I left Iceland with a one way ticket to Milan, Italy, and pretty much no plan. I had booked three nights at a hostel in Milan, but that was it. I didn’t really have any intentions to stay in Milan, I just found a cheap flight there, hadn’t been there before, so I figured I might as well just book it

In a perfect world I would have gone to Asia, but yeah not an option at the moment So I figured I would spend a few months traveling around Europe since even though I’ve been around Europe a lot, there are still some interesting countries I haven’t been to. Originally I wanted to start by traveling around Italy for a while, visiting places like Cinque Terre, Rome, Positano, Venice, Sicily, and then continue to Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia. This all should have been easy enough given that I have an Icelandic passport so no visas needed, and since I’ve already had covid, was just one email away from getting the EU Covid Pass. Or that’s what I thought :)) After about 20 emails and various phone calls, the Ministry of Health just didn’t quite feel like issuing it even though I had two certificates stating I’d had covid, since I wasn’t in Iceland when I had it so they couldn’t see it in their “system” :))) I could write a whole blog post about this process and how ridiculous it all is, but won’t bore you with that haha. I wasn’t too thrilled about all this, so a lawyer at the Ministry of Health is looking into this atm

Given I don’t have this pass, I’m not as free to travel around Europe as I should be.I could still go to Italy, just couldn’t eat inside restaurants, go to museums or go on long distance trains or buses without getting a rapid test :))) I still had a good time in Milan, I wasn’t really planning on going to museums or eating inside restaurants anyway so it didn’t really affect me. But still would have been nice to have the option lol. So I explored a lot of the outside, not so much of the inside :)) kinda felt like a dog, not allowed anywhere inside lol. But yeah, I still a had good time in Milan. I stayed at a super nice host and spend a few I spend a few days exploring Milan, eating pizza (outside :))) ) and drinking Aperol Spritz :))

However, I quickly found out that I kinda had too much luggage to be staying in hostels, I had a really hard time just finding things in my suitcases and it was just annoying. Hostels in Europe are also kind of expensive, so in the end it’s cheaper to find a room or an apartment to rent than to be staying in hostels. So I did a little research and decided that Split, Croatia, would be the perfect place to stay for a month or two. Unfortunately, a lot of other people seem to have reached the same conclusion, as just about every decent apartment seemed to be booked out for the next couple of weeks :))) I ended up booking a super cute apartment close to the beach from the middle of October, for a ridiculously low price, just under 600EUR per month. I’m super excited to be able to unpack my bags and not have to drag my luggage around every couple of days And also to be able to use whatever stuff is at the bottom of my suitcase, up until now I’ve kind of just been using whatever happened to be on the top. I will definitely do some shorter trips from Split though, but won’t need to bring all my stuff along lol.

But yeah I think the lesson learned from this is that when I’m planning to stay a month or two in the same place, I might need to book it more than a day or two in advance lol. So now I’m trying to decide where I’ll want to stay after christmas Mexico is pretty high on that list. So is Costa Rica haha.

After spending a few days in Milan, I started making my way towards Croatia. All this planning was happening very last minute, I was literally sitting at my hostel in Milan looking for flights departing the following day, which isn’t ideal when it comes to prices lol. So I decided to just go a little slower and started by booking a train to Venice. Not a bad place for a little stopover I hadn’t been there for a few years so was excited to visit once again! Although my hostel in Milan was nice, hostels in europe don’t really have the same backpackers atmosphere as the ones in asia and central/south america. I can’t really pinpoint why exactly, it’s just not the same. And after someone turned all the lights on in the middle of the night in my room, I immediately promised myself that I’d get myself a hotel room in Venice Which I did. I will say it was pretty damn nice to have my own room. Especially being the only one in control of whether or not the lights were on :)))

Originally I booked two nights in Venice, but pretty much immediately after I arrived there, I just knew I wanted to extend my stay. Venice is seriously so beautiful. Even though it was kinda raining the first day, I still loved it haha. It’s one of those places where everything is pretty. If you haven’t been yet, do add it to your list! The best time to visit I would say is just before or after the high season – April/May, maybe June is okay, or September/October. When it’s still warm but not too hot or as packed with tourists as in July and August.

