After a last 5 hour drive with Mine we arrived back in Berlin. The feeling is hard to describe. The week in Münster was a soft entry back in the normal life and the fact that we spent the last five months in Europe and not in South America helped to reduce a reverse culture shock for sure. But somehow it felt weird….We entered our flat and it looked pretty much exactly how we had left it as if time stood still here for one year. Carlotta, who had lived in our flat for a year was still at work and before a handover we did not want to start moving around. It felt like we were on a visit in our own flat. Just Mine did not care and walked around to rediscover her new old home. After a while Carlotta came back and we did a short handover. She already had a new flat and had taken all of her things with her.
While we did the handover the bell ring and our good friends Anna and Moritz came to welcome us back. At this point I was completely overwhelmed. After the long 5 hour drive and during the handover, I could not really show my happiness to see them. We could not even offer a drink, since we did not have anything in the fridge. I could barely keep my eyes open, but still finish the handover and went for dinner in our favourite asian restaurant, which was also still the same. After the tasty and extremely funny dinner, Linda and me fell asleep in our new old home and it felt amazing.
The next days were full of organising. We had rented a small storage box and after we picked up everything from it, we felt overwhelmed by stuff. The small 48sqm flat we live in felt extremely big in the beginning and it was filled with so much stuff. Stuff we had not missed for over a year, so we tried to sort out and give away as much of it as possible. After two weeks we had a free living room and it felt really good again. The summer that had finally arrived in Berlin made it easier for us to arrive and we used the days to stock up our food, sell or give away our stuff and prepared for the next steps.
There was so much to do, that we could not even fall in a travel depression…. and a travel depression is a thing. I know about it. After coming back from a year of life changing experiences you come back in a life that seems like nothing has changed. Many people are not even interested in your incredible and crazy adventures because they are fully consumed by their own lifes, which is totally fine. It is just hard to process after being the hero of your own dream for over a year. Since we knew that this could happen, we had planned ahead. We had planned weekend trips with family, things we wanted to do in Berlin, trips with Rosi (which we still consider our primary sleep spot), new tiny adventures to look forward to, new challenges in our professional lives and so much more. It helped us to slowly readjust to the life in a flat.
There is so much more to write about what we want to do and what we want to experience in the future, but for now the blog will end with this post.
We wanted to write about our trip, about the adventure of travelling and living for one year in a van, and we did that. We are both incredibly grateful for everyone who followed this blog, read our stories and looked at our pictures. Thank you! Also we wrote this blog for ourself to document our trip and the great experiences and somehow also make room in our mind for new input. When you constantly stumble from one adventure into the next it is sometimes hard to comprehend or even enjoy the moment you are experiencing. This blog helped us to write our experiences down to make room for new ones and that really helped.
A few posts before I had also mentioned that we had the unique possibility for a direct South America – Europe vanlife comparison. (A short disclaimer: This is a very generalised personal opinion and by no means a scientific comparison.)
| Category | Europe | South America |
| Adventure level | Middle – There is a lot to do in Europe, but its no comparison | High – South America by van is the true unpredictable adventure |
| Nature | Middle – Nature is stunning in Europe but no match | High – Breathtaking.. The andes, deserts, jungles, and so much more |
| Wild animals | Low – Sadly there are not so many wild animals in Europe anmore | High – The biodiversity of a single country is higher compared to Europe |
| Security | High – you feel safe pretty much everywhere | Middle – We did not have any incident, but were reminded by locals constantly which left a unsecure feeling |
| Hospitality | Middle – People in the south are open and friendly | High – Almost everyone is incredibly friendly, interested and helpful. |
| Food | High – Italian, French, Spanish… the European kitchen is amazing | Middle – Very meat heavy, but some interesting meals |
| Camping infrastructure | High – A lot of camp grounds and infrastructure for vans. Not everywhere free camping options. | Low – Few camp grounds and very little infrastructure for camper vans. Free camping in Patagonia is the best, but in the norther past of South America not so easy. |
| Road infrastructure | High – Very dense highway network all over the continent | Low – Some highways are just dirtroads, Some countries have very good roads |
| Travel speed | Fast – You can cross the continent almost in three days and use the time to stay longer at single spots | Slow – Fewer roads and the Andes lead to longer travel times. Sometimes you need 6 hours for 200km |
| Total distance travelled | 13267 km in 4.5 months (mid March to end of July 25) | 21089 km in 5 months (September 24 to end of Jan 25) |
| Total hours driven | 219 hours | 432 hours |
| Average speed | 60 km/h | 48 km/h |
That means the we drove in total 34359 km in almost 652 hours in 10 month The two missing months we were waiting for Rosi and travelling without her (In Uruguay we drove additional 1000km with a rental car).
Overall we are very happy with our decision to travel in South America AND in Europe. We got the realy vanlife adventure in South America and the easy surf and snowboard camping vanlife in Europe that we wanted. Coming back here we also realized again how grateful.
- Grateful for the luck to be born in a first world country and the opportunity to be able to do such a trip.
- Grateful for open boarders and one currency
- Grateful for driving at night without safety concern
- Grateful for Europe!!! 🇪🇺
Also I want to thank specifically Linda for this incredible year. There is no other person I could imagine to spent 24/7 for one year with in the tiny space of a van. Thank you for your patience, your love, you motivation, your support in everything and all the good conversations. A big thank you also to Rosi! You were our safe travel companion and brought us everywhere without a single problem. No matter how bad the road or how deep the sad, you brought us through everything. Knowing how much problems other overlanders had, I am incredibly grateful for that. Also I want to thank everyone at home that helped and supported us, especially our families.
Feel free to reach out, if you have any questions about the trip.
We are excited to start our new adventure now: To live a “normal” life in Berlin.
höme 
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