This picture was taken on our first trip together, a two week trip through Iceland about three months after we got together. One might say that’s a proper relationship test (many people did, actually!) but apart from the literal bumps in the road things worked out pretty well. It was shortly after this trip we decided we’re really good at traveling and well, not so good at the office stuff. Coincidence? I think so.
Who are we?
Jochem was raised traveling, his parents took him all over the world when he and his brother were young. His favorite trip was close to home though: driving through the hills of Scotland. There’s something about monsters in lochs, and stumbling upon taverns with a fire after a rainy hike. Nowadays, leave it up to him to find the best streetfood, restaurant or winebar no matter where in the world we are. All those years in hospitality paid off! He’s an entrepreneur at heart, having run a few companies on his own, but it’s time to enjoy the fruits of all the labor.
While he’s not a writer, he takes a pretty decent photo, is an excellent camper, spider killer (though he specifically wants it mentioned he doesn’t like doing it), navigator and knows a thing or two about marketing. But most importantly, his main job is keeping Jeltje sane.
Jeltje mainly traveled solo until meeting Jochem, but didn’t really start until her mid-twenties, after a year and a half in Florida, and a six month stint in South Africa. She’s taken her backpack everywhere, from Guatemala to Japan and Mongolia to Iran. It’s in dire need to replacement, by the way. She’s always had regular office jobs, so almost all trips had to be taken in between other people’s schedules. How we’d love that to change!
She writes most of the stuff and handles the back-end of this blog, occasionally takes a few photos, is more of a planner than she’d like to admit and not great at driving. Also, tries to get Jochem to do yoga with her. Unsuccessfully so far.
When we started talking about the ‘how’ of leaving our jobs and apartment behind to go traveling, there was no question about whether we wanted to document it or not. We’re not there yet, we go back and forth between #vanlife and just booking a plane ticket and go backpacking. Despite the practicalities (a dog, families, money) we’ve set a deadline of January 2020. Whether we’ll be able to finally buy a van or not, we are leaving. It’s time.
If you hadn’t figured by our names (can’t blame you), we are both Dutch, approaching 40 a little more rapidly than desired, and from Utrecht, the Netherlands.