World Travellers: Anya from Road is Calling

I am an adventure seeker who can’t live without the mountains and a bit of dancing every day.

A few years ago I learned one thing about myself which changed my life. And that thing was the fact that I couldn’t live in one place for too long. I discovered that every 3-12 months (depending on a destination) I need to move somewhere anew. Even if I am staying in the same country, I have to move to another city. If I have to stay during this period of time in the same city, then I need to move to another apartment.

Somehow, staying in one place makes me lose motivation and interest in life and sends me into depression. Possibility to travel, volunteer, meet new people, sleep in different homes and be often on the road makes me feel alive.

Throughout 15+ years I have had more than 20 different jobs. I worked in the hospitality and restaurant business, for consulting company and private equity fund, I was an au-pair and professional nanny, salesperson, personal assistant, translator, event coordinator, and there were a few other jobs. With each of those jobs that require travel, I was looking for purpose and to discover myself.

Today I am a professional travel blogger who is working online, living in travel and doesn’t want to have a permanent home. Weird, maybe it will change.

Another thing about me, which probably doesn’t fit well with the image of a travel blogger and full-time traveler, I suffer from a few fears and anxieties.

I am afraid to fly, I get anxious in buses, in the airports, at the bus or train stations. I get pretty bad panic attacks in public places with too many people. Still, I prefer the active life of travel and uncertainty to some extent than the comfort of my parents’ couch.

Originally, I am from a small city in Ukraine. But for many years I lived in different countries around the world which in turn shaped my personality and mentality.

For almost 10 years I had lived and worked around the US, then I moved out and got a chance to live in Vietnam, Montenegro, Georgia (country), Bali, Romania and now I am living in Turkey. So, I am from Ukraine but in heart, I am a citizen of the world.

To be honest, I haven’t been to many countries yet but I made sure to explore each of them to the fullest. Since I started my travel lifestyle only 2.5 years ago and since together with my husband we tend to stay 3-6 months in one country, there was not much time to cover a lot of destinations. Just yet.

When I lived in the USA, I traveled almost all over the country, lived in 5 states, visited 46 and 5 provinces in Canada.

Later, my travels took me to Southeast Asia, Central Asia and most of Europe. If I have to count, then I’ve been to 36 countries so far. However, this list doesn’t include countries where I got to spend only 1 day on a layover or transit.

Right now I am based in Istanbul, learning Turkish and trying to explore Turkey at a slow pace.

It is a bit difficult to answer because my answer depends on a few factors. I usually travel for nature, culture, history, and food.

So if I had to pick the top 3 places based on nature, it would be the coastal part of Norway, Alaska and the Caucasus mountains on the Georgia-Russia border.

For culture and history, it’s Turkey, Spain, and Italy. For food, it would be Vietnam, Mexico, and Turkey.

It’s so difficult to answer because there were quite a few! But if I had to pick just one, it would be our housesit in Bergen, Norway.

At that time, when my husband and I got to visit Norway for the first time, we were on such a low budget. Getting a fantastic opportunity to live for free for almost a month in a beautiful house not far from the fjords and having a car with us, helped us see this country without spending much.

We traveled around, experienced white nights, hiked all over and got to see the fjords – my childhood dream to experience Norway came true and left a trace in my mind.

To speak frankly, there were not that many negative experiences.

The worst one was probably in Cambodia. We spent there almost 1 month but couldn’t wait to get out. No matter where we went, we just didn’t like the attitude of people who were constantly scamming and ripping us off, all the trash and chaos, corruption and poverty.

Instead of staying in a nice hotel and choosing guided tours, we decided to volunteer, stay in guest houses and experience this country off the beaten path on our own. However, there were too many disappointing experiences with people scamming us and lying on multiple occasions every single day.

Luckily, I didn’t really have anything major. Maybe that experience in Montenegro when one of the tires in our car popped up at the end of the day when my husband and I were ready to go home after a long hike.

We were literally in the middle of nowhere at night, surrounded by the mountains and wildlife, without any food, with no people around, no cellphone reception and almost dead phones. My husband somehow managed to change the tire before it got completely dark and then it took us a while to drive on the mountainous roads in darkness. Maybe for someone, it’s not a big deal but for me personally it was such a stress.

This situation taught me always to have charges and extra snacks in the car and actually not to be the last one on the trail.

It wasn’t really a job but more of a volunteering opportunity in exchange for food and housing. We came to a small village in Slovenia to help with home chores and farming but instead, our host asked us to stuck his shed with firewood for the winter. It took us two weeks to get this job done!

In the beginning, when together with my husband we left the US, we had savings but tried to use only some of that money since we also had a few projects online. So that kept us going for almost 2 years.

Today, we maintain this travel lifestyle with money from my blog and my husband‘s online IT-related job.

1. Travel on its own will not solve your problems. If there is any emotional baggage, underlying health issues, debt to pay – it will not magically disappear after you set off on an adventure. You’ll still need to take care of that. This is why definitely have a plan. Base it on your answer to a question of why you start to travel, what you are going to do during the travel and when travel is over.

2. Be open and remember that people are the same everywhere. Don’t be afraid to discover new horizons, learn about new cultures and meet new people. Don’t travel just for the sake of touristy spots and Instagrammable places. Travel is about experiences.

3. Take care of your health. It can be so easy to get carried away by the excitement of being in a new place. Still, if you want to enjoy your travels to the fullest, pay attention to the quality of food you eat and water you drink, exercise, get enough sleep, try to travel in comfort (there are hundreds of opportunities for that even if you are on a budget), and take care of your emotional health.

My husband and I are thinking to make a base on another continent. We have been staying for too long in Europe and want something new. But before we move anywhere else, we plan to spend a few months traveling all over  Turkey.

Connect with Anya: