Summer is definitely over, the days here in Oslo are getting shorter, autumn is coming. But I couldn’t care less if it’s cold and dark in the morning. Suddenly our departure isn’t that far away anymore, less than 100 days… and that fills me with a lot of positive energy.
Let’s explain to those of you who don’t really know what I am talking about: Dag, Robin and I will be leaving for Australia just before Christmas. And this time, our third trip down under, we’ll be staying for 7 months! After more than two years of planning our dream is coming true. And there has been a lot of planning and organizing, I can assure you. School and work were the first issues to be clarified. Making a budget and figuring out if we can afford it was also an early task. Then came more practical things like organizing a car, roughly planning the itinerary, booking flights and a few places to stay, in Sydney over Christmas and Cairns during the last days of our trip. Applying for the visas (Subclass 600, up to 12 months) was a lot of work – certified copies of passports and birth certificates, bank statements, evidence of property, confirmation of employment, travel insurance and certificate of residence – just to mention a few. But it was worth it: lest than 48 hours after applying online our visas had been granted.
We have also rented out our house in Nesodden. As one can imagine this means a lot of work. Cleaning to take pictures, publishing the house on the internet, dealing with 50-60 people being interested, meeting a few of them, writing a contract, emptying the house and cleaning again. But now it’s done and we’re happy that we found such a nice tenant. And we know what to expect when we rent out our flat in town.
I’ll tell you more about our itinerary another time. And about all the dangerous creatures we will meet on our trip – we get so many questions about that! And finally: don’t forget that this is my first blog. I haven’t really thought a lot about how to organize it, what to write about, how to keep you interested. Feel free to send me your feedback, questions and wishes. I still have 84 days to practice until take-off…
RCD on Walkabout 