Frei4Future

Stories

The start of it

Travel the world or at least Europe? Feeling more freedom? Leaving all your things behind except for a backpack? Or for those ones, who look for a bit more comfort: moving around in a mobile home like a self-reconstructed bus? Honestly, who hasn't dreamed of it, at least once?
In the last years we lost ourselves a lot in discussions about this dream. It was end of May 2019 when we came across a white Volkswagen bus on our parking lot. You might see it as a coincidence, destiny or simply sensing a chance out of many opportunities. Anyway, the moment we spotted the bus on our parking lot we looked at each other like grown-up children if this might be the right vehicle for working and traveling around Europe. Some guys, who rented our parkinglot, had bought themselves this bus with the plan of reconstructing it. Nontheless they didn’t find the chance to do it and wanted to sell it again. But how to find out if this bus would meet our expectations and requirements? Like anyone else, we didn’t want to buy the pig in a poke. How much more km will the bus go? The motor of a Volkswagen bus should be something robust. But what about the frame? How should rust spots be evaluated? We wanted to have as much information and being as sure as possible before making a deal and reconstructing the bus. One thing we were sure, we didn’t want to buy the car without the road driving permission for the next year. Though sometimes or maybe more often you can’t know everything and wait for everything being as perfect as you imagine. In order to achieve something you have to start and trust in … something... fill in whatever you want! So, with some risk left and even no proof of ownership, we started with the reconstruction of this bus. One thing became quite clear from the beginning: we need a space to sleep and “live” and a space for our working tools and, ideally, they are separated. After a bit of thinking we found a solution. We sketched a plan and drove off to buy the first things. One week after, and of course, as always in life, everything went smoothly and easily... like it is written in books or illustrated in movies ... all of a sudden, the bus was ready for loading. No, of course we had some problems to solve. But as it is said, if you want to, you can find a problem for every solution… oh wait… or was it the other way around? Like everyone, we would like to have the best solutions. You know, we are talking about those unique solutions, which are meeting all, yes really all requirements. The installations in the bus should be robust but should not weigh too much. Things should be secured against falling around while driving but easy to take out when you need them. They should be easily accessible for us but not for the dust. And you can imagine there were more of those examples like the mentioned ones. You know the “Eierlegendewollmilchsau”? It is a word we use in German. Translated directly it is: “egglayingwoolmilksow”. Is there any word for this in English? A jack of all trades device? We think you can imagine it. Anyway, we found some good compromises. And we have to admit that knowing we would come home once in a while gives us a feeling of security. So, every time we notice something which is missing or can be improved we are able to change it for the next time. So, following the principle of trial and error we are getting better and better ;-)

Before leaving the first time we threw a party to say goodbye to our friends. Our parking lot turned into a place with barbecue and cosy seating spots. Our reconstructed bus in the background was open to anyone interested in looking at it. It was Friday evening, two days before, when we wanted to start our first trip. All of a sudden, we heard one friend of us saying: “There is oil under the right front axle of the bus!” Oh no, this could not be true? Everyone interested started to discuss and to create hypothesis about what could be the reason. We had already organized the first place to stay. The question is if the bus would bring us there? Following the advice of a friend we decided to at least let an expert look at it. The next morning, a nice guy was inspecting it and explaining and showing the problem to us. If we could reach our goal he couldn’t tell us. But at least it was nothing really dangerous. The worst thing which could happen that the car wouldn't work anymore, but there couldn’t be any consequential damages destroying e.g. the motor. After a bit of thinking we decided to insert an intermediate goal to visit a family member who is a mechanic and was happy to help us with that problem. We explained the problem to him and he told us that normally it should be something quick and easy to repair. Yes “normally” … you guys have bells in your ears too? … Anyway, we sent him our vehicle number so that he could order the part to be exchanged, while we are on our way.
So, we started on Sunday and stopped already after 45min. But not because of a broken bus. No, we were invited for dinner and our bus got some nice flower decoration for the journey. We had a really nice evening, and full of energy and enthusiasm we continued the next morning. On Monday evening we arrived at the mechanics place and had some great time eating, talking, and laughing together. On the next day it should take one hour to exchange the part and we could go on. Yes, in theory this should work. But also, in our well-organized world mistakes happen. The vehicle number didn’t match the model of the car. Consequently, the part was the wrong one. The same morning a salesman went through half of Switzerland to organize a part and to finally find out that it didn’t fit either. And you know what? Finally, they found the right part in a store in the same city. However, we didn’t really lose too much. So instead of leaving in the morning, we left in the late afternoon. This was the start of our adventure!

We hope to share more stories with you in the next months or maybe years? Who knows? We just ask you to be patient with us. Just think that we started in May, and now in January, we managed to put the first blog entry online. No, don’t think about that….


We hope you like to follow us on our trip and maybe someday we will have a common adventure!

Meanwhile all the best

Britta and Patrick