Erin: Hi

Kattie: Katie.

Hi Erin.

Guess what I did?

What did you do?

I quit my job.

You quit your job?

Oh, no way.

I had no idea.

Erin: You knew.

But curious tourism people did not know until very recently.

Kattie: Yeah.

Aaron, you quit your job.

Why?

Erin: Because Lucas and I are going to go and travel for about half a year.

Kattie: A half, half a year is insane to me.

Uh, where are you going?

What's on the, what's on the agenda?

Well,

Erin: the goal of this trip is to, cause like, as you know, when you

work full time, you've limited PTO.

And so you can usually only do like two, three week trips

at a time if you're lucky.

And so the goal of this trip is to make.

the most out of having like a long period of time so that we can

spend longer in a couple places.

So the goal is to spend like at least a month in every country that we go to.

And if you listen to the show a lot, you know Luke and I love India.

So obviously India is like the central part of the trip.

We'll probably spend two months there.

We want to go to Gujarat and we want to go to the sort of central

region as well as Varanasi.

And then for sure we're going to Tanzania because it is a dream of ours,

like many people's, to do a safari.

Yes.

So we're doing a safari.

It's gonna be camping.

Oh my god.

It's gonna

Kattie: be a lot.

It's gonna be camping.

Wait, what kind of safari?

Like, is it one of those ones where they, like, you have like the little hut in?

uh, a natural park that is sort of like sectioned away

from the animals or something?

Like are you staying over the night?

Oh

Erin: no, like we're sleeping in tents, like out in the Serengeti.

There's no fences.

I actually emailed the guide, I was like, so like, is it safe to

walk around the camp at night?

And he was like, after dinner we will walk you back to your tent and then you must

stay inside your tent until the morning.

Oh my

Kattie: god, okay, what, I need to know what time you have to go, like

what's your curfew for tenting?

I have no idea.

You need to keep me updated on this.

I just need to know if it's like a requirement that you

have to go to bed at like 8 p.

m.

Erin: It might be honestly and I think like from everything I've heard and like

people I've talked to it is like kind of exhausting doing safari because there's

a lot of driving and you usually start really early in the morning so I'm kind of

assuming like by eight o'clock you're in

Kattie: bed anyways.

Wait.

Okay.

So now it's just occurring to me.

I have so many more questions about this.

So are you like driving during the day seeing animals and then like you unpack

pitch tents, stay over and then you pack everything up again and then go and drive?

How many days is this going to be?

Erin: Six days.

I know.

This is

Kattie: so

Erin: cool.

We thought we were only going to do like three days.

Um, and full disclosure, we're working with G Adventures on this, so we're

going to be on one of their tours.

So they gave us a really nice discount, so that's why we're able to do six days,

which is like making a huge difference for us, because with six days, you can

go like way further into the Serengeti.

So you have a higher likelihood of seeing lots of animals, which I'm excited for.

Kattie: I'm so pumped for

Erin: you.

So those are like the two central parts of the trip.

We don't have like tons of detail planned, but.

Okay.

Kattie: Okay.

So.

Six days.

Safari.

Must have been expensive.

Erin: Yes.

Kattie: Uh, well, I asked because also this year you had a very lovely wedding

and I just want to congratulate you on that as well for the podcast because it

was so nice and so fun and it was very modest at a fun little bar here in Toronto

and you guys were all dressed up all cute in your cheap outfits of garbage bags.

No, I'm

Erin: kidding.

She says that because I told Katie once that our wedding was budget core.

Because anyone who knows me knows like I love Lucas and I love that we're married,

but I'm not like a big wedding person.

So we were all about like, let's make this as low key as

possible, which we did achieve, I

Kattie: think.

Excellent.

Yeah.

No, you definitely did.

And it was like, well, I don't know if you definitely did cause I don't look

at your finances, but from my experience at The wedding, it was just like such

a fun and intimate little wedding.

Like it was only like kind of close, close friends and close family members.

You had people who came from like the Netherlands and I got to meet

all of them and they were really fun.

And I chatted with your aunt for like a long time, actually, now that I or

family friend, Ingrid, probably Ingrid.