I spent two days in Venice – mostly just wandering around, having aperol & pizzas and taking lots of photos. Most of the tourists tend to stay around the main canal, where the Puente de Rialto bridge is. That’s sort of the most iconic part of Venice, kind of like the Opera house in Sydney. But as soon as you get away from that area, you will quickly have the streets almost to yourself. So if you’re planning to go to Venice, make sure to not just stick to the main tourist attractions. I would still recommend visiting Puente de Rialto and those more “touristy places”, but they were definitely my least favourite part. It was so crowded with people that it just took away from the experience. Just felt way too touristy

After wandering through Venice for two days, it was time to leave Italy and head over to Croatia. I booked a bus from Venice to Pula, Croatia – which before covid would have been a smooth ride, requiring nothing but my passport. Those were the days lol. But yeah I needed to get a QR code, not in order to enter Croatia but in order to board the bus in Italy. In Iceland, and probably most countries except Italy, this is a straight forward process. You take an antigen test and then get the QR code emailed to you about 30 minutes later. But in Italy there seems to be no such thing as a smooth process. After a bit of confusion about where I could take an antigen test as a non Italian resident, I found a place that was supposed to do just that. There were lots of confused foreigners waiting in front of it, which I kinda thought was a good sign, cause at least I knew they were accepting non Italians

After a chaotic process of registering, handing over my passport and waiting, I got the test done and had the results like 15 minutes later. So not too bad, I thought, until I looked at the “certificate” I had just received. It was nothing more than a piece of paper that I had filled out, with my name and passport number, and all they had done was checking a box that said negative :)) Knowing that no person in their right mind would accept this piece of paper as a travel document. I expressed that concern to the women working there in a mix of english and spanish as her english wasn’t very good, all I got was “yeah look, negative” and I was like yeah I know but I need a QR code, but all I got was “no QR code”.I might as well have handed over a handwritten note from my mom stating that I didn’t have covid :))) Then she pointed me to a piece of paper on the wall, that looked equally as official as my “certificate”, that stated that the QR code system wasn’t working and that I should receive it within 24 hours. Which would have been too late for my bus, but that wasn’t my biggest concern.

They didn’t ask for my email or my phone number or any other contact info, so my biggest confusion was how they planned to send me the QR code :))) The women didn’t offer any clarification on that and was kinda done with me at this point, my phone was at 3% and my charging bank was empty, so I decided to just go back to the hotel and figure something out. I spent the night on various Italian websites trying to somehow retrieve my QR code certificate, by putting in some random codes that I found on my “certificate”. None of them worked as I always needed some form of an Italian identification number, which obviously I didn’t have :))) This was getting kinda stressful, and at this point I couldn’t wait to leave Italy and be done with this bullshit. I had heard about people getting their QR codes from pharmacies, so I visited two of those the next morning. At the first one they told me they couldn’t get it cause I wasn’t Italian. At the second one they at first told me they couldn’t get it, and I was like yeahhh you can :)) and she was like no we can’t, and I was like yeah please check it :))) After some back and forth she finally went to the computer, and then I heard her print something and I was just like omg I finally have it!! But it wasn’t actually the QR code, but it was a slightly more official looking certificate, not handwritten :))) So at least it was something haha.

When my bus arrived I saw there was a sign saying that you needed a QR code to board, so not too good news for me at this point :)) I just tried to play it cool, put my bags in and went to my seat, hoping that no one would ask me for it. The relief when the bus finally took off omg. We still had two border controls to pass (exiting Slovenia/Schengen and then entering Croatia), but neither of them required a QR code so I wasn’t too stressed about those. At the end no one even asked me for my certificate haha, just needed to show my passport so it was all good! Felt so great when I finally arrived in Croatia, knowing all this QR code bullshit was behind me, as they aren’t required in Croatia :)))

I arrived in Pula in the evening and checked into the private room I had booked. At this point I was getting kinda spoiled after my hotel stay in Venice :))) The hostels in Pula just didn’t look very good and this room actually was pretty cheap haha. And it was just super cute, and right in the centre!

I didn’t really know anything about Pula, I just knew it was on my way to Split and a few days earlier someone I’m following posted a photo of a “colosseum” in Pula. It looked very much like the one in Rome and I just thought that was kinda cool so I decided to stop there haha. Pula is a pretty small town, with a nice eastern europe feel to it. Very colourful, reminded me a lot of Slovenia and Italy. And then there is the colosseum! I spent two days there which I felt was just enough.

Continuing to make my way to Split, I got on a bus to Zadar, another pretty small town, located on Croatia’s Dalmatian coast. My favourite part about Zadar was probably the coffee place where I had breakfast – it was right next to the ocean, and just had this “local” Croatian feel to it, as it was a bit out of the centre, which was perhaps why there were only local people there. And then me It just really felt like I was experiencing the real Croatia haha. Zadar, like many other cities in Croatia, has a very cute old town that I loved wandering through.

After two days in Zadar, I took a bus to Split! That was kind of my “destination” as I had already booked an apartment there from the middle of October, so I was super excited to get there :))Split is the second largest city in Croatia, located on the Adriatic coast. I had heard nothing but good things about it, which I guess was enough to convince me to book an apartment there haha. Luckily I really loved it and am excited to get back there!

