term, if you're planning on getting a retirement visa or if you're planning on investing in real estate then and living there, you know, not just buying a property for investment purposes, but buying a place to actually live there, then it is really important to do an exploratory trip. This is even true if you're gonna be renting something long term, but sometimes it's not always possible.  

Kristin:    00:32:13    Like anywhere that you go, like if you've lived there for a while, you might change your mind about where you wanna live. So let's say that you buy a property in Costa Rica but you've never been there when you get there, you might wish that you had bought in a different beach or a different area of the country. If I had been able to spend a month or two here before renting something for three months or six months, I probably would be in a different area in a different house than where I'm in now. But what I found was the best thing that I could find in advance of getting here and I'm, and I'm comfortable here. So I think having an exploratory trip and going for two weeks or two months can give you a, a really good perspective and lay of the land to ensure that the property that you rent or the property that you buy is, is what you expect and is what you want.  

Kristin:    00:33:11    Especially, I mean, countries are very diverse and even cities. So you might end up in a side of town that doesn't really fit, fit your needs. Like there was a area here with these canals that looks really cool and and quiet and it's on the water and I really wanted to live there, but I didn't find anything for short-term rentals that was there in my price range. But maybe if I was here for two months I could find something and then I could live there. So yeah, I think it's, it's really helpful if you can do it, but it also adds to your budget and, and it can be expensive and and time consuming. Just writing about Manchester United. Yeah, there must be a soccer or football game on today because one of the people I was going around talking to, he said he couldn't talk because he was gonna miss the start of the game.  

Kristin:    00:34:04    Ford says 12 months in counting before my retired nomad adventure begins. Congratulations. Jillian asks, what are your thoughts on relocating to France from the us? I love France. It's one of my favorite countries. I think that Paris gets a lot of attention, but the entire country's really underrated because there's so much diversity there. You've got the beaches, the mountains, the countryside and the city of course and it has amazing food and you know, people say that people aren't friendly there, but I've never had any problems. I think it would be one of those countries where it's really, really helpful to learn the language. English is not as widely spoken as it is in other places like Norway or Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, even Portugal and Spain. And so I think it, it would be helpful to learn the language there and also you'd wanna make sure that you have the right visa or permit to stay there.  

Kristin:    00:35:11    But I could totally see myself living in France someday. There's a lot, I follow a lot of people on Instagram too that are like living in these beautiful houses in the countryside. And also Chase from About Abroad Podcast he's on, he was on interviewed on my podcast last year and since then I've been following him on Instagram and he and his wife are from the US. They have the non lucrative visa in Spain, but now they've been traveling a lot throughout Europe and they were like spending a few months I think it was in which region was it? I wanna say it was like around the south of France, maybe it, maybe it was in Provence and it just looked so beautiful, looked like a postcard, looked like a fairy tale. So I, I'm definitely a fan and I've, I love skiing there as well in the winter. Skiing and snowboarding in the French Alps. Magnifique. Jim is moving to Portugal on Tuesday. Congratulations. Where in Portugal?

Kristin:    00:36:18  Halisco says, Hi Kristin. Good to see another video. I frequently think of Europe. Love your videos honest commentary as always. You got it. Tell it like it is <laugh>. Christoph agrees. It's a good idea to rent first in the country of your choice to really know if you like it. Yeah, I I would say before, before buying something but you could also buy something that's also a good investment and then you can sell it or rent it out if you're not there. And Dave is here, he says I love the US but can hardly wait to experience the advantages of traveling the world. Got my travel card yesterday, I can earn points by paying rent with it before I set out. Oh which travel credit card did you get? I wonder if there's a way I could pay rent in another country with my credit card.  

Kristin:    00:37:20    Luke says, Namibia is very nice and cheap, checks all the boxes for me. I have never been there but my friend I believe is in Namibia right now. Let me see where she is. Yeah, she's in Namibia and said that her boyfriend, she and her boyfriend are looking into residency in Portugal and that he wants to get a EU passport because being Namibian it's a terrible passport to be honest, it's really unfair. She said they ask for so many documents just to get them a Schengen holiday visa for a few weeks. Something we wouldn't even think twice about. That is the unfairness of the current passport system but, but she's loving Namibia. I think she's been there on and off for the past year and her photos look really pretty. So I will have to check that out. Tamara says she lived in France, it was beautiful but expensive.  

