2020 —the extra long year

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Portfolio Marc Wieland

25 min readNov 13, 2022

2020 was a strange year as everybody knows. A new virus appeared and nothing was the same as before. I needed to adapt my travels a lot and at times even pause them for a bit. Nevertheless, my year wasn’t boring at all. I managed to never be in complete lockdown or stay in quarantine.

January

New Years Pick Race

A fun video production is always on the first of January in the Swiss mountains. It’s kind of a Swiss tradition — a pig race. Since people can’t really see well, we’re filming it and sending it to a big screen. For me, it’s always fun to be the cameraman in the cage. Especially mounting the camera on top of the pig is unique and quite funny actually.

Adelboden — ski world cup

“Hopp Schwiiz”. As every year the ski world cup is stopping in Adelboden, Switzerland for a weekend. The ski races at the “Chuelisbergli” are very famous and special for at least the Swiss racers. There’s always a great atmosphere among the fans, especially if the local sportsmen are having good runs.

Oman

After staying in Switzerland for a bit and enjoying the snow it was time to move into a warmer country. I was planning to end up in Indonesia and took different stops between. I always like to split up flights or use layovers to my advantage and explore the city instead of just switching flights. So I ended up splitting my flight to South East Asia into 3 parts. The first stop was Muscat, Oman since it was right in the middle and I found good flights. This way I was able to explore Oman for a week and could remove the jetlag completely. With just having 3 hours time difference per flight and a week between.

I’ve already been to Oman a couple of years ago, but I was just able to explore the capital. This time I wanted to also see the nice landscape. First of all, I needed to work quite a bit too. But I managed to get some days off to go into the desert in the South and explore some nice valleys. Oman is in general a pretty dry country, but there are valleys that get flooded pretty crazy when there’s rain. So it’s a little bit like an oasis in between the mountains. They’re called Wadi. So I managed to explore one of those (Wadi Bani Khalid). I really enjoyed it. Then there are also hot springs (Athawarah Hot Spring). I was thinking it was cold water and when I took my toe inside the water I was really surprised. It’s actually a wellness area in nature. You can chill between the rocks and enjoy the water coming down from the waterfall.

Staying in the desert for a night was a beautiful experience. A friend was able to join me there. We drove my car into the South and got picked up at the edge of the desert by the owner. He drove us 30min inside the desert to a camp (a small village with a couple of bungalows). Such a clear sky and quietness there.

Kuala Lumpur

The next stop on the way to Indonesia was Kuala Lumpur. I’ve never been there so I decided to fly via Malaysia and work there for 2 weeks. I found a studio apartment in a good location and an amazing view of the skyline of Kuala Lumpur from the infinite pool on the rooftop.

I was able to meet some locals which showed me around the city after my workday. Shopping malls are a huge thing there as I noticed. And in addition, there was the Chinese New Year coming up. Which meant crazy decorations and lights in the malls.

I also went a little out of the city for day trips. Batu Caves and Genting Highlands were two places I wanted to visit and also did.

We’re having early 2019 and newspapers are writing something about a virus. I’m also wondering. People are scared to leave their homes, there’s an information flood on social media. People are confused. I was trying to figure out if more people are wearing masks than usual since it’s pretty common in Asia anyways. But when I arrived in the queue at the cable car to Genting it was clear. Something unusual is going on in this world (it’s late January 2019).

February

Jakarta

After being on the road for 3 weeks I finally made it to the destination country — Indonesia.

I landed in the capital, which isn’t a beautiful city at all and there’s not a lot to see. But the people made it great. It’s not the first time I visit Jakarta, so I was happy to meet some locals I knew from my last stay. I enjoyed my time going around with friends, enjoying dinner together, and having great talks.

On one of my last days in the city, I met one of my favorite people I met via Couchsurfing. Two Indonesian guys I met separately earlier. A fun fact was when I suggested meeting up together I figured out the two locals already know each other, which was a perfect match. I always wanted to go up to a rooftop restaurant, but since they mostly are a little fancy and require a certain dress code I wasn’t able to go (with my nomadic t-shirts). But we found a hidden rooftop above a hotel which we wanted to try and good luck we did. It was amazing and is actually one of my favorite places in Jakarta at all.