Since I’m gonna be staying in Split for at least I month, I figured I’d explore other parts of Croatia until then. This is when I bought a ferry ticket to Hvar, a small island about an hour away from Split. Hvar has been on my bucket list for years, so this felt like the perfect time to finally explore it. I was so ready for the island life so I booked a room for a week through Airbnb. (Airbnb tip – most hosts offer a discount of you stay for a week, or a month).

This week on Hvar has been a dream. Beginning every day by wandering through the island and having breakfast at one of the many restaurants that overlook the ocean.

It’s just something about waking up on an island, so peaceful somehow. I usually bring my laptop to breakfast, check on the stock market and whatever else I might need to get done, then spend the rest of day living the island life :)))

Hvar is very “seasonal” – the season runs from around May through September, this is when the island gets loads of tourists, all restaurants are open and tons of activities are available. Many restaurants and shops then close at the end of the season, and will then open back up around May – so the island gets very quiet, with mostly locals around, during off season. Since it’s the end of the season now, the island is pretty quiet, there are certainly tourists around (including me :))) ) but it isn’t packed, as I’d imagine is the case in July and August. The weather is still nice and warm, and the sea is warm enough for a swim! And as you’ve probably seen if you’re following my on instagram, the sea is so clear! With the island being pretty quiet now, finding your own little private spot on one of the beaches is not even remotely challenging.

The only negative thing I could say about Hvar is that it’s a little expensive, as islands tend to be (Iceland for example lol). It’s nowhere near as expensive as in Iceland though, but meals cost around 10-20 euros, but for the most part they seem to be profiting off of the drinks, most likely counting on the fact that you’ll order them without looking at the menu :))) It’s not uncommon for food to be decently priced, then you order an orange juice, only to find out when you get the check that the juice was 5EUR haha. Which actually, now that I think of it, is more than you’d ever pay for a glass of juice in Iceland.

My next stop is Korcula, another island about an hour away from Hvar! I don’t think I can get enough of island life haha. So more beach days to come! My plan is then to take a ferry to Dubrovnik and from there take a bus to Bosnia and stay there for a few days, before checking into my apartment in Split <3 It feels so weird sometimes to think about that this is really my life, that I can just go wherever I want and pretty much do whatever I want. At this point I can’t imagine showing up to work five days a week and it feels so strange that I used to do just that.

I think that’s it for now – PS if you want to get notified when I publish new blog posts, just click the red bell in the bottom right corner, or follow me on instagram where I usually announce new posts :))))

The post Life update: more travels, exploring croatia & new apartment appeared first on Sóldís Alda.

What a normal day looks like

Although no two days are the same, a typical day for me in Valencia looks something like this. I usually wake up around 9 by the sun shining into my room. Getting up fast is really not my thing. It takes me at least 15 minutes to actually get up haha. Which feels so much better than waking up to an alarm and having to jump out of bed and rush to work :)) By that time my roommate is already off to work so I have the apartment to myself. I don’t really like to talk to people before I’ve had my coffee and had a moment to properly wake up so this works out just fine lol. So obviously I start by making some coffee & usually have some kind of rice cracker thing with hummus/avocado & dates. Then I spend about an hour having breakfast and just chilling, reading up on news related to the stock market, watching Friends, pinning to my new Pinterest account that I made for my presets. I’ve never been very active on Pinterest so I’m not quite sure what I’m doing, but at least I’m doing something haha.

Around 10.30, when I have managed to properly wake up, I usually head to the gym. It takes me about 5 minutes to bike there, love how easy it is to get around here. The program I have at the gym takes me about 1,5 hours, although it often takes me longer if I stay on my phone too much, or if there is something “happening” on the stock marketing and I need to be watching it closely and buying/selling. When I get back home I make a smoothie bowl (so goood)- well except for the month or so my blender was being repaired. It broke down sometime in May, and just like pretty much everything in Spain, it took a ridiculously long time for no apparent reason, but eventually it got done :)))

Then it really just depends on what I feel like and what day is what I do after getting back from the gym. Sometimes I meet up with someone at a café, either to “work” or just to chill. Other days I go the beach or to the centre. Always watching the stock market from my phone though haha. It’s not uncommon that I’ll be walking somewhere with someone and then I’ll be like ah we need to stop for a moment I need to buy/sell this one stock the price just went up/down. Then other days I just stay home and maybe work on this blog or procrastinate or whatever. I’m not gonna make this sound like I’m always super productive and using my time wisely – some days it’s 6pm and I’m just like wow where did this day go?! What happened to 2 o’clock and 3 o’clock and all the other o’clocks :)))

