# Quickfire round: Romania, Gibraltar, North Macedonia, Myanmar, Italy, Spain

- **Episode:** [220](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/220.md) (2025-08-05)
- **Type:** other
- **Tags:** romania, gibraltar, north-macedonia, myanmar, italy, spain
- **Time:** 29:18–36:30 (start 1758s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/220?t=1758](https://truthliesandwork.com/220?t=1758)

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[29:18] Al Elliott: I agree. Okay, so we're going to do a quickfire round because we are currently on 27 minutes. Romania
[29:28] Leanne Elliott: Always recommend it, would never go back. Had the best time there. Really great. Wouldn't go back
[29:33] Al Elliott: A couple of things about Romania. Number one, if you are able to hire a car and fly into, say, Budapest, București, sorry, and hire a car, do that Top Gear Transfăgărașan Highway. Do that. It is stunning. You're also then gonna go up to Brașov and Sighișoara
[29:51] Leanne Elliott: Transylvania
[29:52] Al Elliott: Transylvania. Those are the most amazing places. In terms of working, we used the Wi-Fi and it was okay
[29:59] Leanne Elliott: It was okay
[30:01] Al Elliott: But, and it's, yeah, it's challenging. Everything seems to be a bit of a challenge. You've got to go out to the supermarket, it's a bit of a challenge. But if you do know any kind of Italian or Spanish, then it's another romantic language, which is strange for Eastern Europe. So, there'll be a few words you recognise
[30:13] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, go on holiday there. Gibraltar. Never lived there. Got married there. Visited a lot. Morrison's. Never lived there, never worked there. No comment
[30:24] Al Elliott: Well, to be fair, we lived maybe about half an hour from Gibraltar in southern Spain for about 5 years. And so we used to drive down to Gibraltar into a supermarket called Morrison's because they had the Tiger bread, they had all the stuff we were missing from home, and then drive back. So yeah, it's definitely worth a go, but we've not worked there and it's expensive accommodation. At the time we were there, very dated accommodation. And yeah, it's not somewhere we'd necessarily recommend. Talking of somewhere we'd not necessarily recommend, now this place is another beautiful place for holidays. It is known by a number of different names. It is now known as North Macedonia or North Macedonia. But back in the day, it was called the Former Yugoslavic Republic of North Macedonia. Macedonia, catchy. We went to, now let me see, Skopje, the capital
[31:19] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[31:19] Al Elliott: Very cool, very crazy, very strange. It's, it's honestly, the statues are still wrapped in plastic because they've just come out. They just come off the back of the van. It's made to look like it's like 100 years old and it's about 8 years old. Also, there's a big bridge that takes you across into the—
[31:35] Leanne Elliott: Turkish Quarter
[31:36] Al Elliott: The old town, the Turkish Quarter. That is, it's just weird because you go from the new town to the old town and it is almost completely dry. If you like kebabs, as in dry as in no alcohol, if you like kebabs, oh my God, you're gonna love it, but don't expect a beer there
[31:49] Leanne Elliott: Good place for dogs, actually. We found a really good, like, doggy daycare in Skopje that Peanut went to. That was really good. We also spent some time in Lake Ohrid. Gorgeous. Highly recommend Lake Ohrid. Recommend Macedonia, to be honest. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a cool, quirky little place. Don't remember having any issues in terms of working. Don't, don't remember much about it either way, which probably meant it was fine
[32:14] Al Elliott: Yeah, exactly. Okay. So, I'm gonna pull out Myanmar. Oh, Myanmar. This is the 4th. This was, if you know, if you're a bit older, you might know it as Burma, Myanmar. One of the most incredible experiences of our life there. And now you can't go. Well, you can, but it's a bit tasty
[32:34] Leanne Elliott: I don't think you can actually. It's under kind of military rule at the moment, isn't it? After a coup. Yeah, I almost don't want to talk about it because there's really little point because it's so sad that we can't go anymore, but genuinely one of the most stunning, beautiful places and it's heartbreaking what's happening there. So yeah, hopefully that'll get figured out because one of the most, probably the most incredible place I've ever been
