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Liberation Travel Hacks 07/2025
What fascinates me about travel is how unfamiliar surroundings bring people together. If I meet a Slovak in the Colombian rainforest, we're instantly best buddies, and we wouldn't even say hello on the street in Bratislava. He doesn't even have to be Slovak at the time, I'm happy to meet any European sometimes. It works the same way between other nations. As an almost native Paraguayan, I visited a Paraguayan restaurant in Barcelona a few days ago ( Bar Legazpi ). And it was also one of the warmest encounters - everyone dropping guaraní and guarañol (a combination of Spanish and Guarani) on each other. Unknown Paraguayans sitting next to each other suddenly become the greatest of friends, and they discuss the most sensitive aspects of their lives. They feel alone in the big city of Barcelona, and that's why they are so close. They made me my favorite Paraguayan dish, Mandi'o Chyryry, and apologized for not having tereré. We are also a large community of Czechoslovakian guys in Asunción; we all chat, complain about the state together, and help each other out.
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I love it when unfamiliar surroundings make people human and welcoming again.
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Pavol Lupták, 8.7.2025, Bratislava
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France
Spain
If you are a non-EU citizen and want to buy a property in Spain, you will pay twice as much as EU citizens. There has never been a better opportunity for EU citizens to run a "proxy service" and buy property for non-EU citizens at a 50% discount in a trustworthy way.
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Barcelona - the biggest mecca of corporatist socialism.
I wanted to call Bolt in Barcelona, and the app informed me that, although the Bolt driver was a short walk away, I would have to wait at least 15 minutes to be picked up. This utterly misguided regulation in Barcelona has been exploited by local taxi services that are significantly less competitive than Uber or Bolt. As a result, state regulation is intentionally reducing the quality of Uber/Bolt's service, allowing even slow and overpriced taxi drivers (who would no longer exist in a truly free market) to compete.
And that's not all!
Barcelona is a city of protectionism - the hotel lobbies here have enforced a ban, or rather heavily restricted Airbnb. As a result, I've not been able to find any reasonable accommodation under €250 per night here. Yes, I was there during the "peak" Primavera Sound festival, so logically, accommodation was expensive. If Airbnb were legal here, the accommodation price would drop by half.
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And that's still not all. As an avid cyclist, I discovered the bike stations of the local bike-sharing company Bicis Barcelona, located just a short walk from my hotel. I wanted to use them actively throughout Barcelona. I was even sadder when I learned that this system is only for locals (with a valid Spanish ID), and I, as a foreigner, won't be able to sign up for it. There are bike-sharing systems for tourists (Donkey Republic, Voi, Bird, and Ridemovi), but they are only available in the centre and are overpriced.
Local bike sharing is virtually untapped - I've found plenty of stands with a dozen or so unused bikes that tourists can't use, instead opting for overpriced taxis or ride-sharing services that are purposely slowed down to compete with slow taxis.
And even though there were up to 300,000 more people in Barcelona (thanks to the Primavera Sound festival), Bicis Barcelona's shared bikes are underused.
The protectionism of taxi services and hotel chains in Barcelona, with tactics such as intentionally lowering service quality to prevent competition, is often justified by phrases like "Barcelona has a serious problem with massive tourism, and therefore we can't afford a deregulated free market." In doing so, if tourists could use the now-unused, cheap shared bikes, they would travel significantly less by car, and Barcelona's roads would be lighter (which, of course, none of Barcelona's taxi cartels want).
Airbnb, in turn, would significantly reduce accommodation prices and, thanks to competition, improve the quality of Barcelona's hotels (some of which are not only expensive but also subpar for the price).
I'm sad for this city - having a few vested interests, a guaranteed business, they abuse the law to their advantage, and in the end, it's to the detriment of all those who receive inferior and expensive services.
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Paraguay
We have all the good news from Paraguay - we are now able to collect clients' cédulas and apply for their driving licenses remotely on a power of attorney basis for our clients.
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Uruguay
We've a new promotion: if you decide to take up permanent residency in both Paraguay and Uruguay simultaneously, we'll offer you a 10% discount. A few of our clients have already taken advantage of this option.
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Georgia
The SOLO Club bank account at Bank of Georgia is truly the best solution for travelers. It currently includes:
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Kyrgyzstan
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It's not official yet, but we've found a way we can open an account at Kyrgyzstan's Ayil Bank, including a premium VISA Infinite card, for quite a bit cheaper than at Bakai Bank.
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The cost to open this non-CRS bank account remotely will be €1337, including international apostilization, translation of all documents in Kyrgyzstan, and DHL delivery of the card directly to the client. We are planning a cool promotion where the first month after the launch of this service will include a complimentary one-year subscription to the VISA Infinite card. I recommend ordering this service as soon as it becomes available.
