Q+A with Indie & Joel

Introducing Indie & Joel!!

Indra Akerblom and Joel Larsson, we go under our brand name called ONTHEFREESIDE. Mostly because we try to inspire people to live a little bit more on the free side and that is our aim in life as well. We met 3 years ago and fell for each other instantly, it was love at first sight you can almost say. Since then we have been inseparable and we love it.  

Their story.

But who are we and what do we do, well we just converted our first van ever. Exciting huh?!

After 6 years traveling the world we had to rush home because Corona and all of a sudden we were stuck in Joel's  hometown without a plan and without any money. Before when borders were open we used to work in the tourism and restaurant industry and we loved it. Indie as a chef/waitress/kitesurfing instructor and Joel as a bartender/mixologist. We love the nomadic life style, it makes us feel freedom, like we are unstoppable, like we can go wherever we want and work with whatever we want. But as we all know that took an abrupt ending in march 2020, now we had to find other means to support ourselves so Joel went back to what he used to do and that was to work as a caretaker for people with mental and physical disabilities. It’s been super rewarding and also made us stay afloat during this year.

We had always wanted to convert a van but never had the time and always thought that we would do it in the future when we settled down. Haha yes we say living in a van is to settle down. Anyways, now we finally had the time but we didn’t have the money so we borrowed enough to cover the van and to be able to get going with the conversion. Keeping our fingers crossed that we would make some cash on the way and it all usually turns out in the end. We have always been gamblers when it comes to traveling and our nomadic lifestyle.

Two years ago we were stuck in Thailand without anything and borrowed money to be able to go to Australia. This might seem like a pretty big gamble, I mean why not just go home and play it safe. For us that's just not an option. We gambled and it ended up being an absolute success when we landed a job at a farm and earned way more cash then we ever have before. So that’s us, we take the risks and usually it pays off if we work hard enough because behind this is also us, we worked so hard to land those jobs because we had to. The same goes into our van conversion, we have worked so hard with making it work and soon it’s finished. I mean yeah we still have some bits and bobs left to do but does a van really ever become finished.

Their tip to aspiring nomads:

Just do it, stop waiting for the perfect time because then it will never happen. Believe in yourself and that you can make it work, against all odds, you will! There is nothing holding you back except your mind. Take the leap, it will pay off eventually. 

Following your dreams sounds so cliche but it really is what you have to do.

We try to see the positivity in everything, well oh damn now we have to go home to an uncertain future. Well let's turn that around and pursue our dream of converting a van. So it’s really all about pushing your limits and gamble a bit. 

We are still not at our dream life but we are working towards it and that’s what's important. That you take the step and actually start to work towards it.

Their routines.

This is a hard one. Both yes and no. Indie meditates and focuses a lot on body relaxation, mostly because of her chronic disease Endometriosis. Joel keeps active and goes to the gym a lot and when he can’t do that he just works out at home.

We also try to do something for our relationship once a week, a date night or just a night off phones so we can really hang out and deeper our relationship. 

Important things that they make time for in their day.

Eachother, this is so important. We like to cook so a lot of our focus goes to cooking a meal together and enjoying that. 

Their interests outside of work.

We are just getting into content creating and are both really enjoying it. Joel is a legend photographer and loves taking photos while Indie really enjoys the editing process so we make up a good team there. Before when we spent time in warmer countries we used to kitesurf a lot, nowaday in -10 degrees Sweden we don’t do it.. as you can probably understand haha. 

Some of their favorite outdoor activities!

Well ofc kitesurfing, we also enjoy snowboarding and all sorts of board sports. Joel goes to the gym, since we are stationary he has a gym card and that works really well. When we start moving a lot more we will probably find activity in more outdoorsy stuff like hiking or surfing. 

How they eat healthy living nomadically

Well food is a big passion of ours and we wouldn’t really say that we eat healthy per say but we do eat extremely well made food with good produce. When it comes to food we believe it’s the best thing in life. Indie is a real junk food lover tho but since we love to cook that can mean homemade fries with homemade aioli mayo and everything that’s made from the ground is healthier because you take away all the processed food etc.

Their top 3 luxury items while living on the road!

Oh this is a hard one. We love our speakers so that’s probably one of our luxury items that we keep close to us all the time. We live a simple life when it comes to luxury, we don’t really have any skin care product or use make-up etc. We do like to have a nice bottle of wine from time to time tho and maybe some nice cheese with that. Haha I might call my fridge a luxury item since it’s a big 90 liter fridge that we can store all our yummy food in. 

When we used to travel the world as backpackers,  Indie’s item was a pillow. It might not be luxury but it’s one of those things that people go a bit huh?! when they hear it.

1 pro and 1 con about tiny living?

PRO : Closeness, always being so close with your partner

CON: Never getting time for yourself haha

So the pro and con kinda go together a bit. The best about living tiny is being with your partner constantly and the worst is also that. You really have to find a balance, to respect when you need alone time and that can mean still being in the same 6 square meters but to not speak and respect that.  

Their advice to the community!

Oh this is a hard one. To the vanlife community I mostly just want to say thank you. When starting our vanlife journey I did not expect to meet so many lovely people and that everybody is so extremely helpful. 

To all aspiring vanlifers we wan’t to say JUST DO IT! Don’t wait for the right moment just take the leap and go for it, it will be sooo worth it in the end. 

Inspirational information about their journey!

I have a chronic disease called Endometriosis. It’s hard to find out that you will need operations and medications for the rest of your life. With that I want to say to you reading this if you maybe have some health problem and thinking that it will stop you. It won’t, you just have to plan ahead a bit.  So when we are planning to head to Europe for an indefinite time I’ll just discuss this with my doctor and make sure I have the medication needed. We will also budget for a flight home so when I need to go home for my operation I can do that. 

I never saw my health problem as a problem for pursuing this dream, I just have to adapt a bit with it. So you shouldn’t, you should live your life as you want to. 

So yeah If you are doubting yourself of letting your health problem stop you, don’t. you will succeed even though you have this problem, don’t let your body stop you from pursuing this dream. Just go for it and all will fall into place eventually. You can do it!! 

Shoutout to Indie & Joel!!

Follow our instagram account @onthefreeside where we upload daily about our lives. 

How can you contact them??

Instagram: @onthefreeside 

Youtube: On the free side