my adventures

HOW I DO IT

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"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."_‍

_{— Albert Camus}

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In short, I’ve been a full-time analog nomad since 2009 and a part-time one since 2002.

I don’t travel backpackers’ style. That would require a higher budget than mine. And those huge backpacks seem really heavy. My bag is smaller- I never carry more than 7kg of stuff. It has wheels but it can also be used a rucksack. It’s been my closet and my storage room for the last 10 years. Also, I tend to stay in one place for a few months at least. I did a bit of faster traveling in Asia and South America but I find moving every couple of days very exhausting. I prefer finding a job, learning the language and feeling like a local. So, rather than traveling, what I do is move every 2 to 6 months on average. (update: in the meantime people started doing that massively, working remotely and calling themselves digital nomads).

I’ve been doing paid jobs only for a few months a year and I only have one passive income source for now which brings me 160 euros a month. This covers my food, including coffee and red wine (mostly bought in supermarkets and enjoyed on beaches and hills). When it gets cold in Europe, I go south because I prefer sunshine. I used to arrange volunteering gigs, mostly in hostels, through websites like helpx.net and workaway.org. Around 20 euros (it’s 30 now.) gets you a two-year premium membership. Volunteering jobs are much easier to find and you can leave whenever you feel it’s time to move on. There are a couple of free volunteering websites nowadays with a smaller selection of hosts. There are also many websites that ask you to pay shitloads of money for the privilege of working for free. I do not recommend those. Volunteering is a convenient way to see the world on a tiny budget while having interesting experiences and adventures. It leaves you time for online work or even for getting an additional local job. There are all sorts of volunteering jobs and arrangements but the majority seem to be farm work (as on woof.net) as well as exhausting construction work. Most hosts are flexible with the length of stay and if both sides are satisfied, you can stay for a year or longer volunteering in one place and they might even start paying you. A year is the longest period I heard a colleague volunteer stayed in one place.

I also used Couchsurfing many times, especially in South America. I find staying longer than 3 days at one Couchsurfing host’s place is abusing hospitality. There are sayings in different countries about guests not being welcome for more than three days. Many people nowadays misuse Couchsurfing and exploit or even rob their hosts. It’s important to read all the references when you are either hosting or surfing. Unfortunately, people are reluctant to leave negative references cause they know they will get a negative reference in return. Today, I only use Couchsurfing for the events and meetups.

I have traveled the world, sometimes doing paid work but mostly volunteering, from 2009 to 2017. It was quite a ride. I’ve lived in about 11 countries during that time. I have been really happy with a few working hours a day which allowed me to explore my many interests. I’ve had a few lovely romances and met many interesting and inspiring people. I’ve learned a couple of languages and took up drawing, painting, and sailing.

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“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”

_{– Marcus Aurelius}

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I don’t really like traveling. I don’t like losing sleep and I don’t sleep well in hostel dorms, buses or trains. And I don’t like dragging my bag around. If your budget is higher you can travel more comfortably and rent silent single rooms and avoid money-saving and sleep-depriving nighttime travel. I am trying to be a minimalist and live with as little stuff as possible. All the awesome flea markets make this harder for me and I always end up buying clothes and shoes. At least I can easily give or throw away stuff that I buy for a euro or two. I’ve been lucky with my volunteering gigs and mostly managed to find an empty dorm or a silent enough bed. Once I slept on a table in the hallway in Palermo, Sicily and once in a bathroom, under a shower, in Pamplona.

Starting in May 2016, I stopped volunteering in hostels altogether. I am turning 40 in February 2017 and it has started bothering me that everyone in hostels is much younger than me. I’m planning to open a hostel for older folks one day. Also, I want to work for money. Even though I consider myself an anti-materialist, I noticed that money does motivate me because it can buy me more freedom. I don’t want stuff, I want time. Stuff is paid for with the precious time we spend working for money. Volunteering work is not only unpaid, it’s mostly under appreciated too, as many a housewife has noticed. Nowadays I tend to rent the smallest room I can find (idealista.com for Spain), with utilities preferably included in the price because I hate dealing with bills. Now that I don’t volunteer for accommodation, I need a bit more money. I don’t think I will ever do a 9 to 5 job unless I find one I really love. I value time more than money and I’m happy with having little as long as I have enough time to do my stuff (acquiring new skills, dancing, reading, painting etc.)

Since 2017, I am focusing on profitable adventures. I finally started thinking about the future. I don’t volunteer at all anymore. I am still a minimalist but now I’m focusing on developing my Arts & Crafts business while working a full-time seasonal job in Germany and saving money.

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The summary of my adventures: Most recent to past

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ERASMUS FOR YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS PARTICIPANT IN… LEIPZIG?

Not yet. I left off at making a business plan. More specifically a market analysis. Will pick it up next year probably.

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GOOGLE ADS ACCOUNT MANAGER FOR THE SWISS MARKET IN LISBON

_{June 2023 - August 2023}

This adventure lasted less than two months but, as it tends to happen when traveling, a lot of life fit into little time. The work started ok, my boss was impressed on my first day, as I got a sales pitch call through making a couple of cold calls and I got the client to increase their Google ads budget. A Swiss client. In German. That was stressful but kinda satisfying. The problem with the job was that it was a call center after all, with the typical bullshit burn-out-inducing requirements and pressures.

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AN ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT FOR THE GERMAN MARKET AND A FREELANCE VAUGHAN ENGLISH TEACHER IN VALENCIA

_{March 6th 2022 – November 26th, 2024}

I never came back to Berlin after my Canary Islands winter escape in 2021. I’ve been living in Valencia, my dream city, for 2 years now. All my stuff is still in Berllin. I have plenty of new stuff here now. I don’t really like having stuff but it’s hard to resist flea markets of Valencia. It is a great city but becoming annoyingly popular. Everyone seems to be moving here. The prices of rentals went up drastically in the last year.

The size of Valencia is refreshingly small after having cycled for more than an hour and sometimes 2 hours to get to anywhere in Berlin. The park that used to be a river through the city is my living room. There is a beach too. The center of the city is not near the sea, surprisingly. The neighborhoods Cabanyal and Nazaret, considered shabby and even dangerous, are closer to the beach than the center.

I met a lovely green-eyed Italian within the first week. In spite of my resistance and the intention to stay single for a while, he slowly got me into another serious relationship. I even lived with him and his lovely daugher (who was with us every other week) for a while in a nice family atosphere.

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A STUDENT OF PROGRAMMING IN LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIA

_{January 5th, 2019 - April 2nd, 2019}

I have been moving back to the Canary Islands since 2004. The climate is the best in the world and it is a part of the EU. It is never hot or cold. The unemployment is very high, the salaries are low, sometimes it seems more a part of Africa than Europe, but the quality of life is higher than most other places, at least for my standards. I am taking Udemy courses, after a few months spent studying with You Tube videos and different apps. I am loving my Udemy course even though the first one I bought was outdated and impossible to follow with the new versions of the tools, incompatible with the versions used in the course.