Bali

After 2 weeks in Jakarta, we headed off to Bali with 3 other friends. It was a spontaneous escape. For some, it was the first time relaxing on a beautiful sandy beach. I also had a couple of days holiday to go around with my friends by motorcycle and explore. The great thing is that I only needed to take 4 days off to enjoy Bali, a touristy island far away from Europe for which you normally can’t just take a week off. But that’s the beauty of being a digital nomad.

Bali isn’t the place of my choice in Indonesia but the infrastructure is very decent, there’s a good vibe, and very modern. So it’s a great place to work, which is important for me.

After my friends needed to leave back to Jakarta I moved into a Co-Living to work from. That’s what I always do when staying in Bali. On the weekends I still wanted to explore. So once I decided to explore the North (the less touristy part) of the island a little. I found a Couchsurfer from Austria who was happy to join me. So we went up there by bus and stayed in a hostel. The insecurity forced by Corona was recognizable. Lovina up in the North was dead and almost empty. Just a couple of stores and restaurants were open, in our hostel there were around 6 people and the host confirmed that this is very unusual.

Another weekend it was finally time to go up a volcano. It’s crazy, I spend almost 4 months in Indonesia in total and have never been up to a single volcano. So I needed to change this and went for a tour up to Mount Batur. Sadly we weren’t that lucky with the weather and couldn’t spot the best sunrise, but still, it was a very nice tour with some great new people I met.

After 1.5 months in Asia, my return flight came closer and closer. My flight back was to Frankfurt. I was able to fly the Airbus A380 for the first time on this route. Which was a nice experience for me as a guy which is pretty interested in aerospace and airplanes.

Germany

Since I arrived in Germany and not directly in Switzerland I decided to tour different cities in Germany for a bit. I went up North to Würzburg where I found a cozy apartment and discovered a nice place to eat burgers.

Then I continued to Bamberg where I met a Couchsurfer from Turkey which is studied there and was hosting in the year before. It’s always great to stay in touch with people I meet during my travels or while hosting on Couchsurfing. So we had some discussions and lunch together.

The next stop is Nuremberg, where I was planning to meet a friend from Vienna whom I don’t meet that often but try to do a city trip a year to catch up. This year it was Nuremberg. We discovered the city, went for nice food, enjoyed a movie in the cinema and attended the carnival. A packed but good weekend.

The next city was Leipzig where I mostly just worked and then Kassel. Here I had another “how small the world is” experience. I create kind of a diary with my Instagram Stories. There my friends and family can always see where I am and what I’m up to. So my Co-Worker back from Switzerland is texting me. “What are you doing in Kassel, I’m there as well”. That blew my mind and we for sure met to hang out and explore a place close by Kassel.

March

Strasbourg

After I was going around in Germany for a little, I wanted to check out a city that is actually pretty close to Switzerland — Strasbourg. So I decided to make a stop there and work a bit. I found a cute and nice Airbnb very close to the old town.

Something special was about to arrive in Europe. Corona was about to arrive. I already experienced afraid people in Asia for two months and read it in the news. But now it’s finally starting in Europe. 2 months later. The streets of Strasbourg were quite empty. And when on one Wednesday the sirens for a catastrophe test through the city sound, it felt like war is about to come. Few I know how dark the next 1–2 years will be from a social standpoint. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the beautiful city of Strasbourg and could finish some work.

Meetup in Switzerland

On my way back home to my parents, there were a lot of meetups on my list. It will be the last in-person meetup for a loooong time. First I stopped in Bale for a night and went to one of the biggest web hosting companies in Switzerland — cyon. There my co-worker had a talk.

After a great meetup in Bale, we both moved to the other side of Switzerland and joined the meetup at my former employer (Miux) in Chur. There I’m one of the hosts of the meetup and my co-worker was happy to have his talk again in a more simplified version. Everyone was very happy.

Soccer live stream

In the meantime, the corona virus is on the rise. The number of infections are skyrocketing. Countries, especially within Europe start to restrict bigger gatherings. One of those are sports events, which create an interesting atmosphere. A football game without an audience in silence. Unbelievable almost. The people wanted to enjoy the game anyways. So a lot of teams started to have special live streams during their games. While a lot of events were canceled completely and my work as a freelance cameraman was slowing down, at least we had a rise of live streaming opportunities which I enjoyed a lot.

