Where's Next: Athens

It's coming to the end of my UK Visa and I'm understandably, quite bittersweet about it.

2020 was intended to be the year of Europe travel. I had spent 2019 setting myself up in the events world, finding my feet in the UK, and earning regularly. In March 2020, I already had 3 trips planned, to 5 countries.

The Rona hit hard and I've spent most of this exclusive, expensive, second year visa at home. I've taken odd jobs at supermarkets, focusing on getting myself set up remotely, and spending way too long on the phone to airlines. And now, we're at the end of the visa. What have I even done? It feels surreal.

I could write here my unparalleled knowledge of visas and countries an Australian can enter, but we'd be here forever. I've found the best option for myself right now is to start south and move north, into Germany, where they are still granting visas on arrival.

Athens is first with a small apartment at 500EU a month. As it's in a Schengen zone, I'd rather get out of the country and save my remaining days for better weather. If I spend 30 days

in Greece, I've got 60 days to play with later in 2021 - hopefully with less restrictions.

There's a rough plan into the Balkan countries - Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and then Croatia, before we re-enter the Schengen zone going into Budapest & Prague, finally crossing the border into Germany. The bilateral agreement kicks in here and I've got an extra 3 months added into my 'days remaining'.

Of course, if a housesit is given to us, we're going to adjust our plans accordingly. I'm fully relying on remote work until then! It's a very exciting time, and how amazing is it going to be drinking Greek mantinia wine on this rooftop, whilst smashing out emails? BRB... time for some more research.