A lot of my friends here work during the day so often we’ll meet up in the afternoon for a drink or dinner or something. Going out for drinks here is sooo cheap it’s almost ridiculous haha, especially when compared to Iceland where you pay about 8-10 euros for a beer lol. A beer or a cider here is about 2 euros and cocktails around 5-8 euros. Then I go to the supermarket around 3 times a day for no good reason haha. I don’t know why I just always forget something or I get a random craving and/or I can’t decide what I wanna eat until the moment I’m gonna eat. I’m a mess. I try to go to sleep no later than midnight but well, doesn’t always happen. Sometimes I stay on my phone until I start dropping it on my face repeatedly. Luckily I’ve never happened to be two years deep into someone’s instagram feed and accidentally liked a family christmas photo from years ago :))) But yeah that point it’s really time to go to sleep lol.

The not normal days

So that was pretty much what an average day has been like. But other days I’ve been out exploring – doing day trips, weekend trips, beach days and stuff like that. And I gotta say that Spain really keeps surprising me. Even though I’ve been to Spain probably about 20 times and have visited all the major cities as well as some smaller ones, there is so much I haven’t seen. Montanejos was probably the one that surprised me the most, it reminded me of Switzerland at time while other parts looked a lot like Asia!

Montanejos

So in June I went on a day trip to Montanejos with a few other people & lots of dogs!! A dream :)) It’s about 1,5 hour drive from Valencia, however there are no buses or trains that go there – but luckily one of my friend has a car so off we went! It’s a pretty big area, with lots of hiking trails and a hot spring where you can go for a swim. We followed one of the hiking trails, or well we did our best to Like many other things in Spain, it was not very clearly marked and we ended up getting lost several times. It wasn’t all bad though cause the views where so worth it. But we walked a looot and I ended up having to rest throughout the next day haha.

Enjoying some beach time

I’ve probably had a few people’s share of beach time this summer. It’s one of the privileges of spending a summer in Valencia. We usually just go to the beach here in Valencia, which is actually a pretty nice one. Surprisingly, it’s a lot better than the beach in Barcelona, in my opinion. It does get pretty crowded, especially on weekends, but you can still manage to find a pretty quiet spot. During the middle of the day it gets very very hot, so we normally try to go around 3pm, stay for a few hours and then grab a drink or two before heading back.

Eating (tacos) & drinking (mostly Aperol)

I would say wine & dine, except I don’t really drink wine. And also it just sounds a little fancier than what I’ve been doing. I’m not really a fan of fancy food. The portions are usually tiny, and more importantly, I don’t know what half the stuff on the menu is Anyway. I’ve been going out for food and/or drinks pretty frequently. Aperol being my number one choice for a drink. I will also never say no to tacos

Visiting Málaga

At the end of June I went to Málaga with one of my friends. Originally we were only planning to go to Granada, but as it turned out, our only realistic option to get to Granada was to fly to Málaga, we figured we might as well spend a day or two there. And I’m so glad we did.

We only had one and a half day in Málaga, but I feel like we managed to do quite a lot. Málaga is not to big and it’s easy to explore by foot. It’s a “typical” Spanish city, with a bit of Mediterranean vibes mixed with some Andalucian/Moroccan style architecture.

I also loved roaming around the historical centre. Just like other cities in Spain, it’s very cute & colourful – with plenty of cafés and terraces to sit down and enjoy the views.

Granada

After spending two nights in Málaga, we jumped on a bus and headed to our next stop, Granada! A city that has been on my bucket list for far too long! Granada is mostly famous for the Alhambra – a palace constructed a very long time ago, between 1238-1538 to be exact The Alhambra was the main reason I wanted to visit Granada, which I think you’ll understand once you see what it looks like!

A part from visiting the Alhambra, we walked around the city a whole lot, admiring the Alhambra from different angles In the Albaicin neighbourhood, there are a variety of cafés and restaurants with terraces that offer views of the Alhambra. I literally could have spent days just hanging out at all of them and taking in the views!

Day trips to Pinedo

One of the best things about spending a summer in Valencia is Pinedo! A very cute and pretty quiet beach town not too far from Valencia. Although it’s only a 10 minute drive there, it actually takes about 45 minutes by public transport. I have close to no experience with public transport within Valencia as I bike or walk everywhere, but this bus never arrives on time. It can be up to 30 minute late for no clear reason, so that’s kinda the only drawback about visiting Pinedo But it’s such a pretty beach, and doesn’t even get crowded on weekends. I will add that this isn’t the main beach in Pinedo, that one is indeed very touristy, this one is called Playa Autocine and is much prettier! Actually one of the best beach I’ve been to in Spain. Usually we bring picnic and just chill on the beach, but there are also a few restaurant in Pinedo.

