Hello and welcome to my blog!
My name is Eva and I am an “accidental” travel writer. I used to be an accountant by profession, but for as long as I can remember, my passion has been travelling. I love exploring the world, sharing my experiences and inspiring my readers to take off as well.
My blog must be one of the oldest travel blogs – I started it in 1996 – a year earlier than the word “blog” was born.
I have visited 116 countries to date and would love to explore them all. I had to quit my career in accounting at the end of 2011 and since then, travel writing has been my main profession. To be able to “retire” in my late 40s, I had to study and work extremely hard for 20+ years. Currently I live from my savings, my airbnb apartment rental income and freelance writing.
Don’t ask me how it all started. My parents were not that keen on travelling and could not have afforded it anyway. However, it was they who first took me abroad; when I was just 11, my dad bought me a cheap little Russian camera and the family ventured to neighbouring Slovakia. While walking around a lake, I was so fascinated by nature and my new toy that I got lost. My parents were in a panic but I was just fine exploring the world by myself – and I still continue to do so.
When I went to university it was still the old communist system in Hungary and we were allowed to travel only once a year for up to 30 days and could only exchange “hard” currency up to 50 USD. That did not stop us, however, from backpacking. We could purchase our Interrail cards with Hungarian forints, packed our backpacks full of long-lasting food and took off for a month – to London, Paris and Madrid. We slept on the trains and at couchsurfing hosts, ate what we took from home and drank tap water. We spent our few precious dollars on entrance tickets only. It was really low budget travel, but we enjoyed every moment of it.
Then my career started, in which I was successful as an auditor at Arthur Andersen and later as head of financial reporting at Hungarian Telecom; so I made enough money to join small adventure travel groups and explore the whole world. It all changed at the end of 2011. My company got delisted from the NYSE and did not need the stock exchange reports I was producing. I lost my job, but gained my freedom and, luckily, a nice severance package as well. It allowed me to purchase an airbnb apartment to make a steady income.
Just when I lost my job, my blog won an award as the best lifestyle blog in Hungary. So all of a sudden I got invitations to write travel articles for online and print magazines. One day I was a manager in high heels working on my excel sheets in my cubicle, the next day I found myself scrubbing the bathtub after my airbnb guests and freelance writing. A totally unexpected career change, but I could not be more grateful. I am definitely a “glass half full” kind of person, so I just make the best of these new circumstances.
One of the most frequent questions I receive (after “how can you afford to travel so much?”) is to list my favourite countries. This is a really tough one as there is something unique and delightful in every corner of the world. There are countries with extraordinary natural beauty, such as Norway, New Zealand or Iceland. There are others with incredibly friendly and gentle locals, such as Myanmar. And there is Japan, the most unique of all, which is impossible to comprehend. Oh, and New York, where I was lucky to spend two years with an MBA scholarship, the biggest passion of my life with its bursting energy and vibe. I enjoy them all.