I am Vicki and with my beautiful dark Cleo I am travelling in my camper van
Vanilla for almost one year now.
I never dreamed of living the van life. I wanted to travel with my dog. Travel
two months to Scandinavia and then search for a job there, doing all this
in a car, and then I realized that a car and a van is almost the same price or
at least the car I wanted so I expanded it into four months because I thought,
"Okay, the van is more comfortable than a car. I can do that longer." When I started
to build the van and I realized how cozy it will be I decided that it can be also
more than four months and after half a year of traveling I decided that I'm not
done yet so I just kept traveling. I had the help
of my father who is really handy and showed me how to use all the tools and
how to work with wood. It took about two or two-and-a-half months and cost around 1,500 Euros.
This is my van Illa. It's a Volkswagen T5 from 2009 transporter long-wheel base.
I tried to not make it look like a camper that's why I didn't put solar
panels on top. I always used to take this out. It's like my air conditioner
because I don't have a window I can open. I just leave this part on so it doesn't
rain inside. My kitchen which is one of the main parts of the van. It's an
outdoor kitchen and I don't have a tailgate so when it rains I have a problem
but I just eat pizza instead, yeah. All the stuff I need inside. I always have
to calculate before I cook what I will need otherwise I have to bring it forward and back.
I added this last month so I have some extra storage on the side. I have water here.
Still after one year I do not regret that I have an outdoor kitchen. It was
important that I am able to cook properly
to be able to stand up and to have enough space. The sliding things I
bought them but the rest it's pretty easy. You just have to screw it all
together. I have my dirty clothes here and behind that are some chairs and here
I have my solar panels, a table, just some extra storage. The battery is 120 amp hours.
It's connected to the motor. While I drive the battery charges, but from time
to time, use the solar panels. It's two. Each is 50 watt. That's a table. Most times
I'm too lazy to take it out so I just put them on the ground and after 10
minutes or something I already have energy again. I'm planning to live in the
van for summer. That's when I will have to put the solar panels on the roof.
I planned to do it like in two years or something and then I was on a road trip
with two friends and my other friend was in a similar situation like I was. He
wanted to travel and I was like, "go for it! Why not now? You have a shitty apartment,
you don't have a job, you're single, go. Why not now?" and my other friend he
didn't listen to the conversation he had like earphones and was working on laptop
he stopped and was like, "Hey Vicky, what's about your Norway plans?" I was like, "yeah
I think of doing that in two years." He said like, "Hey, why not now? You have a
shitty apartment, you're single, why not now?" and I was like, "crap." So I said yes
and then two months later I quit.
So welcome to the inside of my home.
I have my storage in this L-form. I used to have a fridge, didn't use it for
half a year, and threw it out. Instead I use it now as shoe storage. I try to use
as much natural materials as possible because I live in here full time and I
didn't want to breathe in all this plastic stuff.
It's basically wood. I try to use a lot of things I already had or
secondhand stuff like those boxes. This material here linoleum you may know it
from kindergartens or schools. It's based on natural products. I have a
little drawer here. Drinking water is there. I carry 30 liters but sometimes
especially in Southern Europe I have "bad water" in the back just for the kitchen just for
cooking or doing the dishes and the good water here. Containers to refill the
water. It's much easier to have a little backup
then always to worry about the water. My insulation is cork. I screw them to a
metal panel which was already there and then I glued on top this cork you can
see here. 4.5 centimeters which is maybe a bit too much.
The roof to the floor is insulated by the old insulation which
was already inside. I just put wooden board on top to be able to screw all the
furniture before. If I will sell the van and someone wants to use it as a transporter
he can just take it all out and it would be as it was like when I bought it.
So yeah this wooden that is also screwed to those metal things and the
bed frame just lays on top of it so I can use the whole amount of space
underneath the bed without having any construction under the bed which is
really handy. Those boxes on rollers for more storage like dog food, medics,
and all that sort of stuff which comes in really handy too. Can make that so I can reach that
more easy and this is also like my favorite feature of the bed that I can
lift it up and enjoy the view. So in Germany they sell this thing completely like this and
I remember that my grandmother had that. It's actually for old people I think *laughter*
So I just bought it like this. The bed was the most important feature in the
van. I bought the frame but it's my old
mattress which I just got. It's really really comfortable that was the most
important thing for me because I have back problems and the most important
thing to feel at home is to sleep well so I was obsessed with having a comfortable
bed. More storage here. Tons of Disney movies. My closet here.
I decided that if we will live in here with two people one day I will remove
this and put more boards like this here. I have a mirror which is always dirty
because I never look inside. I have my map which I didn't change since last
November. Drove all around the south coast, spent lots of time in Andalusia,
which is one of my favorite parts of Spain. Yeah it's really nice to have a
map from the area you travel. I started making dream catchers motivated
by a friend I met on the road and this was my first. I call it a fail but it's
cute though because it looks so, so weird. This was maybe my second. I started
selling them because so many people asked me to. It's nice when you watch a
movie when it's raining just sitting there and relaxing a bit. I try to make
the electricity as simple as possible. I charge all my lights via USB. I also
have my headlamp here which I sometimes use and I haven't had any problems yet with that.
I see so many girls who tell me that they can't do this because they're a
girl and I think if I can do it you can do it. They ask me like, "Is it safe?"
or "What should I do to feel safe?" and the only advice I can give is to try it
before you buy a van. Go rent a van and try it first. If you don't feel safe to
sleep outside in woods just sleep in your garage, get comfortable with
that and you notice what you like, what you don't like. People are always making
excuses and I think if you really want something then just go for it and stop
listening to your fears. In the van I made a quote from Alice in Wonderland
from Disney. They're singing this very merry unbirthday song which I
totally love because it's absolutely crazy.
You have one birthday a year but celebrate every day as if it's your birthday.
Thanks for watching this week's episode. If you enjoyed it be sure to
share it with a friend and thank you most of all to the Patrons who support
the channel I really appreciate you. And if you want to know more about us you can
follow our blog vanillaicedream.com or follow our adventures on
Instagram @vanilla.icedream. Have a great week...peace!