It was definitely Ingrid.

Got to meet your parents and talk to them about traveling, which was really

fun because you've talked to your, you've talked about your parents and

their love of travel on the podcast like, uh, like a number of times, but

like talking to them in person about it, it just brings it all to life.

I just love that your parents are so obsessed with travel and so are mine.

So anytime I get Our parents would be friends.

Oh, they would have a lot of fun traveling together, I think.

I think they have similar travel styles, actually.

Yeah.

Not to like totally take all the attention away from your very

exciting trip, but my parents have a very exciting trip coming up too.

They are going to New Zealand in the spring and they're like super pumped

and currently like training, like going on hikes every single weekend

to make sure they're in shape for it.

Good call.

But anyway, back to your trip.

So India is on the roster.

Oh, India is happening for sure.

100%.

Yeah.

And then what else is on the roster?

Erin: Yeah, so Tanzania, then India, and then after that, it's all kind

of up in the air, but the list that we're rolling with is Sri Lanka,

Nepal, and Japan, and maybe Mongolia.

I know, Japan we really debated because it's expensive.

It's going to eat up a lot of our budget, but it's going to be so worth it.

We just love Japan so much.

Kattie: So you know how badly I've been wanting to go to Japan.

It's gonna happen.

It is gonna happen.

I was thinking it might happen next year.

It's definitely not happening next year.

But it's gonna happen.

It's too bad

Erin: because if it could happen next year.

I know.

We could be there at the same

Kattie: time.

We could be there at the same time.

Yeah.

Uh, okay, so Tanzania is where you're doing the safari.

India, you're going to be there for like a month, two months, two months, two months.

Oh my God.

That's going to be so fun.

And you're just going to like, take it easy.

Like nothing crazy, no tourist trail.

You're just going to like have fun and eat food.

Erin: Uh, no, it'll be a mixture.

Like we're going to do like tourist trail things.

It's just like with India, India is such a massive country.

There's like so much to see.

Part of what we love about India, though, is like just being there is really fun.

So like, we don't need to be doing like a list of touristy things every single day.

We'll have plenty of days where we just sort of walk around, like pop into shops.

Like, yeah, take it easy.

We just want to be in India for a long time because it takes some

time to adjust and the distances are long as you're traveling around.

So it just makes sense to like, give it a good chunk of the trip.

Nice.

Yeah.

And then Sri Lanka and Nepal probably be shorter, like maybe a month each

in Japan, probably only a few weeks.

Cause like, I don't know if we can afford a month in Japan.

I like to think we can ask me in like, just

Kattie: only eat at the seven 11s and you'll be fine.

Yes.

That might have

Erin: to happen.

Kattie: Are you going to take the bullet?

Have you ever taken the bullet train actually?

Because I have, I've been really wanting to do

Erin: that.

You know what?

It was kind of underwhelming.

This might be a hot take.

I don't know.

Erin,

Kattie: this is a pro train podcast.

How dare you?

It was underwhelming.

Erin: It was really fast.

That was fun.

But this is why it was underwhelming.

I thought that on the train you would feel like, whoa, like we're going

really fast, like a roller coaster.

But no, it's just like a normal train.

I've actually seen videos.

And you look at the window and you're like, it doesn't really

look like it's going faster.

Kattie: I actually did just watch a video on YouTube from the

bullet, about the bullet train.

And yeah, looking out, it looks like it's going pretty like.

regular speed.

Yeah.

It's kind of like an airplane, like when you're driving down, like the

runway on an airplane about to take off.

Erin: But that's actually what I thought the Shakenson, I

think that's what it's called.

That's what I thought it was going to feel like, because you know when a plane takes

off and you feel that kind of like whoosh.

I thought the bullet train would feel like that, and it didn't.

No.

It was really fast, though.

Like, we went really far really fast, which is great.

There were great snacks.

It was very calming.

Yeah.

Japanese trains are just, like, a very calming experience.

But, like, if you're not in a rush, I wouldn't pay the extra,

like, hundred dollars to go on.

The bullet train.

