Schlagwort-Archive: digital nomad

Greece

Digital Nomad Stop #24 – Santorini, Greece

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Before leaving Greece, I wanted to visit a place that had been on my list for a long time – the island of Santorini. Because it’s super crowded in high season, I decided to visit in December, in the lowest of low season. This had its pros and cons. There were barely any other tourists and accommodation was cheap. No fighting for photo spots and a jacuzzi on my balcony. Not bad. On the other hand, most of Fira and Oia was shut down – all the scenic cafes and restaurants looking over the crater were closed, as were most hotels along the crater. Sometimes it felt like walking around a ghost village. By accident, I made the right choice of staying in central Fira, which is the island’s capital and therefore always has some stuff open around the main square – restaurants, hotels and the main bus stop for all towns around the island. As all the scooter rentals were closed, this became quite essential for me and I was glad that I hadn’t decided to stay in Oia.

On my first full day on Santorini, I went on the famous hike from Fira to Oia, along the crater rim coast. It was super pretty with stunning views all along the way and not too long either. I took lots of time taking photos and exploring everything there was to see and still arrived in Oia way before sunset.

90% of the restaurants and hotels in Oia were closed for the season, but it was still a beautiful place to visit. The famous sunset viewpoint is very much worth coming here and it was nice to share it only with about 20 or so other tourists rather than fighting for a spot in high season. I took my hundreds of pictures in piece and watched the light go from golden to pink.

Then I rushed to get the bus back to Fira as the next one would have been quite a bit later. Low season bus schedules! Oh well. Another day, I went and took the bus to Pyrgos first – a cute Santorini village without much tourist influence. I then hiked up to Prophet Elias viewpoint and monastery – the highest point on the island. There’s nice views on the way up, but the monastery was unfortunately closed, so I decided to hike down on the other side to Emporio.

Emporio was a really nice surprise! I hadn’t expected much, but the village has pretty little alleys and a very relaxed feel. From here, I took the bus to Perissa to see the black beach. It had turned into a grey day by then and I didn’t expect much – and it really wasn’t that special if you have seen black sand before in your life.

Next to working quite a bit and walking around Fira, I ventured out one more time, mainly to visit the famous Red Beach. I thought I was going to do some hike that I looked up on Maps.me, but some stuff didn’t actually connect and I felt a bit sick, so I stuck to a short visit and returned on the paved road to Akrotiri. Unfortunately, I missed out on visiting the ruins there, as I thought they wouldn’t be that special. The village was nice but it was rather windy, cold and I was feeling tired and weak.

My FOMO didn’t let me catch the bus straight back to Fira though, so I hopped off in Megalochori to visit the village and the famous rock window „heart of Santorini“. It was pretty, but I was definitely ready for the jacuzzi and some down time afterwards!

All in all, I had some great days in Santorini. Combined with work, five days was the right amount of time to spend there in order to be able to visit everything that I wanted to see. Overall, only the hike from Fira to Oia and Oia sunset views really wow-ed me, so I feel like you can also make this island a quick stop along the way. Here are my best photos!

Greece

Digital Nomad Stop #23 – Kalymnos, Greece

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Kalymnos… this island holds a special place in my heart. Almost exactly two years ago, Kalymnos was my first real stop on my nomad journey and finally I was headed back! And as I do so many times, I ended up staying longer than expected – exactly 3 months. I experienced everything from late summer with melted chocolate bars and high humidity to storms and freezing temperatures in November. I was really happy to be able to meet up with so many friends I had made over the past years – lots and lots of people coming to Kalymnos for part of the season. People came and left again… I stayed.

Of course, I already knew exactly what to expect of Kalymnos – and it definitely delivered all of that: beautiful sunset, awesome tufa climbing, lots of fun climbing partners and a fun night with drinks here and there. Climbing-wise, I had improved a lot since my last visit, where I was mainly climbing in the 5s and low/mid 6s. This time, my goal was to leave the island with a new max. grade in the pocket – something that unfortunately didn’t happen. Sometimes, everything needs to come together for a high send, so in the end I decided to focus on building my base and trying to send lots of routes between 6c-7a+ to just get stronger in general and to build that famous pyramid everyone keeps talking about…

Some of my proudest sends were:

  • Ivy 7a+ (first 7 on Kaly)
  • DNA 7a (3rd go)
  • Kerveros 7a (2nd go)
  • Kaly Pige 7a (2nd go)
  • Island in the Sun 7a+ (hardest project)
  • Aurora 7a (first 7a flash!)

I left the island feeling much stronger, more confident and happy with my climbing, despite the lack of sending higher grades. Many projects are left on my list for the next visit. Kaly – I’ll be back! Here are some more photos.

Laos

Digital Nomad Stop #16 – Thakhek, Laos

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In 2013, I had travelled Laos North to South as a backpacker and ticked all the touristic sights. I never really thought about returning, until I found out that there was amazing rock climbing in the center of Laos, near a town called Thakhek. Funnily enough, I had also been here in 2013, as it is the starting point of the (now famous) motorbike loop.

As mentioned, this time I was here for the climbing though. I planned to stay a month and ended up extending to 6 weeks because I had such a great time. I finally stayed in the right place to project some hard routes and met the right people to climb together with, who were encouraging and supportive and lots of fun to hang out with. In the beginning, I checked out a lot of different crags, started projecting some face climbs but didn’t really get anywhere. Then, I sent my first 7a – Sound of Music, a steep, pumpy climb, and decided to try climbing on the famous „roof“ next to it. I never thought that I’d be able to climb anything as steep and overhanging as the routes up there – turns out I was wrong. I sent another 7a – Cheeky Fucker – in just 3 attempts and decided I needed to get on something harder. Jungle King (7b), the king line of the roof was the obvious choice. In the beginning, I felt a bit ridiculous, hopping on a 7b with only two 7as in my pocket – but the route was just so beautiful that I couldn’t resist. After about 2 weeks on it, lots of trying hard, lots of frustrating moments and loooots of persistence, I finally sent it! Laos would have been a success even without sending Jungle King, but this was the icing on the cake!

Next to climbing, I also explored the area a bit – mainly in the beginning of my time in Laos when I didn’t always have good climbing partners. It is a pretty region – maybe not quite as pretty as Ao Nang and a lot more rural, remote and dusty.

Climbing the roof, learning how to knee bar, to project hard and hang out with this great group of climbers has been one of the highlights of my nomad journey so far and if possible, I will definitely return to Laos next year!*

*I wrote this blog entry a few months ago, and did actually return to Laos at the beginning of 2024. Unfortunately, I had to cut the trip (very) short and return home for health reasons. Let’s hope for a great Laos season in 2025! 🙂