Hey there!
We are Alejandra and Warner, a quirky couple that have decided to follow their guts, leave all conventionalisms aside and embark on an ethical and sustainable journey around the world.
Call it quarter-life crisis, or just being fed-up with the status-quo, the fact is that accepting the way things are “supposed to be” does not cut it for us anymore. We want to spend our time doing things we’re passionate about – like eating, traveling and learning from encouraging and diverse examples – all whilst contributing to the type of world we believe in (ie one that is sustainable and ethically focused). It is therefore that we have chosen to leave our boring normal/semi-stable lives in Europe behind, to get inspired and become who we really want to be. Through questioning everything we hope to become more aware, grow and ultimately discover alternative sustainable and ethical lifestyle approaches that make us happy.
Want to know more about us as individuals? Great!
I am Warner, another tall Dutch guy (what a cliché) at the brink of entering his thirties. People call me Jesus (yes, even random strangers), Warnie (utterly hate that name) or whatever really. Being intrinsically scared of dying without feeling proud of what I have done, I entered my twenties knowing that before ten years passed I had to be doing something out of the ordinary.
So here I am, living the happy life. Besides two boxes of leftover clothes and junk (stored with Mutti), what I now carry are the only things I own. It feels a bit scary, to say the least, but I have also never felt more free. And although this had been a long-lasting dream of mine, I could have never imagined actually pulling it off. So how did it become a reality? For that I need to rewind a bit.
It was summer of 2014 and my second nervous breakdown, stemming from my graduation project, had become a fact. Although over the years my love for architecture had grown, the studies were not easy on me at all. But, with another three painful months to go, the universe did me a huge favour bringing a Spanish chica into my life. Okay, I’ll admit it, it was Tinder. From then on, things only got better. I was forced to quit ditched my everyday-eight-frozen-bread-and-chocolate-paste-sandwiches-lunch and was rewarded instead with avocado wraps and homemade pumpkin soup. Both my stomach and my mind were opened to a new world. One with great food, new adventures, and some eye opening insights to life.
We moved to Brussels a year and a half later, both knowing that it wouldn’t end there. I designed a lot, improved my technical skills, and found a disturbing love for bossing people around… I mean project management. But it just wasn’t it. And so we went on.
Writing has never been my strong suit, I missed the patience to carry out a good photo shoot, and publicly sharing my life still makes me cringe. But somehow, I have started to develop a great liking for all of these things. Being dragged out of my comfort zone, with no more thoughts of stable work and pension stuff, is changing me for the better.
Before leaving, people told me they hoped I would find what I was looking for. For now, I think I already have. What will happen next, no one knows, but I am up for the adventure!
And I am Alejandra, the Spanish chica. Although to be honest I have never really felt very Spanish, or from anywhere in particular for that matter.
You see, my life has not been the most conventional. My childhood was composed of everything necessary to make me strange unique: I grew up in an Ashram in India, with street dogs as my closest friends, and I didn’t start going to proper school till the awkward age of 11. Trying to fit in and be ‘normal’ has been a struggle ever since I accepted that Hogwarts was probably not going to be contacting me anytime soon. But over the years I have grown in accepting myself (and disliking others). I can now proudly turn down any alcoholic beverage (never really got the getting drunk obsession), accept that I’ll never be the life of the party or very popular in general, and unapologetically and fiercely stand up for what I believe in (be it a limping donkey or women’s rights as a whole), without indulging in a spiral of self-hate.
You may be thinking that, clearly, a conventional adult life wasn’t going to be my thing. But I tried it anyway. I studied my ass off and followed the most logical CV-building process I could think off: bachelors in International Relations, LLM in Human Rights Law, unpaid internship, unpaid internship, unpaid internship, minimally-paid internship. Sounds fun and motivating, right? Well, it eventually got to me to the point where I could no longer function. Having an hourly/daily/weekly life crisis just didn’t seem logical, and with no wine drinking to drown away my fears, we had to find a solution and quick (I say we because I was probably driving Warner more crazy than I was going myself).
When you’re forced to reconsider your life, you have to find your passions. For me they are traveling, animals, eating, animals, not destroying our planet, animals… oh and human rights of course (despite the disappointments that working in that field has brought me). Furthermore, I have over the years become increasingly aware of all the issues present in our planet. My incredibly stubborn personality and an incessant need to meddle in the way things are, left me feeling the urge to do something about what I think has to be changed.
So over a dinner date (Ethiopian food to be exact) we made a pact: one year of torture saving in exchange for the opportunity to follow our dreams. We would travel the world and indulge in all things we cared about. And determined as we both are, you better bet we’re doing just that!
The best part for me? That even with all my quirks, I have found a partner in life who finds me cool AND who wants to join me in all the craziness that may come. I mean, what else could I ask for!?
So if you want to join us in this journey, or simply understand better what it is we’re talking about, make sure to follow us here and give us some love on social media. We look forward to receiving your questions, suggestions and feedback. Feel free to contact through comments, DM’s, or by writing to us directly.
Happy reading and thank you for supporting our dream!