It

Kattie: just occurred to me as well that you are going to be in Japan

probably in the springtime, right?

So you're going to see all the cherry blossoms.

Erin: Oh, it's hard to say because like the timing is a bit different every year.

We're not making that the goal.

So we're not going to like base when we go to Japan on that, but it could line

up accidentally, which would be fine.

And I

Kattie: definitely just planted the seed.

In your brain.

Erin: No, no.

We have thought about it.

But honestly, Lucas was like, maybe we don't want to be there during

Cherry Blossoms because things will be a little more expensive.

Just because it's like a super peak season for tourists.

Every tourist wants to be there like during that like four week.

stretch of time.

So part of us is like, oh, maybe we should like purposely not go during that time.

I don't know.

I'm kind of torn on it.

I think we're just gonna leave it to fate and if we show up and it's cherry

blossom season, we will love it.

And if it's not, we won't be disappointed.

Kattie: Okay, so given that you have plans in all these countries, like do you

have all of your stays planned already?

Oh, no.

Okay.

So when, when do you like know that it's time to leave?

And, like, go to your next destination?

Erin: I don't know.

That's a great question.

Kattie: Like, does something just hit you from, like, the

ether and you're like, Ah, yes.

My calling has come.

It's definitely going to be a vibe.

Erin: It'll just be like one day we have the vibe.

Like, it's

Kattie: time to go.

Okay.

I'm excited.

Oh, and my other question for you is because, so obviously you, you

quit your job, so you're not going to be in work mode, but are you

still going to be running your, um, your blog and everything too?

I

Erin: will probably blog because I do make a bit of income from my blog.

So it like makes sense to like, yeah, keep that income coming.

But I'm going to scale back because the whole point of this trip, like a

couple of people have asked me like, why didn't you guys just decide to like be

digital nomads for a year or something?

The goal of this trip truly isn't to Not work is to dislike.

I respect this decision traveling.

Um, it was tempting.

And honestly, my, my company does offer, they call it work and wander.

So like you can, we're allowed to be digital nomads.

But I just, I just don't want to work.

I want to have every single day.

I get that.

Be completely mine.

Because I have done the digital nomad thing, like I have worked

from other countries and it's like a great way to extend a trip, I

find, but you're still working.

That's like still eight hours a day that like you don't have to spend in a place.

So yeah, I'm really looking forward to us like not being beholden to our jobs.

And just doing with every day what we feel like.

Kattie: So what are your tips for somebody looking to not work at all for five,

five months straight and just travel?

How did you get here?

Asking for a friend.

Erin: Well, rewind 10 years, get a rent controlled apartment in

Toronto, then get your partner to move in and save money for 10 years.

Yeah, be

Kattie: in a relationship.

Split your rent and all of your bills and costs.

Erin: No, like real talk though, because already like people have asked me on

TikTok, how can you guys afford this?

And it is largely because our living costs are extremely low because

we have a rent control department that we've lived in for 10 years.

And so by Toronto standards, we're paying.

Very little to live in the city and that combined with our career growth in

the last few years, it's just made it possible for us to save a lot of money.

And we weren't like purposefully saving for this trip.

It was one of those things where it was like, we're just saving tons of

money on the off chance that we can make a trip like this happen one day.

And the moment came due to like different.

just like different factors in our lives.

Um, but we just wanted to be ready for it.

We wanted to be ready because we actually always thought like, if one of us gets

laid off, then we'll go and do this trip.

So we were just ready.

So yeah, definitely like privilege, like based on our economic position

on our apartment, on our jobs.

Yeah.

We've just been really privileged to be in a position where we've been able

to save like a good chunk of money and I'll be transparent about it.

We have saved 40, 000 Canadian dollars.

That is the budget.

I am going to talk about this on TikTok as we're traveling because I know that

people are really interested in like budgets when people are traveling.

So I thought it'd be fun to just like be completely open about how much

money we're spending and I'll do little like budget updates throughout the

Kattie: trip.

I love that.

That's such a great idea because I think, yeah.

It's so easy to watch all this stuff go down.

Hey Looch, what's going on?

You want to say hi?

