BEHIND THE TRIP
My name’s Holly and whilst this adventure around Europe may not have been an aspiration for 20-year-old Bert, it has been a dream of mine for some time. Having graduated from university in July 2022, I was unsure of what was next. Like many graduates, the idea of a year-out (or a gap yah) appealed massively. A break from the 15+ years of education. A year to relax. Most of all, a year to stall the inevitable, inescapable stress that is adulthood.
Unfortunately, no matter how hard you try, adulthood is unavoidable. This is especially true if you decide to move away from home straight after uni - as I did. Home for me is beautiful North-West Wales - Ynys Môn (Anglesey) to be precise. It’s an amazing place and I can find few faults as a location to grow-up. It offers almost every outdoor activity imaginable, from scuba diving to trad climbing. It’s also home to a very close and active Welsh culture in regards to language, music and art. It was for these reasons that I had so many fantastic opportunities growing up.
THE DECISION: WHY TRAVEL?
In September 2019, I moved away to study Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool. I was having the best time - uni was as wild and fun as I had anticipated (if not better). Unfortunately, Covid-19 struck in March 2020 and life changed dramatically. I had gone from my first year of social independence to only being allowed to leave my house for an hour a day. Activities were reduced to FaceTime, Zoom family quizzes and bashing pots with wooden spoons at 8pm on a Thursday (and that’s if you were lucky). For reasons wholly unrelated to Covid-19, that first lockdown in 2020 was the worst time of my life. My second year of university was also challenging, but I am so grateful for my lovely housemates who made the following lockdowns more than bearable and distracted me from my problems. To make up for lost-time, I did all the activities possible in my final year of university. I joined the surf society, became Trip Sec and made so many fond memories. I met some fabulous people in surf, many of whom remain my closest friends.
As cliché as it is, Covid put life into perspective. CRINGE WARNING: the truth is, life is short and I realised that as a full-time professional worrier, I just need to enjoy myself more and worry less. I’ve always enjoyed travelling and it’s something that I’ve been fortunate enough to do consistently throughout my life. This is thanks to my parents, who are all keen travelers themselves. I have so many amazing memories of holidays together which has only encouraged me to create my own by continuing to travel. Hence my big adventure in Bert.
Having decided in September 2022 that I wanted to travel Europe in a van, saving money became a priority. Shocker: TRYING TO SAVE MONEY IS NOT FUN! Especially during the fiasco that is the cossy-livs (cost-of-living crisis for the boomers out there). The agony of saving money on top of paying bills, getting my five-a-day in and the odd night out was exhausting and a real wake-up call to adulthood.
ACQUIRING BERT
Ebay was my starting point. I scrolled for hours looking at unwanted vans. I soon realised that unsurprisingly, vans aren’t cheap! I was in two minds about buying a more expensive van in good condition (and already converted) or buying a cheap, fixer-upper and converting it with the help of my very talented Dad, David. Ultimately, my dilemma was solved after a couple of months of searching. I had gone to view a 2005 Vauxhall Vivaro near Halifax. After providing my Dad with a debrief of the viewing and concluding that the Vivaro was amiss, he decided to assess the market by conducting some research of his own. Soon after, he called me back and sent the link of a VW T4 for sale only an hour away from our house in North Wales.
It was Bert! The pictures showed the most handsome deep blue VW, in amazing condition and even decorated with Bert bunting - I needed to see it for myself! I was a waitress/barista at the time and as I was working on the day we had arranged to view it, my dad attended on my behalf. If there’s anything my dad is knowledgeable about, it’s anything mechanical: cars, boats, planes- you name it. Therefore, I trusted his judgement completely.
We were in luck! He called to say that Bert was in great condition and for a decent price, it would be a shame to say no. After a long day of coffee-making and impatient clock-watching, I drove straight home to North Wales to meet our new companion.
Bert was fully furbished when we got him. The pictures above were taken on the day Bert was bought. As you can see, Bert has not needed significant work.
I was extremely lucky in that my Dad and Step-Mum Nia were able to help me financially with buying Bert and due to my Dad’s incredible knowledge and ability to fix and build almost anything, he has been able to do all of the necessary work on Bert himself. Nothing I say or do will ever be able to thank them for their help with Bert and continual support - I am so grateful.
My boyfriend Cam is joining me for the majority of the trip. We met during the last months of university and have been planning out the trip ever since. As Cam has his final masters exams in late May, he’s flying out to Barcelona to meet me in early June. Here’s the nicest picture I could find of us!
