I did it.

After months of thinking, pondering, discussing with friends, calculating my budget, and endless discussions with myself, I have sent off my request to Human Resources for the extension of my unpaid leave, and informed my former bosses.

I am extending this trip a little, into spring 2015, and should be back to work on 1 April 2015. I plan to be in Brussels some time ahead of that date, so I can look for a new place to live, and get my stuff sorted and out of Sven’s garage.

I don’t want to land on a Friday and walk into the office on Monday and be all stressed to get my life back into a normal work schedule. The adaptation will be hard, anyway.

So that leaves me with roughly two months more than initially planned. I have recalculated my budget, in order to bring down the monthly spending, hoping that I’ll manage to get by till the return to Brussels.

Now it’ll be time to think about what I want to do with the extra time, where I want to go.

Somewhere new and exciting? Or will I be too tired? I have a few places I would love to see again and spend more time in, mostly to meet my new friends there again, and maybe just relax a little at the end of the trip…

High contenders for a re-visit are Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Santiago, this time maybe with a little side trip into the country… Or maybe over to Australia again, I am looking at flights to Perth, a train ride through the desert, Adelaide and then driving into Melbourne.

Thoughts, recommendations, anyone?