Hello fellow Nomads,

Sending you all my regards from Budapest, Hungary. I got here about 3 weeks ago, and have to admit that as much as I don’t really like big cities, Budapest is a nice digital nomad hub.

Firstly, the cost of life is quite cheap in comparison to other European destinations, and the city really reminds me of Prague. Although Prague’s river views are a bit nicer, Budapest is less crowded and touristic, while the food is great! Hungarian food has become one of my favorites now, head to head with Romanian and Greek food. Hungarians are quite creative with cooking, and when you ask for a Spaghetti you are very likely to receive it with Spinach, eggs and apples.

Hungary is now going through a big challenge of a huge flow of immigrants, mainly Syrians, but also people from other nationalities who are trying to find a better life in Europe. It is sad to see entire families sleeping in train stations, which brings thoughts about how uncertain life is. Although most of us are in an illusion of a stable life, things can turn around in a minute.

When you see people losing everything they have, forced to move to another location, the nomadic lifestyle is actually making sense. As a nomad, if things go wrong, you can just take off and try assimilating in another country, and if you are a digital nomad, your stream of revenue will not be affected. Being Nomadic is Anti-fragile, and although you need a good passport to keep you moving freely, it solves a lot of the problems you might encounter if the dice turns against you in your fixed location.

As you might know, wherever I am, I always do weekend trips to escape the big city. There is nothing more depressing for me to stay in the place I am at on on Saturdays. Hungary has some cool relaxed spots around Budapest, mainly around Balaton Lake (huge lake with muddy fun water), Spa towns, and small villages in neighboring Slovakia. If you are going to Budapest, try dedicating some time to the country side as well to make your experience complete.

On personal development, I have started to get coached via Skype a few months ago! It is going really great, with some nice insights about life, and finding out better ways to reach my goals. My coach Andrea is from Slovakia, and if you are interested in getting coached (I was really skeptic when I started), I can’t recommend her enough. I encourage you nomads to get in touch with her and schedule a free session at https://www.bajnokova.com/

Travel resource of the month! Trusted house sitters is a site where you can get free accommodation in return for taking care of the home while the owners are on vacation. It usually involves watering the garden and taking care of pets while being there. Seems like a cool deal for me, and although I never tried it (I don’t get along well with pets and plants), maybe you should try it.

That’s it for now. If you have any comments, questions or you are around where I am currently at, let me know.

Happy travels!

Eli and the Becomenomad team