Museums

I’m honestly really pushing by using the plural. I have visited two, that it is if you count both the one we visited mostly for the pretty pink court yard and another one that wasn’t really a museum, but the ruins of the “old Valencia”. So yeah I guess museums is kinda stretching it, but I think I’ll just go with it

Day trip to Port Saplaya “little Venice”

So the actual Venice is of course in Italy, but there is a “little Venice” just outside of Valencia. It’s called Port Saplaya, but due to its similarity to Venice, it’s often referred to as little Venice. We went on a day trip there at the end of May, it was quite a struggle to get there by public transport, but eventually we made it haha. Someone asked me afterwards why we didn’t just take a taxi, and honestly we didn’t even think about it, I’m just not used to taking taxis so often I forget they exist haha I wasn’t really expecting it to look a whole lot like Venice, but you can definitely see why it’s called little Venice. It sure managed to make me feel like I was in Italy for a day

Chilling in the park

So in Valencia we have this giant park, that runs throughout the city. It’s huge – 9km long to be exact. Clearly it has lots of greeneries, palm trees, with views of the city, bike paths, cafés, all of it. A lot of people go there for running.I do not. I go there all the time to sunbath, chill, have a picnic, go for drinks, meeting doggos and whatnot. Usually I try to sit close to someone with a cute dog, not so close that it’s very obvious, but close enough so the dog can come over to me so I can pet him

Benicassim & water park – a must when spending a summer in Valencia

Spending a summer in Valencia wouldn’t be complete without going to a water park! When my friend told me that there was a water park about an hour away from Valencia, I knew I had to visit. I hadn’t been to one in years so I was already way too excited about it haha. Then we finally found a day to go there, and boiii was it fun. After spending the day there I came to the conclusion that I should spend more time in water parks and less time not in water parks :)))

So this is pretty much what my summer has been like! It’s been one of the best summer I’ve had, filled with lots of summer-y things I’m writing this in past tense because I’m actually headed to Iceland in the first week of August, so who knows if it will be summer there haha. You really can’t count on it. But I hope so! As for the rest of the year, I have no concrete plans and have no idea where I will be. My life is kind of an uncertain mess haha. But I feel like that’s what makes it exciting. People keep telling me things like “oh I can’t wait to see where you end up next” and I’m like “yeah me too” cause I honestly don’t know. Since Asia and Australia are still out of the picture, I figure I’ll be somewhere in Europe. Portugal, Croatia, Italy, Greece and Malta are some of the countries that are on my list. Although I’ve been to all of them except Greece, I feel like there is so much I haven’t seen. As an Icelandic passport holder, traveling in Europe is very easy and I don’t need a visa or anything like that. Then I might just as well visit Mexico or Colombia, I’ve been dying to go back there. Who knows.

The post Spending a summer in Valencia appeared first on Sóldís Alda.

Why I quit my 9-5 job

My life hasn’t always been full of traveling and adventures. When I was about 20 years old, my life was headed straight down the 9-5 path. Not because I was dying to spend my life in an office, but because I hadn’t realised there were other possibilities. How was I gonna make a living without having a job, right? I knew I wanted to travel and see the world, but I thought the only way to do that was to have a stable job and travel when I had time off. And to begin with, that’s what I did. 

After taking a gap year, I started university when I was 21. Throughout my three years at uni I managed to travel quite a bit. I did one semester abroad in Australia, two summer school programs in Ljubljana, Slovenia, as well as going to Costa Rica for 6 weeks in the middle of one semester. 

I realised the 9-5 life wasn’t for me

In 2017, I graduated with a degree in Business and started a 9-5 job, thinking I had life all figured out. I had a degree, a stable job – it seemed like I was on a fast track to having the kind of life that you’re supposed to have. The kind that society sees as successful. But the thing is, that what is seen by society as being successful, is just based on what your life looks like from the outside. Rather than if you’re actually happy doing whatever it is you’re doing. And for me, that’s exactly how it was. It didn’t feel right. I knew it wasn’t how I wanted to spend my life. 
I felt stuck. And even more so when I started realising that this is what most people do. Have a job that they may or may not like, where they spend about 40 hours a week. Often counting down the days to the weekend or to their next vacation. So naturally I started thinking, is this it? Is this what my life will be like from now on? That’s when I started feeling stuck in a way that I can’t even explain.

