Workation Is Real: Drive Your Life
diconium invited three happy colleagues on a unique road trip, infused with unique encounters, technological marvels, fascinating accommodations, and a lot of fun — without missing a single day of work. Eight weeks on the road through Europe. Eight weeks of working and living. Welcome to Eric’s Journey.
There are 24 hours in a day. Right now in Norway, about 20 of those hours still have daylight… and let me tell you: One can do a lot in 20 hours of daylight.
What is the plan? Why am I in Norway? What is Drive your life? Do you want to vicariously live the highlights of the first few days? There is a 3 minute intro video for you:
Keep reading if you want some more story time.
I arrived Monday evening after surmounting the typical last second problems one faces when relying on Deutsche Bahn these days, and found my way to the Oslo AirBnB. The host, Martin, was there to show me around a bit. The design and intrinsic comfort of the apartment struck me immediately, man, I could live here! Martin was also quite the character. I kept pointing out details, and he had a story for each one of them. He was a carpenter, making his own table and cabinets. He was a musician, with several instruments laying around and a seemingly endless stack of vinyl. He was a location scout for films, seen in photos placed on the wall here or there, and this uncanny eye for that intangible artistic vision. We hit it off immediately, and what seemed to be planned as a quick handover led to almost two hours of conversation. Eventually, he departed, but not after extending an invite to join him and his family on a boat he is restoring in a southern part of Norway, Tønsberg.
The friendly greetings didn’t stop with Martin. I also came to know one of his neighbors, Frederik, who in all honestly spoke English more eloquently than I do. In any case, he was also above and beyond kind and helpful, and we ended up exchanging information that day. [Later we go on to share a Limoncello with him in the backyard, and get to know more of his story. His wife is actually from Stockholm, and they have some of their best friends near Gothenburg, both stops upcoming in the next weeks. That means we were able to get some more valuable local tips!]
In the end, I was recommended to head down to the Opera House in Oslo, which sits right on the water. I decided to walk the 30 minutes there (by myself, as Thimm would only come the next day after a cancelled flight).
I felt myself again saying, man, I could live here!
Again, the city exudes a sense of design: In the shop windows, in the style of the people, and in the architecture of the buildings. I felt myself again saying, man, I could live here! But… it’s hard not to feel good walking around in 22 degrees on the first day of an 8-week adventure.
The Opera House was cool. It had a sleek all-white design with sharp architecture. Not only that, the architecture had utility; allowing the people to climb up for a view over the sea and city. As it was about 9pm, an hour or two before sunset, it was starting to fill up with people. I spent that time wandering around the area and taking in some of the sights and sounds. After chasing down some TooGoodToGo groceries (a company aimed to reduce food waste), I zoomed home on one of those small electric scooters, and got some much needed sleep.
(…)
Working from the AirBnB has been a breeze. Thimm also has meetings from time to time, but we have spanned ourselves out on the large walnut dining room table; me, with two laptops, one for work and one for video and photo editing, and Thimm with a laptop and an iPad. It truly feels like one of those digital nomad startup houses. Plus, we had over 200mbps internet, which means we can almost hear what our colleagues will say before they say it.
Working from the AirBnB has been a breeze.
Fast forwarding a bit — — after work Wednesday brought a very cool event. I found a beach volleyball tournament taking place a few weeks before departing, and had wrote them an email whether we might be able to join. They accommodated with a free “one-day-member” pass, but told us that we would still have to register like everyone else, at 1800 the Sunday before the tournament, and they warned we had to be fast on the button. We managed to get in before the 48-person tournament was full.
So, there we were: A 48-person “social” beach volleyball tournament, where you change partners every game. We played 7 games in total, and had quite a few unofficial games. In the end, we met a good 20 people, many of whom gave us great suggestions on places to go and things to do. We ended up being the last group there playing, well into the extended sunset, and after exchanging contacts with a few new friends, we gave some others a ride home in our beautiful DYL van.
It feels like every minute of every day is being squeezed and wrung out like water in a towel.
I signed up for it, and I’m loving it.
Working, taking photos, making videos, exploring, traveling, writing, meeting people; it is a whirlwind of activity and task-switching. It’s invigorating and exhausting: I signed up for it, and I’m loving it.
Thursday brought even more adventure — we were meeting with NORA, the Norwegian Artificial Intelligence Research Consortium. Friday evening we headed toward the Fjords for an adventurous weekend, and actually, I am writing this from the car now. But we will save these experiences for next time.