Kristin:    00:38:22    Never really felt at home there but has lots of family there. So what would you say to Tamara, what were some of the things that caused you to feel like you weren't at home? I'm curious and Thanks Steven. He says bravo. Kristin, onwards and upwards. Thank you. Thank you guys. Oh you have another super chat from Henry. Thank you so much Henry. He says, have you spent a lot of time visiting Denmark and Switzerland? If so, is it true that a lot of people in those countries aren't as friendly? I hear they're not much into small talk. Any thoughts on that? Henry? You've actually found two of the countries in Europe that I haven't been to yet and I have heard that. But I do have a very good friend Palle Bo, who is from Denmark and he's very friendly and he, we have a YouTube video on my channel actually if you search for Becoming a Digital Nomad in your Fifties you'll find my interview with Paul where we're sitting on the beach in Brazil and that's a really fun interview.  

Kristin:    00:39:27    He also is the host of a podcast, the Radio Vagabond, I believe He's a great guy so he's really nice. And somebody was also just telling me that they met their significant other who was from Denmark. I forget where they were, she proposed to him, that's what happened. Uh, I think they were in the US maybe so she proposed to him and he accepted but he said, I'm not moving to Denmark. And now he's been in Denmark for like 11 years or something. So you must really like it. But I thought that was very interesting culturally that the woman would propose to the man cuz I think that's, you know, it's not typical. So I think that would be really interesting. And yeah, Switzerland is high on my list so I will report back if I go there. I will go there eventually. So let's see if there's any other questions in the chat today.  

Kristin:    00:40:26    One of the things I've been noticing about being in Ireland and the UK is how many public holidays they have. Like there's so many bank holidays here feels like every time I'm here there's a holiday. So there is a holiday here tomorrow. And the question as a traveler, especially someone who's living abroad or somebody who's a digital nomad just passing through is like, which holidays do you observe? Because do you observe your home country's holidays when you're in another country and they're not observing the same holiday? Like Mother's Day is different, Labor day is different, Labor day was last week, but our Labor day in the US is in September. So it's always become a question that it's like do you, do you observe everybody's holidays or just your holidays or just the holidays that are in the new country, what would you do? So I'm considering should I take a holiday tomorrow, which would be the bank holiday for the coronation of King Charles?  

Kristin:    00:41:29    Which doesn't really relate to me. <laugh> doesn't really relate to my life, but I think it would be cool actually one of my neighbors invited me to a barbecue tomorrow in a park across the street. And so I might do that cuz it's like a community get together for the coronation. So I think, you know, being that it's such a rare event, I would love to go there and you know, see what people think about it and how they're celebrating and also get to know more of my neighbors. But that's definitely interesting that pretty much everyone that I've met around here, they're kind of like, why did you move here and why are you here? Are you American? Like people on the sidewalks asking me. So there's definitely not many Americans or US citizens living here, especially in the kind of like suburbs of Manchester. But it's pretty cool though. Like I, I like the novelty of it. Maybe I'll stay. Jillian says congrats on IL, they are lucky to have you. Thank you so much. I'm happy to be working with the team.  

Kristin:    00:42:42    So amazing. Oh, Paul says, once you're a friend of the Danish, they are lifetime friends so I yeah I've always thought they were quite nice. I actually dated a Danish guy who was living in London when I was staying there and he was really, really kind. Carrie's asking, I'm planning on starting my retired slow travel lifestyle near the end of this year. But I'm concerned with rising Airbnb rates. Do you think rates will keep skyrocketing or level off? Well, I was just looking at, I think, Brian the CEO, Brian Chesky, maybe? I was looking at some of his tweets. because they're changing some things with how they are portraying the prices. One of the things that a lot of people don't like about Airbnb is that before they would show you this artificially low price and then once you add the fees, the taxes, the cleaning fees et cetera, the price is like double what it was.  

