Welcome our friend, on this page we will tell you our story & more
Our Story
We are Nina and Jürgen (“Jay”). Over five years ago we traded everyday existence for an adventurous life. Now the world is our home and in this little corner of the internet and this is where we share the adventures and lessons we discovered.
Our first year was an epic road trip across North America. Followed by hopping through Japan, China, and Southeast Asia to Indonesia. Another five-month road trip followed in New Zealand and Australia before we flew to the other end of the world again and toured Europe for another six months – of course in a camper. Once again in North America we drove escaped “Covid”, exchanged our motorhome with a truck camper, and went on a courageous journey through Mexico.
We are always on the move with a positive desire to seek, explore, discover, grow, learn and share.
We hope to inspire you to find your adventure.
Welcome! We are thrilled that you came here and hope you stay with us for the rest of the journey (spoiler alert, there is no end).
Why full-time travel?
We are not ashamed to admit that we want to get as much out of life as possible. For us, life is an adventure. It is full of extraordinary moments for anyone who is ready and has the will to strive for them. Life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness – that’s us.
We have never experienced life as powerfully as it has been in the past three years. We couldn’t have noticed it in this magnitude before. Because being “on the road” means dealing with the unforeseen at any moment, asserting yourself, coming to terms with yourself, finding compromises, improvising. And as a reward, some moments are priceless and memorable – like a hot iron on a cow’s skin.
We found ourselves on our journey and rediscovered ourselves as a couple. And are grateful for that every day.
With our story, we want to inspire people who are unhappy or unfulfilled in their life, in their relationship, or in their job and are available as friends.
“Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ― Mark Twain
a brief and incomplete history of how we got here
It all started in a very traditional way: boy meets girl, couple builds a house with a tremendous mortgage, works 60 hours a week with a few weeks vacation a year and spend every day like the previous ones. The later outlooks: Thirty to forty years in the same rhythm, now and then a few diseases and here and there a few highlights mixed with dark days and at 70ish – if we should survive – retirement. And then…
These were our outlooks – lived by the people around us.
Can this be anything? That was the question that kept us up all night and irritated us like a small wound that would not heal. We struggled through life like this for many years. It was not a “just-escaped-from-the-burning-house” experience that changed our lives so radically. We died the classic “death-by-thousand-wounds” death.
My appetite for the world, which was already unsatisfied in childhood, was satisfied with work and family with travel literature. In our little house, which we had built in the middle of alpine Austria, hundreds of adventure books and travel guides were lined up, filled with stories from all over the world. A big map of the world with countless different colored pins that marked the destinations we wanted to travel to in the future.
But life passed us like a freight train in a tight curve. Each wagon filled with stories, dreams, and adventures. We promised to travel later. We told us that every year. Ten. Years. Long.
“It’s not death that we should fear, we should fear never beginning to live”Marc Aurel
Then finally in May 2017, we made a decision. It was a beautiful day in Austria and there was no particular reason for our decision. No major event had led to this decision. It was easy. We gave up all external responsibilities and took responsibility for our own lives. We would leave everything behind in Austria and take a leap. We would jump into the adventure of our lives. Half a year later we started.
Our first year was an epic road trip across North America. Followed by hopping through Japan, China, and Southeast Asia to Indonesia. Another five-month road trip followed through New Zealand and Australia before we toured Europe again at the other end of the world for another six months. Once again in North America we drove escaped “Covid”, exchanged our motorhome with a truck camper, and went on a courageous journey through Mexico.
Who is Who?
Jay
Hi, my name is Jay. People from my past know me as “Juergen”. I know this can be confusing. My new name was caused by hundreds of Starbucks cups, all labeled with different names.
I’ve worn a lot of hats in my life. Whether in my old life as an IT guru, entrepreneur, consultant, teacher, and mentor or in my new life as an adventurer, traveler, writer, photographer, and artist. Above all, I am a partner in the most wonderful and intoxicating love relationship I can imagine – with my wife and my best friend Nina and – the world.
I have never encountered life as powerfully as it has in recent years and I should not be surprised that I have left behind the realm of quick and impersonal business and conforming to society’s expectations. I swapped my jacket for hiking clothes and shorts, the aftershave for bug spray, and my car for a camper.
So who am I? I’m the guy that’ll take experiences over possessions any day of the week. My 80-year-old self should be able to give myself a high-five. That’s why I have given up all possessions, my career, and my well-paying job, and all of the security I’ve ever known and heading out to this wonderful journey to discover the world!
I believe that people are good by nature, that the world offers us a fantastic opportunity for growth, and that exploring our beautiful planet is not a privilege, it is a necessity!
