Homeless and Unemployed

During my last big trip, Vikings Across Africa, I took a leave of absence from work for 8 months and rented out my apartment. That time I intended to come back, and even if it was nice to come home there were so many places I would’ve liked to stay longer in, and even more places I never had time for and would’ve liked to kept going to.

This time I don’t want to have any responsibilities and deadlines left back home. It’s time to do that thing a lot of people talk about and most people just can’t do. I’ve sold my apartment, quit my job, sold or given away most of the things I own, and bought a one-way ticket out of the country. There’s been a lot of goodbyes, and a lot of discussions like ‘What are you going to do when you come back? I don’t know, later problem’, ‘When are you coming back? I don’t know, June next year probably, but just to visit, except for that I don’t know when or if I’m coming back’, ‘Where exactly are you going? Not sure yet, but I have hundreds of spots marked on a map that I might visit’, etc. I’ve gotten various responses to this. Some people love the idea and wished they dared to do something similar, some people simply can’t get their head around the idea about not knowing anything about the future.

I do have a few fixed dates and destinations though. One of my long-time bucket list-destinations is Antarctica, and guess what, I’ve booked a cruise there! Antarctica is one of those places where you really need to go through a tour though (unless you get a job at a research station) and have to book quite far in advance. That tour takes off from Uruguay in late October so I have to make sure to be there.

I do also have a set date when I have to be back in Europe. I’m going to a wedding in Germany next June, and I promised I would at least drop by Sweden at that time too since I will be in the area. A good opportunity to see family and friends, figure out where I want to go next, and probably get a new passport. Swedish passports are ridiculously thin…

But where am I going, except for Antarctica. The plan is to travel around most of South America. I hope to visit all the countries, but we’ll see how the situation in Venezuela prorgesses. All in all I expect amazing nature, great meat, and a lot of interesting people. You guys remember how my Africa trip started in Iceland? This will be just as weird. My South America trip will start tomorrow when I fly to Canada.

And since I added the backpack photo I guess I should mention something about the packing as well. For the Africa trip I ended up packing just over 15kg and my goal for this trip was to at least not have a heavier bag than last time. Might sound simple, but last time tents were provided. This time I have to bring my own. I also didn’t bring a stove last time. But I have replaced some of the bulkier and heavier items from the last trip so all in all I ended up with about 13kg. Success!

PS. This was mostly text and only one low-quality photo. I promise to have more and better photos in future posts, so stay tuned!