Live streaming soccer games without an audience

Lockdown

After the restriction of events didn’t help most countries (this time also in Asia) went into lockdown. Some more, some less strict. This meant in some countries that it was only allowed to leave the house on certain days a week for groceries, in other countries it was more relaxed like going for a walk with the dog in the park wasn’t an issue. In Switzerland, it was even more relaxed. Moving around was unrestricted and I even went into the office every other day to change places from my apartment.

Corona Stage

Since live streams on remote events are on the rise. My company worked together with an audio/visual company to build a big stage in a Corona-friendly way with a lot of space to keep distance at all times.

People started to invent special TV formats to support artists who couldn’t perform at events.

April/May

April and May, the probably longest months with the fewest memories are about to start. Lockdown is on. People are afraid to meet and leave the house. A very special mood in the air.

Me, in the meantime, was forced to hold my travel journeys as well. But completely without train journeys, I wasn’t. Since I had my apartment in the capital, I worked there during the week and went to my parent's place in the mountains to enjoy my time out in nature. I did a lot of skating, hiking, and biking.

At work, we sometimes got creative to work at a distance like when we had an issue with a piece of hardware that was standing in the office with a video call debugging session.

June

The spring of 2020 was a very nice one. Good weather and comfortable temperatures. One weekend we headed up to that cottage in the mountains and enjoyed the stay and view in peace.

Flight Simulator

During the lockdown, I bought myself a gamer computer and I went back to playing flight simulator. During my school time, I was really into that. Then never had time and now I had a big desire to fly again.

It’s not just another game, it’s very real. I’m flying online with a lot of others. The rules are like in real aviation. There are a lot of pilots flying for virtual airlines from one city to another. While there’s always a handful of controllers online to give everyone clearance.

Hiking in the Swiss mountains

By the end of June, my best friend normally comes to Switzerland to celebrate her birthday in the mountains. She loves to hike and be out in nature with the tend. This time we decided to hike up to a place called “Bettmeralp”, built our tend a bit up with a beautiful view over a lot of 4000m mountain peaks like the famous Matterhorn. Early in the morning the next day we walked up to the Aletsch glacier and had a stunning view over the largest glacier in the Alps.

July

Munich

In July the whole Corona situation started to be more relaxed. The borders started to open again. So it was possible again to leave Switzerland. Before I had a 2 year-long record to leave Switzerland at least once a month.

In July, for my birthday, I left for Munich. The weather was great and we enjoyed it outside a lot. We had a fancy dinner in a Double Michelin Star restaurant. But I wouldn’t recommend that thought. It’s way too expensive and after 7 courses even not full. So not that outstanding for the price. It actually was my most expensive dinner until now.

We also had a small birthday celebration with friends in the garden of a co-worker. My friend prepared some yummy Indonesian food and we had a great time.

In Kufstein for my birthday

Afterward, we headed to Kufstein, an Austrian mountain village very close to the German border.

It was on the day of my birthday. For that reason, we got an upgrade in our hotel and we could move into the Swiss-style room (what a coincidence). It was an outstanding room with a beautiful interior and a bathtub in the middle. For sure also has an amazing view. The perfect room to stay in for my birthday.

After our arrival, we had a relaxed evening on the balcony with some cookies and a special labeled “Champagne”.

My birthday evening with cupcakes and Champagner

The next day we wanted to be a bit active and enjoy nature. So we went up the mountain for a hike. The closeby valley was rated as the most beautiful valley in Austria. So sure we need to wander around those beautiful mountains.

Go homeless

Corona gave me some hints. During the lockdown, I was in Bern and finally noted that I don’t know anybody else than my co-worker. So I decided to quit my apartment after 2 years and go “homeless”. I moved all my things back to my parent’s house and started living on the road or in my parent’s guest room since then.

Enjoying the Swiss nature

After I moved back from the “big city” to my small home village in the mountains I continued to tour around my home region. On the list St. Moritz, the Lake of Staz, and Appenzell afterward.

Family gatherings started to be possible again. So sure I wanted to see my cousins and grandmother again. Always in small groups according to the Corona regulations. But we all together enjoyed ourselves a lot.

Heidi

Close to my hometown, there’s the place where the famous story of Heidi was written and took part.