I embrace the world and everything it offers me. My promise to you is that I will take you every inch of the way!
Nina
Hi, I’m Nina and I am highly sensitive. What appears like a greeting from a self-help group is my superpower. I have a high emotional and physical sensitivity, both to external and internal inducements – such as pain, cold, warmth, hunger, light, and noise – and complex mental life.
I can observe butterflies for hours, listen to the sound of the sea and gain energy from a sunrise. I love animals, the big ones more than the small ones, I enjoy swimming in crystal clear mountain lakes in Wyoming, I embrace the endless beaches in California, and collect colorful shells and stones with the joy of a little girl in New Zealand’s desolate bays. My greatest passion is cooking and baking healthy, delicious dishes – I am an absolute foodie!
Growing up in the Austrian mountains, where my sensitivity wasn’t particularly popular, my superpower was seen more as a disease, as a wonderful and lovable quality. Like many people, I have been taught not to be too “sensitive”. I reached the classic expectations of society only by a little. Instead of having children and getting married, I chose freedom and independence. Instead of studying medicine, I decided to become a naturopath. I follow my heart and my intuition and the more I listen, the louder it speaks to me.
I love to bring my heart to the outside and so to come into contact with all the incredible and unique people in this world. I’m able to form bonds that enrich my life. I am convinced that my superpower gives me a unique view of the people around me.
My greatest gift is to be on this life-changing journey together with my husband Juergen. He is my absolute favorite person! He has the skill of putting a smile on my face despite some rainy days. He is my rock and has the biggest heart that I can imagine on earth.
I found my calling 25 years ago. I accompany people on their path to their health with love, patience, medicine, naturopathy, and a large portion of empathy.
I hope to create a special place for you with this website, to inspire you and to accompany you on your way. A place that can remind you that anything is possible. A place that can remind you to live your dreams!
Confucius said, “We all have two lives, the second begins when we realize we only have one.”
be inspired…from us to you
“Let’s take the journey of our lives“, Nina said. “We’ll sell the house, quit the jobs and start a new life. Let’s go to new countries where we’ve never been, and fall in love with everything. Let’s go hiking until we reach the sun. Let’s fall asleep under a night sky with an open fire. Let’s camp at a beach and wake up with the ocean at our feet. Let’s kiss at sunsets a hundred times. Let’s wake up early and watch the sunrise. Let’s fall in love like it’s the first time. Let’s pretend to meet again. This time we’ll be able to work things out. Maybe this time we won’t mess things up.”
That would have been the words of Nina if we had known then what we know today. With the turn of the year, our new life will be celebrated for the second time. For two years now, we have been on this journey that has turned us and our world upside down. Two years. That is 24 months, three continents, tens of thousands of miles, hundreds of sunsets, kisses under 100 trees, countless adventures, amazement and wows, tears of joy, and starry sky that I had not even seen on pictures. We fought a lot along our way. We had health issues, money worries, were eaten by black flies, stung by scorpions, got lost in central America, encountered snakes and bears, cried a lot, and lost ourselves along the way. And we are grateful for all of that.
Marc Aurel said, “It’s not death that we should fear, we should fear never beginning to live”
When we die, our lifeline goes flat. When we are alive, our lifeline goes up and down. All. The. Time. Life is full of ups and downs. Twist and turns, love and loss, happiness and sadness, success, and failure. Life is like a roller coaster. It starts slowly, fills you with expectation and curiosity, takes you up, and then sends you straight down, only to rise up immediately, again. Sometimes you close your eyes and hold on in absolute terror, but there are times, you have to raise your arms up in the air and enjoy the ride.
Life is changing. All. The. Time. Our environment is changing, our skin is changing, our age is changing, our point of view is changing, our friends and family are changing, seasons change. Everything is changing, but we want to remain the same. We settle for security, not recognizing that a flat lifeline, means we are dead. Life is full of ups and downs. Whenever I’m in a down, I remind myself that ups and downs are living. A flat line isn’t.
We are in one of the most incredible periods of our lives that we could ever have asked for. And so much is based on the fact that we decided to do something DIFFERENT.
We learned that we cannot avoid the ups and downs, but we can change the way we see them.
Wayne Dyer said, “When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.”
Dear reader, dear friend, welcome to our world. We invite you to walk part of the way with us. Together. Let yourself be carried away by our stories and travel with them. Our greatest gift is when we can encourage you to throw your hands up and cheer, even when things are going down.
Do you.
Stay tuned!
We try to make it easy to keep up with us, which is why we’re practically everywhere. You can join us and subscribe to the newsletter, chat with us on Facebook, see what we are up to on Instagram, tweet us and of course take part virtually in the adventures via this page!