If you go on a trip of this magnitude, you have to have a strict management of your budget. There’s no way around it, or you will run into trouble.

Some cities are cheaper, some more expensive, but you have to keep an eye on your spendings.

Considering I planned and saved for a 15-month trip, I did pretty good. My money carried me nearly into month 17, but at one point I was running out…

So it’s time to write a little ‘Thank you’-post to the sponsors of this trip.

Well, not that I got professionally sponsored – there are no adds on the site and all content is totally independent 😉

I saved the money for this between 2010 and 2013, for nearly four years, and I spent it all, and more.

And that’s where my ‘sponsors’ come in.

Without their indirect or truly financial support, this journey would have ended some time ago, so they made some of it possible, and deserve a big thank you.

Theres is Daria, my former colleague from working for the EU’s press service, who generously let me stay in her apartment in Bangkok for a whole week for free.

There’s countless new friends who invited me over to their place to eat, drink, or picked up the bill at restaurants, or offered me places to crash for a few nights.

MEET THE BIG FOUR

And then, there are the big four, the ones who, with their help, have made this trip possible.

There would be Renato&Dennis, my best friends in San Francisco, who let me stay in their house again for over two weeks, for free, which in San Francisco means a massive amount of money not spent on rent.

They also fed me, with their fridge being full all the time, and they drove me around and helped me organizing my stuff for Burning Man.

It’s hard to put a price tag onto it, but friendship doesn’t need a price tag, right?

But I can easily say that their generosity has definitely helped me to make this trip to what it has become.

On top of it, Renato’s generosity and endless credit cards also help me to pre-finance parts of the Madonna Tour 2015 – as I am in no way capable to buy all these tickets now…

There is my sister Sabine, who not only visited me in Istanbul and shouldered a big part of the housing bill, and picked up the check a few times for restaurants and bars…

She also generously and silently transferred some money into my bank account, before I could even ask, when I was getting close to zero…

It arrived the day of my birthday, on top of it.

I sure will pay it back in the next months, but she helped me to stay afloat, especially at a time where my main credit card was maxed out due to fraud…

And then, last but surely not least, there is Sven, the man who really supported my journey in innumerable ways during the time of preparation and during the ride itself.

Not only did he buy some of my nicest furniture at a good price, he also offered his garage for an amazing 18 months to store my 48 boxes, frames, table, suitcases and CD racks….

That alone probably saved me some 1500 to 2000 Euro in storage cost.

He visited me four times in total, coming to Sydney (and inviting me for the NYE party), and organized my first 12 days in Melbourne, staying for free.

He visited me in Istanbul and picked up some bills, then saw me again five weeks later in Tel Aviv and got me into the Pride parties, and dropped the remaining Shekels when he left….

Finally, he came to Cape Town and let me stay two weeks in a gorgeous apartment with him, rented the car and organized the side trips, and again spent much more on parties and eating out that I ever could.

And, as if all this would not be enough, he also sponsored these last days with a loan into my bank account, making sure I can pay my last bills here, and the first bills over there in Brussels.

I am speechless, and indebted, literally and morally, to the best friend one could have had.

Without his help, his generosity and his advice this trip could not have happened.

I am one fucking lucky bastard.

To all of you, thank you.