You know how it is: you follow a travel blog, and slowly it gets quieter, the posts less frequent, and at some point there seems to be no more recent posts. 

So it is not only on this, our blog, but on many that we have followed in the meantime. This could be because the travelers no longer travel.

A lot has happened in and around us in the last year. Anyone who follows us on Instagram knows that. But this is another story. This we want to tell at leisure on occasion.

But now back to the beginning. Perhaps you also know this situation? After many years of being happy and satisfied in your job, the general conditions change. Somehow you have the feeling that it can't go on like this.

This was the case for me in the middle of 2019. Somehow I had the feeling of being stuck in a dead end. I did not know where the journey should go. But it was clear that something had to change.

I decided to dissolve a long-standing business partnership. Because one thing was clear, my profession, which had made me happy for many years, was now making me unhappy.

A little much me and myself?

Torgit had already come out clearly before my decision. It was clear to me that she was still in Cologne mainly because of me. If we hadn't existed, Torgit would have started much earlier. At least that's what I believed at the time. In the meantime it has become clear that we both needed the moment and the moment without which we both would probably not have dared to get out in order to start a new life.

If you also know a situation where you are struggling, let me tell you about the best decision of my life and ours. Torgit and I decided to take some time off. And to reflect on what makes us happy.

Neither of us had any idea at the time how much our lives would change as a result. Not even in the least, we would have dared to dream that.

But for us it was already clear at that time:

- We wanted to travel

- we wanted to go in search of our happiness

- and we wanted to do this in a van.

And one thing was still clear to us: we wanted this now and immediately.

The special thing about it is that up to this point we were largely oriented to plans, to structure, to facts and figures. There were always goals and a clear course in our lives.

Again and again we were asked where we got the courage to just drive off. I have already reported on this elsewhere. Both Torgit and I never felt that our decision was particularly courageous. But perhaps for the first time in our lives we listened to our inner child. There was just a voice telling us, be spontaneous. Just do it.

And so it began. We spontaneously bought a van and set off. It was never planned that we would do this for years. If someone had told us back then that we were turning our whole lives upside down, we would have thought they were crazy.

Nor could I do anything with statements like "the way is the goal".

But that is what happened. At the beginning of our trip we still tried to keep familiar structures. We traveled from campsite to campsite. We planned our daily stage. We drove relatively long distances. We drove fast. The way we lived before. 

Blogging also became an integral part of our new life from the beginning.

Only with time did we become calmer, acquire a certain inner serenity. It was completely new, absolutely banal processes of everyday life, which now gave us structure.

Instead of campsites, we tried more and more free standing. Which in turn meant that we had to or were allowed to worry about electricity, water and procurement of food. Completely normal things, and yet new every day. Because there is simply a difference between finding water at your own tap and buying in the always familiar supermarkets, and having to, no, being allowed to, adjust to situations and languages every day.

More and more we have adjusted our vehicle to our needs, but above all we have parted with more and more things. Keyword minimalism. Things that apparently made us happy before, we have given away, disposed of, sold or given away.

It was clear to us relatively quickly that we no longer needed an apartment. At least at that time. So we decided to dissolve our apartment in Cologne.

Surely it is not easy for many people to understand how we could or wanted to part with everything. But one thing was absolutely clear to us at that point: less is more. Suddenly we felt it was liberating to part with things that had previously seemed valuable to us.

Today we realize that valuable is purely subjective.

But is man really suited to nomadism? We can no longer answer this question precisely with distance. However, we can say one thing for sure: The experiences of our tour have opened our eyes in many areas. As they say, travel educates. Open Your mind.

Certainly, we have decided with the Bulli very consciously for a small variant of the permanent camper. Because it was clear to us very early on that we wanted to be as wild and free as possible. And for us, the van was and is the smallest compromise between an off-road car that can offer a certain level of comfort at the same time.

And this is also a good example of how different people are and tick. On the road, we met people who were much more spartan on the road than we were. On the other hand, we also met people who lived the luxury version of VanLife. Among them happy and less happy contemporaries.

Is less really more?

Living communally in such a small area also means experiencing certain challenges in everyday life. Although the terrace and front garden become significantly larger, your own four walls are still modest.

On the one hand, this conscious renunciation makes absolutely happy. However, since we have met some couples on the way, who are no longer a couple, we would like to point out a certain risk. One or the other already knows my hint: Attention! Eyes up when choosing a partner.

I can't say whether it's coincidence or just luck with Torgit and me. Not only do we fit together in this car, but we have also developed together in this confined space. As a couple and also each for himself.

There is certainly potential for conflict in small and large spaces. And perhaps many of the above-mentioned couples would also have separated if they had not gone on tour. But either it fits or it doesn't is certainly too platitudinous. In any case, we were able to learn a lot about ourselves and how to deal with each other. Not always to refer everything on itself, can sometimes be helpful.