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WHAT I LOVE ABOUT LAS PALMAS

The climate

The huge city beach

The amazing three-week carnival in the winter

The room prices

The digital nomad community

The Casa Ricardo with cheap frutos secos

The libraries in the old part of town

Cafe leche leche

The gyms with the view to the sunrise

The late sunrise in January

The AC Hotel 23rd floor coworking bliss

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WHAT I DO NOT LOVE ABOUT LAS PALMAS

The Canarian economy (unemployment and low salaries)

The buildings that are falling apart

The on and off wifi in the main library

The fact it’s getting too popular

The banks who don’t let foreigners open an account or charge shitloads for it

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A CHECK-IN MANAGER, WEB DESIGN STUDENT AND INTERN, SOCIAL MEDIA MODERATOR AND SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING TECHNICAL SUPPORT AGENT IN BERLIN

_{March 27th 2018 - December 1st 2021}

Update: Love brought me back to Berlin and I got the check-in job again. Currently, I’m living with Oliver and learning to program in between the check-ins. Still no Anmeldung. I plan to become a programmer and stay in Berlin forever. Except maybe for the darkest part of winter.

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I keep coming back to Berlin, one of my favorite cities. For those who love big vibrant cities, it’s the place to be in Europe during the warm part of the year. In 2013, I stayed for about a month and a half too. At that time I worked as a receptionist and cleaner in a party hostel in the center. I was making 400 euros a month plus about 120 euros extra that came from recycling the bottles we collected in the hostel. It was fun but it got seriously cold in early November and I got the irresistible urge to go south. I moved to Sicily for the winter where I learned Italian and volunteered in hostels.

This time around I rented out an awesome huge room in Wedding. I found it on the Couchsurfing Berlin rooms group. A girl was going on a three-week vacation and rented out her room for 270 euros. It’s a good price for three weeks in Berlin these days. The city seems to be getting more and more popular and expensive. It’s hard to find a room and the prices have gone up in the last few years. There is also a catch-22- to get a job, open a bank account etc., you need to officially register at the address you are living at in Berlin- the infamous Anmeldung document. Not all rooms offer the Anmeldung option because many people sublet the room and don’t get the permission of the flat owner. It is easier to get the Anmeldung if you rent the entire apartment. To get an apartment you need a job and proof that your monthly salary is three times higher than the price of the monthly rent of the apartment. And without the anmeldung document, you don’t get a job.

I managed to get a so-called midi job (which doesn’t allow you to make more than 850 euros a month) without the anmeldung document. My boss told me I should find a room with anmeldung within a few months and until I do they can anmeld me temporarily at one of their apartments. My job was to check in the tourists visiting Berlin into the apartments the company either owned or rented. I was in charge of 5 apartments all over the city. I got 17 euros per check-in. It was an easy job and I loved riding my bicycle around Berlin. It didn’t feel like a job but the money didn’t feel like a real salary either. I got a housekeeping full-time job offer on my first day in Berlin. I arranged that interview while I was still in Croatia. However, they told me to come back when I get the Anmeldung document. Which I still don’t have. After spending a bit too much time checking out room ads at WG Gesucht website, I decided to go back to Croatia to settle my affairs there before getting myself into any longer-term accommodation and work commitments. I managed to stay for an additional three weeks after the three weeks in the room I rented. The other three weeks in Berlin I stayed for free in three different places. An empty flat of a friend’s friend who we helped move to another place, a Romanian container next to train tracks, and a lover’s place. I slept on the floor in the empty flat and the container. The CC (container community) was interesting. The other tenants were mostly South Americans and they were friendly and cool. Even though it was very uncomfortable and unpredictable at times, my six weeks in Berlin were fun and intense. I saw it as a great adventure. It felt much longer as a lot of life happened in those six weeks. Everything was new and exciting, just the way I like it. I got many interesting messages on the dating website and even fell in love. I bought a bicycle and left it in Berlin. I will be back.

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WHAT I DIDN’T LOVE ABOUT THIS ADVENTURE

German Bureaucracy. The anmeldung shit

It was snowing on March 30th.

The room prices and (un)availability. They range from 300 to 800. With very little 300 euro options. Rooms on the lower side of the price range are available to folks with the student status.

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WHAT I LOVED ABOUT IT

The Mauerpark Flea Market Sundays– It’s crowded but worth coming. There is a drum circle with people dancing, interesting live performances of bands, clowns and all sorts of performers, cheap clothes and original arts and crafts (my mini dream is to sell my jewelry there one day, maybe even this summer). I hope the famous Mauerpark Karaoke will be back soon!

Bicycle traffic– there are bicycle paths with little bicycle traffic lights everywhere. As a cyclist, I felt like an equal participant in traffic. I felt I was the slowest cyclist in town for some reason.

Many parks all over the city with people picnicking and hanging out.

Clarchen Ballhaus– it’s just what I was looking for without knowing it existed. You can dance your butt off and be in bed before midnight. There is different music every night. The entrance is free, except for Fridays and Saturdays and some dance courses. There are people of all ages on the big dancefloor with a disco ball. On a Wednesday Swing dance night, I felt I need a few months in a dance course before joining the crowd on the dance floor. It was fun to watch them though.

The ease of finding work (with Anmeldung).

The choice of interesting people to meet.

The choice of interesting events to attend.

A Couchsurfing meeting every day of the week.

The life on the banks of Spree river

The free dancing options

The German language practice meetings– Berlin might not be the best place to go to if your main goal is learning and practicing German. It’s a melting point of cultures and most conversations end up happening in English because there is always at least one person present who doesn’t speak German. However, since Berlin offers everything for everyone, it also has meetings organized exclusively for practicing the German language.

Oliver– My boyfriend Oliver is a great person and an amazing chef, tango dancer, programmer, singer, lover etc. And he has degrees in physics and mathematics. He is in his early 50s and still gorgeous. I changed my facebook relationship status because of him for the first time in my life. We are living together. Never did that before. A lot of first-times for a 41-year-old. There are a lot of handsome blue-eyed men in Germany. I never experienced such gender equality. In Croatia, men live with their mothers until they are about 34 (that’s an official statistic-the worst in Europe). The problem is that the mothers do everything for their sons-clean and cook- and everyone expects the girlfriend/wife to take over the mother’s role. There are some exceptions nowadays. But those are exceptions. Hell, I’m glad I left the Balkans.