For the birthdays of the Swiss nation, the local television wanted to do a special TV show in that village, the so-called “Heididorf”. We had a day of shooting there with the production company I work for.

Hot days in Switzerland during July in summer. I and my mother decided to head to the next lake close by (Walensee) and unpack our Standup paddle (SUP). I actually never did it before but managed very fast. We were going around a bit and just chilled with your feed in the water. In the evening we met with some friends at the river and had a barbecue. Enjoying summertime in Switzerland, that’s how you do it.

August

Company activity

One of my coworkers got married so we attended the wedding as a company. Since we already gathered we thought about combining it with a company event and went to an open-air right afterward. There was one issue when it comes to dressing. In one or the other location the dress code wasn’t correct 😅 But we had fun in both locations, that's what matters I guess.

Civil service

Like every year I have to fulfill my duty to the Swiss country. I think it’s the 4th time in a row I went up the mountains to help a farmer's family for a month. Work includes making hay, timbering, and slicing wood. It’s hard work, but I take it as a good summer, high-altitude workout.

September

New camper van

My parents ordered a camper before Corona started, in September the van arrived and I was the lucky one to take it out for the first time. I went into a region closeby to my hometown with beautiful mountain and lake scenery. A friend of mine joined me and we had an amazing extended weekend trying out the new camper. For sure we went hiking a bit and had good food.

A different nomad life

After the weekend I continued my journey outside Switzerland and hopped over the border to Austria. For the next 2 weeks, I was working from the camper. A real digital nomad on 4 wheels for the first time. A different challenge, but a nice and new experience.

I was really happy with my work/life balance. I wasn’t socializing that much and used the time to focus and hike. Mainly I worked focused in the morning to finish a bit earlier in the afternoon to explore some closeby places like the suspension bridge in the Ötztaal.

1/4 century birthday party

This year I and my best friend turned 1/4 century (25 years), so we thought about celebrating that number with some of our close friends. We invited them over to a modern mountain hut in Austria. We did a weekend retreat with hiking, playing games, and eating a lot. It was very relaxing and special for all participants.

Austria

Afterward, I continued the trip by camper a little more with my friend. We went a bit into the mountain and discovered new places I’d never checked out before, like Hallstatt, Zell am See, or St. Wolfgang.

I’m in love with Austrian food, so we were eating a lot of local food. Austria has some stunning mountain peaks we wanted to visit. Then there are also some fun parts like tobogganing which enjoyed as well.

October

Vals

After the border opened again in summer and I was able to travel around a lot I got back home to get some more family time, did some freelance work as a cameraman, and enjoyed the mountains around my home region.

For a weekend trip, I went to Vals to visit a friend and did hiking.

Live stream Swiss ski

We did some live streams for Swiss Ski, the national winter sports organization. They had a photo-shooting day for the upcoming winter season. It was quite interesting seeing all the athletes getting ready and producing content that will be used for a lot of marketing efforts throughout the season.

Italy

The end of October is about to start. COVID cases are rising again for the winter season, some borders are starting to close again. And most importantly for me, it’s getting cold. So I need to find a way South before it’s too late. Flights are tricky and expensive. Since there’s no vaccination yet, PCR tests are needed for everything. So I decided to hop on a train and drive South. First going over the border to Milano, Italy. It was last minute as I figured out the day after I arrived in Milano. The way back to Switzerland would already be difficult since there was already stronger border control in place. Well, I didn’t care because my destination was in the direction of the South. I took a fast train (Frecciarossa) and moved 8 hours all the way South to Italy. They even had a co-working space on the train and somehow decent internet. So for me, this was amazing. 8 hours of work on the train and then I was done with my work day when I arrived in the South.

I made it to Sicily and already enjoying the Italian food to its fullest. I’m really bad in the kitchen, so one of the few things I can manage to prepare is pasta and it tastes well. But in Italy, they just taste way better. Delicious I only say.

Vulcano Piano

The first couple of days I decided to go to a volcano island and climb the peak. (Isola Vulcano)

I got up early in the morning to walk up for one hour to reach the top. Up there I was the only person and the taste of sulfur was pretty crazy. The gases came out very close to the path so I decided to not pass there. This decision turned out to be a very good one since the taste was very strong and I figured out that this could have ended deadly since those gases are paralyzing the respiratory system. As an interesting fact, I figured it out.

