Where In The World Is The Atanasovi Family
January, 2011 my sister dropped us off at the airport in Washington, DC to embark on an epic two and a half year adventure in Europe. The tasks at hand were to complete graduate school and make the most of living abroad.
First Stop Lisbon, Portugal
We have heard many great stories about Portugal from family and friends. I had a coworker swearing that the two best places on planet earth are Istanbul, Turkey and Lisbon, Portugal.
It wasn’t until we landed in Lisbon that we realized what he was talking about. Lisbon is a vibrant city and full of life. It takes you 5 minutes to embrace the local culture; and we had 6 months to take it all in.
Finding accommodations online wasn’t difficult at all. We rented a 1 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment on Rua da Industria in Alcantara. This area was walking distance to the cruise terminal in Santa Apolonia, overlooking Ponte 25 de April bridge. We had access to public transportation, parks, and local restaurants within minutes from our apartment. I even walked to a near by soccer park and play soccer with my amigos on daily basis.
At the same time, I was looking forward to starting graduate school and Leslie was looking forward to experiencing life in Portugal. I had the opportunity to meet and interact with a diverse group of people at school. We spent endless hours working on assignments and meeting rigorous deadlines, but it was all worth it at the end. As part of the weekly ritual, we got to go see live soccer matches at Estadio da Luz, when Benfica played in UEFA Europa League and drank plenty of Magners and Guinness pints at O’Gilins Irish Pub.
The annual Lisbon Sardine Festival or the Feast of St. Anthony, was one of our fondest memories from our time in Lisbon. Locals go nuts decorating the city, especially the narrow cobblestone streets in the oldest neighborhoods. Each tram car was decorated with artwork of giant sardines. The city comes to life and everyone from locals to foreigners get to embrace the vibrant atmosphere. Let me tell you, Lisbon is the ONLY place on Earth serving the biggest and tastiest sardines, period! So it’s only natural to have an entire month dedicated to the fish!
Going to the beach in Costa da Caparica, Troia, and Cascais became part of our weekly routine. While we waited on the train or ferry to take us to the beach, we discovered another delicacy of Portugal called pastel de nata in Belem. Locals and tourists flock the Belem district of Lisbon to try this delicacy. If you find your way to Lisbon, stop by Pastel de Belem.
Porto is an another amazing destination. Despite the rainy weather, we made a trip in early Spring of 2011. While touring the city and exploring the amazing architecture, we decided to do a port tasting tour at Sandeman Cellars. When we signed up for the tour, we knew very little about port wine. By the time we were done with the tour, we felt like experts.
Leslie and I explored every corner of Lisbon and traveled all over Portugal. We pretty much used every possible mode of transportation at our disposal. Enjoyed the beautify scenery when taking the train to Porto and drove through small towns and ate local food on the way to Faro, and rode a scooter all the way to Cabo da Roca. We got to show Portugal to a hand full of family and friends who came to visit us. We averaged one visitor a month for the six months we lived in Portugal.
The Cost Of Making Portugal Happen
I can see your mind going. You’re thinking all this sounds great, but don’t I need deep pockets in order to pull this off? The answer is no. We tracked every single penny in and out of our bank account. We had to be disciplined and consistent if we wanted the experience to last a while.
Our monthly budget was 2,000 EUR so we had 12,000 EUR to work with for 6 months in Portugal. Most of our monthly spendings went to rent 600 EUR, grocery 287 EUR, shopping 137 EUR, dining out 99 EUR, and public transportation 60 EUR. These numbers were calculated based on total semi-annual spending per category, divided by 6 months.
Second Stop Göteborg, Sweden
It’s no accident that we ended up in Göteborg. My dad worked for a Swedish company and I had a good friend who studied in Sweden couple of years before we made the move. Despite these things, we had not visited Sweden prior to our two year move in the summer of 2011, so our hesitations were neutral.
Finding Accommodations
The very first lesson we learned was that finding a rental property is practically “impossible” unless you have been on a waiting list since birth. Experiencing this first hand, we were faced with a major obstacle which could have jeopardized the whole operation of completing graduate school and living abroad.
While still living in Lisbon, and desperately searching for housing that lead nowhere, we started discussing plan B. At the time, plan B was a make it or brake it moment, plain and simple. A couple of nights before we looked into to going back to Washington, DC, I received and email from Slobodan Zivkovski in Gothenburg. Thanks to my parents who put is in touch with Slobodan, it was the Zivkovski family that opened their house to us. We ended up staying with Slobodan and Mira Zivkovski for six months before we moved to our new home.
Family Bond
Upon arriving in Gothenburg, Slobo picked us up from the airport in his Volvo caravan and drove us to their house where we met Mira. We bonded instantly. Right then and there, we knew this family was special. Here we are at their doorstep greeting each other as if we’d known each other for years. We felt very welcomed and shortly thereafter we met the rest of their family. It was a very festive day and their hospitality made us feel we were part of their family; we knew we were in good hands.
The First Six Months
In six months living with the Zivkovski family, we learned great deal of traits and absorbed life lessons with gusto. Originally from Macedonia, it was in their nature to cook, garden, and most importantly, to be caring. Occasionally, we ended up having random conversations about life and their experience as parents, grandparents and citizens of a modern day society. Leslie learned to make burek, homemade wine, and a handful of other delicious treats. In the meantime, I was getting ready to start school.
