6 min read
Being a digital nomad in a 6sqm home
TL;DR: A candid look at the realities of full-time van life as a digital nomad, balancing work, travel, and personal goals while living in a tiny mobile space.
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TL;DR: A candid look at the realities of full-time van life as a digital nomad, balancing work, travel, and personal goals while living in a tiny mobile space.
This year I decided to take the leap, and start my nomadic life. Like many people I had assumptions on how this life would look like, but man it's definitely not like it's on YouTube. Surely I wasn't expecting this, or did I? How hard can it be to live in a house on wheels fulltime, whilst travelling through Europe, having a fulltime job, learn a new language, maintain a good diet, keep working out regularly, get better at climbing, staying in touch with friends, writing blog post, building a sidle hustle... and the list goes on.
At the end of 2022 I bought my first Van, a Citroen Jumper from 2021 with 35k kilometers down. I was still in a relationship with a girl I met that year, and we kinda had the vision of travelling together in the van, and visiting bouldering spots all around Europe.
2 months after I bought the van, we broke up. But I still had the van, and I continued building it throughout 2023. Mid 2023 I was done with the build, and started with a few longer trips around Germany.
My little house has everything it needs, water, electricity powered by solar, wifi, heating, a place to cook and a comfy bed. For the trips I went on, the setup has proven itself, and my idea of living fulltime in the Van became more and more a reality. I was visiting a friend in Munich, one night we talked about my life situation, and at that time I decided that I change my lifes trajectory 2024.
Fast forward a few months later I'm living in my Van, heading into the 4th month. During that time I spent one month in France, near Fontainebleau for some bouldering, and then continued my journey to Spain, where I kinda got stuck.
I noticed quite fast that even if I change my surroundings one thing doesn't change, and that's me and my mindset. I discovered that I do certainly enjoy staying longer in place, having a community of friends and being able to communicate with the people around me, which leads me to one of my very first issues.
In Germany and in many English speaking countries we have the assumption that everyone speaks English, but haha nope. In Spain, except in the big cities like Madrid or Barcelona, most of the people speak little to no English. Learning Spanish does become a necessity if you want to fully immerse yourself. So I started learning Spanish, and let me tell you even though I speak German and English, learning a third language is hard haha. After two months of continous learning I'm a bit more confident and can understand easier conversations, and I'm able to order in a restaurant or get by asking for directions. But it is still a long way to go, until I reach a level where I can have a normal conversation with someone.
Pro Tip: Immerse yourself throughout the day with podcasts and videos in Spanish, learn vocab with things like Memrise, Duolingo, repeat and review with Anki.
Back in Germany I used to order a lot of things regularly from Amazon, now I rarely do. I still have a few things, but only things that are quite important, because I don't have too much space anyhow.
It's hard to juggle too many balls, especially when you're in a kinda uncomfortable situation like living in a Van. Some things just take soooo much more time, or are things you never have to worry about living in a normal home.
Overall does living in a regular flat provide you with far more convenciences that living in a tiny house on wheels. These conveniences do make it more accessible to handle other goals in life, since your mind has more capacity to focus on other things.
Today is a Sunday. I'm in Albarracin for some bouldering later. Because I felt unproductive I started learning some Spanish, did some stretching, and now write this post. I consistently struggle with the idea of not doing enough, especially in terms of business and money. I know that have to build my own business if I want to continue this lifestyle longterm, because I want and need to run my company out of a different country, where taxes are lower, and the regulations are less painful.
If I want to move to Spain where the tax rate is half of the rate in Germany, I will surely have to up my Spanish even more.
Having lower taxes, would require me to work even less, because then I get more out of the money I earn.
I still have to learn that I cannot do everything at once. Right now I'm more focused on learning Spanish, as this is just a necessity for me right now, otherwise I'm kinda lost in this country.
Since I don't want to compromise my bouldering and training, as well as my social life, I don't dedicate any time towards my own business.
Not feeling bad about is truly a struggle.
Recently when I received another MS Teams call I got so annoyed and had a little moment of fuck this: I don't want to be available all the time for work. Especially do I not want to be disturbed, nor do I want to have any goddam meetings. This lifestyle also taught me that I truly want location freedom, as well as a good income. As well as not wanting to pay the highest tax rate, without receiving any benefits like in Germany.