We’ve all had days where we dream of packing up and hitting the road.
And Aberdeen couple Agne Kilpyte and Inga Metrikyate have done just that – after getting fed up of rising bills in the cost-of-living crisis and repetitive jobs.
They’ve swapped life in the Granite City rat race for life on the open roads of Europe.
The Lithuanians, who have both spent about 15 years in the north-east, toured car boot sales selling almost all their belongings to save up precious pennies.
They have now poured all that money into buying a £15,000 van they’ve converted into being a mobile home for them and Cocker Spaniel Archie.
And Agne and Inga are preparing for their “advanture” of a lifetime while encouraging anyone else feeling worn down by modern life to also be brace and take the plunge.
‘You just have to go for it’
Agne, 22, and Inga, 31, are both originally from Lithuania but met while living in Aberdeen.
While Inga ran her own business Crystal Clear Cleaning, Agne worked as an engineering coordinator for offshore support firm Capital Document Solutions.
However, faced with rising bills in their Torry flat making their earnings become ever-more stretched, the couple started dreaming of another way of life.
Agne said: “The starting point was the couple of months before New Year. The company I worked for got bought over and lots of people started leaving.
“It just got me thinking, do I want to me sitting in the same place, doing the same thing, staring at the computer or watching the same cars out of the window from 8.30am to 5pm?
“Aberdeen just isn’t the same anymore, not like in the years before Covid. It’s very expensive, we were working just to survive.”
First steps for European ‘advanture’
Agne and Inga decided to go all-in on life on the road across Europe to create memories to last a lifetime.
They bought a £15,000 Volkswagen Crafter van and have spent a further £10,000 converting it into a home on wheels.
Gone is the barren interior that once transported a young Turriff mountain biker to competitions across Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
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And in its place are plush carpets, a small kitchen unit, neat storage, curtains, sofa and a bed with the cosmetic changes even stretching to a new dashboard unit.
Agne said: “We’ve got solar power banks to make sure we’ve got electricity for everything.
“There’s so little space though, we literally have to be very careful about what we can bring and we sold the rest at car boot sales.
“We’ve had to learn to do everything ourselves, YouTube has been our friend.”
Where first for Agne and Inga?
After leaving Aberdeen this week, Agne and Inga expect to arrive in Lithuania this weekend after a 1,800-mile drive across the continent.
After some time catching up again with family, they expect to head south to either Greece or Turkey to soak up some sun.
Agne and Inga are blogging their “advanture” journey on YouTube and TikTok in the hope it will generate some cash for them on the road for at least a year.
And they have encouraged anyone with similar nagging thoughts of dramatically changing their lifestyle to be brave.
Inga said: “I know that feeling, we were there in the New Year wondering whether we were going to actually do it.
“You just have to try it, go for it. There’s always the opportunity for something else if it doesn’t work out the way you want it to.”
Conversation