It wasn’t that my job was bad or anything like that. Not at all. But sitting at a desk for 40 hours a week was just so incredibly dull. I was essentially just living the same day over and over. Everything was so predictable and I was practically on autopilot. It was just more of the same. I was traveling for about 4 months out of the year, but I still felt that being stuck at an office for 8 months of the year was no way to live my life. But I was still choosing it, because whatever you’re not changing, you are choosing. 

I started realising there were other options

At the beginning of 2018, I got two months off, which I used to backpack through South and Central America. During this trip I met a lot of people that were traveling full-time, which was when I realised that being stuck at a desk every day wasn’t the only way to make a living. Since all these people managed to be traveling full time, I figured there must be some way for me to do this too. 

At this time I was not at a point financially where I could just walk away from my job and start roaming the planet. Sure, I could have traveled for a couple of months or maybe up to a year. But without an income, I would just be burning through my savings and it would just be a matter of when my balance would eventually reach that zero. So I had to find a way to earn money without having an actual job. I met a lot of people during my travels that were doing just that – some were running online stores, others were teaching English online. Some worked remotely for companies in their home country, some did stock trading. There were people that made money from social media. It seemed that there were lots of ways to make money without having to show up at an office five days a week. 

How I managed to quit my job

There isn’t one simple answer to this question. No magic formula. Just like there is no “get rich quick” formula – if there were, everyone would be doing it :))

I had owned stocks for many years, but I wasn’t actively buying and selling them, they were mostly just sitting there. But most of them were indeed making me some money. So I started realising that if you have a significant amount of money to invest, you wouldn’t need a high return in percentage to be able to make a living off of it. That’s when I started following the stock market more closely and investing more money into it. I also paid more attention to news as well as quarterly/annual reports, and stuff like that. Very simply but – trading stocks is about buying a stock and then selling it at a higher price. Having a degree in Business definitely helped with all this. I will add that stock trading does not provide you with a stable income, the returns vary greatly from one month to the next. 

Disclaimer: You can of course lose money on stocks and I am not advising you to purchase stocks

I saved up a lot of money

Another important factor in being able to quit my job was that I was spending a very little portion of my salary every month. I would invest most of my salary into stocks, bonds or I’d put in a savings account that would pay me interest every month. So my money was essentially working for me.

Living in Iceland, it’s very easy to spend a lot of money since just about everything is expensive. Just leaving your house is gonna cost you at least 20USD :)))
Going out for a few drinks could easily cost you anything upwards of 100 USD. That’s about 10 nights in a hostel in Asia or South America! So I tried to stay away from spending money on things like that. Of course I still went out to eat and for drinks occasionally. I wasn’t going to those fancy places that serve things like souflé, or that kind of fancy stuff you can’t even pronounce and come in tiny portions. And instead of having five drinks, I’d just have one.

I rarely bought takeaways, I didn’t buy the newest iphone whenever a new one was released (my current phone is almost 5 years old haha). Nor did I have 10 pairs of expensive sneakers (I had one or two). I started buying mostly second hand clothes. This list could go on and on – but simply put, I wasn’t spending money left and right on things I didn’t really need. Those 20USD here and there really do add up. 

I worked. A lot

I had a part time job from the time I was about 14, and throughout my years in high school, college, and university. Then I’d work during summer and during every christmas break – all of which is very common in Iceland. But in many other countries that might be considered unusual. Often I had two jobs, there were a couple of summers when some days I worked at one job from 9-5 and then another one from 5-9. I also had a part time job even after I got my 9-5, not because I needed the extra income, but just to be able to save up more money. 

So throughout my years of studying I was saving up a lot of money. This was also due to the fact that tuition fees at the University of Iceland, where I studied, are only about 650USD per year. Since I had a part time job, I didn’t need to take any student loans.

Fast forward about two years – I have now managed to quit my job and make a living by investing my money. I trade stocks and then a part of my money is in bonds and mutual funds. Even though I don’t have to show up to work anymore – that doesn’t mean that my life is a constant vacation. Although I’ll admit that it does certainly feel like that sometimes. I still do some “work”. It’s just not one where I need to show up at an office for a certain amount of time every day. Sometimes I even put numbers in an excel sheet :))) But the difference is that I’m doing it on my own terms and on my own time. And most importantly, it can be done from anywhere in the world.

Disclaimer: You can of course lose money on stocks and I am not advising you to purchase stocks

The post How and why I quit my 9-5 job appeared first on Sóldís Alda.

With everything going on in the world, I wanted to go somewhere I knew pretty well, since I wasn’t really in the mood to having to figure things out or having to think too much. I just wanted something easy and trouble free. With Costa Rica’s borders being open to tourists for a couple of months already, and direct flights from Spain, it was a pretty easy choice. I spent most of the time in Santa Teresa, which is one of my favourite places on this planet. I also visited Manuel Antonio and La Fortuna.