Enjoying her free time, Leslie started exploring Göteborg and looking to finding our new home. Being her fun self, she was able to quickly adapt to the Swedish culture and surround herself with emotionally good people. Among few of the people she met, was our favorite real estate agent who helped us buy our very first property. She made the buying experience so great by translating all the paperwork in english, explaining how the bidding process worked, and filing property taxes.
Excited to move to our new apartment we worked day and night to get the new place move in ready. Luckily, we did have to do much except paint, clean up, and buy furniture. Being on budget, and knowing that this is not going to be our forever home, we decided to equip the entire apartment with IKEA furniture. Ok, we did make few occasional purchases at a second hand store that ended up being a great bargain. When everything was said and done, we spent roughly 6,000 EUR furnishing the entire place.
School Is In Session
Eager to continue graduate school and earn the title “Master”, I completed orientation and registered for Fall 2011 semester. Two years went by so fast, that by the time I was getting into the groove of things it was already graduation time. I had such great time and I was really happy with my decision to study in Sweden. Student life was awesome. I got all sorts of discounts related to public transportation, travel, food, etc. The entire university ecosystem was top notch from classrooms to classes to professors. All the hard work and dedication, finally paid off and I was crowned a Master. School after all was cool!
I am going to dissect why you should study in Sweden in a different post but for now I want to keep things simple. First and foremost, everyone speaks English which makes life less complicated when you are a foreigner and you don’t speak Swedish. The entire Master’s program was in English. Everything was online based; therefore, you could do anything from registering for classes to communicating with your professor to taking an exam with a click of a button. The cost of education was low if you are none EU citizen, and if you are an EU citizen education is free! You read that right. If you have an EU passport, you can study for free in Sweden and most of Europe.
Family Expansion
Leslie and I made a deal back in Washington years ago, if I were to study in Europe, she wanted to have a baby in Europe. Now, you may think that is crazy deal at first, but if you think about it, it was a win win situation for both of us. I got what I wanted and she got what she wanted, how is that for a compromise? Several months later Lessie was born and we were ecstatic.
Just like that, there we were, in a different country, chasing our dreams of living abroad, buying a property, going to school, and growing our family. Through some careful planning we were able to take advantage of the very generous tax system and minimize our living expenses.
The Remaining Eighteen Months
By now, we have become accustomed to our new lifestyle. I was going to school Monday through Friday, while Leslie started taking free Swedish classes and was raising our new born. Public transportation was top notch so we explored every corner of Goteborg and the near by archipelagos. We took couple of train rides to Stockholm to check out Sweden’s capital city. We visited Copenhagen over spring break and had an amazing time with friends we met years ago at a weeding in New York City.
The weather in Sweden is not something you take lightly, most of the time it is either wet, windy, cold, or dark. During those months we had to think creatively to make the best use of all indoor-spaces available, we spent some time at IKEA, Norstan, and going over friends houses. I manage to stay active by playing indoor soccer once a week and getaway for a week to go skiing at the world renounce Liptovský Mikuláš in Slovakia.
During the long and sunny days we were often walking around town, riding bicycles, checking out botanical gardens or laying on the rocks at Brännö. Talking about natural phenomena, you ain’t seeing nothing yet and I’m not talking Overdrive, I’m talking Skagen, where the North Sea meets the Baltic Sea. This beautiful natural occurrence is couple of hours ferry ride from Goteborg to Frederikshavn and short train ride to Skagen.
One of the most memorable experience, my surprise birthday party organized by Vesna, Leslie and Eva. It was such a memorably experience, kudos to you all and I love you.
The Cost Of Making Sweden Happen
Unlike Portugal, Sweden was more expensive. However, our monthly budget was between 1,660 EUR to 2,000 EUR, so we had 42,000 EUR to work with for two years. We lived on 2,000 EUR a month for the remaining of 2011, and 1,660 EUR a month throughout 2012 and mid 2013. Lowering our monthly budget was essential if we were to make it in Sweden for two years.
Surprisingly, most of our monthly spendings went to grocery 410 EUR, HOA fees 332 EUR, travel 270 EUR, home improvements 266 EUR, dining out 163 EUR, shopping 128 EUR, and public transportation 50 EUR. Our living cost was calculated based on total annual spending per category, divided by 24 months.
Despite the shoe string budget, we were able to live comfortably. We had everything we needed and we did a lot more than we expected. On occasion, our parents and selling on eBay, helped us boost our monthly income.
The Cost Of Making It All Happen
Before embarking on this epic journey, we had one goal in mind, and that was to go to Europe, get the job done and come back home. After two and a half years of the best life learning experience to date, we accomplished everything we intended to accomplish and then some. The figure below is a reminder that you don’t need a lot to do a lot, just “enough” is all you need. To some these figures may look ridiculously high, to others ridiculously low, but numbers don’t lie.
Yeah, we splurged a little, we tried things we never tried before, we went out of our comfort zone to experience two distinctly different cultures at a cost. After all, you can’t put a price tag on such a life shaping experience.
Conclusion
Planning is everything, therefore stay motivated start planing your next life changing experience and go for it. To us this whole experience of living the nomadic lifestyle has been priceless.
Share your nomadic experience in the comments section below.
