The Beginning of a
New Adventure

The past couple of weeks I’ve come to an exciting decision! It’s time to set everything in motion and follow my dreams, to pack up and start my journey to find a new place to live somewhere closer to nature, maybe in Portugal or elsewhere in the south of Europe!

The Dream

In short, I’ve been dreaming about living in a little house closer to nature and with a wonderful garden to grow as much food as I can for myself for a while now. I’ve wanted to create this green abundant little haven ever since I started growing my own vegetables on my little balcony here in Antwerp and learned more about permaculture and regenerative lifestyles. And to be honest, deep down I’ve felt this pull towards more nature for much longer, it’s probably been growing inside me ever since I had my burn-out several years ago.

Check out this blog post to learn more about my wild dream! I’m really excited to move forward with this now!

Ready To Go

Up until now the realities of the pandemic have unfortunately made it hard to just pack up and travel wherever I wanted. And while for some time I was constantly looking on property websites to see if there were any suitable places for sale in the south of Europe I quickly realised that without being able to travel freely and getting to know the area there was little point in it cause it would be crazy to buy a property somewhere far away without knowing anything except what you see on the pictures.

So I mentally just pressed the pause button and tried to focus as much as possible to the enjoyable things I can do while still living here in Antwerp and that was totally OK for a while.

But now even though the pandemic is not completely over it is at least releasing its grip a little bit. And some other things happened recently that made me stop and think about my life and where I want to be (a building collapsed right in front of my eyes and I just narrowly escaped with my life; the news of the very concerning PFOS – toxic forever chemicals – contamination scandal right here in Antwerp; and some other smaller stuff that’s been frustrating me). So suddenly it became clear to me that it’s time to get things rolling and to stop dreaming but start acting! I am ready!

So What’s The Plan?

My plan is still quite vague and there are a few options, but I think it’s going to best to travel around a bit to scout out different areas where I might want to settle down eventually. And while I travel around I can visit other people that are doing interesting eco projects to see what’s possible, to get inspired and to make some new friends locally.

At the moment I’m not completely sure yet where I want to live. I’ve seen beautiful and affordable properties in Portugal and in France, but for both countries there are still many question marks about the areas where these properties are located. And I’m still open to other countries too. 

I’ve looked into different options how I can travel around and visit different locations. And I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s probably best for me to buy a car, drive to the south of Europe and then rent an apartment or little house for a few months at a time in a location that I’m interested to know better. The car will give me the freedom to get around locally and having a house/apartment for a little while will give me the chance to feel how it is to actually live there, to get to know the area and some local people and it will also be easier for me to get some work done as well. And then I can move to another location, again and again, living the digital nomad life til I find the place I love and want to settle down more permanently…

Another option could be to buy a travel van and tour around in that for a while. But I’ve discovered those vans are really quite expensive, living in them would be cramped and it might be tricky to have good enough internet for me to be able to send huge files to clients while on the road with a van.

And there’s a 3rd option though it’s not quite in my hands to decide if I’ll be able to do this, but I’ve sent in an application to live as a digital nomad for a year in airBnB locations (paid for by airBnB). This would be brilliant of course as it would give me a lot of freedom to travel around, it would even give me extra budget not just for the accommodation but also to travel. And I would not just use the opportunity to scout out possible areas for me to live permanently but also to visit lots of eco-friendly and sustainable initiatives during my travels and tell you all about it… so I’m definitely hoping to get picked for this opportunity (they will let winners know by the end of July) but in the mean time I’m looking into my first option cause one thing is for sure, the urge to leave and going after my dream is getting too big to be able to stay put and just keep on dreaming…

The Big Road Trip

I must admit that the idea of buying a car and doing such a big road trip is both scary and exhilarating to me. I’ve actually never owned a car, and while I have a drivers license I’ve never driven much. I just never needed a car while I was living in the city. So I’ll definitely need a bit of practice to refresh my skills before I actually leave and I will break up the big road trip (about 22hrs driving in total according to google maps) through Belgium, France and Spain to the south of Portugal in several short trips to make it doable.

But the prospect to have the freedom to go off the beaten path and to more remote places is exciting. Traveling by public transport has always been great for me but it definitely has its limitations and I’m looking forward to this new freedom!

First Steps

Deciding to leave on this adventure and telling my friends and family is just the first step in this big journey. The next steps will be to organise everything that needs organising before I can leave.

I’m going to reduce my possessions to a minimum and put whatever I keep in storage and quit my rental apartment. I’ve collected so much crap in the past 10 years that I’ve lived here. It’s been a mental burden and has irritated me immensely so it will be wonderful to let go of as much of it as possible. But it will be a lot of work. I’m not even sure where to start, it feels a bit overwhelming!!

And another important thing I need to sort is all the administration stuff. When I quit my apartment I’ll have to find a solution for where I’ll put my official residence and business location at least until I find a location where I want to settle long term. Belgium unfortunately is not really up-to-date with laws or regulations for Belgians traveling abroad living the digital nomad lifestyle, which means it’s all a bit tricky, even if you want to do it all by the book.

I hope to get all of this done by the end of October so I can leave around that time. Though it might be a bit later depending on how things progress with my preparations. And of course there’s one unpredictable thing that might influence my departure time: the pandemic. Only a week after I made the decision to depart in the fall covid infections started to rise sharply and I’m finding it hard to predict right now if this will result in more travel restrictions again or not. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the high level of vaccinations in Europe will keep severe covid illness and deaths at least down enough so people can travel freely but with these new mutations you never know…

To be continued! More news on my new journey will follow as soon as things start to progress…

23 July 2021 by INE BEERTEN

Portugal