ABOUT ME

Hello! Hej! Hola! Welcome to my little corner of the internet.

So who am I? I'll start at the beginning. I was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to a Swedish photographer and an American writer. I grew up bilingual and a dual citizen, in the pastoral Swedish countryside. My parents loved to travel so they started my addiction early. It wasn't your usual family travel - our first family vacation when I was 6 years old and my sister was 4 was a road trip through Morocco, eating couscous in the Marrakesh market, finding starfish on deserted beaches on the Atlantic coast, and witnessing mountain goats climbing olive trees in the Atlas Mountains. More adventures in Costa Rica, Egypt, China, and the Dominican Republic got me hooked.

When my parents suggested that the family move to Malta in 2007, I was all for it. And thus, at the tender age of 15, I was introduced to the concept of not just traveling to different countries, but living in them. I haven't looked back since. After graduating high school in Malta (and discovering the wonders of solo travel during a summer volunteering in Ecuador before my senior year) I went on to study anthropology and international affairs in Washington DC.

The US could only enthral me for so long. I spent a semester abroad in Amman, Jordan, immersing myself in Arabic language studies and discovering a passion for water issues and the natural poetry of rivers. I spent a summer excavating a middle bronze age wine cellar in northern Israel. As soon as I graduated, I headed to Lucknow, India, for two months to study Urdu intensively. Check out my Middle East blog and India blog for a taste of those adventures.

I went straight from India to London to do my Masters in Anthropology and Development. After an intensive year I landed my dream job in New York City, where I was actually paid to travel and lead research projects in places as diverse as Brazil, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Mexico. However, all dreams must come to an end. I gradually awoke to a longing for Europe.

In 2019 I managed to get a job in Paris, just in time to experience a global pandemic in that magical city of lights. Sometime during the second lockdown, on the tail-end of a road trip with my best friend through southern USA, I realized I couldn't defer my deepest dream any longer. I started saving for the trip I had imagined since I was that nerdy little bookworm in rural Sweden, a backpacking trip that would last months and take me around the world.

In 2021 I moved to Berlin to pursue a job with an app I love, Babbel, and vowed to keep saving for my big goal. The magical year quickly approached: 2023. But saving for a big backpacking trip didn't stop me from continuing to travel. After my 2023 trip ends I doubt my thirst for travel will be satiated (it will likely only intensify).

This blog is intended to share tips and stories from my adventures both past, present, and future. I hope you glean something useful from them for your own journeys. We will really get along if you are also obsessed with:

🏔 Climbing mountains (BUT not getting airlifted...don't ask about what happened Poland)
😻 Petting ALL the cats (I left my dearest sweet cat in Berlin while I'm on my trip)
🍷 Trying the local cuisine and wine (did someone say wine tasting?)
🖼 Exploring a destination's art and music scene (especially when it's free, like street art and street musicians)
💬 Learning new languages (try Babbel!)
🤓 Finding out fun facts about a place's culture and history (I'll be sure to share)