Kristin:    00:43:49    And so they're trying to change that to where they're showing the prices inclusive of fees but still not the taxes. And they might change that again because he was basically copying the way that hotels do it where they show you the prices and they add taxes at the end. But I think when people are renting Airbnbs, like you wanna know what is the whole price, you don't want any kind of hidden fees. So that's one thing. The other is the natural increase in the price of Airbnb rentals over the years as this becomes a viable revenue option for just normal people around the world. And so we've seen the upward pressure that puts on housing, especially long-term housing in communities worldwide. So we've got that dynamic going on. And then we've also get the kind of like competition in the market on Airbnb compared to hotels where all of a sudden the prices of, well not all of a sudden but over the years the prices of Airbnbs become more the same or more than getting a hotel room, which originally it was supposed to be less, It was like air, bed, and breakfast. Like, air bed. Bed and breakfast.

Kristin:    00:45:06    So it was supposed to be affordable. And then the other factor which I've noticed is that Airbnb's algorithm or their website is promoting like the most outlandishly priced properties like $5,284 a night for this villa somewhere. And when I look at the homepage, I don't know if it's the cookies I have on my computer or what, but I'm seeing like everything's like $2,000 a night, $3,000 a night and it's probably because they're making more money with those properties cuz they're getting those booking fees. But I think that's also making it more expensive. So <laugh> long story long, yes I think the prices will will keep going up unless they make a real coordinated effort to encourage lower prices. I think also their algorithm that's automated that sets market rates for properties, it is going to try to get the most revenue for the hosts and also for the site.  

Kristin:    00:46:14    Now I don't know that for sure but that's the way it looks like and when I was a host, like it would try to charge the highest price that it could charge and on those dates. So maybe they could do something where you know they have a section for like long-term rentals or they they offer bigger discounts for monthly rentals. Time will tell. But I think what's more realistic is that Airbnb becomes more of a centered on luxury rentals. Kind of like VRBO and some other sites that I've seen pop up that are focusing on like high-end rentals. Um, Plum Guide is another one that comes to mind and different sites like competitor sites will pop up that are focused on lower priced rentals. So they'll kind of move in and take up that like market space that Airbnb used to occupy. I think that's the most likely outcome.  

Kristin:    00:47:10    And some that are doing that are Flatio, which I did integration with on my channel so you might have seen them. I can post a link for you guys there because they are, it's kind of like buy digital nomads for digital nomads and they have real people renting out. I mean well Airbnb has real people too but they have, they focus on mid-term and long-term rentals for long-term travelers and digital nomads, whereas Airbnb focuses more on vacation rentals. So I will find that link for you and I found that in general the prices are a lot lower on on Flatio. My answers are really long <laugh>. I hope that's okay. I have like a lot of thoughts on everything. Oh, we have a super chat from Villarat. Villarat, is that the right pronunciation? Thank you so much. He says, Guten Tag Kristin all <laugh> you look at beautiful as ever.  

Kristin:    00:48:16    Thank you so much. Congrats on your new role. Hope it works out for you. You should visit Stuttgart in Germany. I think it's a hidden gem. I was there for Christmas visiting family. Yes, I would love to spend more time in Germany and there I also have a friend who's living in Hamburg. Has anyone been to Hamburg? So maybe I think summer's a good time to go there so I might go there this summer. Oh that's the thing about travel, like you go one place and you're like oh I could go here, I could go there. There's a lot of other places to go. Which leads into this question from Laylay who says, have you ever felt overwhelmed creating your itineraries? I do. And would like to hear your suggestions? Yeah, I think it's very normal if you experience travel itinerary overwhelm. Like if you've ever picked up a Lonely Planet guide or a Rick Steve's guide or one of those thick, thick guidebooks, like there's no way you can see all of the things there.  

Kristin:    00:49:15    So what helps me with that is first just knowing that FOMO is naturally gonna happen. You can't see it all and think of it more that you could go back to that place if there's something else that you wanna see. Like my dad, my parents have been to England three times because they, when they're on their trips they keep discovering more places that they wanna see so they go back. So you could also do that, leave some buffer room actually like pick the top three things that you wanna do like that you must do. And it might be, you know, a wonder of the world or something that's really popular but kind of pick like your must do things and try to do those at the beginning of your trip and then leave room for serendipity. Like know that if, okay, if you went to this country and you came back and you only did three things, what would those three three things be and would you be happy?  

