steppin outa babylon
Hello friends & readers of my blog :)
Firstly many thanks for reading over the past 4 years... yes it really is that long :)
We have decided to leave the UK and go traveling in our van around Europe for a few months. We hope to do some volunteer work on the way at eco-builds and organic farms in exchange for food and lodgings as well as take a break from the endless grind of working every day.
We have family in Spain and Bulgaria and friends in France, Italy and Croatia so we hope to see them and some of the amazing countryside, beaches, mountains and wildlife Europe has to offer. We plan to settle in Bulgaria after our travels and buy a house or land and either build an eco-house from scratch or convert an existing building into a eco friendly home.
First though we have to tie up our lives here in the UK. I finish my job at the end of June and we plan to leave the UK at the end of August or beginning of September. We have a house to rent out or sell, a cat to try and find a temporary home for (we want him when we settle, we love him!) as well as a house full of stuff to sell, give away or throw away.
Hopefully this blog will give you an insight into how we manage with all the preparations to leave. Once we are on the road I will update this blog as often as possible with words and pictures from our travels. Once we are settled again you will be able to see how we cope with living in a new country and how we go about living a self-sufficient lifestyle and building or converting an eco friendly home.
I hope it will be a valuable resource to anyone thinking of doing the same thing.
The story so far...
Long long ago I had dreams of traveling in a bus around the UK, I wanted to join the thousands of new travelers that were living on the road. After the CJA life became so hard for new travelers that many left for Europe or returned to house dwelling. Even though I still dreamed of traveling I knew it was going to be too hard in the UK as I had a young son and no friends living on the road and no money to buy a vehicle. Soon my son started school and I got a job and it seemed all of a sudden we were settled with a decent wage coming in. Dreams of travels came and went and were often of further away places.
We had many holidays in Spain, France and the USA to explore this amazing planet. Before long I found myself with a mortgage and a son going to secondary school! As my son got older I started stretch my wings a little by working at festivals and often borrowing the van from work to sleep in. I met loads of amazing and inspiring people, people who had chased their dreams and were happy with their lives. I was happy with most of my life but work was taking over and after years in the same job it was becoming increasingly mundane and tiring.
My son stayed on at school to do A levels and I met a wonderful man who left his life 120miles away and came to live with us, he also brought Busta, a manic but lovable staff cross lurcher. He too had dreams of living somewhere different, where there is less of a nanny state and less CCTV, where people can live happily with not a lot of material possessions. We bought a van and converted it to a live-in and set off exploring the UK whenever we could. We talked vaguely of possibly moving but as my son was still at school we didn't take it seriously.
My son got into university and left to start a new life. We visited family in Bulgaria and saw the amazing potential of the country. House and land prices were cheap and the weather was ideal for growing all sorts of crops as well as being able to harness the power of 300 days of sunlight. The family in Bulgaria offered for us to come and stay with them for as long as we like and so with my son settled in halls and already having signed a lease on a shared house for the next two years of his degree we felt the time was right to leave.
I really wanted to travel before we settled again and by searching the internet I came across a great website that listed all sorts of organic farms and eco-builds that people could go and work at in exchange for food and board. Its called Help Exchange and it seems the possibility of working some of the way around Europe is very real. Not only that but we could learn valuable skills to help us when we settle again.
After telling my son our decision and making sure he was OK with it all (he was fine and had been expecting it anyway as I talked of traveling and moving abroad many times) I handed my notice in. As I work for family and it's a very small buisness I gave plenty of time and I leave at the end of June. The plan is to use July for last minute tasks as well as spend some time with my son before he goes back to university. The first weekend in August is Endorse-it festival and we are going there and hope lots of friends will join us for our leaving party there.
I plan to rent the house out in the short-term as we will not need the capital from it for a while, even when we get to Bulgaria there will be no rush to buy as we can stay with family. I have quite a few things to sort out and the stress is already starting although I am trying my best to stay calm! I have started writing lists (yes I am a massive list writer!) so hopefully I can break things down and get things sorted in good time and with the least amount of stress possible.
One of the first things I have been doing is sorting out things in the house we don't want or need anymore. We plan to travel light in the van and store some of our stuff in the UK until we are settled and then go and get it or get it shipped over. We have loads of stuff that we either don't want or that is pointless to try and store and pay to be shipped over as well as things we have to sell to make some money. I have overnight become a massive Ebay seller with half my clothes and shoes on offer at the moment as well as other random items. We have yet to tackle the vinyl, CDs and books, they will be a mammoth task. In fact any Ebaying is a mammoth task, I have spent nearly all day today photographing and listing about 30 items. It takes so long when its different things as you have to write a different description each time. When they sell I have to wrap and post them as well! For those interested my Ebay is HERE.
Well this is probably one of the longest posts I've written in a long time :) I really do want to update this regularly to give an insight into what it is like to make a life changing decision like this. I am sure there will be times though when life gets in the way and I may be absent for a while! I will always come back in the end. I will also no doubt still add posts of total randomness, photos and thoughts not connected with our move as I debated making a whole new blog just for our adventures but I think it will be good like it is.
