Meet the Nomads – Sofie Couwenbergh of Wonderful Wanderings

Wonderful Wanderings is a great blog to follow if you’re looking to read travel blogs about people who managed to maintain the balance between their careers and their passion to travel. You really don’t have to quit your job to be able to pursue your passion especially if you like what you do for a living.

Sofie Couwenbergh, the owner and blogger behind Wonderful Wonderings writes a lot of helpful travel tips that you’ll definitely find useful. She has written tons of tips about transportation, accommodation, travel gears, tours and more. Her blog is neatly organized by destination which makes browsing through her past posts very easy.

Join her in her adventures and follow her blog at Wonderful Wanderings.

But before you leave this page, check out my short interview with Sofie.

How did you discover your passion for travelling?

“I’m lucky enough to have parents who love to travel as well. Ever since I was just a toddler we would go on vacations abroad, something I always looked forward to. When I got to plan my first parent-less trip when I was 18, I got hooked. A friend and I stayed in this crappy hostel in Barcelona for 6 days and it rained most of the time, but we met wonderful people and enjoyed every second of it.”

What’s the most horrible experience that you’ve had on the road?

“When I was still very young, our family went on vacation to France. None of us our soccer fans, so when we set out to visit a town one night, we didn’t even know it was the finale of the World Championship and France was playing. We left the town by car after the game had ended and all of a sudden appeared a large group of celebrating French men. I don’t know if it was because they saw that we had a foreign license plate, but all of a sudden they lifted up our car and started shaking with it. They also tried to open the doors. I was SO scared, I think we all were. When my dad hit the gas they let us go and we could drive on, but I’ll never forget that night.”

What’s the best travel experience that you’ve ever had?

“Having the guts to let a total stranger take me and a friend out to dinner and pay for a hotel room. And then afterwards he said that we had made his night. The kindness of strangers can make a trip.”

What’s the biggest realization that you’ve got out of travelling?

“That I have so much more in me, but that I still need to find a way to let it out. I often feel so much more free when I’m traveling. Less scared of what people may think of me, less afraid of what the consequences of my actions might be. I think travel is a way of letting go for me and that’s only possible because I’m not a full time traveler. I know I can leave everything at home the way it is because it will still be there when I get back. Going on a trip is somehow like hitting ‘pause’. I get to live to the fullest while I can ‘pause’ the obligations and worries that await me back at home.”

What keeps you going? What keeps you motivated?

“Well, although I’m not a full time traveler I still often feel like people don’t get that I travel so much. It’s not that they don’t understand that it’s something I want to do, it’s more that they feel like there must be something ‘magic’ that I do to make it happen. People who work with me often react with: “You’re going on vacation again?!”, while they have the same amount of vacation days as I do. They just prefer to use them differently. People also tend to think I’m loaded, that I’m able to travel as much as I do. I guarantee you that I’m not. I’ve just shifted my priorities as far as spending goes. I prefer two nights at a hostel to new trousers. I rather buy a return ticket to a European destination than another pair of boots. Of course I still splurge on non-travel stuff now and then, but not nearly as often as I used to.”

This is a silly and hypothetical one. If you would be given a chance to travel with a popular person or a celebrity, who would it be and why?

“Such a tough one! I think I’d choose Winnie the Pooh, because he has second breakfast. Or Superman, so that I wouldn’t have to take a flight. ”

Where’s your favorite place in this planet and why?

“This mind sound strange from a traveler, but I think home is. Home is where I plan all my trips. Home is where I can look back on past travels and look forward to new ones. Without home, there would be no going on vacation. And I definitely would get less work done.”

What’s your best tip for newbie traveler?

“Don’t travel like others do, find your own way. By that I don’t mean that you have to go ‘off the beaten path’. I mean that you have to find your own style of traveling. It can be fast or slow, luxurious or budget, touristy or adventurous. It doesn’t matter as long as you do it the way YOU want to do it.”

What’s the funniest and silliest thing you’ve ever done while travelling?

“As it goes with a lot of funny things, most of my funnies moments were moments where you just had to be there. Where the combination of time, place and people almost made me cry of laughter.

Oh and then there was this time a friend and I had booked a private room at a hostel. When we got our key, there was a heart on it and when we opened our door, there were mirrors attached to the ceiling and a giant Kama sutra painting on the wall. Oh and there were bars in front of the window. No kidding.”

How do you fund your travels?

“I have a full time job and although I have a very average salary, it’s enough to get me abroad several times per year. A lot of people think I’m loaded when they find out how much I travel, but I think that how often you can travel often depends more on how much money you spent, than on how much money you have coming in. I stay at hostels or basic hotels (unless I review a more fancy place), always look for the cheapest flights and don’t splurge on dining and shopping (except when I’m in LA, which is shopping paradise:)). You can pay €2500 to spend a week at a luxury resort somewhere, or you can use that same money to do 5 city trips, or 3 city trips and one big trip, or spend a month
abroad in an apartment.

Besides having a job, I’m trying to monetize Wonderful Wanderings a bit and I do reviews of hotels and travel activities when I think they’re interesting for my audience.

Oh, and I don’t spend a lot of money when i’m not traveling:-)”

How do you keep yourself safe on your travels?

“By using my common sense and giving dangerous looking individuals the angry eye.”

What do you think about yourself?

“Oh dear… I’ll keep this travel related, as I’m sure your readers still have things to do today. I’m not someone who just wings it. I’m more of an over-planner. I have a plan, a plan B, and a back-up plan for my plan B. And when that fails I can always check my research for what to do. That doesn’t mean I can’t be spontaneous, though. I love to wonder into streets just because they look interesting or let myself be invited by strangers to go do whatever. I just don’t like to rely on ‘external’ things to let a trip succeed.

I normally travel too fast. I know this, but it’s hard for me to change. I always feel like I should be constantly ‘doing stuff’ when I’m abroad, while I know it’s perfectly fine to just enjoy where you are at that moment. I am working on this, though.

I’m not a solo traveler. I like to instantly share my travel experiences with someone. Tell them to “look there!” or ask them if they “saw that?”. It’s not that I wouldn’t know what to do, I just think I’d have less fun traveling all by myself.

Will this suffice for now?:-)”

“Sofie is a Belgian chocolate lover and dance afficionada who combines a full-time marketing job with a never-ending wanderlust. She uses her weekends, vacation days and public holidays to travel the world and share her experiences with you on www.wonderfulwanderings.com, through Twitter and on Facebook.

Editor’s Note: All pics are provided by Sofie.

Next: Drew Evensen of After Globe Previously: Meet the Nomads – A Year of Learning 2013 Part 2 For more interviews with travel bloggers, check out the archives of Meet the Nomads.