[32:58] Al Elliott: And if you go to, if it does open up again, try and get to Napali. It's not spelt the same way as the Italian way, but try to get to Napali because it is a beautiful beach resort and it's just incredible
[33:08] Leanne Elliott: Anyway, moving on. Italy
[33:11] Al Elliott: Talking of Napoli
[33:12] Leanne Elliott: Italy, we've done a fair bit in the north. Yeah, um, fabulous. There's a place about an hour from Venice that is now going to be our regular stop every year. We were there for a week or 10 days last— this year. Um, stunning, gorgeous. You don't— you know Italy, the food's great, there's loads to do, there's loads to see. Um, we've done Lucca, we did Pisa. Don't go to Sicily in August is the only advice I'd give you about Italy. Other than that, enjoy
[33:40] Al Elliott: Yeah. Quick thing about Sicily is you go, oh, well, what? Because it's hot? Well, yes, but if you get a place with air conditioning, which our very first place wasn't, we hired a place for a month, lasted 4 days, then went and rented somewhere else. Um, 'cause the landlord was weird for a start, but also, uh, there was no insulation on it and no air conditioning. Genuinely, our, we used the meat thermometer in our kitchen. And it was 37 degrees in the kitchen. So no, absolutely can't work there. But also the other thing is there's so many festivals on that the church bells go continuously and continuously. So for August, so going in August is beautiful if you're sitting there out there with your lovely, your lovely Aperol and you're looking at the church bells, listening to church bells. If you're trying to be on a Zoom call with someone, no, don't go to Sicily
[34:22] Leanne Elliott: Italy is a good place for nomads to consider because it's one of the few places that you can get long-term residency. as a third country national without too much hard work and taxes to do it. So, if you're looking to extend your nomadic venture into years, then Italy is a really good option for that to do. Take a look
[34:40] Al Elliott: Just a quick point on that. You have to apply when you're outside of Italy, as opposed to most of the other digital nomads where you can arrive and then apply for nomad— nomad— nomadasi, but you can't do that. Okay, so the next one I pulled out is Greece. Can't really talk too much about Greece. We've only spent a few days in Greece, but Yeah, passing through on holiday. We weren't working. Yeah. So, uh, Greece, I really don't think we should talk about it because we've not worked there. We've only just relaxed there
[35:05] Leanne Elliott: Yeah. But it is another place that does do a digital nomad visa of sorts. So again, if you're looking to extend, Greece is another one to look at
[35:12] Al Elliott: Absolutely. So, my replacement there is Spain. Spain, you beautiful, beautiful, beautiful bitch. Um, we would live in Spain if we could
[35:23] Leanne Elliott: Heartbeat
[35:24] Al Elliott: Let's go now. Yeah. Um, the only reason we don't is that they currently tax worldwide wealth, which means that it's not, it's not feasible for us right now. Perhaps that'll change. Um, but, um, yeah, and income tax is like in Andalucía, it's 50%. Uh, then also if you want to be self-employed, you have to pay €250 a month each before you even make any money, which is why most people go to Spain and don't tell anyone they're working in Spain. Just be careful because they're getting onto that. But there is a Nomad Visa. In terms of internet, when we were there, it was relatively pricey. 4G was a bit pricey, but I think it's come down quite a bit since then
[35:59] Leanne Elliott: Yeah. And when we went back, actually went to the north of Spain a couple of years, because remember Valladolid, they had lightning-fast internet in our Airbnb. So yeah, I think internet's got loads, loads better now. It's fabulous. Go get the DN Visa, have a wonderful time. Don't fall in love too hard because I promise you, you can't afford it
[36:17] Al Elliott: Yes, absolutely. This honestly, we could do an entire— while Leanne's choosing, we could do an entire episode Should we do a quick—
[36:23] Leanne Elliott: yeah, we have done entire episodes on Spain. We have, yes
[36:27] Al Elliott: So we're gonna do a quick, quickfire
[36:28] Leanne Elliott: Just like a one-word fire round