travel

My Favorite Travel Clothes Are Perfect for Everyone – Digital Nomad Life (Plus Video!)

November 20, 2018 By Kristen Suzanne

travel clothes shirt — My favorite travel shirt by Scott eVest

My Favorite Travel Clothes

When we travel we try to bring as little as possible, while still making our lives comfortable.

Though if I’m honest, I push myself pretty hard to reeeeeeeeally only bring what is necessary and very little.

Still, the funny thing is that my backpack and purse are heavy!

When I have a long day of travel, my shoulders and neck ache like a mother-f-ckr, and I vow every time to prune more. But, it got to the point where there just wasn’t anything else I could take out.

I had to come up with a better solution.

8 Reasons Why I Love Porto For My Digital Nomad Family

November 13, 2018 By Kristen Suzanne

We arrived in Porto, Portugal this week.

And, I’m in love.

In fact, I fell in love with Europe when I came to Porto.

The short of it: Porto is beautiful, safe, friendly, hilly (good for my bum!), cheap (for Europe), and has wonderful weather.

Why did we choose Porto?

We chose to live in Porto for six weeks as a digital nomad family for a few reasons.

Living Our Digital Nomad Family Dream Started Here

November 11, 2018 By Kristen Suzanne

My name is Kristen and I’m living the dream life that my husband, Greg, and I designed. We wanted to be digital nomads, and here we are doing it.

We wanted to move abroad.

We wanted to explore the world, and we wanted to show our daughter there is life outside of the United States.

We wanted to save money and pay off debt.

We wanted to achieve financial independence and “retire early.”

Our late-in-the-night conversations stemmed around our dream to teach our daughter about democracy on top of the Acropolis and evolution in the Galapagos. We imagined our daughter filling out college applications some day and having a distinct advantage because she’d be telling the story of how she traveled the world her whole life. That was and is our dream for her.

It wasn’t just for our daughter though.

Morning Pages Changed My Life. They’ll Change Your Life, Too.

October 26, 2018 By Kristen Suzanne

I write Morning Pages every single morning, and they’re changing my life.

I was turned on to Morning Pages, when I first heard about them from Tim Ferriss. I thought if this is something he is really gung-ho about, then he had my attention.

Sadly, I didn’t do much with it at the time.

I was living in the USA when I learned about them. My mom actually had the book, The Artist’s Way (this is the book that teaches you how to do them). I briefly looked at it, but the process didn’t call to me because it seemed it was for “real” artists. I write non-fiction and blog, so I questioned whether that qualified. (Silly me.)

Or, maybe it was the subtitle on the cover: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. I like to consider myself relatively spiritual, as I carry a couple of crystals with me on a regular basis -ha- but I wasn’t into reading spirituality books. (Except for The Tao of Daily Life, one of my favorite books in the whole world – so yeah, I guess I am spiritual in hindsight.)

Plus, Morning Pages seemed like an exercise I didn’t have time for in the morning. So, while I thought they sounded mildly interesting, I figured it was something I wouldn’t pursue at the time. Maybe later.

But, then Morning Pages came on my radar again.

It was time to pay closer attention.

Train Travel vs. Plane Travel in Europe – I Like Trains!

September 29, 2018 By Kristen Suzanne

I love train travel in Europe.

As a digital nomad family, we move around and live in different countries. When we’re deciding whether to fly or take a train, from one country in Europe to another, we lean toward train travel.

I think it’s such a cool way to travel. I love walking on the platform, looking for our coach.

train travel luggage and carry-on — Loaded up: luggage, two backpacks, camera case… no problem

Train travel has a more relaxed atmosphere, overall, experienced by both passengers and employees. There’s not much rushing and security doesn’t seem as intense. You never feel cramped. I’ve yet to hear a baby cry on a train, or be forced to sit with my arm brushing up against a sweaty stranger who’s hacking his lungs out.

But, isn’t train travel longer?

Back in the USA After 6 Months of Travel – My Reflections

September 28, 2018 By Kristen Suzanne

Mom's colorful backyard - or "garden" as they'd call it in Europe — Mom’s colorful backyard – or “garden” as they’d call it in Europe

We are back in Arizona to visit family for six weeks.

I hesitate to say that we are “back home” because I believe that home is wherever my family is. Whether that is in Denmark, Thailand, Mexico, or Arizona, I make my home wherever we land with our belongings and proceed to live our day-to-day life.

Some people said that at the six-month mark of traveling they wanted to go back to the United States from home-sickness, but I personally didn’t feel that. When my brother-in-law unexpectedly asked me, while we were in the United Kingdom, what I missed the most about the USA, I quickly replied, “nothing” (save for family).

However, I did think it was good for my daughter to come home and see her Nana and her grandma. Long-term travel was harder for her than it was for us parents, though she’s adapting and enjoying it more over time. So, we decided to come back to Arizona, earlier than originally anticipated.

Repacking Bags for Optimal Travel

Turned out I started looking forward to coming to AZ because I’ve learned a lot about what I want to have with me while I’m traveling the world. During the past six months I found that there were things I brought that I did not need, and there were things that I wanted and did not have. So I will take advantage of this time here to restock my backpack before we set out on another world travel adventure. (That’s a future blog post.)

The First Thing I Noticed

When we came back to the U.S., the first thing I noticed was the wide roads and large vehicles everywhere. Coming from Europe where the roads are narrow and most of the vehicles are small, it was an interesting (and obvious) thing to compare.

I’m also noticing how accessible everything is and the number of choices are so plentiful here. I don’t know whether this is good or bad, as I don’t really have a feeling or opinion on it. But I know that if I want to get some ground beef, I have about six stores within 2 miles where I can buy it.

That was not the case in Europe. But you know what? We did just fine with one store – never needed so many choices.

Cheap Steak for My Carnivore Diet

I still eat a carnivore diet – still loving it – skin still glows, tummy still flat, PMS still awesome.

So, I will admit that I am very excited to be back in the land of the cheap ribeye (and T-Bone) steaks because I did miss those a bit.

Hello lovely T-Bone Steak - Carnivore Diet — Hello lovely T-Bone Steak – Carnivore Diet

When we landed, I immediately went to mygrocerydeals.com and searched for the best sales on steaks. I was instantly presented with many options, of course. I didn’t waste any time and went right out and stocked up.

But, I Love

Funny thing, I went about a week or so without my favorite ground beef patties, and when I made them yesterday I realized how badly I missed them – lol – humble ground beef. I’ve been eating carnivore but eating different things such as fish and sausages and steaks the past week. The ground beef was a welcome frugal carnivore option.

In Awe When Landing

When our air plane was landing in Phoenix and we were taxiing on the runway, I had this overwhelming sense come over me of how expanded and resilient I realized I had become in six months of travel.

travel

My Favorite Travel Clothes Are Perfect for Everyone – Digital Nomad Life (Plus Video!)