The Tux in the Backpack

Allow me to insert a more personal post on this Flashpacking Blog. It has to do with Flashpacking as well, of course.
The thing is.. maybe I don’t want to be a Digital Nomad. I know I am a nomad and that is not too likely to change, but maybe I want to be a slower, employed nomad instead of a digital one.

maybe it takes more effort...

There’s a lot of blogs and websites out there telling you how to “live your life making money online”:

How not to be location dependent; how to be an expert in social media, blogging, viral stuff, ebooks; how to be the ultimate digital nomad.

Many of them are very well done, and sure their authors make a very decent living out of it. But I’ve also seen a lot of bad ones, the “make a trillion online in a month” ones, where they show you proudly some Adsense receipt and ask you to give them your email address (if not also some of your money).

Well all this made me think that maybe a lot of what we see online is just a more advanced, refined version of the old crappy MLM and affiliate sites. I’m not saying this out of disillusion because I’ve tried and didn’t work for me. After all I’m living in a very affordable place at the moment (Budapest) and I’m making some little income. I could continue doing this is some place that I love and that’s even cheaper (like Thailand or Indonesia).

But as I’m trying to find out my next destination (and occupation) my thoughts go more or less like this:

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Popularity: 100% [?]

Quite a lot has been said about Flashpacking in the last couple of weeks. As usual the best has been captured here on the bi-weekly Flashpacking Blog Carnival.

Noches Multimedia, ElPais.com

Flashpacking gets attention in the Spanish world with this article, where we learn how the phenomenon is spreading rapidly across Spain, especially in Valencia and Barcelona. We also learn that the term backpacker in Spanish is mochilero, and that Flashpacker hostels can be called TechnoHostales. There you go, two more useful words for you.

Purple Nest Hostel, Valencia

La Mia Bellissima Avventura (My Beautiful Adventure)

A new Flashpacker is around, and her blog is definitively one to follow. Lauren after working 3 years in pharmaceutical and hitting a bit of a mid-life crisis decided to leave her job and her Chicago and go travelling in Italy. The blog describes her adventures and thoughts, and explains why she has chosen Flashpacking as her travel style. Lauren also came up with her personal definition of Flaspacking.

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Popularity: 64% [?]

Hilarious video in which Irish comedian Dara Ó Briain talks about backpackers.

He’s notoriously a super-fast talker, and the Irish accent won’t be easy for everybody to understand, but surely the main idea will come out.

Maybe because he mentions that he’s getting too old and comfortable to backpack (”I had one of those moments when you go: I’m not doing that anymore”), or maybe because he prefers wheelie suitcases (”look, it’s on wheels, you feckin’ eijit”), but we like to think that Dara could easily be interested in travelling as a flashpacker.

Popularity: 49% [?]

With the 1st day of may comes the usual appointment to what has been said online in the last two weeks about Flashpacking and Flashpackers. Here we go.

Am I a Backpacker or a Tourist? MadTravelMag.com

It all started with something written on a wall of a fine drinking establishment: “No Fishermans pants, no tie dye, no dreadlocks, no head scarfs, in fact nothing you wouldn’t wear to visit your local pub. Just remember you are not a bloody backpacker, you’re just a tourist!”

just a tourist..

Flashpacker or Backpacker? What type of traveler are you? MadTravelMag.com

Champagne Backpacker, that’s a good one: “I know that when I first set off on my worldwide adventure I thought I was going to be a backpacker. I soon discovered that most backpackers didn’t see me as exactly the same sort of traveler as them. The term flashpacker wasn’t really being used that much at the time and I was called a champagne backpacker, which is basically the same thing.” Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 52% [?]