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A CAREGIVER IN SOUTHERN GERMANY

_{December 2017 - February 2018}

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I have been wanting to try out a caregiving job for a while. A few years ago, I was considering joining a Caregiving program in Canada. After 4 years, I would be eligible to apply for a Canadian Citizenship. I am glad now that I didn’t go for that because I don’t think I would make it 4 years as a caregiver. After my dad died in August 2017, I needed to make a couple of thousand euros because he left a debt that I inherited (which I could have avoided if I had renounced my part of the house). I saw an ad by an agency in Croatian job seeking website. The agency offered a caregiving position to candidates with an at least B1 level of German and some experience in caregiving. They accepted my limited and unprofessional caregiving experience with my grandparents who all died while living with us. As for German, I started listening to audio courses while living in Madrid in 2016. I never took a German course and never learned it in school.

When I decided to do the caregiving in Germany I started studying German intensively every day and preparing for the interview in the agency. I used mostly German with Jenny youtube channel. Three weeks later, the agency employee who was a German teacher assessed that my level was between B1 and B2. They soon found a position for me and the family was supposed to interview me on the phone. They never called and they chose another caregiver. Soon after I got another offer and this time the family accepted my profile without interviewing me. That might have been a mistake on their part. I wasn’t too eager to work as a Caregiver and spend a January in cold Germany but I needed the money and I really wanted to improve my German. I noticed that I always need additional motivation to do a job, not just a salary. It has to either offer an opportunity for me to practice a language I don’t speak well or it has to be on a location I am very interested in exploring. Two months later, I can finally say I speak German and my bank account looks pretty.

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WHAT I DIDN’T LOVE ABOUT THE CAREGIVING GIG

Well, most of it. It was emotionally exhausting. I felt inadequate because the granny I worked for expected me to speak perfect German and to have a driving license. And she was telling me that every day. She also told me how expensive it was to have me there. And how Schreklich it was that we cannot converse better because of my bad German. And how schrecklich it is that I don’t have a driving license like her previous caregiver from Poland. She had depression and it was impossible to satisfy her. I did my absolute best like in every other job I do, but nothing was good enough for her. Sometimes she would be very sweet and praise me. Sometimes we had good and intimate conversations. My vocabulary is pretty wide and if she hadn’t been so impatient, I wouldn’t have felt so bad about not speaking perfect German. All of the others were praising my German. I felt guilty every day because I was aware that my German needed improvement. She had hurt her leg and her son was going on a three-week vacation in South Africa with his family during Christmass time. That was the main reason they needed a caregiver urgently. She really needed help walking up and down the stairs mostly. I also helped her taking her stiefel off and putting it on and giving her injections to prevent a blood clot from forming. I cooked, cleaned the house and did grocery shopping. She often mentioned that her friends and some relatives asked her if she needed anything from the supermarket. Just so I don’t start feeling too useful. During my last two weeks in Blaustein, when the granny got her Stiefl removed and started walking independently, the time slowed down and I felt totally useless. Talking about the relativity of time, Einstein was born in Ulm but didn’t stay there long.

I find small towns boring.

I hated feeling inadequate. I realized I always need to know that I’m doing my job well. That’s more important than the salary.

Not being able to stick to my light and healthy eating habits.

Not having any designated free time for myself when I can totally relax. That’s the case with yacht stewardess jobs as well.

Being emotionally manipulated.

Not dancing and having almost no contact with like-minded people.

Having no internet or a very limited and slow internet.

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WHAT I LOVED ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE

The food. Because I love food. I would have preferred my regular food, more vegetables, and less pasta and meat but it was good to learn how to prepare meat dishes. The Käsespätzle were delicious. Though it would be hard to stay slim if I had that more than once a month.

I met a lovely man. We went on a couple of dates. I didn’t expect to meet anyone working as a caregiver in a small town. It didn’t last long though.

It wasn’t a hard job as I was warned it would be. Except emotionally.

I loved the fact that my German was improving every day.

The quietness of the neighborhood.

The view from the balcony.

The lovely living-room.

The warmth inside the house.

The surprisingly non-brutal weather in January.

The granny’s son was a very lovely person.

The insight into a life completely different than mine.

Seeing how rich southern Germany is and realizing I got some ausbildung opportunities there for a paid education. The unemployment is about zero in Ulm.

I can’t believe how many positive sides to the experience I’ve found.

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A YACHT STEWARDESS ON A SAILBOAT IN CROATIA AND ITALY

_{July 18th - August 23rd, 2017}

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HOW I ENDED UP THERE

I flew to Venice straight from Berlin and then took a train to Rimini, where I spent two weeks on a yacht before we set off for a month-long sailing trip around the lovely Croatian islands. Croatia is my motherland and I really wanted to experience the islands from a sailboat. I also needed the money. I arranged this job through Findacrew.com website. The website mostly offers recreational (unpaid) positions for people who want to sail cheaply or for free. Living on a sailboat always requires work but the amount of work depends on different factors. If there is only the boat owner on a yacht, looking for sailing companions, there is usually not much work to do and the positions are either unpaid or you are required to contribute towards the expenses for gas and food. Getting paid to sail around on a yacht, obviously, includes hard work. Smaller yachts hire a person who would be a deckhand/stewardess/babysitter at the same time. They are mostly families with children. The pay is between 1500 and 2000 euros a month. There are no days off. Superyachts offer more specialized positions and require STCW and all the other certifications before they hire you. The pay can be as high as 3000 euros, or so I’ve heard, and the work is harder than on the small yachts.

I left my yacht job a week earlier because my dad died. The hardest period of my life ensued. I stayed in Croatia until December.

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WHAT I DIDN’T LOVE ABOUT THE YACHT STEWARDESS EXPERIENCE

I am not a big fan of kids. They are cute and sometimes say funny things but if I have to spend time with kids, I am mostly suffering. I am especially bad at make-belief play that 3 and 4-year-olds are into. There are some activities I can half-enjoy, like dancing and singing with the kids´ programs and apps downloaded from the internet, but doing it every day is not my favorite kind of work. Spending 4 to 5 hours a day washing the dishes gets old pretty fast too. Being a servant is not the most fulfilling work I can imagine. It doesn’t require much skill or knowledge and it doesn’t offer ample growth opportunities.

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WHAT I LOVED ABOUT IT

The fact that I finally got to sail the Croatian coast AND got paid for it. The fact that I faced one of my biggest fears (living with children) and got way outside of my comfort zone (and even enjoyed it at moments). And I stuck it out till the end. I valued the fact that I wasn’t supervised and criticized though I did work all the time. I felt the family was mostly happy with my work, except maybe with my pedagogy skills with kids. I got to know a completely different boat than the ones I sailed on before. I experienced Rimini and saw first hand that the Italian side of the Adriatic coast does suck, at least when it comes to the quality of the sea. I didn’t even take a swim during my two weeks in Rimini. I can’t say I loved washing the dishes but it might have been my favorite activity onboard the yacht because I listened to podcasts while washing up.

I value new experiences and living with an Italian family with kids gave me an interesting insight into family life in general and the traditional role of Italian women. It made me even more determined never to get married and have kids. Women should fight for their right to party, that is, to do more of what they like doing instead of letting the boys play and cleaning up after them all the time.

