When I set off to travel the world 5 years ago, I was definitely expecting to “find myself” somewhere along the way. That’s what a long solo journey is supposed to do, right? At least that’s what the movies tell us. But I haven’t found her. In fact, I’ve stopped trying to find her.

When we travel - through the world, or quite simply through life - we sometimes do so with this intense focus on finding something at the end. Completing the trip. Reaching our destination. So much so, that we can miss the opportunity to look right underneath our feet and find important pieces of the puzzle right there, along the track.

“The Last American Man” Eustace Conway put it perfectly when he explained why he hiked the Appalachian Trail: “I originally wanted […] to find more of myself”. Not to find myself. To find MORE of myself.

This has been my experience too - I’ve quit trying to find myself. After all, even if I succeeded, how boring would it be to live out the rest of my days in that one version of myself, static and unchanging. Instead, I collect pieces of myself as I go along. Some pieces, I learn through personal challenges. Others are inspired by people who are further along the journey of life. Others still, are my own demons I try to sculpt into light.

This makes the journey endless, in fact. It changes from a trail with a fixed beginning and end, into an open space you can navigate in any direction, without ever reaching a boundary. But that’s what makes the journey so beautiful. Rather than racing towards some specific idea of yourself, you can find little pieces of identity along the way, and let them become a true part of you. These can be new perspectives, ideas, relationships, or ways of interacting with yourself and the world.

So go and seek. Don’t try to find anything specific. Just open yourself up to the search.

Travelling or not, I’m running away from complacency and staleness and indifference and a sense of settling for easy answers.

Instead, I’m running towards something I don’t know. The great, expansive unknown, the possibility of forever-becoming, that I may never find.

The search is the journey. And the journey goes on, as long as we live.

As the company's first employee, for four years I led the growth of Culture Trip, a travel media start-up, from 300k to 10M monthly visitors and from 0 to 5M social media fans, plus 1BN video views in a single year. Before that, I worked at the European Parliament in Brussels, travelled like a madwoman and studied French & German at the University of Oxford.

I’m a big believer in minimalism, which is why my gear is pretty simple and light. I travel with one camera a couple of lenses, an action cam and my drone. You can check my full travel toolkit on this page.

5 years ago, I was living in London and working a busy office job in a growing start-up. Every day felt pretty much the same, and I felt like I wasn’t making a real difference in the world. One day, I decided to leave that life behind and pursue my own dream, and… that’s how I ended up here. You can read more about this story on my story page.

When I started travelling full-time, I was using the savings from my London job. But after a year or two of doing this social media thing, I started earning a living with it. Today, most of what I earn comes via YouTube ads, various sponsorships and brand deals, the work I do for TV, and a few other revenue streams.

There’s a misconception going around that travel has to be expensive. I wholeheartedly disagree. There are many different ways to travel: you can stay in 5-star hotels and jet across the world… Or, you can travel more slowly and on a smaller budget, staying in local guesthouses and driving or using public transport. Travel doesn’t have to be expensive!

Solo travel is my favorite way to travel: it’s the best way to meet new people along the way, and totally immerse yourself in another culture. So I do spend a lot of my time travelling alone. Having said that, I’m a social creature and love to jump on adventures with other people. It really depends on where I’m going and what I’ll be doing, but I try to strike a healthy balance between the two.

(Since Vilk, my dog, joined me in the summer of 2022, I haven’t really felt like I’ve been travelling alone).

I’m a YouTuber, a TV host (check my projects here), and I sometimes partner up with trustworthy brands to help them elevate their products. From social media consulting, to presenting, to creating original promotional content and running my own channels, I’m always working on something!

As a minimalist at heart, I prefer to get fewer, but higher quality items that accompany me on all my travels. I always travel with my camping gear, just in case I ever feel like pitching my tent and spending the night in the outdoors. You can check out my full outdoors kit on this page.

I travel full-time! :) Yes, that literally means I don’t have an apartment, don’t pay bills anywhere and live out of my suitcase. It’s a blessing and a curse, trust me!

First things first: don’t let fear stop you from fulfilling your dreams. Don’t forget that as you read the below. I’ll be as candid as I can here: generally speaking, women do have a harder time travelling solo compared to their male counterparts.

As a female traveller, it’s much more likely you’ll get catcalled, or approached inappropriately, or even harassed. However, I feel that it’s important not to let the fear of these things stop us from seeing the world on our own terms.

Given how the world works today, this may mean taking extra precautions, such as: sharing your location with your family, projecting an air of indifference and confidence, not going out after dark in certain places, and so on. Personally, I have never had anything dangerous or threatening happen to me on my travels, and whether that’s due to luck, or the precautions I take, I still sometimes feel fearful, but… I do it anyway :)

If you can dream it, you can do it. This is one of my guiding principles in everything I do, and it applies to travel, too. I have a running list in my head of some of the world’s most remote, spectacular and inaccessible destinations… And I don’t let their remoteness deter me. In fact, I take it on as a challenge to find a way to visit them, because I know that where there is a will, there is a way. But I’m not a ‘destination chaser’ or ‘country counter’ at all. I love to re-visit countries, seeing my friends again, and diving deeper into new areas of the world. To me, borders are arbitrary markings drawn by politicians - which is part of the reason why I don’t care about visiting as many countries as possible. For me, it’s much more important to travel deeply, meet people and learn.

My ultimate goal in life is to continue learning and growing in line with my inner truth, bettering the world around me in the process.