As the summer goes by and we both are in a terrible hurry with our jobs, we have luckily managed to pinch some time to plan our trip a bit more. I've already told you in some of the previous posts, that we are going to leave Finland, our apartment and jobs next fall and go for a longer trip first to Italy and then to Asia. In the spring we made a Check-list about the things we must take care of in order to leave (it's actually quite long and detailed) and now, luckily, most of the to-do's are "checked". We haven't been on such a long trip before, so there has been lots of new things to take into account and some purchases also.
Here's some of them:
- Save tons of money ✓ (getting there…)
- Put the apartment for rent
- Find a place to keep our furniture and other stuff while we are gone ✓
- Find the place to stay and work in Italy
- Take care of the insurances and visas
- Buy flight tickets to Italy and to Thailand (other ones later) ✓
- Buy backpacks ✓
- Buy camera ✓
- Buy a tent and sleeping bags?
- Book some place for the Christmas in Thailand (our families are gonna visit us) ✓
- Sell some of the excess stuff in the flea market ✓
- Clean the house thoroughly and move our stuff just before we go
- Quit the jobs
As you see, many of them have already been taken care of, but there's still some stuff to do. We have already put the apartment for rent in one forum (a firm, where they rent it for their employees who come to work here from different cities), but we knew it's unlikely that somebody from there needs this place. Anyway, we now have the announcement ready and we'll just add it in other forums. Fall is a great time to rent in a city like this, where there's University and many other schools, because lot's of freshmen arrive and need a place to move to. So we aren't too worried about getting this rented, since it's a nice place in a good location -right in the center of the city. It's just that we need to take care of it soon, so the thought of having it undone stops stressing us out.
One major thing, that's still a work in progress, is finding the place to stay in Italy. We decided to use Workaway (a network for hosts and volunteers around the world), since we found so many nice farms and wineries for volunteers when we investigated the page. We have already created a profile there and listed some of our favorite hosts in order to contact them soon. Some of our acquaintances also know some people and wineries there from where/whom we could ask for a place to stay if we want to. I believe it's only a matter of time we find the place, but it still stresses me a bit, since the takeoff is getting closer and closer. We already have our flights booked and I don't want to end up going there without any plans since I know zero Italian and although this is supposed to be an adventure, I'm not that comfortable getting lost and penniless right in the beginning (Italy is quite an expensive country so it's not suitable for our budget to stay in hotels/hostels for long periods of time).
Travel insurances have almost been taken care of. I mean, we found out what things our current insurances cover (and in what parts of the world) and how we have to "upgrade" them. Looks like they are going to cost a lot, but I think we'll have to pay for them anyways, so that if something happens, we'll not end up in trouble and bankrupted. We also found out that we are going to need visas for our Thai trip, but only for 60 days since we are probably traveling to Laos and maybe Malaysia and Indonesia too. Our passports are all okay, as well as the flight tickets to Thailand (and Italy). Other tickets we haven't bought yet, because we don't want to plan the trip all the way and instead are going to go with the flow once we are there.
We already sold some of our clothes and stuff in a flea market that was arranged a while ago in one sunny Sunday in the city center. This was a real jackpot, since we stood there chatting with people, eating ice cream and getting rid of our stuff for only four or five hours and earned roughly said 800 euros, which makes about 80€/per hour for the both of us. I only wish I was paid as generously from my summer job. xD We still have some of the more expensive things to sell, which we are going to sell one by one online to get some more money for our trip. Luckily the most expensive purchases have already been taken care of (like the camera and backpacks, as well as the tickets), so that we can now concentrate more on saving money instead of spending it. I'm not sure if we should buy a tent and sleeping bags though. It depends on where we're going to stay, of which we aren't 100% sure yet. Maybe we should, just in case…
Some of the things in our list can't be done beforehand, like emptying our flat and cleaning it, since we don't want to be homeless for a long period of time before leaving. We would like to live in here as long as possible, since we have our jobs and all. My contract ends 2nd September, our departure is on 5th and we are probably going to rent our place from the beginning of September. So there will be a short period of homelessness and couch surfing anyways.
The biggest thing that stresses me is that what if there's some major thing/arrangement we totally forgot from our check list and we are going to realize that "when it's too late". I can't even come up with what that very_important_thing could be, and I know we are smart and totally capable of handling things and improvising if something goes wrong etc. But as this is the first time we go on an adventure like this, I wouldn't want to be traumatized for that we screwed up something that we could have easily been prepared for, you know… Is there something you think we should consider and add to our preparation list? Please tell us if we have forgotten something!
I guess quitting the jobs is the easiest part. Actually we don't even have to quit, since we both switched to fixed-term jobs recently. Our contracts just end after the summer and we are free to go, just like in the mushy picture below, taken (with phone obviously) last winter in Thailand during a tropical storm, heh. :)
Damn we are exited! Can't wait to leave!