Getting from Valencia to Costa Rica

I didn’t really believe I was actually going until I actually had the boarding pass in my hand. Up until that moment, I just felt like anything could happen But it all worked out and I landed in San José around 9pm after a 17 hour journey from Valencia, with a layover in Madrid. Since I do not have the ability to fall asleep on airplanes (yes very unfortunate), I was struggling to keep my eyes open when I landed. Luckily it only took about 30 minutes to clear immigration & customs. They check that you have a valid health insurance that meets their requirements, and that you have filled out a health declaration, which is a pretty basic questionnaire that you fill out online. Those are the two requirements to enter Costa Rica at the moment, they don’t require a PCR test to enter. You can see the entry requirements here.

Landing in San José

Normally when I land in Costa Rica, I buy a sim card at the airport and then get an Uber to my hostel. But since my flight didn’t land until 9pm, the stand where they sell the sim cards was closed, and therefore didn’t have internet connection to book an Uber. When you get out of the airport it’s very chaotic and you pretty much have everyone and their grandmother coming up to you asking where you’re going, telling you special price for you my friend, and all that. Another thing I want to mention is that there are people at the airport offering you a ride that aren’t official taxi drivers, so if you end up having to take a taxi, make sure it’s an official one and not just a random person that has a car.

I checked into my hostel and they gave me a private room instead of the shared one I booked – which was just what I needed after a long flight. I always stay at Hostel del Paseo when I’m in San José, I’ve stayed at a few hostels around San José but this one is my favourite. I don’t think anyone goes to Costa Rica to explore San José, but you usually need to stay there at least one night after you arrive and before you leave.

You might also like: How to Choose a Hostel

I fell asleep within minutes and was expecting to sleep until at least 11am since I had been awake for well over 24 hours, but at 7am I was wide awake, thanks to the 7 hour time difference between Spain and Costa Rica I really needed some coffee so I walked to one of my favourite cafés in downtown San José and then walked around for a couple of hours. Basically all my trips to Costa Rica start like this – and I always go the same café (it’s called Spoon) in San José haha It felt so surreal to finally be back, San José always feels like home to me.

Santa Teresa

The following morning I got on a 6am shuttle to Santa Teresa, a surf town on the pacific coast. A true happy place. The journey is about 7 hours, including an hour on the Puntarenas Ferry. After getting off the ferry it’s a very sweaty ride, the tropical climates really starts to kick in Arriving in Santa Teresa was such a surreal feeling. Honestly don’t think I’ve ever been more grateful to be anywhere.
The biggest problem (and probably the only problem) I’ve had with Santa Teresa in the past is that there were no nice hostels. I’ve stayed at many of them and not one was even remotely close to being nice. But this time when I opened up Hostelworld there was a hostel rated 9/10. I thought to myself well that can not be right, no one would rate any of these god awful hostels 9/10. But it turned out that this was a new hostel. It had those jungle vibes, a pool, and just looked really adorable. They even had ice coffees and avo toasts. I was sold. You can check it out here.

After checking in, I really needed something cold so I went out for a smoothie bowl & an ice coffee. Truly one of the top activities in Santa Teresa. And in the world :)))

One of the many things I love about Santa Teresa is that pretty much all the restaurants have these tropical jungle vibe going on, and are either outside, or at least partly outside.

On my way back I stopped at the beach, thinking I’d chill there for a little while. Ended up being a very short visit since I didn’t have any water with me. After almost passing out from the heat, I decided it was time to head back to the hostel.

I don’t know if it was because of the time difference or the fact that the sun comes up around 5.30 – but I woke almost every morning around 6am. Which is extremely out of character for me since normally I can not get up before 8am unless my life depends on it I’m just not a morning person. Unless when I’m in places like Costa Rica, apparently.

There is something really magical about early mornings in Santa Teresa – it’s very quiet and since the sun has just started to come up, the light is kinda misty and magical. The few people that are on the streets are usually going surfing or coming back from surfing.

In the afternoons everyone would head to the beach to watch the sunset. The sunset in Santa Teresa is really an event, and it’s magical. Both wifi and cell phone signal are pretty much non existent in Santa Teresa – so if you haven’t managed to get a hold on someone, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find them at the sunset :)))

We made an effort to try a new restaurant every night, but yet I didn’t get a chance to visit half the restaurants I wanted to try haha Most of them are vegetarian friendly and some were even completely vegan or vegetarian.

Some nights there was a bonfire at the beach or something going on at the hostel – but most nights everyone was passed out by 10pm.

