Craziest Thing Ive Ever Done.... Europe Here I Come!!
Posted: October 12, 2004, 12:14 am
Well, a few of you might remember me posting about 3 months ago about getting laid off from my job… 3rd job in 4 years… The job I left in January to take this one in Real Estate wanted me back, but I wasn’t ready to go back to the same old thing… I was the top Home Theater designer in my company, and the job was fun, but the money sucked… They assured me that they would make it worth my while to come back, but I still wasn’t ready to go back to 20hr workdays for not so great pay.
In trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I tossed the idea around about traveling to Europe for a while, something that I’ve always wanted to do.. However I had an expensive car, and lots and lots of stuff….. I looked at what I owned, and what was marketable for resale, and started to figure out a plan. I could sell my car, my stereo gear, my grill and some various other things and have about 8k to work with for my trip. 2 months ago I began selling stuff. I gave my apartment 2 months notice that I was moving out.
The stereo gear and the grill all sold within a week, and I was ready to sell my car. I cleaned my baby up, and put her on craigslist.org for sale. The first 3 days I had about 16 responses and began setting appointments for people to come look at the car. I was looking for about 1.5k over blue book, but I was convinced I could sell it for that. So, the first guy comes out to look at the car, and he loved it. We took it out for a spin, and after about a 20 minute test drive, as we are heading back to my house to begin negotiations. A goddamn deer runs out into the road and he hits it *NNNNOOOOOOoooooo!!!!111* At this point, I’m basically speechless, we pull over and I go back to make sure the deer is out of the road, and dead. I call the cops while I’m walking back to the deer. Long story short, cops don’t do anything, and guy says he’s not liable.
So, I take 1.5k out of my budget, get my car fixed, and my trip is delayed about 30 days. After the car is fixed, it sells in 7 days for about 1k over blue book. When I get back, I’m suing that fucker who wrecked my car for the 1.5k, but he’s not going to get to delay my trip anymore.
Meanwhile, I have to move out of my apartment, and I stay at my Dad’s house for a few weeks. While there I design the theater in his basement (pic’s in the gallery). And I start shopping for my gear.
I’m flying to Europe through a standby facilitator called AirHitch.org they have been around for about 30 years, and while they don’t have a great reputation, they don’t have a completely bad rep either. The way it works is that I pick the days I want to leave (October 18th-23rd) and I could fly out of any airport from DC to Boston into any airport in Europe. How’s that for traveling by the seat of your pants?
I’m just about to get my Eurail pass, but I’m only looking at a 10 days of travel over 2 months to get me by. I am also planning on using some of the ride sharing services throughout Europe for hitching.
The responses I’ve gotten from my friends, family and ex-coworkers about the trip is about 50/50 good/bad. Some people have said it’s the coolest thing I could do, others think I’m nuts. Maybe just a little bit of both
Much thanks to Py and Sylvus for hosting up my pictures for the duration of the trip.
http://www.veeshanvault.org/gallery/ransure
Pictures will be updated this week before the trip, and as I’m on the road.
To any Euro VV’ers that would like to grab a beer, pint, single malt scotch while I’m on the road, you can shoot me an email at hakwuzhere@gmail.com
I am shooting for 3 months on the road, hopefully starting in either London (where I have family) or in Amsterdam (where I’ll have a fucking blast). Then working my way through northern Europe, then south and east. If at all possible and the timing works right, I hope to do some skiing in the alps and maybe see if I can find some work along the way. Of course I know most countries won’t let me work legally, but there is always under the table money.
Of course when I can I’ll hit up VV for updates and such.
Cheers all!! And wish me luck! =8-)
Cliff Notes: Sold all my shit, going to backpack Europe, buy me a beer when I’m in your country!
In trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I tossed the idea around about traveling to Europe for a while, something that I’ve always wanted to do.. However I had an expensive car, and lots and lots of stuff….. I looked at what I owned, and what was marketable for resale, and started to figure out a plan. I could sell my car, my stereo gear, my grill and some various other things and have about 8k to work with for my trip. 2 months ago I began selling stuff. I gave my apartment 2 months notice that I was moving out.
The stereo gear and the grill all sold within a week, and I was ready to sell my car. I cleaned my baby up, and put her on craigslist.org for sale. The first 3 days I had about 16 responses and began setting appointments for people to come look at the car. I was looking for about 1.5k over blue book, but I was convinced I could sell it for that. So, the first guy comes out to look at the car, and he loved it. We took it out for a spin, and after about a 20 minute test drive, as we are heading back to my house to begin negotiations. A goddamn deer runs out into the road and he hits it *NNNNOOOOOOoooooo!!!!111* At this point, I’m basically speechless, we pull over and I go back to make sure the deer is out of the road, and dead. I call the cops while I’m walking back to the deer. Long story short, cops don’t do anything, and guy says he’s not liable.
So, I take 1.5k out of my budget, get my car fixed, and my trip is delayed about 30 days. After the car is fixed, it sells in 7 days for about 1k over blue book. When I get back, I’m suing that fucker who wrecked my car for the 1.5k, but he’s not going to get to delay my trip anymore.
Meanwhile, I have to move out of my apartment, and I stay at my Dad’s house for a few weeks. While there I design the theater in his basement (pic’s in the gallery). And I start shopping for my gear.
I’m flying to Europe through a standby facilitator called AirHitch.org they have been around for about 30 years, and while they don’t have a great reputation, they don’t have a completely bad rep either. The way it works is that I pick the days I want to leave (October 18th-23rd) and I could fly out of any airport from DC to Boston into any airport in Europe. How’s that for traveling by the seat of your pants?
I’m just about to get my Eurail pass, but I’m only looking at a 10 days of travel over 2 months to get me by. I am also planning on using some of the ride sharing services throughout Europe for hitching.
The responses I’ve gotten from my friends, family and ex-coworkers about the trip is about 50/50 good/bad. Some people have said it’s the coolest thing I could do, others think I’m nuts. Maybe just a little bit of both
Much thanks to Py and Sylvus for hosting up my pictures for the duration of the trip.
http://www.veeshanvault.org/gallery/ransure
Pictures will be updated this week before the trip, and as I’m on the road.
To any Euro VV’ers that would like to grab a beer, pint, single malt scotch while I’m on the road, you can shoot me an email at hakwuzhere@gmail.com
I am shooting for 3 months on the road, hopefully starting in either London (where I have family) or in Amsterdam (where I’ll have a fucking blast). Then working my way through northern Europe, then south and east. If at all possible and the timing works right, I hope to do some skiing in the alps and maybe see if I can find some work along the way. Of course I know most countries won’t let me work legally, but there is always under the table money.
Of course when I can I’ll hit up VV for updates and such.
Cheers all!! And wish me luck! =8-)
Cliff Notes: Sold all my shit, going to backpack Europe, buy me a beer when I’m in your country!
Not that you know me or anything. 