Kristin:    00:50:08    And it might be going to a site like a museum or a historical site, but it might be something like, I don't know, like you just want to, like this was me when I went into Paris, I'm like, I just want to sit on the side of the Seine River at sunset and eat a baguette with cheese and drink wine. Like that's an experience that you might want to have or maybe like you really want to take a cooking class or you really want to like ride your bike somewhere and explore or go on this hike or something. So think of that and then, and then like leave room for serendipity. Uh, my friend Rolf Potts who wrote the the Vagabonding book, he says to use tourist attractions as just a jumping off point for um, the rest of the the things to do there. Um, but I do have two friends named KT and Jordan and they have a service and they'll actually create an itinerary for you for $20.  

Kristin:    00:51:04    Now I did that when I went to Istanbul and I did a couple of the things on there but I didn't get to do any of it. So I think asking yourself like what are the things, what are the reasons you're going to that country and what are the things you wanna do there? Maybe asking a couple of your friends and getting suggestions from your personal network or or asking people in a Facebook group or something like that. Getting some ideas like curating some ideas from social media is really good because you might get some suggestions that are not in guidebooks and you could even check out this itinerary planning guide, it's called On Arrival. And yeah, they'll create an itinerary based on your personality and use code Badass, badass or badass digital nomads for 25% off. And also like once you get to that place you might change your plan.  

Kristin:    00:52:01    And so just be flexible <laugh> and ask locals too. Like I ended up at where I filmed the video, did you see my Culture Shock in Ireland video where I filmed that video was this place called Powerscourt House & Gardens, which is one of the most beautiful gardens in the world or in Europe or something. And I only found out about it because I just started chatting with this guy in a coffee shop and he told me to go there. So yeah, ask locals and you might get some really cool suggestions. Okay, you're welcome. Laylay, oh a third super chat from Henry. You are a rockstar Henry, thanks so much. He says, have you visited any remote islands like Easter Island, Bora Bora or the Azore? If not, what is the most remote place you've explored, Gracias, Kristin, for doing these monthly live streams on YouTube?  

Kristin:    00:52:54    You're welcome Henry. My pleasure. I haven't been to Easter Island or Bora Bora, although both of those are definitely on my list, as well as the Galapagos. And yeah, I would love to explore the Maldives as well, like Azores I haven't been to. I have been to Madeira, which you guys saw in some recent YouTube videos. Probably one of the most remote places I've been to would be, oh god, the time I got shipwrecked in Fiji.  So it was an island. Near Frigates Pass, or Frigates Passage in Fiji, so it's like a tiny island off of the island of Vitsilivu, the main island of Fiji. And I went with my friend when I was studying abroad in college and we wanted to go surfing at this place and we're the only people, like, we had to take a boat from the little island where we were camping and go out to this surf spot and yeah, we were just all by ourselves.  

Kristin:    00:53:53    It was quite dangerous actually. And then there was a big storm and we got stranded on this island for a few days and then we went back to Australia. So I would say that's one of the most remote places I've ever been anywhere that's like an island off of an island off of an island. And even getting there, I think we had like five layovers in the South Pacific, it was crazy. Another place that's quite remote that's I recommend is Little Corn Island on the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua. So to get there you need to usually fly. Yeah you would fly from Managua to Blue Fields and then I think then you fly from Blue Fields to Big Corn Island and then you take a boat to little Corn Island. So you're just pretty much out in the Caribbean sea somewhere and this island is so small there's no cars, you can just walk around the whole island.  

Kristin:    00:54:47    And I stayed on an organic farm on Little Corn Island and yeah I went scuba diving. There were not many tourists. I don't know how it is now. This was probably 2008 that I was there, but it was very remote and yeah it was, it was very cool. It would be strange to live there full-time. Yeah and I also in northern Nicaragua, like I've explored a lot of northern Nicaragua and just gone on road trips around there and I definitely felt like I was very, very remote and also New Salambangan, I would say off the coast of Bali. So you're in the Indonesian island chain and then um, out from Bali you take this boat to get to some of the other islands. There's tons of islands around there. I think there's like more than 7,000 islands in Indonesia, but yeah that's pretty, pretty remote there.  

