Seven years ago, 1. April.2009, we were taking the train eastwards from Geneva, direction Winterthur. Two backpacks, Russian visa and no other restrictions: no job, no apartment, no car. We arrived back to Geneva from the west on 1st April 2010. Back to normal live, got a new apartment, new jobs.
Today we have officially announced to our employers that we are leaving. I got one-year unpaid leave, Eva quit her jobs. We will officially stop working on 1st July 2016, but with holidays we plan to leave around the 15th June. This time there are two recumbent bicycles and no visa. We sublet our apartment. And the direction is West, to Portugal where we think to arrive to the coast before the 1st of August to join my family for holidays.
There is a very strange feeling inside us. We want to give the best to our jobs until our departure but there are several elements we just don’t care. I try to think that at the end it is the best choice not to care about some things, and that only now I can realize that I can really do it that way. Not being concerned about every detail that in any case a solution will appear by itself.
There is the fear about leaving our apartment to someone. There is the fear of all the work to get our clothes, books, electronics, normal bicycle, sports equipment in a long-term storage. The work of getting the correct insurances, to officially move to Eva’s family’s address, get all taxes bureaucracy done.
But this time there is no fear of leaving. We know how it is. Seven years ago, after this 1. April, it took to me some weeks to have the sensation that I did not have any more a ‘home’. It was when we took the train from Budapest to Cracow. This time I don’t know how fast the feeling of freedom will come.
Then there is the family. Seven years ago I cried when said goodbye to my grandmother who was 91 years old. I was afraid not to see her alive anymore. She is still there, 98 years old now. But both my grandmothers’ and my father’s health had better days. That makes it difficult this time to leave faraway. That is the main reason we ride first West.