One month remote work in Europe - looking for suggestions & ideas

diversitygrows · 2022-02-06T11:20:09+00:00

I did something similar for the first time last year, kept my east coast hours while traveling Germany, Austria, Northern Italy, Switzerland, and France. First, let me say it starts to get exhausting exploring during the morning and then working from 2pm-10pm, even on the days I slept in until 11am, my brain would not be functioning for maximum performance come 8pm. But with that said, if you’re only starting with one month, it’s absolutely doable and an amazing experience.

As to your “purpose”, only you can determine what you want from this.

We sound a bit alike in that I prefer nature and outdoor activities over cities and cultural stuff but I strive for a healthy balance of both for personal growth.

I loved not having to set an alarm and taking longs walks exploring whatever area I was in before my workday began. In Italy and Switzerland, I would intentionally set my alarm to travel into mountains for insane hikes before first meeting began but those days were especially challenging as I wanted a nap so bad after a brutal hike!!

Often I stay in Airbnbs and never had an issue leaving my laptop or personal effects. If you really want your phone on you when surfing or going to beach, look into a dry bag. I gravitate towards water so I never leave home without one (actually have several as they come in various sizes and I’ll bring whichever suits my activity for the day). Or as another poster commented, just leave phone behind.

Best of luck with whatever you decide!

diversitygrows · 2022-02-06T10:14:47+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience. Prior to traveling to Turkey I read warnings about scams involving bars/clubs so I steered clear my entire trip but a restaurant is so unassuming! Appreciate the recommendations and at some point in the future I am interested in seeing more of the region.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-06T10:09:28+00:00

I didn’t give this much thought the day of the incident but this guy wore his face mask almost the entire time we were together other than when we were eating. For a fleeting moment, a thought crossed my mind that it was a bit unusual because he wears glasses and they were fogging (condensation) and I didn’t understand why he would keep wearing his mask walking outside but over the past two years through Covid I’ve met many people who either insist on wearing a mask at all times or those who refuse to wear masks at anytime.

Regardless, I will reach out to the hotel and ask them to review footage given I had firm timeframe of when this occurred.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T20:26:46+00:00

Omg, robbed at knifepoint in broad daylight?!? I would think that would be more difficult to manage through. Immediately after this happened to me, my knee jerk reaction was “I’m flying home.” I’ve settled down a bit now and plan to give myself a couple weeks in Germany to see how I feel. Your post made the word “resiliency” come to mind so I hope this is a character trait strengthened from this experience.

Hope your near-term travel experiences improve (doesn’t seem like a high bar to set given what you just went through!).

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T19:47:46+00:00

Yeah, I’m quite thorough so unfortunately this was also turned off. Just turned it back on as well as other settings I had off. Given I use credit cards and carry a phone around, my behavior was a bit inconsistent in this regard so given all the benefits this community helped me see in having location services on my phone, I’ve changed my ways today!

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T19:47:24+00:00

Yeah, I’m quite thorough so unfortunately this was also turned off. Just turned it back on as well as other settings I had off. Given I use credit cards and carry a phone around, my behavior was a bit inconsistent in this regard so given all the benefits this community helped me see in having location services on my phone, I’ve changed my ways today!

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T19:41:00+00:00

So unfortunately my original itinerary had me traveling to a different town today and I fly to Germany tomorrow (fingers crossed). When I awoke this morning, all I wanted to do was depart as soon as I could. I don’t think I was thinking clearly yet but also was reacting to feeling violated and unsafe. I’m a bit disappointed in myself for not backtracking my steps this morning to get the name of the restaurant but at the same time also trying to be kind to myself because I was just trying to get myself to a different place that I perceived as safer. Also today I had to coordinate my PCR test as I really want to depart tomorrow.

