Nomadic Wisdom: To Date Or Not To Date

I traveled to Zagreb, Croatia in March and have absolutely fallen in love with it. There are many reasons why I love Zagreb– the food, the walkableness of the city, the beauty of the architecture, the low cost of living (high-end rents are no more than $600 including a view, utilities and high-speed internet,) and most people here speak english. But the city’s biggest draw is it warm and friendly people.

One of the first things I did when I got to Zagreb was to join the Positive Psychology Meetup group where I made in one night no fewer than eight friends that will probably be life-long keepers. Croatian men and women are REALLY, really interested in brown-skinned people– and not as a matter of curiosity, but as a matter of genuine interest and heart-connection. When I walk down the street here, it is not uncommon for 70 year-old women to wave and smile at me and invite me home for coffee (and to try to set me up with their sons.) Young women look at me with admiration as I sport my big ol’ American smile and yellow cowgirl boots. Men of all ages, without fail, invite me for coffee and offer me flowers. Everyone (men and women alike) is so happy that I have chosen to spend time in Croatia, and when I try to speak the Croatian language, they are so delighted! The language is VERY difficult, but mostly they are grateful and feel honored when foreigners take an interest in their culture and care about them enough to try and speak their language.

Zagreb is a place where I feel welcome and at home.

In that first Positive Psychology Meetup, I met a woman named Sonia Zivkovic, and she and I became good friends instantly. She is a foreigner like me. She’s from Argentina, but her father is Croatian and she decided to move here a year ago to explore her roots. I’m a spiritual philosopher and Sonia is a life philosopher so we have decided to get together once a week and film our conversations and share them to help inspire women (and men, but mostly our focus is on WOMEN) to find creative ways to travel and maybe even LIVE abroad. You can watch our first video if you want.  For both Sonia and I, travel is really important and we both feel very at home in the world. She’s lived in China for over five years and has traveled to many places. I’ve created my own brand of travel where I follow my heart and stay in one location for three to six months at a time. I’ve visited lots of places– Brazil, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Turkey and all over Europe, including living a few years in France. I’m being called to Africa and will start my journey there within the next year.

In this video, Sonia and I explore DATING as 40-something nomads, which is something that I’ve been avoiding for a year, but has become impossible to avoid since being here in Zagreb. Have a watch of the video. I hope you enjoy it and it inspires you to travel, find self-love and DATE! <3