Meeting a lovely couple who were guests on the yacht for a week.

Eating fresh seafood every day.

I got to brush up my Italian.

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A CONSTRUCTION WORKER IN WERDER (NEAR BERLIN)

_{July 3rd - July 18th, 2017}

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I spent only 2 weeks doing construction work in a pretty little town of Werder, next to Potsdam, which is half an hour by train from Berlin, one of my favorite cities. The community I worked for consisted of about 30 families with children, connected politically. I guess they would be something like a Green party. They were into sustainable, eco-friendly living. They made beautiful apartments in a former factory on a lake. There were a few common rooms where they had dinners together a few times a week. The volunteers were working on an additional house intended for communal activities, such as art, dancing, and different workshops. They were nice and friendly people. I was interested in volunteering for them because they were near Berlin and because, ever since I saw the School of Life video about Epicurean communities, I have been interested in community living. About 2000 years ago, communities of friends and like-minded people spread all over the Mediterranean, inspired by the ancient philosopher Epicurus. I wrote more about it here. The idea is living with friends, downsizing and living sustainably and materially modestly doing different crafts and hanging out and philosophizing with friends. I believe that most people feel, at least to some extent, lonely, bored and isolated in traditional families. I think that it does take an entire village to raise a child and people should connect more and hang out more. Especially like-minded people and older people. We do not choose our families, except our spouses. Siblings can often be complete opposites and they are supposed to live together in harmony for 20 or more years. Raising children puts too much strain on the relationship between the parents. Helping each other more and sharing some of the responsibilities makes it easier for everyone. The community I volunteered for was not exactly the Epicurean community but it was the closest thing to it I have seen, except for my Arambol experience. The party they had for their one-year anniversary of moving into the lake factory flat complex was amazing. The DJ was a 70-year-old lady and everyone, from young kids to elderly people, was dancing all night, even in the rain for a few hours. Living in a community like this has its downsides, I’m sure. Human relationships are complex and hard, even if people are likeminded, there are issues they don’t all agree on. I do believe that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

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WHAT I DIDN’T LOVE ABOUT VOLUNTEERING IN WERDER:

The work was too hard and physically demanding. It was 5 hours of proper construction work and Germans do not kid around when it comes to working. If it were 3 or 4 hours, it would be more fair and realistic.

Everyone speaks English in Germany so there is not much opportunity to practice German, especially if other volunteers don’t speak any.

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WHAT I LOVED ABOUT IT:

The community spirit. Having lunch with different hosts in a different household every day. The hammock at the lake. The fact that someone always had a train ticket to Berlin for us to use on weekends. We could also use bicycles and an hour-long bicycle ride to Potsdam was incredible. The opportunity to practice my German a little bit at least, mostly with kids. Berlin. Oh Berlin. The Mauerpark karaoke, the Lust Garden and other parks, the events, the Couchsurfing meetings, the artists, the possibilities… I plan to spend a few summers in Berlin in the near future, selling my art on the Mauerpark Flea Market.

Meeting a Sardinian colleague who worked very hard, never complained and had only 100 euros of capital. He was 50 and he felt happy with his life. He was a vegan and loved his little pleasures like morning coffee, bitter chocolate, and bike rides. He volunteered for years. He reminded me that human relationships and small things in life are what counts and that the greatness of a person is very often reversely proportional to the size of their bank account.

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A CUSTOMER SUPPORT AGENT IN ATHENS

_{March 18th - May 7th, 2017}

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Around my 40th birthday, I started considering settling down and getting myself financially settled. The plan was to get a good, serious job and save up for a studio apartment in Budapest. I applied for a customer service position in Athens. They were looking for Serbian language speakers for Apple. I applied and during the interview the interviewer noticed I speak Spanish and continued the conversation in Spanish. They needed people for the Spanish team and she decided my Spanish was good enough. After another interview a few days later I was on my way to Athens. I was planning to stay at least for a year. The salary was 800 euros but the cost of living in Athens was pretty low. It was an above average salary for Greece. I got the relocation package. All that made me believe I got a good job. Man, was I wrong. It turned out to be one of the shittiest jobs I’ve had.

The whole Athens adventure turned out to be fun, though shorter than I expected. I was really ready to settle down for a year. In the worst case scenario, I thought, I would stay for 6 months and pay back half of the relocation package money. The hotel I stayed at was shabby but I am far from being spoiled so I felt like a queen. Especially when I was moved to the penthouse room on the corner of the building with the view of the sea from both sides of my big terrace. I ate a lot during the breakfast buffet and even took some food with me. I felt I shouldn’t be doing it but I wasn’t too ashamed about it. I guess my scarcity mentality will take some time to get rid off. I walked to work for over an hour every morning. I really enjoyed the walk and found it much better than the alternative- riding ticketless on a bus with my colleagues. No one was buying the ticket and I would feel bad if I was the only one who did. I would feel even worse on a bus without the ticket. For some reason, I cannot do that. The walk from my hotel in Pireus port was really nice and pleasant. Most of it was by the sea or with the view of the sea and many yachts and boats. My boss Stefanos was nice but I didn’t see much of him. I saw too much of the supervisors and I didn’t like those two guys. They were all new at the job and didn’t know much. They hated my asking them too many questions. Mostly because they didn’t know the answers. The training weeks were ok and I did best in my group on the first one and most of the other exams. I was the first to finish and had no mistakes. I was promising. On the training that happened the first day on the floor, Spanish Cannon people were there and I made what seems to have been a fatal mistake when I asked the lady from Cannon many questions, not wanting to send out an email or do anything without being sure I’m doing a good job. She concluded I wasn’t good at it. I should have just pretended I knew what I was doing like others did. Also, there was a lot of ass-kissing. A colleague that pretended she knew everything was told by a customer who called her that she is the tonta de departamento. And the Cannon guy heard her. Also, most people, except me, got a negative feedback from the folks from Tier 2- The engineers who actually solved problems and to who we were directing the problems we couldn’t solve as Tier 1. Which were most of them. Our job was closer to a secretary/administrator job than a problem-solving engineer’s job. It was brainless, repetitive and mind-numbing. I jokingly said that I was using only one neuron. I was banned from taking calls on the first day. That put me behind others and postponed my baptism in fire. it made me even more insecure and my questions sounded bad to my supervisors. A supervisor from Syria made sure to insult me and get shocked at the silliness of my questions before answering them. Or attempting to answer them, most of the time. After a few weeks, I got called into the big boss’ office and I was told: We are going to stop. I asked why and protested a bit, saying that I wasn’t given a chance and that I am sure I would catch up soon. He was a bit rude and said that I was given a chance. I admit I was talking against the job to other colleagues, not really lifting the spirits. Except with my jokes and prevailingly good mood in spite of the shittiness of the job. The guys around me liked me and seemed genuinely sorry and shocked (more than I was in fact) when I came back to my little cubicle and told them I got fired and was leaving immediately. It didn’t feel good to get fired. I felt incapable and dumb. I was the only one to get fired. My confidence was a bit shaken. I knew, however, that it was the best thing that could have happened and that the job really wasn’t for me. The disappointment lasted for a few minutes but it was immediately mixed with a feeling of relief, joy, and freedom. The English guy who was especially rude to me, even though I liked his sense of humor, had some tears in his eyes. I felt they are at the same time, maybe subconsciously, a bit envious of my newly gained freedom. I didn’t get close to any of my colleagues and I only really liked a few of them. The funny English guy was also a major asshole, and not just towards me. I heard that he very soon got promoted to a supervisor. He majorly screwed up one of his first calls when he said Joder a couple of times. The QA guy was listening to the conversation and told him he passed it! He had a good reputation in the group and he was forgiven. A lot of shit like that happens in a corporate environment and I know I have to avoid that at all costs and be my own boss.

