Youtube video- https://youtu.be/DPeqmawcsSE. While this post and the video provide identical details, videos can provide a better story.
Being a digital nomad isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s boring sometimes, and downright depressing during others. Stress is a factor that’s compounded since there are no surrounding comforts. For my one month in Bansko, the stress was abnormally high... so was it worth it?
An apartment in the first world that costs $352/m means something akin to a crack den. In Bansko, $352/m means a nice 1 bedroom serviced condo. Being part of a resort complex meant I had access to a variety of saunas, hot tubs, and indoor pools. The condo was so well lit and decorated my Zoom meetings had to ask if it was a fake background. Bansko had by far one of the best accommodations I’ve ever lived.
This meant stress eating at home wasn’t so bad. Chips and cookies every dinner is kind of fun until you remember you’re an adult and spending $97 to eat like that is probably a sin. So you tell yourself “I’ll eat better when dining out, surely that will balance it out.” Then you spend $163 on different combinations of cheese and bread.
The coworks had free coffee as a perk. Each had its own style hoping to make you stay awhile. Comparing them to one another was hard when they each cost ~$150 a month. But jumping from cowork to cowork every week leads to heart ache.
But stress and fun tend to correlate. Similar to the one time I skied the mountain, which cost me $61 for a lift and equipment. Thanks to having outstanding slopes it was well worth it. For the other weekends I decided to laze about instead of get more runs in.
Creating content isn’t all it’s cracked up to be either. Not everyone gets to travel like this and even less have the courage to put themselves out on the internet. The opportunity to showcase vulnerability within this prized lifestyle is a privilege, so I try to make the best of it. Was spending a month in Bansko good? Not how I did it, but my favorite part of being a nomad is that I get to try again.
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I hope that was entertaining! Making a cost of living breakdown within a story was interesting. Please understand stress is what I felt 5% of the time but as someone that feels it 0% of the time, it was noticeable. In order to entertain I wrote around that but on the whole I enjoyed my time in Bansko.
COL Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/.../1fjqpTrzUKLsFEjAfG4Lr.../edit...
Map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/1/edit...
Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/551410542686645419... (Now worth $1k+, it's not worth that price. Bansko has plenty of other accommodation with the same quality at nearly the same price.)
What I do: I’m a freelance operations consultant.
How I benefit from sharing this: