Early March of this year (2013) we were living a comfortable expat life in Bahrain with fun friends, good jobs and an apartment that would be hard to afford back home. So happy days right? That month however we made a decision that would surprise quite a few people and evoked initial reactions like ‘why now?’, ‘how are you going to pay for it?’ and an occasional ‘are you crazy!?’. Generally these reactions within two minutes turned into ‘I wish I could do the same’, ‘what an experience’ and our personal favourite ‘I’m not sure if I should be happy for you or hate you’.
The decision we made was to take a one year sabbatical starting September 2013, travel through Asia, live a different life and look for volunteering opportunities on the go.
Six months later we both said goodbye at work, flew back to Europe, stored most of our belongings in a 6m3 box in the Netherlands and booked our first flight to St Petersburg. From there we’ll just take it as it comes and go wherever seems fit. As this is such a big adventure for us, we decided we’d like to document and share our views and experiences on this blog.
Please comment, suggest and keep in touch, we definitely will!
Lucia and Mark
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Zaciatom marca tohoto roku se si zili pohodlny zivot expatov v Bahrajne. Skvele joby, fajn kamarati a byt s vyhladom, ktory by sme si tazko dovolili ‘doma’. Takze idealka! V tom istom mesiaci padlo ale rozhodnutie, ktore prekvapilo hned niekolko ludi v nasom okoli a vyvolalo reakcie typu ‘preco teraz?’, ‘ako za to zaplatite?’ a kde-tu i ‘ste sa zblaznili?’. Spravidla sa tieto reakcie ale za dve minuty zmenili na ‘presne to by som chcel/a urobit i ja’, ‘to bude dobrodruzstvo’ a nase osobne najoblubenejsie ‘nie som si isty/a ci som za vas rada alebo vas zavistou nenavidim’.
Tym rozhodnutim bolo dat si na rok pauzu a od septembra 2013 cestovat po Azii, zit trochu inak a skusit najst po ceste pracu na dobrovolnickych projektoch.
Sest mesiacov neskor sme sa obaja rozlucili v praci, odleteli naspat do Europy, uskladnili vacsinu nasho nevelkeho majetku do 6 metrov kubickych velkej schranky v Holandsku a kupili si prvy let do Petrohradu. Odtial uvidime, kedy a kam sa posunieme dalej. Kedze toto je pre nas obrovske dobrodruzstvo, rozhodli sme sa ho dokumentovat a zdielat nase zazitky a skusenosti tu na tomto blogu.
Komentujte, davajte nam tipy a triky a hlavne – zostante v kontakte – my budeme!
Lucia a Mark
Take it and go 
As Mark Twain correctly said, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
All the best L-M, dive in the adventures! I will be accompanying you everywhere, once you open the ‘Mac’ I will peep out to see your whereabouts!