Four years ago Geoffrey D'Souza, 33, grew tired of his monotonous life in America. So he quit his job and moved to Ukraine, which he had visited before and where life is comparatively cheap.
Now he lives in Lviv and edits English texts for a living – and a decent living at that. He earned enough to visit 10 European countries last year. “I enjoy the fact that I don’t have to do the typical 9-to-5 sort of work schedule,” D’Souza says.
He is one of many modern nomads, people who don’t like staying in one place for long and who prefer freelance and short-term jobs so that they have time to travel. Their lives show that many professionals in the modern age don’t need to work for the same company tied to the same office to make a living anymore.
While Ukraine is an attractive destination for foreign freelancers like D’Souza, young Ukrainians are also no strangers to the nomadic lifestyle.
Serhiy Ponomaryov, 19, visited 16 countries last year and wants to travel more. Originally from Lviv in western Ukraine, he works as a freelance programmer. Normally, he stays in a city for a week and then moves on, often to another country.
“The burnout is huge,” Ponomaryov says. “But I still do it to keep sharp, to overcome myself, and to see all the countries of the world eventually.”
For D’Souza, traveling is the perfect antidote to routine. He likes meeting new people but also finds value in being alone.
“Being a good traveler isn’t just about being social and needing others, but about enjoying new places on your own without feeling lonely,” he says.
Being your own boss is another thing that attracts people to nomadic lifestyle.
That’s the case for Viktoriya Prydatko. She used to work in a human resources department of an informational technology company in Kyiv, but found it emotionally tiring. So in 2008 she quit, found a similar job she could perform remotely – recruiting for IT companies – and started traveling. She began with a six-week trip to Madagascar. In 2014, she split her time between Ukraine and eight other countries, spending approximately one month in each, leaving Ukraine usually when it’s cold.
For her, frequent travels is an integral part of broadening her perspective on life.
Some nomads manage to keep their old jobs while traveling and living abroad.
Eugenia Reznychenko, 26, left Ukraine for six months retaining her job as a finance analyst despite living in another country.
“I took time to live in different parts of Germany and kept on writing for my boss,” she says. “And even when I was working in the office, I would still leave for a week to travel. Once, I said I was going to work from home and left for Jerusalem for 10 days.”
Reznychenko says that combining work and travel is not difficult “as long as you have Internet access and a liberal boss who does not demand you to sit in the office.”
Others turned their nomadic lifestyles into profitable work.
Anastasia Vlasenko, 24, started writing about her travels, and after some promotion through social networks and with search engine, her blog Crazzzytravel.com got popular and started making money. Some hotels provide a room for free if Vlasenko writes a blog about her stay.
Her boyfriend is her travel/blog partner.
“We were just saving our salaries for a year, and then bought one-way tickets,” she says. Currently, the couple resides in the U.S., but soon they will go to Bermuda and then Mexico.
“To travel like us, you just need a desire and around $1,000 for the first trip,” the woman says.
Kyiv Post staff writer Anna Romandash can be reached at [email protected].