As for Athens outside of work, I loved it. It’s a big city with enough nature in the form of hills overlooking the city and beaches reachable by public transport. I found an awesome place called Nosotros, where the drinks are cheap and various classes they offer are free. I started taking Swing dance and classical drumming class. I also arranged to have a painting exhibition there. I met a nice man. He was a Spanish teacher. I don’t think we were soul mates but we had fun together. My life in Athens was suddenly interrupted and the company offered to pay for my flight home. Since I got fired, I didn’t have to pay the relocation package money back (1500 euros). Even though I was a bit shaken about what happened, during my walk in the center of Athens, while I was supposed to be in my cubicle, I couldn’t help feeling happy, liberated, and excited about my new adventures.

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A BATUCADA DRUMMER IN TENERIFE

_{December 17th , 2016 - February 22nd, 2017}

I first visited Tenerife for a 10 day trip with 42 paintings made in China & sold most of them. I loved it so I came back for a 4-month sales rep job in 2007.

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AN ENGLISH TEACHER IN MADRID

_{April 20th - December 17th, 2016}

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Madrid is a huge, awesome, vibrant, multicultural, open-minded city. There are many gay guys proudly holding hands and kissing everywhere. There is even a gay neighborhood Chueca, with the subway station painted in rainbow colors. My favorite parts of Madrid are Templo de Debot, a park with a nice view where people gather to socialize, drink and picnic. It is near one of the main squares of the city, Plaza de España, which is located at the end of the biggest and liveliest street of Madrid, Gran Via, which reminded me of New York City’s Broadway. Another awesome part of Madrid is the Retiro park with a few lakes and my favorite library. It reminds me of Central Park in NYC- it’s green and huge and you don’t feel like you are in the center of a huge city. I loved having the option to join a different Couchsurfing meeting almost every night of the week. Couchsurfing meetings are a great opportunity to meet friendly local people and other travelers and ex-pats and avoid feeling lonely in a new city.

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HOW I ENDED UP THERE

In the midst of a mini, slightly premature, mid-life crises, I decided to settle down for a while in a big city. I thought I was a big city girl until I moved to Madrid. I lived there from late April to mid-December. I escaped to Croatia and Budapest in July and August. Summers are scorching hot it Madrid. I decided to teach English again. I did it in Croatia many years ago. I like teaching adults. I have a masters degree in English language and literature though as a non-native speaker in a city full of Brits, I had a hard time finding enough classes. I even signed a contract with a school. I planned to settle down in Madrid for a year or longer and save up 5000 euros to put on my savings account and use only in the case of emergency. That didn’t happen because I didn’t have enough classes and it got cold. I also got tired of spending a lot of time on public transport because Madrid is huge.

I moved to Madrid after arranging a volunteering gig in a hostel. They offered a possibility of leading city tours, which I was very interested in. At 39, I knew I was too old for volunteering in hostels but I really wanted to move to Madrid. Without any initial capital, volunteering is the easiest way to start life in a new place.

After a sleepless month in a centrally located hostel, I got a teaching job. Most volunteers in hostels are being exploited. Especially if they cannot sleep in dorm room conditions. I recommend it if you are in your 20s and eager to party and travel cheaply. Especially if you can sleep anywhere. After preparing for it for a few weeks, I did lead a few tours of Madrid and I liked it. The downside is that most of the tours of cities are advertised as free tours but then at the end, you ask the people for the tips AND you have to tip out to the hostel, 2 euros per person. The picture is taken with your group so your boss knows how many people attended the tour and how much money you should tip out. Young hostel people are not good tippers.

English teachers are quite sought after in Madrid, but most ads ask you not to apply unless you are a native speaker. I used to teach English in Croatia many years ago. I like teaching adults. I have a masters degree in English language and literature from the University of Zagreb buy as a non-native speaker in a city full of Brits, I had a hard time finding enough classes. if you like working with children, you might be just fine, even as a non-native teacher, but a degree or at least a CELTA or TEFL course is a must. I even signed a 6-month contract with a school. I planned to settle down in Madrid for a year or longer and save up 5000 euros to put on my savings account and use only in the case of emergency. That didn’t happen because I didn’t have enough classes and it got cold. I also got tired of spending a lot of time on public transport because Madrid is huge.

The best thing that has ever happened to me happened during my time in Madrid, on 18 May, 2016. My favorite philosopher and author suggested we meet up. We had dinner together. I still can’t believe that it actually happened. It was like a dream. I was surprised by how calm and collected I was, feeling happy and excited rather than being an uptight mosquito.

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WHAT I DIDN’T LOVE ABOUT MADRID EXPERIENCE:

It takes ages to travel from one part of the city to another, in spite of the excellent public transport system. If you are living in the city center, where room rentals are costly (400 euros on average for a room in a shared flat), and if you work in the center, you can avoid spending precious hours on the subway every day. As for dating life, as in any big city, people are quick to move on, knowing they will have the opportunity to meet someone better tomorrow. The continental climate is not my kind of climate. The summers are too hot and the winters too cold for my taste. Madrid is a hilly town so if you want to use a non-electric bicycle, you have to be much fitter than I am. There is no sea or beaches.

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WHAT I LOVED ABOUT IT:

As I said, Madrid is a big, vibrant, multicultural, exciting city with a lot of events and concerts going on and a big selection of interesting people to meet.

Couchsurfing and other expat communities are strong and active.

There are many metro lines that cover the entire city.

There are jobs, especially for native English speakers.

There are awesome neighborhoods like La Latina and Malasaña with very lively nightlife.

Rastro, a Sunday flea market is one of my favorite places in the world. You can buy clothes for 1 euro and shoes for 3 to 5 euros while enjoying street concerts and performances while at it. That’s the lower price range, where I usually shop. Talking about shopping, Humana second-hand chain of stores often has huge discounts where everything in the store costs 3 euros. If that’s not cheap enough for you, be sure that the following week it will go down to 2 euros and then 1 euro, which is when I come in.

