As far as it concerns my preparations for my journey it's needless to say I need to take care of a few things. Here you can read about my steps I'm currently undertaking in order to make my plans a real deal, rather than just 'dreaming' about it.
My job.
Recently I told my boss about my plans. I was a little bit nervous to tell him tho. Because of the financial crisis which, especially in the real estate business, kicks in really hard at the moment, I was kinda affraid he would fire my ass the minute I would speak the legendary words "I'm planning to go away for a world-trip". However, he was very supportive about it and even told me he understands my motives and thought it was a cool and adventurous thing to do. *Sigh* what a relief. I didn't get fired and I can stay at least untill September. Sweet! With this first "obstacle" tackled down, I could go on the the next step.
My apartment.
I'll be leaving my apartment before commencing my trip. And the sooner I leave my apartment, the more money I'm able to save which I won't have to pay for rent anymore. I can live at my parents for a while, which I think I'll do from the beginning of July. They will leave for a holiday in July and be gone for a month, so basicly that means I still have my 'own' place :-). However, for August and a part of September I'm "forced" to live by my parents ' house rules' again, which is kind of a bummer of course :-). I already made a deal with a few friends to stay over at their places in the weekends for thesee months, so I won't bother my folks when I'm getting home too late, drunk or not at all ;-). Ofcourse there is a bright side of this:
1. my dads cooking 2. my mother doing the laundry and 3. I',m able to save quite a few euro's for these weeks!
Storage.
Because I don't have my apartment anymore when I'm leaving the country, I needed a solution for my furniture and stuff. The most obvious option is to sell all of it. I have thought about this, but I'd rather not do that because of - A. my stuff isn't worth that much, so it wouldn't make sense to do it to earn some extra cash and - B. when I'll be able to keep my stuff, it would help me a lot to settle down again when I'm back in Holland. Since there is a good chance I'm totaly broke when I'm back here, I can use my "old" stuff, instead of worrying on how to get money for new stuff.
After looking on various websites to rent a (small) storage, it appeared the cheapest option would cost me around € 70,00 each month. This is good money when it comes to traveling on a budget and I didn't want to spend € 70,00 each month while I'm abroad. Luckily for me, my parents offered me the spare bedroom, which used to be my brothers bedroom. Recently he moved out and with this room still empty, they are willing to help me out with this problem. Many thanks to my parents (and brother ofcourse, for moving his ass out)!
Money.
To finance all these ambitious plans, I need to have money...and preferably... quite a lot of it :-). Since I'm still living on my own, I have my monthly costs such as rent, insurance, contribution for the gym, (phone) bill and recently also my motorbike lessons. Luckily, most of these costs will no longer be an issue the minute I leave town, 'cause I cancelled most of them already. Obviously, not having these costs anymore isn't enough. Luckily I was taught well by my parents ;-) and learned how to save. I've got quite a few coins in my bank's savings account already, but I'm planning to live more on a budget from now in order to save as much money as I can, to get my trip funded. So basicly this means.. less beer, less parties, less beer and... hmmm... less parties... from now on! Damn!
Information.
Just pointing a few countries on a map and buy a (plane) ticket to that country, won't help me a lot. Especially when you are traveling outside the European Union you need to be well informed regarding (tourist)visas, vaccinations, insurances etc. A close friend of me (who's on his world trip at this very moment) told me about this company "Kilroy Travels" which has an office in Amsterdam. This company is specialized in helping your world trip organized and gives great information and help, with things you might forget or don't even think about yourself. I made an appointment with them for the 17th of April. After this appointment I will know more about the countries I'm about the visit which will be another step closer to booking my trip.
Gear and tools.
I started to look for my gear and tools recently. Needless to say I need a lot of stuff for my trip. To begin with a big and comfortable backpack, which will be the most important thing I'm carrying with me the whole trip. I already looked for some nice backpacks, but they are all quite expensive. In order to get a good one, you need to pay at least € 100,00 for a basic model. But it's really a luxery problem I guess... so no need for complaining here! Also I went to this 'special travel shop' called JOHO and they sell all kinds of products 'specially' suited for 'world travelers'. The girl in the shop tried to sell me all kind of emergency tools, compasses, lighters, first aid stuff, flashlighst etc. etc. Ofcourse stuff like this will be very handy, and I will need things like that... but I am not buying that in this 'special travel shop' where you pay at least € 15,00 for a basic flashlight. I found this website of a company called DealExtreme a few years ago. They are absolutely fantastic and incredible cheap. I once bought there all kind of crap and it's a 100% thrustworthy company. Soooo... with the list of tools and gear provided from the girl in the JOHO shop, I started to buy stuff from this website... for 1/4 of the price or less! I saved myself a lot of money this way. And sure it all will be 'made in china crap' and probably my flashlight will be broken after I turned it on and off 2 times, but ... its only $ 4. :-)
Vaccinations
I recently got my vaccinations for the big trip. Together with my vaccinations I already got last year for my 3 weeks holiday to Thailand, I'm now 'disease proof' - or at least I'm hope to be :-). Also I got medicines against malaria, 'cause I probably will encouter countries which 'a high risk' on being stung by a damn malaria mosquito. The best part of it, is that everything is covered by my health insurance. So no extra costs for me there! Hurray!
Tickets and Visa's
All my tickets are already booked. That is my ticket from A'dam to London and from London to Moscow. Also my trainticket is coming this way pretty soon, (when I make the final payment) but everything is under process. The visa procedure is going well also, since I don't have to bother myself with that. The agency I booked my traintrip with, is taking care of this matter at this very moment. I only needed to fill in some forms and make some pics and that was it. They do the rest. Awesome, since I read stories about 'how difficult' it is to get a visa for Russia and China!
Goodbye Party
Since I'm leaving on September the 7th, I will throw a goodbye part at the 3rd. This will be held in The Hague in a bar in the city centre. I don't have my own place anymore, so that's why I chose a bar! I'm really looking forward to it, to see all my friends one more time and say a final 'goodbye'.
... to be continued
