Between August 12 and the end of October, I’ll be exploring 13 countries across the Baltics, eastern Europe and Georgia. Yes, this is ambitious. Yes, I may end up skipping one or two if I get tired of being on the road. Normally I like to stay in one place for a month, but I’m eager to see more of the world, faster. I’m feeling like a slacker having only visited 28 countries to date!
Here’s my current schedule. If you happen to be in any of these places when I’m here, please reach out! I’d love to grab coffee.
Solo travel:
- Tallin, Estonia – Aug 12 – 16
- Helsinki, Finland – day trip from Tallinn
- Karde, Estonia – Aug 16 – 19. I’m staying in a camper on the edge of a nature preserve, and I’m so excited!
- Tartu, Estonia — Aug 19 – 20. Just a chance to wash clothes and see one more Estonian city!
- Riga, Latvia – Aug 20 – 26
- Nida, Lithuania – Aug 26 – 31 – A small village on the Curonian Spit (national park and UNESCO world heritage site)
- Vilnius, Lithuania – Aug 31 – Sept 6
- Minsk, Belarus – Sept 6 – Sept 9. Belarus offers 5 days of visa-free travel only coming in and out of Minsk Airport.
- Kyiv, Ukraine – Sept 9 – 16.
- Lviv, Ukraine – Sept 16 – 25. Lots of day trips from Lviv.
- Budapest: 25 – 29th.
Side note: I’m really disappointed to not have Poland on the agenda; I’d planned to spend a week in Krakow, which I hear is amazing. But I hadn’t realized that most of these countries are in the Schengen area, and I was going to be over my 90-day limit when I factored in my current time in Geneva. So… I had to swap Poland for Ukraine. I’ll hit Poland on another trip.
Mother/daughter trip
In Budapest I’m joined by my mom, and we’re embarking on a 5-day river cruise along the Danube! We’re overdue for a nice mother/daughter trip, and I’m looking forward to introducing her to my nomadic life overseas 🙂 From Budapest, the main stops include:
- Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria
- Vidin, Bulgaria
- Belgrade, Serbia
- Osijik, Croatia
- Kalocsa, Hungary
- Bucharest, Romania
Back to solo
When mom flies back to the US, I’ll head to Tbilisi, Georgia.
Why Tbilisi, you may ask? I’ll be exploring Tbilisi as a potential home base as it checks pretty much every box on my list.
- I can stay in Georgia for a year visa-free, and then do visa runs to extend my time
- No tax on foreign-earned income
- Ludicrously inexpensive (I can easily rent a nice AirBnB apartment – not room – for $500 a month)
- From the photos I see online, it’s beautiful: not only a charming town, but it’s very close to nature and the mountains
- Good digital infrastructure and a lot of digital nomads
- I hear the younger folks usually speak English.
- LGBT discrimination is illegal (unusual for a former Soviet country, but they still have a long way to go… which of course is the downside of being in this part of the world.)
Stay tuned
I will continue updating this itinerary as it develops, along with links to posts, so it can be a good reference guide.
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