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A WRITER AND GRAPHIC DESIGNER IN INDIA

_{November 11th, 2015 - March 5th, 2016}

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HOW I ENDED UP THERE

I spent an incredible winter in Arambol, a beautiful small beach village in the smallest Indian state called Goa. I was living with a bunch of lovely, friendly, crazy, fun-loving Mumbaians. I found the volunteering gig they were offering on Couchsurfing Jobs group. They hosted me for four months and we worked (played) together on the Inspire Society project. The four months I spent with them was one of the best periods of my life, full of human warmth, love, kindness, fun, creativity, generosity, and joy. It was a kind of a community; a bunch of friends living, working, chilling and partying together. I loved the community lifestyle. It’s an alternative to living alone or in a traditional family setup. And a much better alternative if you ask me. Because we don’t get to choose our siblings and parents. I was inspired by the integrity and benevolence of the people who generously shared the little they had. The entire village of Arambol is kind of a hippy community full of people from every part of the planet. Russians are prevailing because Goa offers the cheapest warm winter in the world that even a financially average Russian can afford. Every evening the entire village was gathering on the beach and danced inside a drum circle. Near the drum circle, there is a sunset market where you can sell whatever you want for a 20 rupee fee. People mostly sold their handmade products. I came with my paintings a couple of times and even sold one. There was a Croatian family and the lady was shocked to see her maiden last name on my paintings. She turned out to be from the same part of Croatia as my ancestors.

Hopefully, the ancient Epicurean-style communes will resurrect and spread everywhere in the future. I fantasize about contributing to that scenario.

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WHAT I DIDN’T LOVE ABOUT INDIA

India is desperately in need of effective cleaning companies for public areas. For westerners, with our different gut flora, it is almost unavoidable to get vicious food poisoning that will make you wanna die. Fortunately, it lasts for a couple of days only. A lovely girl I knew was raped and murdered near our village. Psychopaths are living in every country of the world but the state of Goa seems to attract the criminals because they know it’s full of tourists. Compared to an average Indian person, western tourists seem rich and easy targets. India is a very traditional country and, especially in rural areas, women still have a long fight ahead of them for the rights and freedoms enjoyed by men.

It was sad to see children working and begging instead of spending their time in schools or playing.

The traffic.

The noise in the big cities.

As most western girls, especially blondish ones, I was drawing too much attention of people wanting to take pictures with me. I had a lot of patience for them and felt flattered but after a few months, I got tired of it. I found them exotic and took pictures with them too.

There is no police in Goa.

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WHAT I LOVED ABOUT IT

The people. The Indians I met are mostly good, innocent, kind, honest, generous people. They know how to get by and how to enjoy life. They are happy with the little they have and they generously share it, which makes most westerners look bad in comparison.

The food.

The traffic. I rode a scooter without a driving license or a helmet. It’s totally fine to do that in India. No one gets upset when a cow stops the traffic. And she does.

I felt more attractive than in the rest of the world.

I witnessed the positive effect of LSD on people. My friends didn’t wanna take it more than twice in a few months so it seems that it really doesn’t cause addiction at all. I didn’t even dare try it, I’m saving experimenting with drugs for older age. They seemed happy, positive, energetic and tranquil on LSD, not a trace of all the negative effects of alcohol. They even claimed that LSD had permanent positive effects on the mind and the outlook on life. I did see a couple of people at Goa parties behaving completely crazy. I don’t know what they took and how much but it put me off experimenting with any drugs for now. I did try MDMA half accidentally- I took a sip thinking it was water but when I quickly realized it wasn’t water I took some more on purpose. It made me feel a strong affection for the group of people I was hanging out that night. The downside of MDMA, even in moderate doses, is the inability to sleep until the following night. It causes thirst and there is a danger of drinking too much water and disturbing the electrolyte balance so drinking juice might be better than water. Also, I recommend taking MDMA, mushrooms or any hallucinogenic drug in the company of friends and the people you like and trust. I don’t recommend trying Heroin or Cocaine at all. We tend to be judgemental towards other cultures’ drugs while considering our local ones to be ok, even if enjoyed by priests during church ceremonies in front of children.

There is no police in Goa.

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A PAINTER IN BUDAPEST

_{on and off in 2015 and 2016}

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OVERVIEW

Budapest is the closest city to my native Croatia where I could imagine living. It is big enough, international enough, gorgeous, cheap and everyone speaks Hungarian. I studied Hungarian at the university but I never learned to speak it fluently. Budapest has a great airport with many low-cost flights. The airport is easily reachable by public transport with two one-euro (300 forints) tickets (one for a metro and another one for a bus). It has the beautiful huge river Danube, right in the middle of the city, separating the hilly Buda from the flat Pest. The views around the Danube are breathtaking.

The nightlife is lively and concentrated in the 7th district, the Jewish neighborhood which used to be a Jewish ghetto during the war. Since many Jews were murdered or exiled, there were many empty buildings left in that neighborhood and the renovation of many of them was forbidden because of the cultural value. That’s why a lot of them were made into so-called Ruin bars. The most popular one is Szimpla Kert (garden) which has a branch in Berlin as well. The Budapest Szimpla is much more impressive though. It’s huge and has two floors. It looks like a museum of interesting junk. It’s a must see if you are in Budapest. Popular and unique tourist attraction of Budapest are all the many thermal baths in the city, where you can enjoy natural hot water pools. The biggest one is in the City Park (VArosliget) and it’s called Szecsenyi. You can swim there in the hot natural-spring-water outside pool at minus 10 degrees in the winter. I didn’t dare to do that. Hell, I don’t dare to come to Europe in the winter. In the summer, at least the summer of 2016, one of the beautiful bridges over the Danube was closed for traffic and used as a picnic bridge, similar to the Paris’ Pont des Artes. There are plenty of, mostly 20 somethings, drinking and hanging out on the many green surfaces in the city during summers.

There are some fancy clubs around the Basilica, the lovely church near one of the main squares called Deak square. If you walk straight from Basilica towards the nearby Danube, you will walk into maybe the nicest bridge, so-called Chain bridge (Lanc hid or Szecsenyi hid). The hilly part of Budapest is called Buda and it contains the royal castle, a bunch of museums and mostly the residential area behind it all. Pest is flat and much livelier. It’s worth taking a walk from the Basilica down Andrassy Boulevard, the broadest street in the city full of fancy shops, all the way to the lovely huge Hosok ter (Hero’s square) behind which there is a huge City Park with a fake castle and a lake where you can skate in the winter.