Sicily

After this detour, I went back to civilization. I decided to rent an apartment closeby to Palermo to get some focused work done. In addition, there was kind of a lockdown going on. Restaurants needed to close by 4 pm which meant pasta at home for me for a week. Nevertheless, I enjoyed my stay a lot. The apartment was a beautiful studio with a rooftop. And I love rooftops. So I spend most of my workday up there. Since it was almost November the temperatures were really nice.

The rooftop of my Airbnb in Casteldaccia

November

Sailing trip to North Africa

By the beginning of November, I changed my location and moved to the Southern coast of Sicily. There I entered a sailing boat with an old sailor. My main goal was to reach Greece by boat, but I couldn’t find one. So my journey will eventually bring me to Tunisia. I actually had two weeks of holidays since I had a lot of leftovers until the end of this year. So I decided the best place if the world is falling apart is to be on a sailing boat. We’re in quarantine anyway. We were preparing not to survive COVID for the next months, but to cross the Mediterranean Sea by boat which is a week trip. But the preparation looked a bit similar. There’s so much to buy.

After preparation in the port of Syrakus, the day came. We left for Nord Africa by sailing boat. 3 days, 2 nights straight at sea. A new experience for me. We arrived in the North of Tunisia late in the evening and had a rest at the port. The next day we had to do customs and PCR checks to enter the country. By the time the border was closed to tourists. We still managed to enter. Another new experience. In a new country without a lot of tourists.

Tunis

After spending a couple of nights in the Marina of Bizerte, it was time to leave the boat and explore more of the part that isn’t water. Me and another crew member took a bus and we moved to Tunis, the capital. There we had a couple of good days enjoying and exploring the city. For me, it was the last day of the holiday.

December

Sidi Bou Saïd

For my upcoming work week, I moved into another apartment. I found a nice place in a touristy part of Tunis, Sidi Bou Saïd. It’s quite famous for its white houses with blue paintings. Like a bit of a Greek island.

One thing I’m really proud of is the size of the luggage I was able to bring with me this time. Since I try to travel as minimalistic as possible I was very happy to just have a 40-liter backpack with me which was very convenient to go around.

Monastir

On my way to Tunesia, I got in contact with a girl via Couchsurfing. She helped me a lot with recommendations and translations during my travels here in Tunisia. So I thought I’d travel even a bit more South and explore a new place. Looking back it was a great decision because I felt really at home and loved the place very much. I’m talking about Monastir, not a very famous student city, but a very nice building. I heard it was the favorite place of the former dictator.

Sousse

One week I decided to go over to a closeby city called Sousse where I explored and worked a bit. I found a pretty crazy Airbnb which I wanted to check out. In the bedroom, there was even a jacuzzi.

Grenoble

This was already the end of my Tunesia adventure. It’s almost Xmas and I decided to go back home for Christmas to visit the family. My flight from Tunisia took me to Lyon and then I decided to do a small detour to Grenoble on the way back to Switzerland by train. I really enjoyed that city. Built into the French Alps with beautiful scenery.

Back in the office

There I stayed only for 1 night. Then I took a train via Geneva to Bern. In Bern where my current company is based. So I have a desk and a bed there. Both are very important.

Since there was nobody working in the office because of the holiday, my boss invited me to come over to his place for dinner and a gaming session. I was very happy about it and went. Later in the night, I had to finish a project. Good, my bed was pretty close.

Xmas at home with family

The next day, on the 24th I finally made it back home. Punctual for Xmas to meet my family. I’m not religious at all, but those events are a great reason the meet family members again.

New year in the snow

My best friend had some days off after Xmas and decided to come to Switzerland. Since I also had a couple of days off we explored a bit and made a trip into a valley close by at a higher altitude with a lot of snow. So we managed to have a New Year in the snow.

For the New Year, we went to Maloya, into the freezing valley of Engadin. The temperatures are mostly negative Celsius during winter all the time. So you’ll find snow always here. Another reason why we went there was that the current COVID rules closed all restaurants, excluding restaurants that are part of hotels and they’re serving guests. So we went to stay 2 nights in a hotel and eat in a restaurant as guests. I haven’t been eating out in a restaurant for a while. So we had nice food, relaxed and had a walkout in the deep snow and in the village.