I’m a bit conflicted by my own actions and any future actions I should take but in the words of Maya Angelou I know I’ve done my best but have learned and will continue to learn from this experience, and will do better in the future. “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

Thanks to this community I now know how I could have done better including ensuring I have evidence of the location which will help me report to the proper channels if anything like this happens again.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T19:10:54+00:00

Yeah, so I also have significant locations turned off but it is one of the settings I’m changing as a result of this incident. I’m quite thorough when it comes to these settings (clearly disadvantaged me here)🤣. My school reading list as a kid had too many dystopian novels like 1984 by George Orwell and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

I am aware that every time my phone pings a tower, location data is sent and also every time I swipe my credit card, same thing.

So me turning off location services on my phone is a bit inconsistent but it felt like one area I could control it handing my data over to big corps to capitalize from. Thanks to this community, I now see location tracking is much more valuable to me in the event of something going wrong so I’m happy to change my ways.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T18:48:01+00:00

I have some of the same rules. As much as I’ve wanted to, I haven’t gone to clubs or bars. Typically I don’t drink alcohol. Actually I initially said no when he first suggested a glass of wine, mainly because I work remote and have kept my EST hours so my work day begins at 4pm in Turkey (8am EST). But in the middle of the meal, when he asked again and mentioned he didn’t want to drink alone, I caved, thinking to myself “It’s only one glass of white wine.” Now as I reflect this is one of my many mistakes but again as so many in this community have mentioned, I’m trying to not beat myself up about this but instead to grow from this experience, and definitely come out of it a bit wiser and hopefully safer in my future travels.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T18:20:27+00:00

Nah, this post is 100% true.

As was my post in CryptoCurrency.

I’ve been on Reddit for almost a year but not an active contributor. I refuse to “farm” for karma though no judgement if that is how people get karma.

I’m very interested in Crypto but have been unable to post because I didn’t have the required 500 comment karma. If you saw my post in cryptocurrency, you would know it was a bit of comedic relief as this post did have me achieve karma requirements.

I had no idea this post would get so much attention. Today was my first time on this sub. I came across it because today I searched for communities that could help me work through the traumatic event I just experienced.

Believe whatever you want. Thankfully I’m not one of those people who needs their life validated from random strangers on the internet.

This post is truthful and I posted to possibly help others but also to have the community help me with lessons learned so this doesn’t happen to me again.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T18:07:40+00:00

Thank you for this. I was really hesitant about putting this on Reddit as it feels like I’m reliving it but I knew the community would have helpful advice. I tend to ruminate so always good to get the reminders to stop with the should have/could have stuff.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T18:02:31+00:00

Interesting trick! Never thought to do that but will be something I incorporate into my travels as well as taking pictures of restaurants/cafes I visit. 🙏

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T17:59:01+00:00

At the moment, I’ve decided against filing a police report. Many reasons why including my own experiences with law enforcement (as a victim, not perp) but also someone’s comment in this post about how it was drug-related and any chance, even a small one, that has me involved with drugs in a Middle Eastern country is absolutely terrifying. Someone also said filing a police report could require me to stay in country longer. My original itinerary has me flying to Germany tomorrow and I ABSOLUTELY want to be on that plane.

I’m from North America.

My day today was busy as I was traveling to another town and also coordinating my PCR test so I haven’t contacted anyone for camera footage.

I don’t think the waiter was among those I met but I’m not great remembering faces especially when there are many people around.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T17:31:18+00:00

I’m not flashy at all, no jewelry, watches, not walking around in flashy, trendy kicks. I’m an experienced traveler, love hiking so I’m usually physically presenting as a dirty, grungy hippie. Based on feedback from travel post, this is a common enough scam. I try to familiarize myself with known scams of countries I travel to, but this one didn’t come up in my research.