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You can sign up for the Kyrgyz crypto service Netex and complete the KYC process using your Paraguayan cedula. No reporting anywhere. You can then top up your Bakai account for as little as 0.5%. You can only top up 15,000 KGS (USD 175) at a time, but you can do it again and again. Recharging by fiat is practically instant.
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Bitcoin, Monero, and cryptocurrencies
Kidnapping crypto people is not a good idea, and sooner or later, you will be arrested: a suspect in French kidnappings for cryptocurrencies has been arrested in Morocco.
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Emergenseed is a protocol designed to securely utilize remembered mnemonic devices (seeds) for digital assets in high-risk temporary environments (e.g., border crossing).
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The Argent crypto card has been renamed the Ready card, and it looks good.
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I received a reference that one of the best crypto cards, which works with KYC on a Paraguayan cedula, is Ether.fi. See the comparison below:
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Level unlocked at 10K Membership Points
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Level unlocked at 50K Membership Points
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Spend using value-accruing stables.
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Family Member Cards with/ controls
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Airport Companion lounge access
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Personal finance services
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⏱️ Fiat<>Crypto transfers
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⏱️ On-chain portfolio management
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Anti-money laundering laws create a legal black hole in which due process rights are effectively rendered nonexistent. If you've ever had a bank or foreign exchange account frozen, you know that the bank will close your account with a single notice that they "can no longer provide services to you." The exchange will ban you from making payments without further explanation. This is usually because an algorithm has flagged one of your transactions as suspicious (e.g., Palantir, Chainalysis). While it's natural to be angry at banks and exchanges for this, this time it's not their fault. Banks and exchanges are legally prohibited from informing you that their anti-money laundering system has flagged your account. If they told you, they would face years in jail. Anything to do with reporting money laundering has to be kept top secret, as it falls under 'financial intelligence'. The problem is that without knowing *why* the bank or exchange "decided to stop providing services to you", there is almost nothing you can do to defend yourself and exercise your right to due process. This then creates a ground for political censorship as financial institutions hide behind their right to choose who they provide services to - a problem that is only getting worse today as consortiums like the Wolfberg Group push for increased social media scanning to "fight financial crime", meaning your accounts can be terminated for just one post on X or Instagram. There is probably not a single legal framework in the world that so severely restricts your fundamental rights as the fight against money laundering. Read the article The Lack of Due Process.
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Privacy
GrapheneOS for anarchists: Although anarchists should minimize the presence of phones in their lives, if you choose to use a phone, make it as difficult as possible for enemies to track your location, intercept your messages, or hack your phone. That means using GrapheneOS.
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Freedom Store for iPhone puts control of your device back where it belongs - with you. Install what you want, when you want. Also, thanks to the EU :)
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Travel Hacks
Since I've started cycling a lot and find it dangerous to ride with headphones in my ears, I've switched to the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 "conducted-bone" headphones. I am surprised by the high-quality sound for this type of headphone. They can also be purchased in a Mini version for smaller heads.
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Finally, I also bought a new gravel bike, the Trek Checkpoint ALR 5, with which I have ridden the first few hundred kilometers, and I am looking forward to the trip from Bratislava to Košice.
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Do you feel sick when you're traveling by car or bus and looking at your phone? Try the MotionEase app - it adds subtle motion features to alleviate motion sickness, similar to Apple's "Motion in Vehicles" feature. KineStop works well with vibrating dots. Both apps have been tested and work well on GrapheneOS.
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Excellent RadicalStorage service for storing luggage in many countries around the world.
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Interesting links
Your crypto will be "blacklisted" by 2026. Except for a few countries that are crypto-friendly, such as Panama, Georgia, and Paraguay, we can assist you with both residency and opening bank accounts in these countries.
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"This election is the most important election ever!"
"The future of the nation is being voted on today!"
'Either you rule or they do!'
"Decide or others will decide for you!"
All of these are so-called "Barnum" statements - populist, theatrical, at once elusive and vacuous, and shared by the majority.
Thanks to them, too, they are drawn into a disgusting political game (of which, unfortunately, they have no idea that they are a part).
To play in this game is to legitimize this game, likewise to legitimize everything that comes out of this game.
And falling asleep knowing that you are part of the country's political direction. In doing so, you are just a victim of this game, and you are losing. Because only 'our people' always win.
Politics is a gigantic theatre, and politicians are clowns.
You need perspective to realise this, to understand the political game and the propaganda that unfolds at first sight, and of which the majority of the people who lose are the victims.
More in the most cynical, hardcore, realistic, funny new documentary on politics and democracy - Barnum World.
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Events
8-12.8.2025 WHY2025, the largest hacker camp in the Netherlands
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