Manuel Antonio // meeting monkeys & chill

My next stop was Manuel Antonio, also on the pacific coast, and one of the most visited place in Costa Rica. I stayed at a hostel in the jungle, where you could expect to see monkeys and sloths any minute. They even had a sign in the kitchen reminding you to not leave any food lying around since the sloths would take it

It’s something about just chilling in the jungle, away from everything, that’s so relaxing. So I loved hanging out at one of the hammocks or in the pool at the hostel. There was about 15 minute walk from the hostel to the next town, Quepos. That sounds like an easy walk, but because of the heat & the humidity, it feels more like a marathon than a short walk. Don’t think that stopped me from going there for my morning coffee though. Here are some photos I took one morning when I went there for coffee.

One of the main attraction in Manuel Antonio is the national park, where you can see a very wide range of animals – that is unless you are dumb enough to not get a guide, which is what we did :))) They ask at the entrance if you want to get a guide, but we kinda just wanted to go at our own pace and didn’t really feel the need to bring a guide along with us. Thinking they would mostly be stopping next to all the different trees and plants and tell us all about it, something we were quite okay with missing out on. But that’s really not what they do – as we found out, it was almost impossible to see any of the animals without a guide. We definitely didn’t see that coming haha – I mean how hard can it be? If there is a monkey or a slot up in the trees, it can’t be that difficult to spot them? But yeah as it turns out, you need to really know where to look and preferably also have a binocular, which the guides of course had :))) So if you go to the Manuel Antonio national park, make sure to get a guide haha, they are more important than you’d think.
I have seen sloths and all sorts of animals in Costa Rica before though, so it wasn’t too disappointing, but would have been fun to see them since that’s mostly what this park is about. We did see a monkey though, only because he was directly in front of us haha.

A part from cute monkeys, the park also has amazing beaches and viewpoints.

Just like in Santa Teresa, and all of the pacific coast really, the sunsets in Manuel Antonio are pretty damn amazing. This is what the view was like from my hostel every night.
I loved just chilling in a hammock and watching the sun go down. Or we would grab a pizza or some drinks. Either way, I never missed the sunset :))

La Fortuna

My last stop was neither on the beach nor was it warm. It was up in the mountains, a small town called La Fortuna. It’s one of the most visited places in Costa Rica, but since there are so many activities in the area but yet it doesn’t get overcrowded with tourists. There are hot springs, zip lining, rain forests, waterfalls, volcano – all the typical Costa Rica activities.

Due to its location, the climate is very different from that in the rest of the country, it’s really its own thing. Rainy days are not uncommon in La Fortuna even during the dry season (december to april/may). This is something I should have known damn well as this was my third time there, but somehow I completely forgot about it so when I arrived it was pouring rain, and I was like ahh yeah that’s right, it rains a lot in La Fortuna :))) It ended up raining two out of the three days I was there. So keep that in mind if you plan to visit. Luckily there was a very cute doggo at my hostel so I could chill with him in the rain. It wasn’t all bad. For whatever reason I didn’t take any photos of the dog, but here are some photos of me & the hostel.

I did mange to visit the volcano in between rain sessions. It wasn’t like a went very far out of my way to visit it though – I literally walked about ten minutes up the street from my hostel to get a slightly better view of it, but mostly I wanted to snap a few photos :))) I didn’t wanna go all the way up to the volcano since it looked like it could start raining any minute, and I wasn’t equipped for rain in any shape or form.

So because of the seemingly never ending rain – I ended up not doing a whole lot. I had planned to visit the Tabacon hot springs, it’s basically hot springs that are a part of a resort hotel, Tabacon, it’s pretty damn expensive to stay there but you can purchase a day pass for a pretty decent price. I’ve been there once before and would definitely recommend it. I’ve also been to Baldi hot springs, which is a cheaper option, so if you’re on a budget it’s a great option. But in my opinion, Tabacon is worth the extra money.

I did do a zip lining tour one afternoon – I think I’ve done one of those every time I’ve been to Costa Rica, it never gets old. You basically zip line through the jungle, so it’s a bit of an adrenaline rush and then there is the added bonus of seeing the jungle from above.

La Fortuna was my last stop before heading back to San José to catch my flight back. In San José I met up with two girls from Iceland and stayed with them my last night. They live in this cute colonial style house with a very pretty backyard, which was a perfect place for our morning coffee :))) As always, I was pretty sad about leaving Costa Rica, but I will probably be back there next year, or maybe earlier.

Will end this post with a couple of photos taken around La Fortuna <3

The post My trip to Costa Rica appeared first on Sóldís Alda.