My name is Stephanie...
Most children want to be a fireman, a doctor or a princess when they grow up. I didn't. I told my mother I was going to be a captain on my very own ship and see every country in the world.
Approximately 30 years later I can confirm my nautical skills didn't develop at the same speed as my desire to travel... but the objective stayed the same. My life goal is making 'the Earth my throne', as my heroes from Metallica shout it out. I grew up in the Netherlands, but created opportunities to live in almost every continent by now. I visited 75 countries, taking my time everywhere. Where sometimes you hear trendy backpackers yell they "do" South America in 3 weeks, or you watch those YouTube-videos of people visiting every country in the world, but really just touching base everywhere for max. a week... I like to take it slow. In most of these 14 countries I stayed 1-9 months, most countries of that list I visited 2 to even 15 times (yet they "count" only once, which makes these lists kind of ridiculous). Everyone has their own style and preferences, fair enough, but think of your own home... would you say sombody has "seen" or "checked off" your country by just spending a weekend in your capital city? Exactly, you need time. A month isn't enough for even a city sometimes, let alone an entire country or even a continent.
I am fortunate enough to have recently dove into my 9th language (Portuguese). Besides that I took the opportunities to learn English, Spanish, German, French, Latin and in a lesser degree Italian, ancient Greek and of course Dutch. I graduated as a BSc and MSc Leisure Studies (specialized in tourism and city marketing) at the Tilburg University and worked full-time in the tourism/hospitality sector for several years, as I felt that was the closest I could get to be full-time involved with travelling... wrong!
Once I realized this treadmill of the so called 'civilized life' has very little to do with life at all, I gave notice to my job and apartment, sold everything, quit my back-then relationship and left my entire life in Holland behind and booked a 1-way ticket to explore our lil' globe, all alone: No plans, just let come what(ever) may.
That's almost 8 years ago now, and I'm still on the road (although currently significantly slowed down by Covid - currently riding it out in Malta). In short, I can fairly say traveling not just enriches my life, but IS my life.
Approximately 30 years later I can confirm my nautical skills didn't develop at the same speed as my desire to travel... but the objective stayed the same. My life goal is making 'the Earth my throne', as my heroes from Metallica shout it out. I grew up in the Netherlands, but created opportunities to live in almost every continent by now. I visited 75 countries, taking my time everywhere. Where sometimes you hear trendy backpackers yell they "do" South America in 3 weeks, or you watch those YouTube-videos of people visiting every country in the world, but really just touching base everywhere for max. a week... I like to take it slow. In most of these 14 countries I stayed 1-9 months, most countries of that list I visited 2 to even 15 times (yet they "count" only once, which makes these lists kind of ridiculous). Everyone has their own style and preferences, fair enough, but think of your own home... would you say sombody has "seen" or "checked off" your country by just spending a weekend in your capital city? Exactly, you need time. A month isn't enough for even a city sometimes, let alone an entire country or even a continent.
I am fortunate enough to have recently dove into my 9th language (Portuguese). Besides that I took the opportunities to learn English, Spanish, German, French, Latin and in a lesser degree Italian, ancient Greek and of course Dutch. I graduated as a BSc and MSc Leisure Studies (specialized in tourism and city marketing) at the Tilburg University and worked full-time in the tourism/hospitality sector for several years, as I felt that was the closest I could get to be full-time involved with travelling... wrong!
Once I realized this treadmill of the so called 'civilized life' has very little to do with life at all, I gave notice to my job and apartment, sold everything, quit my back-then relationship and left my entire life in Holland behind and booked a 1-way ticket to explore our lil' globe, all alone: No plans, just let come what(ever) may.
That's almost 8 years ago now, and I'm still on the road (although currently significantly slowed down by Covid - currently riding it out in Malta). In short, I can fairly say traveling not just enriches my life, but IS my life.
"I wish I could have a life like that, if I only had the money..." Well if I get a dollar (peso, real, boliviano...) for every time someone told me that, I WOULD have had an endless travel budget. Reality-check: Na-ah.
