My first own car!

Here I am again, as promised! This post is only about my car this time. What else exciting has happened, you'll find out in a separate part.

As I mentioned last time, I left the car market with three cars in mind. However, for various reasons, none of these cars turned out to be the one, which I am now glad about.

I contacted two more sellers and arranged new test drives. After that, it was immediately clear to me. It should be a Toyota Ipsum, built in 98. It has only run 166,000 km (for a backpacker car, that's almost like a new car). In addition, the technical data, condition, and equipment convinced me.

We completed the purchase via online banking and met yesterday at the post office to transfer the ownership of the car. It's funny how easy this is here. What we know in Germany as vehicle papers is just a blue-white piece of paper, which is attached to the inside of the windshield. It only shows the date until when the vehicle is registered. The previous owner of my car didn't even have to put her name on the form or identify herself at any time. Everything is a bit lax here, but also a pleasant change from the bureaucracy in Germany.

Well, let's get back to the car. The Belgian girls Julie and Petra entrusted me with their Mathilde, which they named after the previous French owner. Since the car didn't give them any problems in the six months they had it, I didn't want to change the name too much and break the lucky streak. However, I liked 'Mathilda' a little better, so I named her that. I heard that a personal connection between the car and the driver is very important during a trip like this!

As you can see in the pictures, she is a medium-sized car between a station wagon and a van, which is completely sufficient for me as a solo traveler. She has four doors and normally has up to seven seats. However, the back two seats are missing and the middle three seats are folded down, so there is plenty of space for a nice king-size mattress. This mattress is stable on a self-built wooden frame, which also provides a lot of storage space underneath. In addition to a camping stove, water canister, pans, pots, dishes, cool box, folding table, and camping chairs, the two Belgian girls even added a wetsuit and a bodyboard on top! Moreover, the items in the glove compartment were also true treasures (apart from the tampons). I found labeled maps with routes and tips, as well as timetables and an old travel guide from 'My Lonely Planet'.

All in all, I'm super happy about my first own car and have already enjoyed the first rides with my Mathilda. I'm getting used to driving on the left side too! ;-)