I first went to Budapest on a short trip with my university when I was 18. In 2013 I volunteered in a hostel next to the Danube for a month. During that month I met a guy there and he is still a friend. We used to be lovers and he had an intense crush on me and traveled to my hometown Zagreb to see me. And to the Canary Islands. He was persistent, he love-bombed me and with time he got under my skin. We lived together for about 6 months in Budapest, which was a really lovely period in my life. I painted intensely and exhibited my paintings in his restaurant. We worked together, renting out Airbnb apartments. Life was easy and good but not very aligned with my values. It’s not in my nature to ever be completely satisfied, especially in a role resembling a housewive’s role so I was happy to move to India in November. He had a few serious relationships during our time together. I am not monogamous and he is so that couldn’t have worked long term. I believe friendships are more important and longer lasting kind of relationships anyway.

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WHAT I DIDN’T LOVE ABOUT IT

Hungary is currently the only European dictatorship.

Some streets in the center stink of urine and there are many homeless drunks in the subterranean passages.

The subway trains look like they might fall apart at any moment.

It’s too cold in the winters.

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WHAT I LOVED ABOUT IT

One of the most beautiful cities ever.

Danube.

Plenty of expats and enough Couchsurfing meetings.

The language.

Turo Rudi. Try it. It’s sold in every supermarket. You can find it in fridges. It’s white with red dots.

The convenient mid-European location with the low-cost flights to everywhere.

It’s cheap.

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A VICKY-CRISTINA-LIKE SUMMER AND A HOSTEL MANAGER SPRING IN BARCELONA

_{The summer of 2008, October 1st - December 14th, 2014}

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OVERVIEW

Barcelona is a beautiful, big, multicultural, exciting city with unique architecture (Gaudi) and sandy beaches. The climate is much more pleasant than the continental Madrid climate. I was sunbathing on Barceloneta beach in November. At one point in my life, I was unsuccessfully trying to decide between moving to Madrid or Barcelona. I asked many people for advice and no one could help me decide. Since then I have lived in both cities and I choose Barcelona. In fact, I’m planning to live there again eventually, in spite of the fact that I don’t like going back to the same places.

Ja nazaj nemrem, kad bi bas i stel, novi me zivot odnesel i zel.

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HOW I ENDED UP THERE

First time I went to Barcelona was when I was in my early 20s. It was a new-year Taize meeting of Christian youth. I was never religious- though at 17 I unsuccessfully tried to be- I used the Taize meetings as cheap travel opportunities. I went with my first boyfriend, Hrvoje. I remember that we were playing beer can soccer with some strangers on the beach barefoot and that was my first experience of warmish weather in the middle of the winter. I loved it. I knew I would be back. The second visit to Barcelona was in 2007, on my way home from Tenerife. I decided to stay for 4 days and see if I could live in Barcelona. It was December but it wasn’t freezing like in Croatia. In my hostel, I met a beautiful man and took his email. Nothing but a few conversations happened between us. The following year (2008) I wrote him and asked him if I can stay at his place for a few days and told him I would rather spend the money on him than on a hostel accommodation. I came back to Barcelona in the summer of 2008, during my 3-month vacation, while working as an English teacher at a private school in Croatia. Those three months were actually paid for by my school, which I didn’t know while I was in Barcelona so I lived very frugally there. It was a good summer. I brushed up my Spanish that I learned the year before in Tenerife and started learning in 2006, the first time I moved to Madrid. I stayed in my host’s flat for three days and it was pre-Couchsurfing. Maybe I should have started the couchsurfing website. I wasn’t thinking about online entrepreneurship at all at the time. I got rejected sexually by my host during those three days and it hurt a lot. It was the first time I got rejected by a guy. It hurt. Mostly my ego. He found me a room at his friend’s flat in the Gothic neighborhood. I liked the landlord. He was a man in his 50s. He was on a so-called Paro, which is what the Spanish call being unemployed and collecting the unemployment money. If you work for a year, you get paid the full salary for another 4 months if it’s not your fault that you lost the job. If you have worked for longer before losing your job, you can be collecting Paro money for years after losing your job. He was volunteering in a monastery, preparing the food and serving it to the homeless. I joined him one day and it was an incredible experience. I felt good and powerful serving the food to the hungry who yelled: Carne! Carne! (meat). It was a stew so not everyone got the same amount of meat. After that, my landlord took me on a bike ride on the hills above Barcelona, where he played the flute and we did some meditation in the forest. He was about to set out on his trip to India where he planned to play the flute on a mountain. After that, we spontaneously entered an Indian Sikh temple, which was just a flat in the center of Budapest. A child approached me inside the temple and offered me food from his bare hand which I was told would be very rude to reject. We were sitting on the floor as a Sikh man with his Punjabi headwear and traditional dress told us a lot about their religion. Later I was told that I was supposed to sit on the other side of the temple because women are not supposed to sit on the same side as men. They didn’t make a big deal out of it. I had a serious English teaching job in Croatia which included 2 and a half months of paid holidays which I decided to spend in Barcelona. I hung out with the Chilean guys- the beautiful guy I met in a hostel on my way back home from Tenerife and his fun and cheerful friend who specialized in Japanese cuisine. There was a lovely Argentinian actress hanging out with us that summer. Later that year I saw Woody Allens movie Vicky, Christina, Barcelona which reminded me a lot of that summer. I had a crush on the handsome Chilean guy who rejected me and fell in love with my roommate in the flat he found for me. And I invited her to hang out with us. She was a nice, smart girl, especially for her young age, she was 10 years younger than me, only 22 at the time. It was funny how we first met. I leaned over the window in the flat and saw her leaning over her window in the neighboring room. I said hi but she didn’t say anything, just pulled her head back in, looking startled. Later she told me that she freaked out because we look very much alike and she taught she saw herself leaning out the window. We are both curly with big round foreheads. Even my dad thought I was her when he saw her in the picture. And then the guy falls in love with the younger version of me. I cried with jealousy one evening but then I accepted it and continued hanging out with them. They did have a lot in common, she was also a flute player for example and they ended up living together for years in Germany. So I was glad to have helped a true love story happen. The other Chilean guy wanted to be with me but I wasn’t attracted to him. And the Argentinian actress was unhappily in love with some guy. The handsome Chilean suffered because my German lookalike went back to Germany so we were kind of a pathetic bunch, with all our unsatisfied crushes. We still had a good time and hung out the entire summer. I brushed up my Spanish with them. The German girl came back to Barcelona just to see the guy, she fell for him head over heels.

The next time I moved to Barcelona was in 2014, after a two-week yacht stewardess gig in the Italian Amalfi coast. That gig was difficult but very satisfying when I walked out with 1600 euros and a paid plane ticket after only two weeks. The rich Russian family was very nice and undemanding but I worked my but off. The skipper/broker who hired me liked me a lot and said that I never complained like the previous stewardess, that I just had smiles for him. The Italian chef was a bit difficult to work with but I decided to tolerate everything and everyone for those two weeks. They wanted me to stay a bit longer but I already had my ticket to Barcelona and I left. I arranged a hostel volunteering in the center of Barcelona. The conditions were not good. They required a 6 hour work day for a bed in a staff flat. The flat was incredibly dirty, mostly thanks to the English boys who never cleaned or washed up after themselves. everyone was in their early twenties and I guess their mothers were still cleaning up after them. I did manage to get a paid job in their other hostel where I was the only employee. I was a hostel manager though my salary was only 400 euros offseason. It was supposed to be 600 euros during the season. not bad considering I didn’t have a boss and I had my little room in that hostel in the center of Barcelona. I didn’t like the manager and it started being gray and rainy so I got an urge to go south. I bought a ticket to Kuala Lumpur.