And still, I can travel, easily... endlessly maybe. Before you ask me how, I have some questions for you:
If you answered 'yes' on one of these questions, you DO have money to travel around the world, you just decided to spend it differently. And that's okay, I'm not judging. Life isn't a simple copy-paste, we all have our own ways. Just don't try convince me you don't have the time nor funds: you most definitely have, you just used it for other things.* And yes, I also have friends, family and people I care about, just like you. Having this lifestyle simply meant I had to accept that missing them, and not forming an active part of their lives, is a painful yet required sacrifice, and love relationships might always lose it from my desire to float around on the wind instead of taking root.
* Considering you're reading this from either a smartphone or another electronic device, and have the time and interest to look into topics such as travel blogs, I'm just gonna go ahead and assume you are as privileged as me. No, I'm not referring to being born into a filthy rich family, I couldn't even dream of the day my parents would fund my travels, why the hell would they? I'm talking about a background shaped by proper education, equality, good health, the absence of hunger or severe financial distress and a not-unpleasant-passport. We are lucky people and should't take that for granted.
And still, I can travel, easily... endlessly maybe. Before you ask me how, I have some questions for you:
- Do you have a house or apartment (rental, with a mortgage or bought)?
- Is there furniture in there, or something as fancy as 'decoration'?
- Do you have a recent-model-smartphone? Do you have a relatively modern computer, laptop or both? Other fancy electronics?
- Do you have a car or any other mode of transport besides your feet and thumb?
- Do you have a child?
If you answered 'yes' on one of these questions, you DO have money to travel around the world, you just decided to spend it differently. And that's okay, I'm not judging. Life isn't a simple copy-paste, we all have our own ways. Just don't try convince me you don't have the time nor funds: you most definitely have, you just used it for other things.* And yes, I also have friends, family and people I care about, just like you. Having this lifestyle simply meant I had to accept that missing them, and not forming an active part of their lives, is a painful yet required sacrifice, and love relationships might always lose it from my desire to float around on the wind instead of taking root.
* Considering you're reading this from either a smartphone or another electronic device, and have the time and interest to look into topics such as travel blogs, I'm just gonna go ahead and assume you are as privileged as me. No, I'm not referring to being born into a filthy rich family, I couldn't even dream of the day my parents would fund my travels, why the hell would they? I'm talking about a background shaped by proper education, equality, good health, the absence of hunger or severe financial distress and a not-unpleasant-passport. We are lucky people and should't take that for granted.
If you think in this blog I refer to traveling in the sense of checking into hotels, grabbing your travel guide and book some tours, you might be mistaken by that thing called "a holiday". I don't have a house or a country, the world is my home. My material possessions are those 15kg in my backpack (okay I'm lying - I carry almost double with me, legs of steel!). I sleep on couches, in hammocks, on floors, on air mattresses and luckily sometimes in beds in local people's houses via the networks of Couchsurfing, WorkAway and Housesitting. I don't book tours, I hitchhike there myself or take the cheapest form of public transport. I don't expect hot showers. I don't even count on running water anymore. I got used to washing myself standing in a plastic tub, using rain water... and what a great ecological practice that is! I don't spend a fortune on food. As traveling showed me the beauty of our planet's animals I decided to stop eating them (you know, I don't eat my cat either) and veggies are pretty damn cheap.
Sometimes I get my nutrition in exchange for my volunteer work in local communities, sometimes I pay 50 cents for local street food... which means I sometimes eat the same twice a day for weeks in a row, and yes, sometimes get the shitters. And that's okay. I'm an adult person, I choose to live like this and deal with these 'inconveniences' that are (better than) normal life for many people I met along this journey. It paid off more than money ever could. If there's less material distractions or a blinding comfort zone there's more room to grow like a person (/society/humanity) and discover life in its true colors, while revealing the opportunities to change what you don't like about it.
This is life and what I decided to make of it. It contains no million-dollar careers, no monthly paychecks, no ongoing consumption of material goods and no stability. It contains everything else the Earth has to offer.
Until we meet.
This is life and what I decided to make of it. It contains no million-dollar careers, no monthly paychecks, no ongoing consumption of material goods and no stability. It contains everything else the Earth has to offer.
Until we meet.
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