Erin: Lucas, we, we heard you quit your job.

Kattie: Looch, what are your reactions to, uh, how are you feeling about your trip?

I feel pretty good about the trip.

Yeah?

Yeah, it's all very planned out.

I, I know Aaron is, uh, already packed.

How about you?

Nope.

I'm

Erin: going to have her day before.

Day

Kattie: before.

You're going to pack the day before for half of, half a year.

But you guys only need like two pairs of underwear anyway, and like one outfit.

So And I'm bringing

Erin: two shirts.

I'm bringing three shirts.

I'm bringing three shirts.

Erin, that's just

Kattie: too much.

Yeah, talk about your tiny ass bag that you're bringing.

Erin is bringing nothing.

When I told Katie

Erin: the bag I was bringing, she was just like, what?

Listen, every trip that I've done, I've become more and more minimalist because

I just realized that I end up wearing the same things all, every day anyways.

Yeah.

So I'm just like from the get go this time, just going

as a minimalist as possible.

And that means three t shirts.

I think I'm bringing like, two pairs of linen pants, a pair of hiking pants,

one pair of shorts, one bathing suit, one long sleeve shirt, one rain jacket.

That's basically it.

Kattie: That's pretty damn impressive.

Like, like when you see the photo of Aaron's bag, it's tiny.

It's so small.

And then she has one other backpack, but the entire thing is

just full of her camera equipment.

Like there's nothing practical in there.

It's just hobby stuff.

So like this woman is bringing absolutely nothing on her trip.

Nothing.

But you know what this is good practice for, Erin?

What?

The Amazing Race.

Oh, it

Erin: is.

Yeah.

Maybe when I'm unemployed and back in Canada, we'll make this our goal, get on

Kattie: Amazing Race.

I saw recently they put out the casting call and I was

like, Ooh, I gotta call Erin.

And then I was like, it's too soon for that.

We need to go on the next season, I think, because you're already

going to be doing the Amazing

Erin: Race.

Why?

When will the season start?

Because it could, the timing could work

Kattie: out perfectly.

I think they're probably starting in the new year.

You're just gonna, you probably are going to run into people from The Amazing Race.

I would love that.

Then just like finagle your way onto the show and just keep showing up on the mat

and they're like nobody knows who these people are they just keep showing up.

There's one team that just can't keep getting any clues because you and Looch

just keep finding the clue box and then just running the race and then one team is

eliminated and you guys accidentally win.

I think that would be pretty funny.

I'd watch that.

This random team.

Erin: I was just imagining, though, like, we didn't do that.

And we were just in the background of all these random shots.

Kattie: It'd be the stupidest Easter egg that I'd be so excited to see.

It's just every single country, every single challenge, there's the same couple

just, like, lingering in the background.

Just in the

Erin: background.

Stay

Kattie: tuned.

Stay tuned.

That's my best, uh, What's his name?

What's the host's name again?

It's not John.

That's the Canadian Amazing Race.

I can't remember.

Mark and I have this dumb thing that we do when we watch The Amazing Race.

We started mimicking the host's, like, way that he says things.

And we, for some reason, we decided that he kind of sounds like Kermit.

Kermit the Frog.

You're right.

He does kind

Erin: of sound like Kermit.

How do you

Kattie: do it?

Dave and Kanner.

You're team number two.

That's it.

Dave and Connor, you're team number two.

Erin: It's the way you say two.

Yeah,

Kattie: team number two.

Please

Erin: cut a, like a, just do like a reel of like saying you're

team number two over and over.

You're team number two.

Kattie: Dave and Connor, you're team number two.

That's, uh, that's the host.

So yeah, that's a random occurrence.

Probably once a week, Mark and I say that to each other for no reason.

I love it.

Yeah.

Big fans here.

Big fans of The Amazing Race.

Oh, it's so nice to be doing this in person.

Crummy is literally on the couch as a little puff ball.

You're gonna miss her so much.

Erin: I am gonna miss Crumpet a lot.

She's gonna be so pissed.

I don't know, like cats are kind of weird like this because every time

we've left her with a cat sitter she seems like she doesn't care that we're

Kattie: gone.