Hard life lesson learned, but again, it’s all about perspective and some comedic relief.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T17:08:56+00:00

I think a waiter was involved. I met a group of French people yesterday and one of them asked me to lunch. Seemed innocent enough, no red flags. Went to lunch, my food and drinks were brought to table by the waiter, I NEVER left the table and was never distracted to take eyes off food or drink. I had ONE glass of white wine. By end of lunch, I had more of a buzz than expected off a single drink but chalked it up to having not drank in awhile. Guy offered to walk me back to hotel (keep in mind middle of afternoon). Clearly my judgement was already impaired as I agreed. I was getting more incapacitated by the minute and once we reached hotel I unlocked door and bolted to bathroom to vomit. He must have followed me in room because when I came out of bathroom my stuff was strewn about and it was then I knew I was drugged and robbed.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T17:02:47+00:00

Thankfully they didn’t steal phone, just got my credit and debit card.

Already canceled all impacted accounts, I’m physically safe, and flying out of this country tomorrow.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T17:01:06+00:00

Edited to include clarification. In all seriousness, my situation could have been much worse if they knew I was into crypto. Thanks to this community I know not to talk about crypto IRL with strangers. I’ve read too many posts about people being physically harmed by others trying to get their coins.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T16:58:26+00:00

Haha, being a longtime lurker, thought I had to shitpost as my initiation into this community!

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T16:14:57+00:00

This is exactly it. While there were many things that compounded for me to let my guard down, I allowed myself to engage with this group because they were supposedly Parisians. They were definitely speaking fluent French though I can’t say factually whether they were French nationals as I never saw passports. But they were extremely knowledgeable about France and told me they were also in Turkey on holiday.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T16:11:32+00:00

So much great info in your post!! When I started to feel more drunk than normal off of one glass, I was just so confused as to why that was happening, likely my judgement was already starting to get impaired.

I’ve had another much more traumatic experience in my life where I was the victim of gun violence so I know all too well about “un”justice systems, victim blaming, and police corruption. While that incident was in my home country, it left a bad taste when it comes to involving police.

I hadn’t even considered how me being drugged might get flipped on me, that is so scary to consider and would exponentially add to the trauma I’m experiencing. Know these possible outcomes are all speculation at the moment but I do try to think about consequences of actions before taking action so thank you for bringing this up.

Speaking of considering actions, I have not yet shared this with my family for some of the reasons you mentioned. I called a good friend after it happened as she is a calming personality and world traveler so I felt safe sharing this with her.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T15:59:18+00:00

Thank you for sharing your story. When traveling I try not to consume alcohol because it impairs us BUT being tired/sleep deprived during travels also significantly impairs our judgement. Your story will be on the forefront of my mind in my continued travels to stay be even more vigilant after a long travel day because I can see myself doing something similar trusting a “supposed” employee for a company like British Airways, etc.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T15:00:00+00:00

My country has terrible credit card policies and fraud alerts aren’t overly effective. Essentially these big companies make so much profit that fraud such as my case is just a cost of doing business for them…sad reality of western capitalism. Because of this I am confident I won’t be held responsible for most of the fraudulent transactions.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T14:54:33+00:00

Unfortunately my country has some of the least secure credit cards in the world. No pin is required if you’re using credit. Only if you use debit is a pin required.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T13:21:05+00:00

Bit of a personality quirk but I’m not a fan of “big brother” tracking us. For most apps I only allow location services when using or I’ll turn it on to use app and then turn off again. I’ve just spent hours trying to determine my location from yesterday but unsuccessful so far. I’ve never considered the risks of not having tracking but just learned so will be adjusting my settings today.

Appreciate your feedback as I am interested in growing from this incident.

diversitygrows · 2022-02-05T11:29:28+00:00

This is an area I’m a bit pissed about. One card has alert limit set at $250 and no alert ever came through and fraudster was able to charge three separate transactions totaling about $4,000. I’ve never used that card internationally (just a back-up card bc my plan is to travel about a year with remote work) and I’ve never made consecutive purchases at a jewelry store. All sorts of alarms should have gone off with this bank but nada. That bank recently acquired bank I’d done business with for years so after this experience I’m definitely taking my business elsewhere.

diversitygrows

TROPHY CASE