I can’t believe that I left USA 10 weeks ago and I’ve been living nomadically abroad. I visited these following cities so far in the past two months while trying to spend within my budget which is a pretty low budget :).

• Barcelona
• Valencia
• Murcia
• Madrid
• Paris
• Milan
• Venice
• Florence
• Bologna
• and currently in Rome

10 cities in two months are quite a bit of movement even though I tried to not move so often because the more we move and change cities, the more we have to spend in expenses (transportation cost is higher when we have to change cities or countries).

Now let’s see how much I’ve spent for 6 days in Paris and 25 days in Italy.

Total for the month of October is $2685.81 which was higher than the month of September when I was in Spain, but I was expecting the month of October to be higher because of the more expensive cities that I visited. Also there was an unexpected expense such as $108 cost of going from the Milan Milanpesa airport to my hostel. Apparently this Milan airport is located outside of the city and all the cabs and transportation companies charge 95 euro flat fee for drop off. We can take the metro but that it will take about two hours. Since I arrived in the evening, I preferred to take the taxi option. It cost a lot and it made a dent in my budget but at the same time I didn’t spend extra two hours commuting, hauling my heavy luggage and backpack.

In Paris, I stayed for free at the Holiday Inn Gare De Lyon for six nights. Thanks to my IHG Chase Rewards credit card, I was able to save $1074 for accommodation. That’s how much I supposed to pay if I didn’t have my IHG card. The IHG card is really great for free hotel stays at IHG properties around the world. They have promotion where you will receive 125,000 points after spending $3,000 in the period of 3 months. I paid all of my bills using this card until I reached the bonus point requirement. Of course I paid my credit card bill before the due date so I didn’t get pay any interests. If you are interested to get your own IHG card and maybe use it for a week of free hotel stay in Paris, Hawaii, Rome, or wherever you want to travel to just apply through this link .

I think besides accommodation and transportation, the next biggest expense of mine is food. I love to eat delicious food and sometimes it’s difficult to justify the cost of all the food I want to eat. I tried to shop for groceries at grocery stores more than eating out. However, when I dine out I will set certain budget per meal. I usually just have yogurt for breakfast, for lunch the most I am willing to spend is 17 euros (that’s including drink and food) and for dinner the most I am willing to spend is 25 euros (including drink and food). I am also trying to alternate, if I ate lunch out then I would have dinner from the groceries that I bought. It’s harder to make food when I am staying at hotels, that’s why hostels and airbnbs are my favorite type of accommodation.

A lot of people also asked me if I felt lonely while traveling by myself? The answer is yes. I don’t feel lonely all the time but that feeling can come up sometimes and it’s ok. I tried to meet people from hostels that I am staying at, if I am staying at hotels or airbnbs, I tried to look up meetups or couchsurfing events. Facebook groups are also excellent resources to meet people especially these following groups for women travelers: Girls LOVE travel, Solo Female Travelers, Single Nomads, Host a sister, and so many more that we can join to meet people.

I still can’t believe that this is my life right now. I don’t know how far I will go or how long I will last traveling nomadically. All I know is that i didn’t regret my decision to quit my good job that I had back in Portland, or selling all of my stuff and now I live out of a suitcase with very minimal selection of clothes (I only have one jeans :P). I don’t know where my next income will be from (hint hint please share my blog and all of my social media) and yes that’s scary but even if I have to go back home and start all over again, I didn’t regret my decision at all.

Cheers to entering the third month of being on the road! The adventure is waiting!