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I've got a confession to make. I lied to you. When I
started this blog, I told you that we would be leaving to travel the world this summer. The summer is here and, judging by the weather we've had lately, it's nearly over. Yet we're still here at home. No backpacks have been bought, no flights have been booked, no firm plans or leaving dates have been announced.
I didn't mean to lie. I genuinely thought that we'd be leaving the country by now. But sometimes things don't always go to plan. So what's been going on?
I got an awesome new job.
I
despised my old job with every ounce of my being. Even though I knew it was just a means to an end and was funding my travel dreams, I could not take it a second longer. The plan was to find a slightly more bearable job to keep me going for a few months while we got the money together to start travelling. But I somehow ended up landing something very close to my dream job.
I now work in the travel industry, for a small but rapidly growing wholesale tour operator. I work in a beautiful little office with a great bunch of people. I even get to go on work trips. Remember that time I went to Holland,
exploring the countryside,
discovering beautiful gardens and
visiting royal palaces? That was a work trip, or a familiarisation trip as they're known in the industry.
The new job is even better that I initially thought.
Even when I realised how amazing this new position is, I still planned to just stick it out for six months before leaving to travel the world. But then they had an announcement to make. This tiny company with just one office in York was growing so rapidly that they'd decided to open their first international office. And anybody that wanted to move to the new office was more than welcome to!
The plan has always been to fund our travels with our savings for the first few months, then find whatever jobs we can while we are on the road to keep us going. Basically to work our way around the world. Now here I was being offered a guaranteed job, with a good salary, in a different country. I could hardly turn that down, could I?
The company offers mini sabbaticals too. As it's much quieter in the winter months, members of staff can take up to six weeks off unpaid, to fit in a little travelling or whatever else they fancy. So we get to fit in some of the travelling we're so desperate to start, then come back and earn a little more money before we start the permanent travels. Could this job get any better?
So we've got a new plan.
Life is going to continue how it is at the moment for the next few months. At the beginning of next year I'll be taking a six week break from work and we want to use this time to visit a few places on the border of Europe and Asia, like Turkey, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. From there we'll be moving to the international office, the location of which I'll be keeping a secret for now. After six months or so working there, we'll finally be following our dreams and heading to Southeast Asia!
What do you think of the new plans?