Varvara Giannouli, known on social media by the name Viva Camper, is a 28-year-old originally from Crete, who decided at just 25 years old to open a “page” in her life, which some may not be able to understand. Life in a van may seem strange or difficult to many, but for her for the last year or so, it is a reality that fills her with emotions and images, but also a basis for making plans and dreaming. “I decided I wanted to live in a van and travel around the age of 25. I lived in Athens for years but it didn’t suit me and I was looking for an alternative way of life. I randomly saw other people living in vans on the internet and that’s how it started to form as an idea in my head,” said Varvara Giannoulis to APE-MPE, which managed to procure the van and, after much thought and searching, to make it look like her own “studio”.

“While the thought had crossed my mind at the age of 25, I managed to buy the van about two years later. All this time I searched a lot to find out how to make it and what I would need for the conversion. From the moment I bought it, I literally started building it internally with wood. Now it’s a small fully furnished studio for me,” he said, with the joy of a man who lives with all his possessions. When asked if she was ever afraid and what it might have been that scared her, she replied that as a person who is generally not afraid, all she had thought about was what would happen if it didn’t suit her as a way of life. “But I was thinking that even if I made the wrong choice, that it’s okay, I’d sell the van and do something else.”

She uploads excerpts from her life in the van on her social media and is already gathering a lot of interest from younger and older people, who don’t hesitate to ask her about the conditions under which she lives or what makes it difficult for her.

“I am very happy to be in contact with the world through social media. When asked why I decided to make this life choice, I answered that I was tired of thinking for hours about my life’s goals. Now I have chosen to live in the now, I don’t make big goals. I enjoy life and go where it takes me.”

Talking about her new life, she explains that it is a combination of freedom, independence, tranquility, autonomy and fulfillment, while to the question of what she misses the most, what she answers is that when you travel often, you are often forced to be away for a long time, from her loved ones.

“Perhaps this is the hardest part for me, but in all choices in life, you gain something and you lose something,” said the 28-year-old, who, as she happily explains, her family from the first moment despite not knowing much about lifestyle in a van, they supported her and still do.

“My folks are by my side in all my life choices, all they want is for me to be happy, just like I am for them, after all. At the beginning when it was something unknown to them, it seemed strange to them, now that I have put it into practice, I see that in a short time they will follow too”.

Varvara, who comes from a village in Rethymno, studied cooking and while she has worked in different jobs, she currently works in a kitchen in her place of origin. In fact, her work is also the reason she is in Crete, since with the end of the season in October, she is ready for new trips.

“I will leave, and I already have many plans for trips outside of Greece. These trips that I definitely want to do and that I plan with great care, are the European tour, Morocco, but also Cyprus” said 28-year-old Varvara Giannoulis, who in ten years, as she says, hopes through her travels to find her “paradise”.

“I’m looking for the place where I’ll see it and fall in love with it and want to stay there forever. But this, after the trips I want to make.”

As for the places she has visited so far that made an impression on her, she points out that although she is currently visiting the villages of Crete, which she finds wonderful and special, her heart, as she says, has been “stolen” by Mani with the graphics like highlights, tower blocks.

Going through, as she says, one of the most productive and creative periods of her life, Varvara, or Viva Camper, is one of those people who feels lucky, having not much, but only what she needs.

“In Rethymno, where I work, I have been given a very beautiful place, where I park my van. At this point I see one of the most beautiful sunsets and enjoy some of the most beautiful mornings” she says and her certainty that this can be for the day that dawns, indeed her own “paradise”, makes her feel not only lucky, but also ready to continue traveling, collecting images, experiences and stations of life