I think cats are just always pissed so it's just not really a difference.

Not Crummy.

Erin: She's never pissed.

Kattie: Crummy's always happy.

She's the one cat

Erin: exception.

But we are leaving Crumpet with My closest friend so she will be fine.

I'm still gonna miss her a lot and be really sad to be without her But yeah,

Kattie: it'll be worth it.

So With you being gone for about five months.

What are we doing with the podcast Erin?

Erin: We are Not gonna be doing a traditional season.

Mm hmm, but we are gonna release stuff Mm

Kattie: hmm gonna be a little bit different.

Yeah We're basically just going to have fun for the next like, we're going to have

Erin: fun.

So the goal is to do one episode a month.

We're going to have a phone call.

I will tell you a story based off of our travels.

So it'll probably be just like a story about something that happened to us

or like an experience that we had.

And I'm going to try to record like all sorts of fun audio,

just of like sounds that we're hearing in the places that we are.

And then you'll take that phone call.

And all those sounds and make something fun out of it.

Kattie: Yeah, I'm very excited.

It's going to be good times.

And then I will also update you on all of the very exciting

things happening here in Canada.

Yes.

Whether or not you want it, I'll probably end up complaining to you.

So just prepare yourself.

Erin: This is the thing, you know what I was thinking about?

The last, like, long trip we did like this, which was in 2017,

I didn't get data on my phone.

Oh.

Like, I was very often, like, without internet.

Like, I would just use the internet in a hotel in the evenings.

So I was, like, very disconnected during that whole trip.

Which must have been so nice.

Which was really nice.

But I don't know if I'm going to be as disconnected this time.

Kattie: I feel like when I go tra anytime I do traveling or

Literally, anytime I just have plans, I'm generally end up being very

disconnected just by happenstance.

Erin: Like, I just.

I mean, but by disconnected, I mean more like out of touch with, like I definitely

was out of touch with like the news, like I wasn't keeping tabs on like what's going

on at home in Canada so much on that trip.

It could just be that I'm older and more like politically engaged

now, so I'll be more curious.

At that time I was like, yada, yada, yada, I don't care.

Now I care more.

So.

I might be in touch, but who knows.

I might also just be like, I don't want to know.

I'm like blocking everything out.

All I care about is the day ahead of me.

That's

Kattie: what I would encourage you to do.

However, that probably won't happen.

Yeah.

You just have friends who are also very politically engaged.

Like we're all going to be talking to you about things.

Is there anything you particularly would like me to keep tabs on for

you here in Canada and just like provide you a monthly update on?

Erin: Ooh, there's like specific businesses in Toronto that I would like

tabs on, but you're not always downtown.

No, I'm not.

Kattie: That's more of a sheer query.

I can do like a Ontario update.

Yeah.

I can give you like a suburban sleeper community update.

That'd be

Erin: fun.

That'd be fun.

I'd like to know how winter is progressing.

Okay.

Kattie: Yeah, I can get, I can do that for you because you're going to be

gone basically the winter and spring.

You're back in the summer.

Erin: Yeah.

I mean, sorry, I'm just like thinking about this a lot now.

This is the thing.

I remember being like disconnected about what was going on in Canada when

I was traveling, but I was almost more connected with what was going on in other

parts of the world, which makes sense.

Like.

I'll obviously be keeping tabs on like political situations in the places that

we're traveling, in the general regions.

Of course there's like many devastating world events happening right now.

I'm not going to like be completely out of touch about those things.

It's more just like local Toronto news.

I don't know if I'm going to be as tapped.

into that as I

Kattie: usually am.

Bike lanes probably won't be caring so much about.

No.

Well, I'll keep tabs on like all of your favorite restaurants and maybe I'll visit

a few in your honor while you're away.

Do it.

Just like have a little bevy at the, uh, at the drum, go see some live

shows and just like have a nice time at Christie pits, go see a movie.

And I'll just like do all those things in your honor because I

do need to get out in the world.

All right, so Erin, what are you the most excited about and

what are you the most afraid of?

