The secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Since I've been a regular on metal festivals around Central Europe I've been interested in the creative, innovative and sometimes weird ways people reside on the campgrounds of such festivals. Anything from a tarp stretched across two motorcycles to motorhomes with sofas and dining tables is possible. Your imagination is the only limit. For me the most fascinating camps were those of people with camper vans - may it be Volkswagen Transporter, Mercedes Sprinter or Ford Transit - this was what I wanted, having a second home on wheels.
My SO didn't need much convincing, so in early 2015 when planning another festival season we decided we wanted to buy a camper van. At that point we only knew we wanted to buy a pre-owned van preferably with a high roof.
When our tent which had lasted for four years broke at Novarock festival in Austria in June 2015 we had to decide to either buy a van kind of last minute before Metalcamp festival in Slovenia in July 2015 or to buy another tent. We looked at a view pre-owned converted camper vans but either the vehicle's interior didn't fit what we had in mind or the vehicle's technical condition wasn't worthy for us rescuing. For every van we looked at - for which we drove between three and four hours each - my father helped us concerning the technical observation of the van.
We realized that it was not happening for 2015's Metalcamp we had to buy another tent. Two days before we were off for Metalcamp we were informed that a converted was for sale in my home village. The owner was a motocross racer and the van conversion designed to accomodate the driver on a very high bed (like in an alcove) plus two motocross bikes. Additionally, it had a small cooking area with a gas stove and sink and foldable table with one small bench.
This was actually the first time my father and I thought about converting a van ourselves. We settled with the buyer that the van would be technically observed by professionals but if everything was ok, we would buy it.
My SO and I took off to Metalcamp and immediately afterwards flew to Barcelona to spend a week of vacation there. One day I woke up to a picture of this last van we visited standing in my parent's driveway. My dad had a professional do the technical observation and afterwards bought the van.
At this point, technically, my father owned the van. I paid him back half a year later and paid for the whole conversion. However, for reasons of simplicity I will refer to it as my van.
So as of this moment I owned a white Opel Movano 2003 model with approx. 145,000 km.