A hole year and maybe longer I was already thinking about going abroad. So why are am waiting? Now or never. The moment couldn’t be better – freedom and liberty, everything what you need :P.
That’s how it started as a fleeting thought was slowly getting realistic …
I´ve not travelled everywhere, but it´s on my list
How? Where? What next? When?
Question after question. My mind is a chaos. After long thoughts I made my decision to go for a hole year away instead of a short stay. I was going over my doubts and told a view friends about my plans.
Finally I want to have done the most in Germany as it is easier to do the preparations at home as in another foreign country. It is unbelievable how much you have to consider. But with a timetable, researches and the help of my agency I can manage everything for my one-year-long stay.
You can take this blog as inspiration if you want to travel by yourself (to Australia) and you’re just about to organise it. Please consider I just took these preparations for Germany may your country differ in some points. Of course you are more than welcome to ask me for more details as my entries are may a bit too general. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible ;-).
Here is a list of all things which happened before departure:
apply for internationaldrivers license and passport (incl. currently biometric picture) from the administrative district- & town office (Nov´17)
book „StepIn“: The agency and Australian partner organisation „Work´n´Holiday“ will help me to get everything organised in Germany as well as in Australia. There will be a job bank which makes the search easier. Of course you don’t need especially an agency and just go by your own. At that time I thought it would be just more safe to have a contact with experience. Especially for my first travelling experience. After I got here I think it’s not that necessary.
Visa: At the homepage of `Australian Government´ you can apply easily online for your „Working Holiday (subclass 417) visa“. It takes a while till you get the confirmation and the actual document (around 20 days) by mail.
book your flight: You can decide if you want to fly within one day or if you want to stay between your stop for another night in the country where you will have your stop. Dubai is the most popular stay I reckon. I was flying within one day and had luckily no jet lag. First I decided to order just a single ticket for around 750,- EUR but finally I booked it through an online company with return ticket for around 1100,- EUR (incl. travel cancellation insurance) – airline Qatar.
doctor stuff: I informed myself about the currently vaccinations and asked everything I had to know, I made as well a general check-up at the dentist and several visits to my health insurance followed -> I needed to deregister my German insurance and had to complete a private outland-health-insurance (called UKV). (Nov/DEZ´17)
medical certificate… as I do need some daily medicare I had to get a doctors certificate which allows me to take a inventory of my own medicare for home requirements. So I won’t have problems if I have to go through the duty. You’ll get the certificate from your family doctor or specialist. Without a special permit I think your allowed to take a 3-months inventory with you. Finally the Australian duty was asking me shortly if the medicare which I had declared is for my own. I even didn’t had to show my doctor certificate. If you are in a similar situation I would recommend to ask your doctor and declare your medicare on the „incoming passenger card“ which you’ll get in the plane or at the airport.
credit card: My previous bank wasn’t offering a VISA card for free so I chose the DKB bank. The credit card will be accepted from the most cash machines worldwide! Since now (July) it works perfectly and I get the fees of translation back.
At the time many Christmas parties – one of them especially gorgeous and memorable ;-), the 50. birthday of my father and farewell of my family happened
organise farm stay contacting my farm host there I will go to after my arrival
system camera 😀 that was a important point of my to do list… It shouldn’t be too heavy/big/expensive but as well nothing cheap… I made my decision and was buying me the Olympus OM-D E-M10. Till now it is really reliable, battery stays still good and the pictures are even at lookouts with far distances beautiful – good enough for myself. I just couldn’t do a picture of the glow worms by night because my blind isn’t opening long enough. (Dez´17)
JOB that was maybe one of the hardest theme. My first termination! It was really not easy to quit at my training company, the best Drum department, – „Musikhaus Thomann GmbH„. I was pretty close with my colleagues/friends/grandfather which turned to my second bbbiiiiig family ;-). Thank you all for this nice time! Through this people/their patience/help/smoking breaks/jokes & shenanigans the last 5 years were really enjoyable, nice and funny. I won’t forget that!!!! DANKE !!! (Nov17-Jan18)
New Year’s Eve I was celebrating with my dear brother and friends of us – Happy NEW YEAR 2018
apartment moving out, intermediate rent contact, inform the hirer, I didn’t deregistered myself from town as I’m still in the papers for my apartment, my letters will be forwarded to my parents place… (Jan18)
I’m really thankful to my roommate which still trusted me. I was living there for around two years and had a great time. Many changes happened. I will take those good and bad memories definitely with me on my journey.
January, enough time to catch up with friends and get together for a nice jam session -> Thank you guys which all took their time and celebrated with me my farewell – party at Thai’s place!
MINIMALISM – cancel contracts & insurances, sell my car & drumset… Without the help of my gorgeous family I wouldn’t had done it that quick – maybe not at all :). THANK you soooo MUCH! (28.01.18)
open my Australian bank account ->CommonwealthBank – get it easily done through the internet. After my arrival I just had to get to one of their branches and picked up my new card.
unemployed – Indeed I had to register myself as unemployed because between my termination and day of departure I still had a view days in Germany.
Studio records together with my lovely friends and band members we went 3 days before departure to the records – unbelievable we did it :D. Thanks John for your passion with us ;). We didn’t made it easy for him.
-> John Higuera Records <-
at the evening of departure: digitize all important dates and safe them in your cloud or USB-Stick, put the most important copies at home in a folder, in your hand package and may as well in your backpack, filled out 0330 document „certificate of identity in tourist traffic (2011)“, booked my seats and the food online for the flights, printed my flight details, playing with family poker
…
Two days before departure I finally packed my stuff into my backpack ;-). Remember don’t take too much with you. You can buy everything in Australia as well and the weather is changing sometimes. You can’t be prepared for winter if you arrive in summer because you should pack your backpack for about the next 3 weeks.
JOB that was maybe one of the hardest theme. My first termination! It was really not easy to quit at my training company,
