Hi all! I’m Mandy, an American woman who has been traveling around Europe for most of the last 8 or so years. I’m what many would call a “digital nomad” though I prefer the term location independent.
I’m currently in Croatia and heading to Italy soon, where I’ll spend a good chunk of winter, depending on any sits I get. I just started van life and I’m looking forward to being able to do sits in more remote places that weren’t possible before without a vehicle.
I’ve been doing this since 2014 and, pre-covid, I would spend about 6 months a year on sits. My lifestyle is not conducive to having a pet of my own so I quite enjoy getting to spend some quality time with lovely creatures before heading back out on my travels.
Welcome to our community forum thank you for a great intro into your THS journey, hopefully we will be keeping you company on your travels, looking forward to updates and sharing in your European experiences. It’s really helpful getting real time location and travel perspectives.
Safe and happy travels and thank you for joining us from Croatia.
It’s kind of a standing joke with my friends. I call all the pets I sit for my creatures and now my friends always refer to them that way “what creature are you with now” “show us a pic of your current creature”. And since I like pretty much anything with fur it works as a good catch-all.
Hello @CreatureCuddler. Your travel/creature story is very interesting. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us. The love we receive from pets, whether they are our own or others, is truly a precious gift. The more experiences, the better!!! I know everyone here enjoys hearing how pet sitting is incorporated into this lifestyle.
Hi Mandy
I’d be very interested to know how you’ve managed to travel around Europe for such a long time. What’s the visa situation for Americans in Europe. Sadly some Brits shot some of us remainers in the foot by voting Brexit meaning we can only travel for up to 90 days at a time in Schengen European
Countries, then have a break of 90 days before we can enter Europe again. There are some countries where we can stay longer though such as Romania and Croatia and some others
We have the same thing with schengen limitations. Thankfully there are amazing non-schengen countries to visit so I just zone hop. At this point I spend more time outside of schengen than inside.
That is the forward plan I love this lifestyle and I am currently mapping out my next couple of years, 2022 is nearly all booked.
It’s very exciting and interesting what you discover is possible.
I applaud you. Do you blog? vlog?
I have a blog that I’m trying to breathe new life into. I’m terrible at keeping it up to date because, in general, my life in pretty mundane. But now I’m starting van life so it’s a bit more interesting.
USA citizens can stay in the UK 6 months. Like Mandy, I hopped around for quite some time. At times, most times, I felt like a kid seeing how far I could go for how long and checking to see if mum was watching lol. She’s not.
@CreatureCuddler i love reading blogs, and become addicted to watching travel vlogs on YouTube. I’ve blogged while cruising through Europe, and have considered beginning a new one regarding our retirement lifestyle.
Woman you are speaking into my heart. I have a site, put it that way. Design is not a problem at all. Content I have tons in the archives that need me to give them some resuscitation.
Get it!
Yes, that’s what I plan. Am I right in thinking you can stay for 90 days in Schengen European country then go elsewhere in a non Schengen country/countries for 90 days then back into Schengen Europe?
My problem is I’m a perfectionist. So I don’t want to put anything out unless it’s great. Which means I have 23948792837492387 half finished posts. lol. I need to just let it go and publish short random things and funny stories that happen vs trying to make it all deep and meaningful.
Yes, that’s correct. A lot of people make it seem really complicated but it’s not. You just have to pay a bit more attention. I have a google sheet that I use that helps me keep track of everything.
Yes! We get in the way but I’m working on shedding my layers of ego that want to be perfect. Really hard for type A personality but I’m getting there and adapting really well to the “don’t care because I know who I am” type.
I feel we may be kindred spirits, oh wait that’s deep. lol
It’s definitely a trait that gets in my way in a lot of things - also especially in learning languages because I don’t want to sound like a doofus - but as I get older I care much less. And frankly, I’ve been told my random stories and quick blurbs I post in other places can be hilarious so people would probably enjoy those a lot better than some giant wall of text anyway. lol
Yes. Very nice to meet you and hope to see you in the flesh out there. Feel free to hit me up anytime in my inbox and share whatever. I’m crossing over again in April.
