Preparations #2 Vanlife 3 months before departure

When we decided to live our dream, we still had one year to prepare. How could we save most money? What do we have to organize beforehand? Which equipment do we take with us and what are we still missing? 
We were going over our budget over and over again.. until we decided to save as much as possible the last 3 months before departure. - And there it was - no way around quitting our beautiful apartment at Mondsee / Upper Austria and changing it to "living in our van"...

Changing comfy apartment-life to vanlife

There it was.. the moment when we were closing the door of our beautiful rented - already empty - apartment in Mondsee... 

Let's say with this moment our adventure started. Now it's our fourth day living in a van. So far - not too bad. Funny though how people react when you are telling them that you are living in a van. Many questions arise and sometimes we prefer just not to tell where we are living at the moment ;)  "But where do you sleep?" "Where do you cook?" "How do you cook?" "What do you eat?" "Where do you go to the toilett?" and most but not least "Do you shower? If so how?"... Many questions - but as many answers we do have!

In the following you'll find some answers to the questions I was asked just today:

• "But where do you sleep?" - we stayed at a public parking area  close to a public bathroom. - Since we do have a "normal" van (Nissan Evalia Tekna NV200) mostly it is not any problem at all... people are not expecting that you are sleeping in your "normal" car - if not a motorhome or VW bus.

• "What do you eat?"  - haha yesterday I was cooking noodles with tomatoes and pesto on our gas cooking station. Today I grabbed some bread sticks from a supermarket and enjoyed it with tomatoes, hummus, olives and cucumber. Since we are both able to eat a proper whole meal at our work, we are totally fine with above mentioned. Eventhough it would be possible to cook something more difficult with our gas cooking equipment too - i'm mostly too lazy to do so... :)

• "Where do you shower?" - me, Lisa, I'm enjoying a swim in the lake and washing my hair with a "wilderness wash with citronella" from Sea to summit directly in the lake. Water is super clear and this environmental friendly shampoo is perfect to enjoy a fresh moment in open waters! 
  Bauti comes "home" from work around midnight.. at the moment he is enjoying our camping shower right on the parking lot. Such a shower gives you a feeling of a real shower! Best inversion ever! :)

• "What do you do with Rocky?" - our dog is 24/7 with one of us. He is perfectly fine and since he loves our van and traveling with it, he enjoys being outside with us or in his selfmade wooden box to sleep. At this point I have to admit it would not be so easy if Rocky would not like to be in his box. But since he loves it, we don't have to worry about that. We just have to keep an eye on the weather conditions since we are in summer it is almost never possible to leave Rocky waiting in the car except at night.

• "How does your day looks like at the moment?" 
  07:00 - snoozing our alarm a few times
  - getting up - driving next to public bathroom - brushing teeth - letting out Rocky to pie - filling up our water bottles...
  07:30 - Bauti is driving me to my work - quick stop in between: Mc Drive to get a coffee... important! :)
  from 07:45 - Bauti and Rocky searching for a nice spot next to the lake - hanging out - sleeping a nap - listening to music with our small bluetooth speaker - sunbathing - swimming in the lake - eating some snack - enjoying our travel-hammock - me working at that time 
  15:10 - Bauti is awaiting me next to my workplace. - I'm rushing down to drive him to his work right in the village centre.
  15:30 - Back at work - Rocky waiting for me in the car (no worries at my work we do have a quite cool garage - where he is totally fine waiting)
  17:15 - End of working day! at least for me. Bauti still has a few hours to go... - stopping at a supermarket to buy my evening meal and breakfast for next day - searching a nice spot next to the lake where Rocky might be outside as well. - going for a swim and enjoying a quick bath in the lake - eating dinner - enjoy travel hammock - writing on a blog or working with some pictures - refilling all water bottles - evening walk with Rocky - preparing our van bed and finally waiting for Bauti...
  23:30 - End of working day for Bauti! - Quick shower and finally - good night...

• "How/where do you get hold of any internet?" - we both have a smartphone... and additionally we are lucky to receive free wifi from the village on the parking lot .... 

Nevertheless it helps to know your surrounding and the village/city you are going to stay in a van to have a nice stay wherever you are ... In our case we were living in Mondsee already for almost 2 years. We know each part of the lake next to it and important things like: where does the police tolerate overnight parkers like us, where is a public bathroom? Where is it possible to refill your water bottles with nice drinking water? Where do you get the water from which you might use for your camping shower?....

So far so good... first week in our van is over. :)