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A TOURIST ON A ROAD TRIP FROM BUDAPEST TO BARCELONA

While I was in Kuala Lumpur, a Hungarian friend (a former friend with benefits when he wasn’t in a relationship) asked me to consider taking a road trip with him to Barcelona. He told me I shouldn’t reply immediately but take time to think about it. So I took about half a second before replying hell yes. I’m not yet a great road trip companion because I don’t have a driving license or a spending budget. I pretty much financed just my own food. Bla Bla Car passengers covered most of the gas costs. I think I am a good company at least; I’m a good conversationalist and listener, I read a lot and I’m full of joy and enthusiasm for life. I have many original ideas and I like sharing my deepest thoughts and feelings, which is what makes someone an interesting person according to Alain de Botton.

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CESKY KRUMLOV

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Cesky Krumlov is a beautiful, romantic, picturesque town on the Vltava River in the South Bohemia region of the Czech Republic. Its 13th-century castle has Gothic, Renaissance and baroque elements and the views are breath taking.

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FRANCE (Bordeau, Touluse..)

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ANDORRA

We had coffee in Andorra. It’s a tiny country.

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SWITZERLAND

Nendaz, Sion, and Montreux

The size of the mountains is really impressive. It’s beautiful there. Our hosts had a beautiful house they built themselves. The views from the windows were breathtaking.

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BARCELONA. AGAIN.

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OVERVIEW

A lot can happen in very little time. Only bad things tend to happen fast in life and the good stuff requires time, patience and persistence to make happen. Crushes happen fast though. I experienced a big crush this time around in Barcelona (it happens to me relatively often and much more often when I’m living in a big exciting city). Nothing physical happened between us because he was my friend’s (with benefits) close friend, a forbidden fruit.

Before taking this road trip I spent two months in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where I had a young, smart and handsome friend with benefits, originally from India. When I met my friend’s friend’s friend’s wife in Barcelona, I was shocked to see his eyes and smile on her face. I tend to notice the similarity in faces and I can mostly tell if people are related. Probably because I paint portraits and have an eye for details. This time I was sure she was my KL lover’s sister who lives in Paris. It turned out they are first cousins! Small planet indeed. The weather was colder than it usually is at Easter in Barcelona. The few days we spent in Barcelona and one day in the nearby gay town of Sitges were filled with interesting conversations, alcohol and partying. One day I woke up with my sunglasses on my head. I didn’t pay for much during those few days but I at least refused to join them for the restaurant dinners and had my supermarket food instead. Both of the guys I was with were quite well off but my volunteering days are done so I will not be accepting free drinks from anyone anymore. I hope.

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A RECEPTIONIST IN KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

_{10 January 2015- 17 March 2015}

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GEORGE TOWN, PENANG ISLAND, MALAYSIA

Penang Island is in the Malaysian state of Penang. Its capital and Malaysia’s second largest city, with around 700 000 inhabitants, is called George Town. The visitors of George Town are encouraged to try as many of the local dishes as they can fit in their stomach and to check out the street art. So I did that. Jimmy Choo was born here. I also went to the cinema and saw Kingsmen. I loved it. George Town reminded me a little bit of Chiang Mai.

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SINGAPORE

I spent only two days in Singapore. It is a very fancy and beautiful modern city. It is also the most expensive city in the world. My host, an Indian guy I met on a dating website, was paying 2500 dollars a month for his small apartment. I still managed to buy two dresses for less than 5 euros. I ran into people selling second-hand clothes on the street in a kind of mini flea market. The most impressive part of Singapore was the three buildings with a huge ship sitting on top of them. It’s the Marina Bay Sands, a five-star hotel with s the world’s longest infinity pool on its roof. It’s 142 meters long and it’s the longest elevated pool in the world, almost three times the length of an Olympic swimming pool. While living in KL I noticed that infinity pools are a thing in this part of the world. Many residential high-rise buildings also have one. I also loved the huge nature park behind the hotel called Gardens by the Bay. It contains the impressive Supertree Grove: up to 50-meter tall tree-like structures. They are vertical gardens that perform a multitude of functions, which include planting, shading and working as environmental engines for the gardens. There is an elevated walkway between two of the larger Supertrees with awesome views to the Garden and many other magical things.

People who live in KL say that Singapore is too sterile, compared to KL. I can see why.

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A STEWARDESS ON A RUSSIAN YACHT ON THE AMALFI COAST

_{September 2014, right before I moved to Barcelona again}

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A BOAT MECHANIC AND SKIPPER IN GREECE

_{June 1st 2014 – 16 July 2014}

After the wonderful six months in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, my sadness about leaving the paradise was almost neutralized by the excitement about the new adventure. This wasn’t a usual yacht gig. I learned how to sail from an experienced sailor and the captain of the Lagoon catamaran I was supposed to live on for 6 months. The adventure turned out to be shorter than I expected but it was educational and memorable.

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A RECEPTIONIST AND MURAL PAINTER ON GRAN CANARIA

_{November 2013- May 2014}

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A HOUSEKEEPING MANAGER IN ISTANBUL

_{June-July 2013}

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A RECEPTIONIST AND HOUSEKEEPER IN four SICILIAN TOWNS AND NAPLES

_{November 2012-February 2013}

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A HOSTEL EMPLOYEE IN BERLIN

_{September - November 2012}

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A BACKPACKER IN THAILAND AND CAMBODIA

_{11th November, 2011 – March, 2012}

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A WAITRESS AND A WENCH IN TORONTO

_{October, 2010 – July, 2011}

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A CLEANING LADY IN MONTREAL

_{July and August 2011}

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A WAITRESS IN AN EX-YUGOSLAVIAN BAR IN SWITZERLAND

_{November 2009}

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AN AU-PAIR IN GISSEN, GERMANY

_{December 2009}

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A STREET SELLER IN MADRID AND TENERIFE

_{October – November, 2006}

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A FOOD RUNNER IN BALTIMORE AND AN EXTRA IN HOLLYWOOD, USA

_{May 2002 – October 2002}

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AN ENGLISH TEACHER IN my native CROATIA

₂₀₀₃

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A CASHIER IN AN EXCHANGE OFFICE, A FACTORY WORKER, A HOSTESS, A WAITRESS, A WAREHOUSE WORKER, a student of english and hungarian language and literature, a child ETC IN CROATIA

_{1977 – 2003}

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