Erin: I'm the most excited to not work.

Kattie: Should have saw that coming.

Erin: I'm excited.

No, that's kind of a joke.

I actually genuinely really enjoy my job.

Yeah,

Kattie: but it's still work at the end of the day.

It's still work.

It's, it's, it's responsibilities that you're going to be abandoning.

It's not work.

It's like excited to not have those responsibilities.

This is the

Erin: thing.

And I think this is like why.

doing long term travel was so important to us.

It's so rare in our lives that we ever get a period of time where we

don't have all these responsibilities to our jobs and to like other

commitments in our regular daily lives.

And that's what I value so much about this type of travel.

It's like you truly can just like disconnect for a little bit and just.

Just live which is extremely like privileged Like I realized most people

never have the opportunity in their lifetime to experience that and because

I have experienced it before it was just Like so high priority for Luke

and I to make it happen again And I'm just excited to see the world and spend

time with Lucas who can I keep joking?

We're like, what are we gonna fight about first?

Kattie: You guys are a new married couple and you should be doing for the next

five months telling every single person you meet that you're newlyweds Oh yeah,

Erin: we never tell anyone we should

Kattie: do that.

I know you said that you're not making it your personality, but I think you

definitely need to, because you're going to get a lot of good stuff out of that.

That's true, that's true.

Take advantage of the opportunity in front of you.

Okay, this is good advice.

Every single person.

You might get like room upgrades, you might get free meals.

Like all these things.

Good points.

Especially in Japan.

Tell everybody in Japan.

Erin: Japan for sure.

When we were in Japan last time, people all the time would ask us if

we were married and we were like in our mid twenties and we were like, no,

because we thought that was ludicrous.

Kattie: They're like, we wanted to give you free stuff and

you missed out on all of that.

But this time we can

Erin: say yes.

Kattie: This is the hot tip for everyone listening.

Tell everyone you're a newlywed.

Erin: It's actually true, you know, I never

Kattie: thought about this until now.

And you can even do it when you're traveling solo too.

Just say like, oh, my partner is in the other room or they're

parking the car or something.

I love that.

We're newlyweds.

And then just like stare into their soul for like a couple of seconds to like

sort of imply something and then put that like awkward pressure on them to like

feel like they need to give you something and then you'll get something for free.

Erin: You and Mark need to get married because you would own this so well.

Okay, and thing I'm most afraid of, honestly, I think, like,

this has been the scariest part.

Like, actually quitting my job.

Yeah.

That was very scary.

Um, and just like leaving security behind.

It's like, I know logically that five months, five, six months is not that long.

It's probably going to fly by.

Oh yeah.

But I know that when we come back, things will feel different either way.

And, I don't know, I'm just scared for that.

Kattie: So you're not scared of anything travel wise, then

you're only scared of reality.

Erin: The only thing travel wise I'm afraid of are peanuts.

And I just like, I know that's going to be hard, but I've done it

before so I know that I can do it.

I know that I'm probably just going to like, eat white rice for the

next six months, but that's okay.

Like that's manageable.

It's more like the more like, will I get a job again?

What will our lives be like when we come home?

Like stuff like that.

Kattie: Existential questions.

Those are all very reasonable fears.

I would be feeling the exact same way.

It's just like

Erin: hard to leave the security of your like routine life and.

Honestly, I was shitting my pants all last week when I quit my job, but I

Kattie: feel better now.

Well, I'm so excited for you.

This is going to be such a fun next five months.

You're going to get a nice like change of pace.

You're going to be so refreshed after a chaotic year.

It's going to be good.

Yeah.

Well deserved.

So congratulations.

Thank you.

On living your life.

Thank you.

It's just grabbing life by the horns and just doing what you gotta do to be happy.

Thank you.

Erin: Aww.

I'm gonna miss

Kattie: you.

I'm gonna miss you, too.

I'm gonna miss everyone.

Luckily, we will be having one phone call at least per month, so

everyone will be privy to that.

Okay, Erin.

Well, goodbye.

See you later.

Okay, goodbye.

Safe travels.

Bye.

Erin: Bye.