Looking back, we can say that this joint experience not only helped us in our relationship, it also raised our relationship to another level.

But by the word retrospectively you can see that something has changed again in the meantime. Of course, we have not parted with Butch, our planBwagen. We also continue to live our plan B and the willingness to dare something for this has also been strengthened again by our tour.

It is also a fact that we are no longer full-time vanlifers. We were for three years. Why aren't we today?

Probably for the same reason as the one that led to the fact that it has become a little quieter on our blog. Quieter, as we have noticed on many other blogs of this kind.

On the one hand, travel educates. It's exciting to be able to master new challenges day after day. At some point, however, there comes a point when you simply feel overloaded. This is certainly the essential difference between the nomads of modern times and those of the past. 

Although we traveled slower and slower, visited fewer and fewer cities, and stayed in one place for longer periods of time, at some point we had the feeling that there were too many impressions. It's just something different than walking through the pampas or savannah with a herd of animals.

Among the Vanlifers we have met in the last few years, there are occasionally some who travel for many years.

But most people travel less and less and eventually stay in one place. In some places, communities are formed from former travelers. But is that still fulltime vanlife? Not for us. Then we could also move to a campsite.

The saying of a good friend kept coming to my mind, "It's still nice there even when I wasn't there."

More and more we felt the need for a new home port. This we have found in the meantime and of course we still want to travel.

For us, being nomads has been clarified to the extent that we can only imagine this for a limited period of time. We are therefore at least no longer full-time vanlifers.

And it seems that it wasn't just us, but many others as well. Because most of the people we met during our tour were either never full-time vanlifers or no longer are.

Is there any regret to be heard here? No, on the contrary, we have no regrets and our tour was a significant enrichment of our lives.

Not only did it give us many impressions, but our life today would have been unimaginable for us without this tour. But this is another story, which we will gladly come back to at a later date.

So would we do it that way again? Yes, absolutely. I wouldn't miss a single day. Of course, not every day was good and yes, there were some challenges to overcome.

Were we traveling with the right vehicle? Yes, that too. The 2nd VW bus, after the California, has proven to be the perfect motorhome. With the appropriate conversions and add-ons, it is much more off-road capable than expected. Large water tanks, solar energy and appropriate storage allow us to travel largely self-sufficient and to get to places that we did not even know existed before.

Could we live from our blog on the road? No, it was never planned that way. We were just lucky enough to be able to put some money aside in advance. On the road, we have noticed more and more that we now need much less money. Because our demands have reduced.

We used to work an above-average amount. Perhaps for this reason, we always felt the need to treat ourselves to something. This applied to clothing as well as regular visits to restaurants. Even the exotic travel destinations fall away today.

Much of our tour to date, has been reduced to a minimum. We prefer to cook ourselves. - Instead of having a drink in some bar, we prefer to sit in nature with a glass of wine or beer and enjoy the sunset.

Have we found our happiness? Yes, those who have followed our blog know that the search for happiness was an integral part of our tour. And how could it be otherwise, we found happiness within us. It was never anywhere else, and therefore we couldn't find it far away, we just had to allow ourselves to see it.

What did we miss most on the road? The same as at the beginning of our trip. Already in our first conclusion, I mentioned that we miss our friends. Because to lead friendships from the road, or from afar, is not always easy. But we are working on it.

Where did we like it least? You're probably familiar with this: as you get older, you become more and more forgetful. And anyway, with a little distance, some things don't seem as bad as they did at the moment they happened. That's why we can't name a particular place that we would avoid.

Where did we like it best? We have traveled to Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, France, Spain, Austria, Croatia, Greece and Italy. We were in Ibiza, Crete, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily. Everywhere there were things that were not perfect. But above all, there were all the more moments that were not only beautiful, but also inspiring.

And yes, at the end of our tour we realized that there was one place that fascinated us in particular. This was and is Sicily. Certainly this is not a pure reason or head decision. Because Sicily also has its dark sides. But the island has simply touched our hearts and this to a special extent.

Therefore, we have also decided to find our home port here on this island. From the van we moved into a Tiny house. Today we live in the middle of an olive grove.

And since Palermo has touched us in a very special way, in the heart, we decided to build a small BnB there. Perhaps it is because my uncle Mario was born here, and played in the alleys of Palermo as a boy. But as I said, this is another story. We will tell about it and also what it is about the olives. And yes, we want to and will continue to travel with our Bulli. We believe that there is still so much to discover on Sicily, that this island is first in focus, with and without Bulli. We will surely report about that, too. Another time.

Finally, here is the answer to the most important question and the most beautiful impressions of our tour as a video.