Travelogue of nomad dad
There is a belief that being a nomad is for young people, without kids, and once you are grown up, you have to settle down. Me, my wife and two little sons are the new nomads: we have no permanent house for the last six years and travel every 3–4 months. Our example shows that it is possible to enjoy traveling and minimalism while having kids. Sometimes we go to familiar places like visiting our parents, sometimes looking for new adventures.
I’ve been working remotely for the last seven years, and now have own business. I usually work without holidays, at the same time trying not to overwork and enjoy life. I strongly believe that productively working 4 hours a day is more than enough for the successful outcome. Work should complement your life, not replace it. Learning how to quickly focus and be most productive require time, but essential if you working from home and have small kids. Once you master it, you will be amazed how improved your quality of life. This travelogue is what the life of traveling and working dad looks like.
One of our latest destinations was a week in the Sochi, Krasnaya Polyana: a mounting skiing resort in the south of Russia. A place of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
Monday
6–30: it’s time to wake up: days become shorter, and my sons learned to outrun the sun. Toasts with avocado, beans with a green salad, fried halloumi cheese — we need a good breakfast today: we are going to spend next 8 hours traveling by car/plane/train.
14–00: i used to work at this time. My computer has also opened now: but just for my son who is watching Pokemon cartoons. And I have things to do anyway: I am running through the whole plane trying to catch my youngest and change his diaper.
16–00: going from the Sochi airport to the Krasnaya Polyana. We will live 500m above the sea level front in the place named Gorki Gorod. Mountains everywhere! It’s so green and majestic. And we could clearly see them from the window of our rented house.
20–30: the fridge is full of food from the supermarket, kids fell asleep, the wife is unpacking the baggage. We seem to have survived this day without big stress and loud kid’s crying. So it’s finally time to work a bit: reply the emails and send a weekly report to the clients.
22–00: it’s time to stop this day, sleeping.
Tuesday
5–50: the youngest woke up… We are staying together near the window: all the shades of gray with the snow trace are out of there.
7–30: the rain is endless. Fortunately, I find this kind of weather very productive for work.
12–00: had a glass of the local white wine: praying for the sun to come back.
14–00: running through the puddles to the nearby shopping mall. To support the water theme of the day, we go to the aqua park under a roof. Got a headache because of loud 90s pop music, but kids are enjoying the chlorinated water and the artificial sand.
16–00: the morning glass of wine did its business: having a chance to walk around without any rain. The architecture of local village is odd. Motley remake in the spirit of the Turkish resorts: the same diverse set of human anthills. But it’s entirely predictable: everything was built in a hurry for the Olympic Games. But, oh, these mountains… It’s so close, even the snow peaks. And right through the center of the village flows beautiful, loud and speedy river.
20–00: a couple of hours for the answer emails
22–00: kids slept, the Modern family episode has watched, now time to watch dreams about mountains.
Wednesday
6–10: it’s getting so hard to wake up so early (especially when the fog and the slush instead of the sun outside)
9–30: rain has stopped for a while. Spent a botanical lesson with kids: filled up our pockets with the chestnuts and walnuts growing near us.
11–00: working.
14–00: hiding from the rain again. We are in the mall of the Gazprom — largest Russian gas company owns resort of the same name here. The 4-floor mall is full of chlorinated air (another Aqua park is here) and amazed us its emptiness and unnecessary luxury (over the each bidet in the men’s toilet is a plasma TV).
16–00: in half an hour we reached the oldest part of Krasnaya Polyana — place Rosa Khutor. If our Gorky Gorod — is a Turkish south, here is Czech, Karlovy Vary. Wide promenade, the European spirit, the mountain peaks on both sides.
20–00: I’ve got 2 hours to check the emails, doing some tasks and then — have a cup of herbal tea with a “churchkhela”.
Thursday
7–00: it’s the sun outside, and no clouds! But it’s a pity that I can’t walk right now: the work is the first.
11–30: a cup of Americano from the local coffee shop and go to the ski elevator to the highest point of the mountain
12–00: Heartbreaking landscapes: we are going to the clouds and over them. Finally, we are here — on the 2300m mountain full of snow. Kids are screaming from the amazement and happiness and starting to make a snowman. We are screwing up our eyes. They are full of tears: maybe because of the total white over there, perhaps because of this beautiful and magnificent view.
16–30: strong emotions could be exhausting: we decided to back home earlier. Boys are playing with the toys, the wife is editing the gigabytes shots from the camera, I’ve got few hours to work.
Friday
6–30: It’s a perfect time to work: sons are on the pots and going to have a breakfast.
11–00: the weather is also perfect. Today we are going to try few hiking trails.
12–00: the temperature today is still about +13–16c, but the sun is shining so hot: we have to stay just in t-shirts. We can’t go further without the mango and the lavender ice-cream.
15–00: the wife and the youngest playing with the stones near the artificial lake in the Rosa Hutor. For the next two hours together with the older son we are playing in the Mowgli in the so-called “the healthy road” trail. We are walking, running, climbing the mountains, looking up the long-lived trees, drinking water from the mountain’s waterfalls, picking up chestnuts, acorns and the leaves for the herbarium. Nature here is close to the fairy tail’s: sometimes you are like in the jungle. There is a special nameplate near the entrance to this “healthy road” with the inscription: “Attention. You could meet the wild animal here”. And this is not a joke.
18–30: to be frank, today we met some animals. I have seen the mouse, huge grasshoppers, lizards and a flock of the bats right near our home. But don’t giggle: It’s really very rare meeting for any city resident.
19–30: the light salad for dinner and checking the emails.
Saturday
7–00: yes to the sun and happiness, no to work: today weekend starts!
12–00: walking to the Zoo located in the Caucasian national park. The best mountain views on the road: could see all the snow peaks. But I am glad that have seen these mountains in the rainy weather too: they are kind of boiling when fog and clouds cover them.
14–00: This zoo contains only the animals that were injured and restoring before going back into the wild. The aviaries here are enormous and clean, animals are well-conditioned, the place of the reserve is surrounded by the mountains and the forest. It’s closer to the wild nature, not to the urban zoo. The deer here endlessly sings the same plaintive song. Hopefully, this is a song of love, rather than non-freedom.
17–00: there is the only one playground we found out in the whole Krasnaya Polyana and is always full of kids. My sons are trying theirs best to play there too.
Sunday
11–00: from autumn to summer: for the last week the weather here went from +5c to +20c today. But in the evenings becomes dramatically colder. We look like a gypsy camp with the stroller hung of all our clothes to be ready for any weather.
13–00: saying goodbye to Krasnaya Polyana from the top of its another mountain. It takes about 20 minutes for the ”the bus size” elevator to reach the peak. We were alone, and kids were singing the songs and dancing while we were going up. Unfortunately, there were no any snow on this peak, but we found a nice restaurant and eat the lamb kebab at 2000 meters above the sea level.
16–00: Taxi awaits. I feel a connection to this stunning nature, something I did not felt for a long time. Family with the little kids here have a real chance to literally touch the snow mountains peaks without any discomfort and a lot of time to get this place. We already miss it, but ready for the new adventures.
You may wonder that it looks more like a vacation than a work. But that is actually how I get most of my work done. For sure we are not always have so much activity as it is emotionally exhausting. Rest of the time we are trying to live slowly and just enjoy daily moments, as far as possible with two small children 😆
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