I have been looking for inspiring stories from people who did something similar to my plan. I’ve found quite some! And I would like to share them with you. If you have or know a story that you think should be in this list, please let me know!
Women of the Polar circle
Let’s start with my newest discovery: Women of the polar circle. When you move to a city above the arctic circle, your friends and family back home will ask you what it’s like, and you start documenting you life. Which leads to curiousity about the way others who live above the polar circle live their life. Rianne Dasselaar visited women in Norway, Sweden in Finland and is now writing a book about it. Looking forward to reading this one a lot!
Website Women of the Polar Circle
- © Women of the polar circle
Trekhaak gezocht by Tjerk Ridder and Peter Bijl
Did you ever think about hitchhiking with your dog? And a caravan? Tjerk did. I got to know this project through Peter Bijl, who I met in 2002 or so. In 2010 he accompanied Tjerk Ridder and his dog Dachs in their travel from Utrecht to Istanbul, with just a caravan and their thumbs. On the road they met many nice people, had a great adventure and inspired many people. You can read it all in their book!
Postcards in your mailbox by Sean Sullivan
This is currently a kickstarter project. As part of the crowdfunding project, which I might launch later on, I have been thinking of putting together a box with gifts for everyone who donates a certain amount of money. One of the gifts might be to receive a postcard from me from every country. Then I came across this project: custom made post cards from every city! Cool project, more than 300% backed already. Very inspiring!
Check the project on Kickstarter
Waking up in Iceland by Paul Sullivan
Another Sullivan: Waking up in Iceland is a book by a British journalist, who wrote about the music culture in Iceland. I am on page 15 at the moment, but the way he writes is already very inspiring.
Waking Up In Iceland on Amazon
Brand Expedition by Martijn Arets
Martijn Arets traveled through Europe with a Volkswagen van. He quit his job and followed his dream: he went to visit his favourite brands and spoke to the people behind it. The book he wrote about the journey is very inspiring: some brands really get the modern culture, other stick to how they have always worked. The journey with the van makes the story into a real adventure.
Website Brand Expedition
Brand Expedition op bol.com
Takk, explorations of Nordic cafe culture
In 2012, two girls traveled the Nordic countries to explore the Nordic café culture. Their book will be out this year and it’s looking good! The blogs are great reads.. well views mainly, loads of great pictures there! They got their journey crowdfunded, which is amazing, and I am very much looking forward to the book, even though I am not a big fan of coffee!
Seize your moment by Janne Plukt
I met Janne at MeetingPlaza this year and later I found out I saved an article published 2011 in Margriet (womans magazine) about her project, because it was so inspiring. She is now traveling through Europe by train, seizing moments, because she realised that life gets better if you pay attention to the things which go well. She’s asking people along the way to seize their moment by making a drawing, which leads to a very nice and clourful collection of drawing, which you can see on her website!
Let me stay for a day by Ramon Stoppelenburg
And let’s finish with the oldest one: Let me stay for a day. In 2001, way before social media ware common and three years before CouchSurfing was founded, Ramon Stoppelenburg from Zwolle started traveling the world with his project ‘Let me stay for a day’. He went couchsurfing (which of course wasn’t a verb back then) and hitchhiking/sponsored trips, and in return for all the generousity he wrote on his blog every day.
These stories are amazing and show me that my plan isn’t as crazy as I sometimes think! What would you like me to write about on my journey?
Leave a Reply