Have you ever kissed under the northern lights? A digital nomad love story.

I never really had a bucket list, but something I really wanted to do in my life is exploring the arctic countries one day. Trying out how life feels like with -30°C in the winter, hot sauna and a wood fire in the house.

While I thought it could be really cozy I was not really expecting that my childhood dream would also push me very much out of my comfort zones.

Seeing the northern lights I thought was only a matter of time but to my positive surprise also a matter of meeting the man I deeply fell in love with… in Bali.

Before I met my partner my life as a digital nomad looked very different.

I basically worked A LOT to make an income from my laptop, a 12 hour work day was often normal and I never really dated much. It wasn’t my focus which was also good as I didn’t want to stress about it. I spend my free times with friends and other nomads in Bali where I settled down for a while.

Even though I’m a very social person I still had some real struggles with loneliness not feeling great sitting on a dinner table by myself, or watching movies alone. Maybe you can relate to it? Even though you get comfortable with yourself very fast sometimes you wish you could share life with a person you love to be around with.

That brought me to the idea creating a free dating app for digital nomads, something that feels not superficial like Tinder and fitting to our remote lifestyle.

It was an almost normal working day at a coffee shop in Ubud.

It was as random as it could get. I got a bit bored of Canggu where I lived and wanted to visit friends in Ubud during the weekend.

Sebastien my co-founder of Nomad Soulmates already left the coffee shop where we met for a meeting. Half an hour later a very attractive man sat right next to me at the shared big table.

He has the warmest smile and our flirty conversation lasted until the shop closed and we had to leave. We met again in Canggu and I became very curious to get to know him better. After a few more dates I also invited him to our first beta launch party in Bali of Nomad Soulmates and introduced him to all my friends which were a blast.

He is a gentleman and a rebel by heart which is probably why I fall in love with him over and over again. I was actually considering leaving the country maybe traveling to Chiang Mai again but he made me completely change my mind and I’m glad I did a heart decision getting a social visa for 6 months in Bali – for us, to see where this is going. It felt incredibly good doing that and letting the airplane leave without me.

Both of our worlds ‘crashed’ into one.

In the best way possible! After dating him for a few months he quit his corporate job at a retreat center in Bali and started his first own camping project: The Getaway Camp in Bali that now has five-star revues and starts to get very popular for bigger nomad groups. I’m the proudest girlfriend alive seeing him sharing his passion with other people earning a lot more than in his previous job. He showed me his ‘simple life’ through his eyes and he brought me closer to nature again.

Two very different cultures came together which also caused a lot of misunderstandings. Therefore we are working on becoming real pros now in communicating well and throwing our ego right out of the window. Than traveling as a couple is of course very different than traveling solo.

We often pushed our buttons as we were around each other 24/7 which is normal but exhausting, we both need our space sometimes. In the end, I see it as Mark Mansion mentioned in one of his articles, love is not enough in a relationship, but what really counts is that you show respect to one another. This is what I believe in bounds you together for many many years.

Ending up in Finland

So here we are, on our first big trip together on the other side of the world, standing in front of our authentic Finnish house in Lapland, staring into the night. The green northern light is slowly and very soft making its own way through the sky. It is better than I ever imagined in my childhood dreams.

We stood there kissing each other, falling into each other’s arms very glad to have us in this moment. Sharing every experience and every adventure with the person you love is something very magical on its own.

Just like seeing the northern lights for the first time, we tested our skills on wooden snow skis made in 1912 on 1,5 meter high snow. Or there were hilarious times when we’d drag each other out of the meter high snow because it was really hard to hold the balance, while we did some forest trekking. And at the end of an adventurous day, we’d jump naked into the snow and back into the Finnish sauna. It feels good, really good.

Our home is calling us!

Our next stop is Bali again (in fact I’m writing this article at the moment from the airport in Helsinki as we are waiting for our flight). Valentine’s Day is coming and I’m already busy organizing a wonderful Nomad Soulmates launch party for nomads in Chiang Mai and Bali for hundreds of guests! (Don’t miss it!) After 2 months of traveling, we are really looking forward coming back to our home base finding a temporary cozy home for the two of us.

What I actually want to say.

You know life is wonderful, stop worrying about what would happen if… or what if I put more effort in to give a possible relationship a chance. Even though we have some tight travel plans as digital nomads sometimes, if your heart says HELL YES to a person you want to get to know better – freaking go for it.