Summer In Europe Round 2

The previous summer in Europe went so well that it didn’t take much to decide to do it again. I booked my flight, packed my bag, put Terk the Truck Camper in storage, and flew across the pond for Summer In Europe Round 2.

Like last year, my first stop was WordCamp Europe in Torino, Italy. I’d learned a lot at WordCamp Athens the previous year, but more importantly I made a lot of great friends and I looked forward to reuniting with them. In Turin I checked into my apartment, reset my inner clock to European time, and met up with friends as they each arrived.

The conference kicked off and I spent several days attending talks, enjoying the hallway track, and hanging out with my WordCamp Crew.

When WordCamp wrapped up we stuck around for a few extra days and after a few too many crazy late nights we all packed up to head out of Italy. I definitely enjoyed seeing my friends but I also needed more sleep and less vino.

My next stop was a solo stay in Serbia to catch up on work and explore a new culture. The plane banked and I watched out the window as we flew over the Soviet era blocks, or Blokovi, of New Belgrade. This was going to be a new experience for sure.

I’d booked an apartment in the historic town of Zemun, and a short taxi ride brought me to a shaded street with a park and my apartment entrance. The small studio had a kitchen, bathroom, bed, and big windows looking out over the park where I assembled a standing desk for my stay.

I spent a week working from my window perch, watching the daily cycles of Serbian life, and even witnessed the construction and rigging of a set for a Serbian movie being filmed in the building next door. After work I took long runs along the Danube River, walked around downtown Belgrade, and strolled over to check out the old Soviet blocks in New Belgrade.

I spent nearly 2 weeks in Serbia before boarding another flight, this time back to my familiar summer home in Bansko, Bulgaria. Stumbling upon the popular digital nomad hotspot in the Balkans the previous year had been so impactful that I booked another apartment for 2 months at the base of the Pirin Mountains. From there I’d be able to work, trail run, hit the gym, and live a pretty balanced life, but first I needed to do the most important thing which was catch up with my friends in the Bansko Drinking and Running Club!

This year I decided to splurge a bit and booked an apartment on the 3rd floor of a building overlooking the Glazne River and the gondola running up into the mountains. At $650 USD per month it was a bit more than I typically liked to spend, but I decided that the window-front standing desk that I constructed was the perfect place to work from each day and I saved some money by not booking a membership in a local co-working space.

Where I didn’t save money was replacing my laptop. When I landed in Serbia I pulled my MacBook Pro from my bag and the computer was hot to the touch with water droplets flowing through the keyboard. Somehow it had overheated and burnt itself up during the flight to Belgrade and when I took it to a local repair shop they quoted me 2 weeks. With only 10 days in the country I decided to get it fixed in Bulgaria, but I still needed to work so I bought a new MacBook Air in Serbia. Once in Bansko I was able to ship the Pro down to a shop in Sofia and in 2 weeks it was back to me, fixed via AppleCare. It was an interesting process as I speak no Bulgarian, the local post office sent the package for only a few dollars and offered no receipt, and I had little to no contact with the Apple repair shop in Sofia, but the more I travel the more I learn to trust the local process and it often seems to work out surprisingly well!

Bansko’s summer weather is perfect with warm days, cool evenings, only occasional rain, and an abundance of fresh mountain air. I purchased a gondola pass and several mornings each week I made coffee then hopped on one of the first rides up the mountain. From the upper station I could either run back down to my apartment or continue higher on foot to Vihren Hut and the lakes and trails beyond the end of the road.

On days that I needed to work in the morning I’d head to the gym after lunch and then do a short bike ride or a few times a week I’d meet up with the Bansko Drinking And Running Club for a quick trail jaunt followed by cold drinks at the Shark Beer Shop, our new favorite craft beer bar.

Just like the previous summer two months in Bansko went WAY too fast. It seemed like in no time I was repacking my bag, joining friends for going away parties, and celebrating GP’s birthday before several of us started peeling off and heading out of Bulgaria.

I’d been in Europe for just over 3 months and honestly I wanted to stick around and tour more new places, but I was on another schedule with a fairly full fall calendar so I taxied down to Sophia and boarded a flight back across the pond to the States. I’d already traveled a ton in 2024 but I still had a funemployed trip to Asia and several weeks floating down an iconic river in the States before wrapping up another incredible year.