The travel bug was not something I was born with. When I was younger I experienced a lot of anxiety when I left the country; I had issues eating food that wasn’t cooked at my parents home and I was just generally super nervous. I had been on some trips (Egypt, Spain, Turkey) but I was never aware of my surroundings and I was always counting the days until I would be back home.

This all changed in the summer I graduated from high school in 2005. I went on two trips that summer. One to Italy with a friend’s family and one to Crete, Chersonissos with that same friend. I loved it!

I became even better equipped to travel during my time living in my student house in Leiden. I felt so much more independent and suddenly the world was my oyster and the sky was the limit. During my student years my destinations started to pile up. Not only did I travel with student associations (Vienna, Budapest, China) and friends to Europe (Paris, Rome)…

… I also organized longer trips with friends (South East Asia, Central America).

After graduating from university, I felt it was time to relocate. Yes, the girl who didn’t dare to eat a plate of fries in another country was now considering to leave the country indefinitely. A lot had changed in a few years. I sold all my things, said goodbye to all my friends and family and embarked to my first destination: Edinburgh.

This was meant to be the starting point of my world travel. After Edinburgh I had planned to fly to South America, however, this never happened. Edinburgh started to feel like home and I stuck around. I did make some trips (Scotland, South Africa, Egypt) but these were my three meagre years of travel.

My job finished so I considered moving back to the Netherlands. Instead I received a job offer to work in Abu Dhabi and I jumped on that opportunity. For two years I explored some countries in the Middle East (UAE and Oman) and countries in close proximity (India, Sri Lanka).

Now I’m back in The Netherlands; and I started this website. I love hearing and reading about travel stories so I thought I’d share mine. My intention is to publish two to three stories a week and even though I will work full time I will not stop travelling, because once the bug bites you’re infected forever!

You can navigate through my site by year (this means the year I’ve visited a place) and by destination. Have fun!