Isa (42) Natascha (41)
After graduating in Japanese studies we both lived and worked in Tokyo from 2001 - 2006. As we both like travelling and had always dreamed of a longer trip around the world, we decided to travel back to Europe overland – via China, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Northern Africa – when our contracts in Japan ended.
We both like hiking and rock-climbing. Therefore we took our climbing gear (about 10 kg!), hoping to find some sports climbing routes along the way. Although this proved even more difficult than we expected we found some nice opportunities for climbing and hiking. After an exciting 11 months, we arrived in Europe by ship from Tunis in May 2007 and decided to spend the summer in the original Alps (after Japanese Alps, Kazakh Switzerland and so on) for more hiking and climbing. Before it got frosty in Europe, we left for Central and South America in October 2007. During our trip we started to write the first articles for German newspapers and magazines, and since 2008 we are working as freelance travel writers, basically based in Berlin/ Germany, but busily travelling the world, often for several months.
Click here to browse the texts and pictures of the countries we visited so far.
Click here for a list of our travel guide books (in German)
As we started out from Japan, this blog was originally named „Westwards from Japan“. And indeed, for years we travelled more or less in a Western Direction. We conceive the term „westwards“ not only in a geographical sense, but also as a metaphor for the venture into the unknown. It is for this reason that we keep the motto of “Westwards” no matter in which direction we travel.
When we travel, we post a new entry every week or so, and in between we upload new photos. If you don’t want to miss a new post, you can sign up for email-updates of our new posts (but this will not inform you about new photos on the blog).
Natascha and Isa
