After around seven hours driving we arrived at our new home back somewhere in Germany.

We will leave the camping place which was our home for around two months in less than 45 minutes.

We ordered a “Man with a Van” to pick us up and drive us into our new life.

A last coffee, a last walk on the Zwaansmeepolder, packing all our stuff and we are ready to go.

We will move to Luebeck, it’s a five hours drive. Never been there, never lived there and it will be our new home for the foreseeable future.

We don’t know what to expect, we’ve no idea but it’s a good feeling. It’s a completely new start, a reset and hopefully a new existing experience.

Germany, we are coming.

Plan-C: “Back to Germany and …!”
It’s time to say goodbye, to move on and continue our quest to find a safe place, happiness and maybe a new ‘plan’. Two days ago we needed to find a ‘Plan-C’ because staying in Holland waiting for the hospital to respond is not an option anymore and after a very long consideration, we finally decided that we need to go back to Germany because otherwise, we won’t survive the upcoming winter.

Vil posted in a facebook group to search for ‘everything’ & ‘everywhere’ to stay in Germany and we’ve got a few nice responses, especially one which might will be our new home. It’s a place near to Lübeck and what we’ve been told so far sounds very nice and exciting.

Was fun, ey?
The last hours in Holland are ticking and it’s time for a little retrospective, to look back and remember. All in all, it was very exciting to live in Amsterdam. Ok, it was not always a walk in the park. (PUN!) The start was a complete catastrophe, being totally fucked by his employer (see here: Getting screwed by ORACLE!), we nearly ended up on the streets, but with unimaginable luck, within 72 hours Vil managed to find us a home and a job in one of the best companies he ever worked for.

Back on the phone within the best team ever.
It was a good feeling to be back on the phone. Vil really liked it. He fulfilled his targets with no problem and his manager was totally impressed by his attitude. He became a part of the team and his age was no issue at all, more the opposite. Vil was able to share his experience and helped his teammates actively. No question that this was the team, the company and ‘The Manager’ (HDV – High FIVE Man!) Vil always wanted to work for. Young, vibrant and exceptionally ‘social’. Everything went very well. A sunshine time, with classy colleagues, plenty of laughter and fun, really nice food in the canteen and cool freaky Fridays, but …

… there is always a BUT! …

… then Vil became seriously ‘unfit for work‘ and didn’t really recover since.

‘Unfit for work!’
Even being ‘unfit for work’ this amazing company helped him to survive the last couple of months because they don’t fire him straight away. They even extended the first contract, but now this contract finally ended and we totally understand that they won’t renew the contract anymore because he would need to be permanent now and who would hire a sick guy permanently? No one!

Anyhow, THANK YOU, EVERYONE IT WAS A PLEASURE!

No new Job. Back to Germany and welfare (or not)!
Vil started to apply for new positions, but somehow it doesn’t make any real sense until we have a permanent place to stay and Vil gets finally fixed. Well, maybe Luebeck will be an opportunity. Who knows? Maybe Vil can go back to work online … Anyhow, first we go back to Germany, try to get back into the system and get healthy again.

We know the procedure already because we tried that already at the beginning of our journey, so we know how to deal with the Job-Center, the community and what to do and what to look for. It won’t be easy and a real pain, but that’s no issue at the moment. It’s just a bureaucratic challenge and we didn’t expect much.

For sure Vil will receive all his medication, all the treatments he needs and when we have a place to stay we are ok for the moment, other than that, we don’t need anything else.

We are NO tourists!
But there was not only work and the everyday survival fight, there was also fun and entertainment. We had the chance to experience Amsterdam and the surrounding area besides the tourist tracks and we found a few remarkable locations and spots.

We are no tourists, we really lived in Amsterdam. We knew the neighbourhood and in the morning we greeted our neighbours. In the evening we had our walk. We had our route around, always went to our favourite places and I got a free cookie and a few cuddles everywhere. We became part of our ‘buurt’.

Bottom line. We had a really good time, plenty of fun and we are sorry to say goodbye, but now it’s time to go on and to look forward.

Sunday is moving day. 🙂
The people who offered us a place, they own a small farm with animals, fields, nature, plenty of space and everything we like and I need. They told him that Vil maybe can work there as an ‘Office-Guy for everything’, as a chef or as a handyman in exchange for a place to stay.

[UPDATE: After a very nice chat with our new ‘Neighbour’ we agreed to proceed. Vil already organized a ‘Man with a Van’ who will pick us up and drive us to Lübeck Sunday morning.]

“SeeYouSoonBark”

Yesterday Vil ordered a new tent at Decathlon. It’s a “POP UP TENT 2 SECONDS 3 FRESH & BLACK I 3 PERSONEN WIT” because our old tent disintegrated slowly. The tent was delivered less than 24 hours later and now we enjoy the comfort of our new home. The tent blocks most of the sunlight and it’s quite chilly inside.

Thank you, Sean and Fiona.

NiceBark

Allrite, we agreed on writing more positive posts. Hmmmm, YEAH, I know something…..

Vil bought absolutely embarrassing Bjoern Borg swimming pants. They are red and white striped and a little bit too short, but they cost only 10 Euro and they are worth it. You should see his skinny pale legs. Priceless.

And a Japanese Mario t-shirt with letters he doesn’t know. Any idea [Positive thinking: Vil chatted online right now with M.M. (not the chocolate!). The letters don’t mean ‘Stupid Tourist’ or ‘noodle soup’. Phew… They mean MARIO!

マ is MA リ is RI オ is O

.]

He is ready to swim with me later and we will see how chill the water will be. 🙂

Vil bought a Staatlotterij ticket.
With our luck, we will believe that we will win the Lotterij sometime. It doesn’t need to be the jackpot, we would be ok with the 2nd price. Three fifty wise invested.

This morning our laptop somehow got nuts. He restarted several times, locked up and finally he is back alive. Unfortunately, the Ubuntu boot manager got f***. No big deal, we hope, just annoying. Let’s hope he is working now, we can’t afford a replacement right now.