Kristin:    00:55:38    Oh, Scott uses chat, GPT or he's read that chat. GPT is great at making itineraries. You can put in places, budget, time, location, et cetera and get an itinerary. That's a starting point. Yeah, that would be good. I've tried using chat, uh, chat G P T for some things like research, but I typically uh, need to then check it in fact check it. So I think it would work for itineraries but like I used it for when I was making the cost of living in Dublin video and a lot of the info I got was wrong. So compared to my personal experience and compared to the government websites that I was looking at, oh there's of course Xavier says there's an AI site for itineraries now there's AI for everything. Temple had a tiered list of five to six things, tier one, 10 to 12 optional things and then details around it for their French Polynesian honeymoon.  

Kristin:    00:56:31    I like that very type A. Oh, Katherine's been to the Corn islands, they're fabulous. She says Yeah, very much off the beaten path. You don't hear much about it. Sarah's asking if they have something like Flatio in Mexico. I don't know if they have Mexico yet, but they are expanding so keep an eye out. But for Mexico,  I would probably use like the Mexican classified sites. Any sort of like, if you just search like classic. In the town you're going to in Mexico, you can find classified sites with rentals in pesos and you'll get a better deal. Jow is asking, How do I stay fit while traveling? I found gym memberships but they're mostly in Europe. Currently googling gyms, but that's inconvenient. ClassPass, or some equivalent, works in other countries, especially in Europe. And there's another app that I'm forgetting. There's an app that works worldwide where you can buy passes at different gyms after the pandemic.  

Kristin:    00:57:36    I started just working out at home or during the pandemic. So I've, I like doing classes though, so it's different if you like using weights at a gym or if you do classes. So I have a membership to Tracy Anderson and that's enough for me. <laugh> between that and like biking and walking around. There's so many cool apps though now. Like what's another fitness app I have that's called Exponential with just an X and they have classes there. So yeah, any like personal training apps and stuff. But yeah, try Class Pass and I'm gonna have to google that other app that lets you get day passes to gyms around the world and we'll put it in the comments. Uh, Wal also uses Facebook marketplace for finding rentals. That's a good way too. Yep. <laugh> Damon asks, am I getting married? Not today, not yet. The announcement was that I am working with International Living now as their Go Overseas mentor and hello from Taiwan.  

Kristin:    00:58:38    I just met someone from the International Living team, was living in Taiwan for 15 years. Fascinating. Oh, Tina says she's a digital nomad from California, has been to many popular nomad countries, but is currently in Poland, which she finds to be underrated. I would agree. I actually have a living in Poland video on my channel. So just Google, Poland, travel vlog, Traveling with Kristin, you'll find it. And I talk about my cost of living in-- in Poland, which is quite low and there's so many different cities around Poland that are great. I would recommend it as well. Amazing. Well thank you guys for tuning into the livestream today and I'm gonna hop over onto a Zoom call with my Patreon patrons right now. So if you wanna join us there, you can at patreon.com/travelingwithKristin. Thank you for being with me here, live in person and if you're watching the replay or listening back later, then hello, welcome to all of the new subscribers.  

Kristin:    00:59:42    So welcome if you're new, welcome if you're old school OGs. And look forward to seeing you again on another video and livestream soon. Uh, stay tuned for the Talking to Locals in Manchester video. I'll try to get that out in the upcoming days. Travel safe wherever you are. Enjoy your Sunday, enjoy your day whenever you're listening to this and see you again soon. So the secret is out, the big announcement that I have joined forces with International Living as their go overseas mentor. So if you are subscribed then we'll see you in the magazine and in the newsletters and postcards. And if you aren't subscribed yet, then I will leave a link for you to do so at the top of this show notes. And stay tuned for lots more. We'll have some new projects, new fun stuff coming up all through the year. So really excited and thank you to everyone who sent congratulations messages and comments and onwards and upwards. Have a great week and see you again next time.