Living in Budapest

I spent most of the summer contemplating exactly what it is I’m doing here. Why did I quit the nomadic life? Why choose Budapest as base? Is there any real value in travel blogging? Do I still want to live in Europe? Should I be doing something more important with my life? So many questions.

Giving Up Being a Nomad

This isn’t the first time I’ve sat down and tried to put into words why I gave up the nomadic life, a life I dreamt of for years, to ‘settle down’ in Budapest. I didn’t know how to say what it is I had been feeling. Then this morning I read this.

Pretend you read that here and I wrote it and you’d have the reason I rented an apartment for a year, got my belongings out of storage, stopped travelling, and am now sorting out my home.

In short, I gave up travelling permanently because:

I’m tired.

I’m tired of being nomadic.

I’m tired of travelling.

I’m tired of writing about travel.

I’m tired of living out of a suitcase.

I’m tired of not being able to cook.

I’m tired of only having fleeting friendships.

Moving to Budapest

In January I bought a small apartment in Budapest. The plan was to quickly renovate it, move in and be rent free and mortgage free for the first time in my life. That would give me the financial freedom to do what I please, travel when I want and stay put when I want.

But renovating in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language is difficult. Not to mention I don’t quite have the funds to do it.

So a couple of weeks ago I got the keys to a rental apartment in Budapest’s Palace District. It’s a beautiful area, close to everything, including my own apartment which one day I’m sure I’ll get around to renovating. Or maybe not.

Since buying an apartment in Budapest and now renting, I’ve discovered something important, something I should have realised months ago.

I don’t like living in Budapest.

That was not a scenario I contemplated when I made plans to move here.

What Now?

I thought if I stopped procrastinating and pushed myself I could get into the routine of blogging every day and the blog would be flourishing. But writing doesn’t come naturally to me. I have to work hard at it. It’s time consuming and the end result never meets the expectations I have in my head.

Then there are the daily vlogs which I started making at the end of last year. I love doing the vlogs but let’s be honest, if I’m not travelling, the vlogs aren’t that interesting and 3-4 hours of editing each day is a killer.

There are also financial considerations to make. I never wanted to ‘sellout’ like I believe many of my fellow travel bloggers have done. But without selling links, publishing advertorials, promoting travel blogging instead of travel, or becoming a destination marketer (urgh), the cash isn’t exactly pouring in.

Many travel bloggers make their income via freelance writing and a few run group tours but neither of those suit me. I’ve always made most of my money via affiliate marketing, even long before I had a travel blog. I plan to get back into that but mostly focus on some half-finished non-travel related projects I’ve been working on.

This doesn’t mean I’ll be giving up travelling and travel blogging. I don’t think I could ever do that. But it does mean I won’t be doing either as often. I will travel when I feeling passionately about going somewhere and I will write when I feel inspired.

I still have many unanswered questions but for now (today’s plan ;) ) I’ll only be blogging occasionally and mostly focusing on projects I enjoy but which also have a solid business plan behind them. And... I’m planning my escape from Budapest and possibly Europe.