The invaluable gift of traveling – exceptional encounters

As I started the adventure of traveling on my own, I was pretty afraid of the unknown. It felt like being crazy to book a flight and to make a trip all by myself. During that time I didn´t even know, that my first trip to the Phillippines was gonna be the beginning of a never ending adventure with a countless number of people I´m proud to call friends today all over the globe. Sometimes you meet people and never gonna see them again. In these cases I´m still in touch with all of them, already visited them at home or even traveled with them again. Today I decided to take the chance to show you some of them and to tell you when and where we met.

I would like to start with my trip to the Philippines. As I already told you, that was the first journey I experienced on my own. From Manila, as my central station of the trip, I planned several tours. So I flew to Palawan and drove into the north, to see the rice terraces of Banaue. Even though I saw a lot of beautiful things on my tours, it should be one person, who became the biggest surprise of my adventure. In Manila, I had the pleasure to meet a fascinating person, who contacted me via Instagram, as she read, that I’m gonna visit the Philippines. Her name is Christina, and she is a jewelry designer. She was so kind to organize my accreditation for the closing show of the Philippine Fashion Week. Here we met for the first time and had a fantastic time, talking and get to know each other better and better. After the show, we spent several hours at Starbucks with her friends and had such a perfect time. I plan to revisit her soon in Manila, especially to go to Baguio for the Flower Festival.

During my last days on Palawan, I met an amazing Austrian couple. First I only heard a voice speaking German. Something I hadn´t listened to for a long time till that moment. So I jumped off my chair, turned around and asked where they were from. Sabine and Hannes turned around as well with a bright smile and answered back: Austrians. Together we celebrated the 50th birthday of Hannes one day later with our feet in the sand while listening to reggae music, combined with dozens of cocktails and the best pork meat I´ve ever tried. We are still in contact, and even though I didn´t made it to visit both yet, we are always in touch and follow each other on their journeys via Facebook. Before I forget: she became one of my favorite food bloggers with her page called Superzisch.

During my first days in Thailand, I experienced this country with two of my friends. After a while, they had to leave Thailand, so that I decided to discover some of the amazing islands there on my own. It was pretty clear to me that I wanted to visit some of the smaller islands like Koh Samet, Koh Kood and Koh Chang. I expected nothing at the beginning of this journey and found so many amazing people, that it makes me speechless when I think about it. The first who conquered my heart was a Chinese girl called Rita. We drove by bus from Koh Samet to Koh Chang and started talking to each other. We talked about God and the world, about relationships, family, and friends. I felt that there was a special connection between us so that I decided to quit my hostel for a room in her accommodation. Together we spend some very emotional days, talked about a lot of personal things, had a fabulous party, followed by an awful hangover and an emotional goodbye. We both knew that this wasn´t a goodbye, further more it was a see you soon. That’s one of the reasons, why I plan to visit her in Shanghai next year.

On the same trip and because I changed my hostel to spend more time with Rita, I had the pleasure to meet two German girls. I have to confess that it wasn’t love at first sight. The three of us were completely different. It felt like we had nothing in common so that I didn´t even give them a real chance first. Today I know, that it was – as is often the case in life – a complete misinterpretation. Opposites Attract. Even though we are that different, we had a lot in common, got to know each other better and better and built up a fascinating bond. They even saved my life as it seemed that I had an infection on my foot. Together we danced through the heat of the nights of Koh Chang, had cocktails in Bangkok and went swimming in the Gulf of Thailand, surrounded by millions of glowing algae. After a short period, I realized, that this friendship was gonna be something extraordinary. Even after this journey we are still in touch and write each other several times a week and already traveled together to Munich, Iceland, and Barcelona.

One of those cities I´ve always dreamed of was Rio de Janeiro. Here I was lucky to meet one of the coolest dudes of all times. Sergio came originally from Argentina and went to Rio with his friends the same time I did. Yes, he is small but has a heart that is full of positive energy, smiling 24/7 and able to jump higher than any other person I know. Thank god we always stayed in contact via WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. Last year we finally made it to travel through Europe together. First, we discovered Zurich, had a fantastic time on Ibiza and drove to the most fabulous beaches of Mallorca.

The last person that made me speechless on my endless trips was Marianna. On my way to Cuba, I met her on the airplane. And since we already knew eachother from 11000 feet above the skies and eight hours of a long distance flight, I canceled my hostel and moved into her Airbnb apartment. She is one of those people I felt like I already knew for decades. There wasn´t a moment of silence, no talks that were boring or one second we didn’t know what to tell to each other too. It almost felt like a miracle for me, so that I was close to tears as I had to leave Havana for my next stop Mexico. We both already plan another trip. If to Paris, the Maldives or Japan is still an open question, but I´m sure that it´s gonna be a lot of fun for the two of us.

Looking back today I know, that it was one of the best decisions of my life, to travel on my own. Without that step, I would have never met all these incredible people, who are an important part of my life today.