Thanks for reading xoxox
Firstly many thanks for reading over the past 4 years... yes it really is that long :)
We have decided to leave the UK and go traveling in our van around Europe for a few months. We hope to do some volunteer work on the way at eco-builds and organic farms in exchange for food and lodgings as well as take a break from the endless grind of working every day.
We have family in Spain and Bulgaria and friends in France, Italy and Croatia so we hope to see them and some of the amazing countryside, beaches, mountains and wildlife Europe has to offer. We plan to settle in Bulgaria after our travels and buy a house or land and either build an eco-house from scratch or convert an existing building into a eco friendly home.
First though we have to tie up our lives here in the UK. I finish my job at the end of June and we plan to leave the UK at the end of August or beginning of September. We have a house to rent out or sell, a cat to try and find a temporary home for (we want him when we settle, we love him!) as well as a house full of stuff to sell, give away or throw away.
Hopefully this blog will give you an insight into how we manage with all the preparations to leave. Once we are on the road I will update this blog as often as possible with words and pictures from our travels. Once we are settled again you will be able to see how we cope with living in a new country and how we go about living a self-sufficient lifestyle and building or converting an eco friendly home.
I hope it will be a valuable resource to anyone thinking of doing the same thing.
The story so far...
Long long ago I had dreams of traveling in a bus around the UK, I wanted to join the thousands of new travelers that were living on the road. After the CJA life became so hard for new travelers that many left for Europe or returned to house dwelling. Even though I still dreamed of traveling I knew it was going to be too hard in the UK as I had a young son and no friends living on the road and no money to buy a vehicle. Soon my son started school and I got a job and it seemed all of a sudden we were settled with a decent wage coming in. Dreams of travels came and went and were often of further away places.
We had many holidays in Spain, France and the USA to explore this amazing planet. Before long I found myself with a mortgage and a son going to secondary school! As my son got older I started stretch my wings a little by working at festivals and often borrowing the van from work to sleep in. I met loads of amazing and inspiring people, people who had chased their dreams and were happy with their lives. I was happy with most of my life but work was taking over and after years in the same job it was becoming increasingly mundane and tiring.
My son stayed on at school to do A levels and I met a wonderful man who left his life 120miles away and came to live with us, he also brought Busta, a manic but lovable staff cross lurcher. He too had dreams of living somewhere different, where there is less of a nanny state and less CCTV, where people can live happily with not a lot of material possessions. We bought a van and converted it to a live-in and set off exploring the UK whenever we could. We talked vaguely of possibly moving but as my son was still at school we didn't take it seriously.
My son got into university and left to start a new life. We visited family in Bulgaria and saw the amazing potential of the country. House and land prices were cheap and the weather was ideal for growing all sorts of crops as well as being able to harness the power of 300 days of sunlight. The family in Bulgaria offered for us to come and stay with them for as long as we like and so with my son settled in halls and already having signed a lease on a shared house for the next two years of his degree we felt the time was right to leave.
I really wanted to travel before we settled again and by searching the internet I came across a great website that listed all sorts of organic farms and eco-builds that people could go and work at in exchange for food and board. Its called Help Exchange and it seems the possibility of working some of the way around Europe is very real. Not only that but we could learn valuable skills to help us when we settle again.
After telling my son our decision and making sure he was OK with it all (he was fine and had been expecting it anyway as I talked of traveling and moving abroad many times) I handed my notice in. As I work for family and it's a very small buisness I gave plenty of time and I leave at the end of June. The plan is to use July for last minute tasks as well as spend some time with my son before he goes back to university. The first weekend in August is Endorse-it festival and we are going there and hope lots of friends will join us for our leaving party there.
I plan to rent the house out in the short-term as we will not need the capital from it for a while, even when we get to Bulgaria there will be no rush to buy as we can stay with family. I have quite a few things to sort out and the stress is already starting although I am trying my best to stay calm! I have started writing lists (yes I am a massive list writer!) so hopefully I can break things down and get things sorted in good time and with the least amount of stress possible.
One of the first things I have been doing is sorting out things in the house we don't want or need anymore. We plan to travel light in the van and store some of our stuff in the UK until we are settled and then go and get it or get it shipped over. We have loads of stuff that we either don't want or that is pointless to try and store and pay to be shipped over as well as things we have to sell to make some money. I have overnight become a massive Ebay seller with half my clothes and shoes on offer at the moment as well as other random items. We have yet to tackle the vinyl, CDs and books, they will be a mammoth task. In fact any Ebaying is a mammoth task, I have spent nearly all day today photographing and listing about 30 items. It takes so long when its different things as you have to write a different description each time. When they sell I have to wrap and post them as well! For those interested my Ebay is HERE.
Well this is probably one of the longest posts I've written in a long time :) I really do want to update this regularly to give an insight into what it is like to make a life changing decision like this. I am sure there will be times though when life gets in the way and I may be absent for a while! I will always come back in the end. I will also no doubt still add posts of total randomness, photos and thoughts not connected with our move as I debated making a whole new blog just for our adventures but I think it will be good like it is.
Thanks for reading xoxox
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Love and Light!!