For some of the advice on independent travels by public transport I am giving on this blog it might be relevant for you to know who the author is. Also, I think it’s nice to put a face to it. So here we go!
Who am I? I am Natalie, a 28-year old travel enthusiast. I am originally from Austria and am now also living there again after six years abroad (one and a half years of which I spent travelling in the Global South – of course by public transport!). What I love about travelling is getting off the beaten track, putting my fate into the hands of total strangers from time to time, learning new languages, discovering new music, trying out things I had never tried before (including food!), experiencing the beauty our planet has to offer and especially meeting people. Really meeting them, seeing the world through their eyes for a bit and through that learning so much, including about myself. I do care about our planet a lot, so whenever I travel, I try to keep my environmental and CO2 footprint as small as possible.
I just got back from a year-long trip through Southern and Eastern Africa and the Near East. All the information you find on this blog stems from that trip. I set out on this journey together with my partner after both of us quit our jobs in rainy Brussels. Spoiler alert: Best decision ever.
You might be asking yourselves how on earth I could afford to travel for that long. The answer: we saved up and travelled very low budget. Travelling by public transport – be it a motorbike, minibus, bus, train or hitchhiking saves a lot of money. Also, we used Couchsurfing.com a lot and LOVED it! For those who don’t know the concept: you basically get to sleep on a local’s couch for free and hang out with them. No better way to meet the most beautiful people. We volunteered for about five months in total through Workaway.info and loved it even more. Our hosts were incredibly diverse: a little goat farm, a community centre, a backpackers, a construction site, a Bedouin camp, a family building their house. We also got to learn a lot of new skills we would never have acquired otherwise: from goat herding over mixing concrete to social media management. And of course we almost never went into actual restaurants and kept away from touristy areas, but ate delicious street food. In total, 11 months of travel cost each of us 7.500 euros. So it’s doable, guys and girls!
I would recommend such an experience to anyone who is able and willing to leave everything behind for a bit and be open to experience life differently. I came back a changed person – and I am not just talking about the tan. Seeing the world out of the eyes of people with a totally different view on life and what is important in life just switched something inside of me. I am incredibly grateful to the many beautiful people I got to meet and am still so hungry for new experiences! Coming back after travelling for a long time is hard and weird, but so far I am doing alright.
If you would like to set out on your own adventure and have any questions – about what to pack, where to go, anything – please get in touch. I’d love to support you in your endeavour. Feel free also to reach out about anything else. Peace and love, fellow travellers.