“She is Israeli and I’m half Dutch and half Hungarian. We went to the same international school in Bosnia. We were never close friends until most of our common friends went abroad during the holidays. Both of us were bored at home so she asked me to go on a trip with her. We decided to hitchhike from our hometown Mostar to Sarajevo. It’s about 80 kilometers but it took us more than 14 rides to get to there. Honestly it didn’t matter because we were on a adventure. During that trip we became close friends and we experienced so much. One of the highlights was when we hiked up a mountain. At the beginning of the trail we had two options. we could either take the stairs or actually climb the mountain by foot which would take twice as long. We did not need to think about it. Why take the stairs if you can actually climb the mountain.”

“The birds teach me to reconnect with nature. Most of us neglect our relationship with Mother Nature. We are too distracted trying to own her. Meanwhile we feel guilty and think that we are destroying her but we couldn’t be more wrong. She is a strong force who feeds us and gives us oxygen. She can live without us but we can’t live without her so the only thing we are destroying is ourselves.”
“If you could talk to her, what would you say?”
“Mama, I love you!”

“Having a child was the last thing on my mind. I have always been very focussed on my studies and as a student I had many extra jobs so my life was very chaotic. While working on my thesis something inside of me changed and I realized I wanted to have a baby. I thought it would take time to get pregnant because I had been on birth control since I was a teenager but within a few weeks I was pregnant. Sometimes I still can’t believe that I have put this tiny human is into this world. I had to put my studies on hold but I’m still planning to finish it next year. My timing wasn’t perfect but honestly I don’t think it ever is. ”

“When he was born the nurse said, this baby is excited to discover the world. I feel she was really right about that.”

“I always wanted to travel the world but I never really had the courage. I’m from Australia but I have a British passport so when Brexit happened it pushed me to plan this trip. I saved up 7000 euro’s so I think I will manage for a while. The idea of this journey is to grow and to get rid of my anxiety I have to talk to strangers. A few weeks before I left I started to get really nervous and the day before my flight I was shitting myself. I barely slept on my flight over here but once I arrived at the Amsterdam airport most of my fear was gone. I have been here for nearly a week and I’m still getting used to the idea that I won’t be going home for a while. I’m not used to being surrounded by this many people and I’m trying not to get run over by bikes. Still I’m enjoying every minute of this experience. Since my arrival I only had a few moments of anxiety. Sometimes the thought of being here all by myself scares me but the other day when I got back to my hostel I had a great conversation with another guest and I realized that we are never really alone.”