verified enough? :)

My last week, a little recap:

• Travelfriend: “Just finished reading your blog, is it on Steemit?”
• Old classmate (on social media): “I quit my job and let Steemit do the rest.”
• Cousin: “Look at this article, found it on Steemit."
• Soulmate: “Get your f%$# ass on Steemit. Really, if anyone, you should be on it. I’ll keep stalking you until you do what I say.”

So, Steemit huh? I felt like a little child that just heard the exciting word “sex” for the first time and out of nowhere it seems to be all over the place. Collapsed under peer pressure I found myself reading into it… A blockchain (a what?) operating in terms of steempower (eh?) which can be converted into bitcoins (say that again?). As a self-chosen vagabond non-stop wandering the ‘real world’ (you know, that thing called Earth) for the past two years this whole digital world wide web development bulldozered on without me even noticing. It seemed too good to be true. But then again, so did quitting my entire brain-numbing civilized existence to trade it for a life full of worldwide adventure…

Most children want to be a fireman, a doctor or a princess when they grow up. I didn't. I told my mother I was going to be a captain on my very own ship and see every country in the world.

Approximately 26 years later I can confirm my nautical skills didn't develop at the same speed as my desire to travel. However, I did spend every single holiday (or several-months-sabbaticals) making 'the Earth my throne', as my heroes from Metallica shout it out. I grew up in the Netherlands, but created opportunities to live in France, Italy, Australia, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and right now Argentina. I visited 46 countries.

I learned 7 languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin and of course Dutch... ancient Greek doesn't count right? I graduated as a BSc and MSc Leisure Studies (specialized in tourism and city marketing) at the Tilburg University and worked fulltime in the touristic sector for several years, as I felt that was the closest I could get to be full-time involved with travelling (wrong!). Once I realized this treadmill of the so called 'civilized life' has very little to do with life at all, I gave notice to my job and apartment, sold everything, quit my relationship and left my entire life in Holland behind and booked a 1-way ticket to explore South-America all alone: No plans, just let come what(ever) may. That's 2 years ago now, and I'm still on the road. In short, I can fairly say traveling not just enriches my life, but IS my life.

¨I wish I could have a life like that, if I only had the money...¨ Well if I get a dollar (peso, real, boliviano...) for every time someone told me that, I WOULD have had an endless travel budget. Reality-check: Na-ah. And still, I can travel, easily... endless maybe. Before you ask me how, I have some questions for you: Do you have a house... or apartment (rental, with a mortgage or bought)? Is there furniture in there, or something as fancy as 'decoration'? Do you have a smartphone? Do you have a computer, laptop or both? Do you have a car or any other mode of transport besides your feet and thumb? Do you have a child? If you answered 'yes' on one of these questions, you DO have money to travel around the world, you just decided to spend it differently.

Also, if you think travelling means checking into hotels, grabbing your travel guide and book some tours, you might be mistaken by that thing called "a holiday". I don't have a house or a country, the world is my home. My material possessions are those 15kg in my backpack. I sleep on couches, in hammocks, on floors, on air mattresses and luckily sometimes in beds in local people's houses via the networks of Couchsurfing and WorkAway. I don't book tours, I figure out how to go somewhere by public transport or simply hitch-hike there myself. I don't expect hot showers. I don't even count on running water anymore. I got used to washing myself standing in a plastic tub, using rain water... and what a great ecological practice that is! I don't spend a fortune on food. As traveling showed me the beauty of our planet's animals I decided to stop eating them (you know, I don't eat my cat either) and veggies are pretty damn cheap. Sometimes I get my nutrition in exchange for my volunteer work in local communities, sometimes I pay 50 cents for local street food... which means I sometimes eat the same twice a day for weeks in a row, and yes, sometimes my stomach makes a somersault. And that's oke. I'm an adult person, I choose to live like this and deal with these 'inconveniences' that are (better than) normal life for many people I met along this journey. It paid off more than money ever could. If there's less material distractions or a blinding comfort zone there's more room to grow like a person (/society/humanity) and discover life in its true colors, while revealing the opportunities to change what you don't like about it.

Follow my journey on www.budgetbucketlist.com or maybe give me an upvote if you want to support my travels (screw money, steempower is the new black) and show me Steemit is not a skeptical fairytale...