After 12 years of dreaming and a very quick three months once the decision was finally made, today is the day we leave for our big trip! We leave our 40m2 rental apartment in Haarlem, Holland in the safe hands of a good friend and we’re off to see the world.
Obviously it’s not as easy as it sounds… or maybe it is. Once we found someone to housesit our apartment the decision was actually really simple. The only difficult part was leaving our friends and family behind… and cleaning our apartment. It’s amazing how much you collect over the course of a decade, even in such a tiny apartment.
Our reasoning?
Our son is now 17 months old and if we want to go on a longer trip, we need to do it before he has to go to school. We’ve both been dreaming about a long trip or even living abroad for a while since before we met each other. Somehow the timing never seemed right. But since I’m between jobs and my partner is a self-employed carpenter, now is actually the best timing ever!
Digital nomad and dive instructor
I’ve decided that I want try to become a ‘digital nomad’ to add some $$ to our travel budget. Never before did I have the courage to work for myself instead of for a boss, but this is the perfect opportunity. We’re both scuba divers and my partner is a PADI Divemaster who has wanted to become an instructor almost as long as he’s diving. Since becoming an instructor is mostly a question of money and a few weeks of training, we now just have to find a good place for him to do his IDC (instructor development course). Dive instructor is also a great job to do while abroad! Of course, like any job hunt it’s not going to be easy to find a job as a rookie, but hopefully our combined skills will be interesting to a potential employer.
Our plan
The past three months have gone really fast, but at the same time really slow. Our first stop will be Dahab, Egypt where we own our own holiday house. We’ll stay there for about two months or until we can’t take the heat of the Sinai summer anymore. Since we have our own house there it will be fairly cheap and an easy transition. After Egypt we plan to fly to South-East Asia and travel around there for the rest of the year. Surprisingly, with all the dreaming of the past 12 years, our bucket list is completely empty. But we’re sure we’ll be inspired again once we’re on the road!
Sooo… the moment to leave has finally come… We’re off!