I've slept in 142 beds in the past 16 months
Being detached from stability, but having the privilege of freedom
142 beds. Yep you read that right. That’s not clickbait. I did the math. That’s just the reality of what the past 16 months of my life have been like.
I never imagined that when I moved overseas, I would sleep in that many beds. Our time overseas has definitely not been what we thought it would be. My partner, Nelson, and I thought we would go to Portugal, find a place to live, get a job and be in one place with one job for the entire year. But if you’ve been following along on our journey, you’ll know that it has been anything but linear.
In the past 16 months, we haven’t lived in any one accommodation for longer than 6 weeks. This was due to a number of factors, including the housing crisis in Portugal, the high cost of rent in Lisbon and our indecisive nature when it came to deciding what to do during our time overseas. Our time overseas turned out to be more of a combination of living overseas and long-term travel.
While our year was far from what we expected, it has been so much fun. Where we lacked in stability, we flourished in freedom. It’s very rare that you get the opportunity to just go where the wind takes you. Working remotely also meant we weren’t committed to staying in one place, which really did leave us with endless possibilities.
Looking back, we definitely made the most of our freedom. We spent the summer of 2024 in Lisbon, did work exchanges on a vineyard and a farm, lived down south in the Algarve near the beach for the winter. We then spent some more time in Lisbon, and then some more time in the Algarve, and then I spent a month of summer in Lisbon again this year doing another work exchange. We were also lucky enough to do lots of small trips within Europe over the past year.
When you’re living overseas and travelling long-term, you learn very quickly to not get too attached to things. You learn not to get too attached to anything because it’s all very transient when you’re moving around so much. You grow accustomed to having fleeting friendships, and goodbyes become a regular occurrence. You also get used to not getting attached to your physical possessions. I think after 16 months of being overseas, I will come back with only a handful of the items I left Australia with. Long-term travel means having to swap out cold-weather clothes for warm-weather clothes as the seasons change. I didn’t have room in my bag to hold onto anything I didn’t use regularly. Wearing the same clothes over and over again, plus washing them in an array of washing machines, also means your clothes wear out pretty fast. You quickly realise that everything is disposable. I think that’s an important thing you learn from travel. That material possessions really don’t matter that much at the end of the day, and that someone might just be a friend for three days, and that’s ok. It’s not something you’re used to when you’re living in one place long-term, but travelling is a whole different ball game. It doesn’t mean it isn’t sad to say goodbye to the new friend you made, and it doesn’t mean it isn’t annoying when you do lose something, or have something stolen, or have to throw something away because it broke beyond repair, but you learn to become a little more resilient over time.
Making money while we’ve been overseas has also been quite precarious. Nelson and I were both working freelance remote jobs, but the hours and work weren’t always guaranteed. When we did have work we had to be very adaptable to when and where we did it. Working remotely while travelling means having to work on planes, and trains, and buses, or in a hostel dorm bunk. It involves 5am Zoom meetings in the stairwell of whatever hostel you’re at for the night. But we were so incredibly lucky to have been able to support ourselves with extremely flexible remote jobs over the past 16 months, and we managed to earn enough to keep us going this long.
Our time over here has been chaotic and full of instability, but it’s definitely taught me to be more resilient and go with the flow. We embraced the uncertainty of it all and leaned in full force to a newfound freedom. As much as I’m looking forward to coming home to Australia and sleeping in one bed, I’ll certainly miss the circus that is travelling and living out of a backpack.
Yes it will be a big change after all that travelling. Where was your favourite room in the whole of your trip?