About me

Hi,

Welcome again and since you clicked on the read more button, I assume you want to know more in detail on who I am. So, here comes a longer version.

When I get to a country, I try to go off the beaten track, connect to the local population and hear their story, taste their amazing food.  I am intrigued by historical facts that at the end of the day made the place to what it is now.

My means for travelling depend on the location and could be on foot, horse, boat, bus, train, plane. I stay in all sorts of accommodations from tents, to small B&Bs to 5 star hotels. My website is all about on how I perceive a country, what caught my attention and what experiences I had. It is the world through my eyes.

Travelling has been part of my life from the very early days. I am German, however was born in Bandung, Indonesia, where I spent the first nine years of my life. The family than moved first to India and later to Ethiopia. In between, we spent a year in Austria.

Growing up

The years of my upbringing were filled with adventure as my parents were early travel addicts. Every vacation meant a trip to either Japan, Afghanistan, Iran, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Kashmir, etc. travelling by plane, cruise ships, train or car.

My worry free youth was spent in outdoor activities starting from waterskiing, horseback riding, swimming, tennis, track and field, including ballet dancing, piano lessons and the mandatory game of bridge with my parents every Sunday afternoon.

Off to Italy

In Ethiopia, I got to know this stunning looking, charming Italian and pretty much ran off with him to Italy where our daughter was born a couple of years later. In the years that followed, we built up a very successful interior design studio and gift shop. But as life goes, after 12 years, I decided to move to Vienna with my daughter leaving everything behind.

Vienna

I started working for one of the United Nations Organizations but soon the itching under my feet to travel became very prominent again and, as fate sometimes plays, my second partner was offered a job in Kenya and so we decided to embark on this new adventure. We loved it.

Kenya

As I was not working, I had plenty of time to enjoy. One of the first things I did, was visit the Wilson airport in Nairobi and recommenced skydiving which I had started while in Vienna. I sometimes get asked how many jumps I have made – I do not really know as I stopped logging them after jump number 200.

The second thing I did was obtain the private pilot licence. Kenya is the best place to pilot a little Cessna, drop by a friend’s house that has some sort of landing strip in the vicinity and have a cup of coffee in order to build up flying hours. The rest of the time I spent cruising around the country in a land rover and treckking up Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro.

London

Albeit, after two years, my partner was transferred to New York and I decided to remain in Kenya. When my daughter decided to do the last year of school in Italy, I suddenly found myself having to decide what to do with myself. I had not been to London and I thought it to be a good moment to check it out. For the next eight months I shared a large flat with other seven girls. It was a hilarious experience but work in a bank in the City was not so much fun.

South America

So, I applied for the position of adventure tour leader in a British travel company and after going through a strenuous five-hour interview, I got the job. The first assignment was in Andalusia, Spain, followed by eight months in Peru during which I did the Inca trail nine times. (I think, I will never be as fit as that ever again).  The following year, I was leading tours through Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay after which I felt I needed to give my exhausted body some resting time.

Vienna

So back to Vienna and back to working for the United Nations however with the firm intention of getting to go on one of the United Nations Peace Keeping Missions.  I applied for an assignment in either Somalia or Afghanistan. After enduring for four years, I was finally successful albeit I was deployed to Liberia, West Africa. But that was alright as it was new territory for me.

West Africa

In Liberia, the Peace Agreement had just been undersigned by the warring factions after 14 years of civil war. The destruction of the civil war was remarkable not only on the bullet sifted buildings and non-functionality of the state but also on the traumatized people.

I was assigned to work with communities at the grass root level and I loved it. At one point, I was made responsible for the distribution of 10,000 (yes, ten thousand) Nike soccer balls. What a great donation for a country in which soccer is the most popular free time entertainment.

I organized two consecutive youth soccer tournaments with some 245 teams each and for a while, I think, I became the most popular person in Monrovia. Later, with donor money, I organized three very successful educational support programmes for females whose education had been penalized during the years of war more than the one of males.

Mali

My stay in Liberia was interrupted by an assignment to Mali. I was euphoric to get there as Timbuktu had always been on my travel destinations. However, I was assigned to work mainly in Gao, another fascinating place at the edge of the dessert.

I had the pleasure during community meetings of sharing, with some Tuareg, more than one very strong and very sweet green tea served in a tiny cub passed on from person to person sitting in the shade of an odd tree. Unfortunately, Timbuktu will have to wait for another time.

Back to Liberia

I remained in Liberia longer than I would have ever expected. All through to the point when the spread of Ebola in West Africa got into the headlines of major news channels worldwide. I will not deny that, initially, we were all somewhat terrified as, at first, it was not clear how this terrible disease was transmitted. Thanks to the humongous effort of all, Ebola was finally contained.

Having said that, living through the entire duration of the Ebola crisis influenced my decision to hand in my resignation and return to Vienna with no real plans for the future. I had been so much into work that I had forgotten what I really wanted out of life. I gave myself up to the end of 2015 to detox my brain and figure out what to do.

Decision of having a website and travel blog

The end of the year came and I knew that I desired most to go back to what had once been my life: travel, take pictures and tell about them. This time around, however, I decided that I wanted to share my experience through a website.

Although I had made up my mind, I knew that being a novice in handling a website, I had to work hard and learn how to do this. I researched quite a bit and came across so many inspiring and great travel blogs such as  nomadicmatt.com  giving out very good advice which helped me getting started.

Travelling Contessa website

So, now here I am. Got my website up and running and have visited a number of countries since resigning from my job. I hope you enjoy the reading and get inspired to get out there. There is so much to be seen and to be learned by interacting with other cultures, traditions, taste different food and communicate in other languages including in sign language.