The summer of 2024 changed everything.

I’m Andreia. I grew up in a small village in the Portuguese countryside, eventually moved to Lisbon to study — and never really left.

I’d spent years working and studying at the same time. When I finally finished my degree, I kept working — until the day I was made redundant along with 50 other people. For the first time in years, I had time.

I started freelancing. I started travelling more. And somewhere along the way, I thought maybe I wanted a “normal life” — maybe even emigrate. I was travelling that summer when I got a job offer in Germany. I did one interview in a Starbucks in Sofia and another in a hostel in North Macedonia. I got the job.

I had no idea my life was about to change in a completely different way.

What I thought was food poisoning turned out to be a burst appendix. I spent days in agony, alone, in a hotel room. When I tried to extend my stay, they told me the hotel was full. That’s when I realised I had to get myself to a hospital.

If they’d had a free room, I would have died in that hotel.

A week in hospital. Another week recovering alone in an apartment. Then home, where my sister took care of me for months. I had to learn to walk again. To breathe. To talk. It was one of the most traumatic experiences of my life — and almost two years later, I’m still not the same person I was before.

But here’s what I learned: I don’t want a normal life. I never did. I wanted to write, to travel, to create — and I kept putting it off because I was an adult with adult responsibilities.

When I recovered, I went back to travelling — terrified something would happen again. Something did. I fell off a motorbike in Thailand. My head didn’t split open because I was wearing a helmet. Broken sunglasses and three new scars.

People who go through life and death moments are the ones who come back and actually live the life they always wanted. I think I’m finally entering that moment.

This blog is for the little Andreia who always loved writing and wanted to be a journalist but never went for it. The one who got her first camera at 13, photographed and filmed everything — and never published a single thing. Fifteen years later, I’m finally doing everything she was too shy to do.

I have 1.5TB of photos and videos on Google Photos, and another 1.5TB on SD cards from my Insta360 X5. Some of the people I love most are in those files, and some of them have already gone. My dog Sasha is one of them. There aren’t many photos of my own face. I’m finally doing something with all of it.

I’ve been travelling slowly since 2025 — currently in Vietnam, heading back to Europe in July. Outside of travel, I love EDM music, books about history (currently deep into the Vietnam war), and animals. I work as a freelance recruiter in HR — that’s what pays for life on the road.

This is my little refuge. And maybe, if you’re planning your first solo trip and don’t know where to start — it can be yours too.