Unplanned Paths Can Lead You To Unexpected Riches
This week in Midlife Nomads: history, ferries, and bear jerky in Finland — plus nomad visa news, the power of microhustles, and a must-have tool for slow travelers.
✈️ Welcome to Midlife Nomads, your weekly hit of real talk, smart ideas, and helpful tools for building a location-independent life through remote work, travel, and business.
This week, we’re talking about the power of microhustles and manageable marketing, residencies for slow travellers, Croatia’s increasingly competitive nomad visa, and more.
First, Trevor and I have been chasing the last whispers of summer in Finland and Estonia, where the days are already growing short and the air carries an early hint of autumn. He’s here visiting for a few days before heading back to his non-nomadic job in Canada.
Recommended reading:
We caught a ferry yesterday from Helsinki to Suomenlinna, a UNESCO World Heritage site that’s equal parts fortress, open-air museum, and living island community.
We didn’t set out with much of a plan… just a pair of walking tour tickets and the thought that we’d see what unfolded. Several hours and 7,500 steps later (over cobblestones that made Edinburgh’s feel like child’s play), we found ourselves steeped in a real-world northern Europe and Soviet history lesson.
Wandering old ramparts after the (highly recommended) guided tour, we discovering tucked-away exhibits on Baltic naval life and more than a few cool bunkers to explore. Suomenlinna is worth taking an early ferry and spending the day, so you have time to check out the many shops, cafes, and museums on the island.
At one point, as we were standing on a bridge enjoying an ice cream cone in the sun, it was like someone decided, “Cue the tall ship!” and the impossibly idyllic scene became that much more magical as this drifted by:
Late afternoon, the ferry delivered us with our aching knees back to Kauppatori, Helsinki Market Square, where food vendors were selling the last of their fried fish and potatoes off at a discount and washing up, getting ready to close down their tents for the day.
Nearby Vanha Kauppahalli, the Old Market Hall, stays open later. We popped in for a drink and a Finnish version of the Spanish tapas tradition — think bear jerky, smoked reindeer pate on bao buns, and fish… lots and lots of fish.
Here’s the thing: not having every detail mapped out didn’t make the day lesser; it made it better. Looseness can leave space for curiosity.
When you travel slower and resist the temptation to race from landmark to “Top 10” site checking them off the list, the place you’re at gets a chance to tell you its version of the story.
That’s true of travel, but also of building a life outside the usual script. You’ll miss ferries sometimes. You’ll end up in the wrong line, or with the smelly taxi, or facing the kind of red tape that makes you want to turn back.
But more often than not, if you give yourself room to try, you’ll stumble into something richer than the “perfect plan” could have delivered.
So if you’ve been waiting until all the details are nailed down before you book the ticket, launch the project, or take the leap… consider this your nudge. Sometimes all you really need is a ticket and the willingness to see where it leads.
Now, here are some things I’ve been reading and writing this past week, starting with my crash course in getting your marketing off the ground — ICYMI.
Minimum Viable Marketing for People Who Hate Marketing
Unless it’s what you truly love to do with your time, marketing can quickly begin to feel like an endless game of whack-a-mole. One week you’re on Instagram. Next, you’re fiddling with LinkedIn. Someone says you have to be on TikTok, so you try that.
🇭🇷 Croatia Extends Digital Nomad Visa to 3 Years
Great news for lovers of sun, sand, and old world charm… Croatia just tripled the length of its digital nomad visa, now allowing non-EU residents (and their families) to stay up to three years. It’s a bold move to compete with neighbours like Estonia and Romania.
👉🏼 Read Croatia just revised its digital nomad visa to last up to 3 years from CNBC
P.S. If you haven’t yet fallen in love with Croatia, perhaps we can convince you:
When Integrity Packs Its Bags
In her latest thought-provoking column, Elizabeth Silleck La Rue writes about a different kind of American exodus — not a brain drain, but a “heart and soul drain,” as some of the kindest, most values-driven people she’s worked with are choosing to emigrate. It’s a sobering reflection on what the U.S. is losing as it becomes “great again.”
“You don’t need a VC-funded startup, a massive business, or millions in the bank to be free.”
And another great read here from Jo Barnes, this one on the power of keeping your remote-friendly business lean and small. Don’t fall into the hype that tells you success means VC funding and scaling to a profitable acquisition. For a lot of us, it means working to support the life we want versus living to work.
👉🏼 Read Why Micro Hustles Are the New Route to Freedom (Especially After 50) at The 50+ Nomad Club
🧰 Tool of the Week: Res Artis
If you’re a writer, artist, musician or creator of any kind (or want to be), Res Artis is about to become your new best friend. One of the great challenges of slow travel is finding suitable and affordable accommodations in the countries you want to try living in. Res Artis is a database of hundreds of residency opportunities worldwide you can search to discover low-cost and sometimes subsidized arts residencies. Check it out:
That’s it for this week… stay tuned for more remote business-building tips and lessons in the days ahead.
✌🏻 Miranda
Thank you for the share. It's a sad truth, but yes, the US is losing its best.