If you don’t know where to start browsing our blog, start right here, at our story 🙂
We are Michaela and Radek, two 26-years-old soul mates who have been wandering the world together for over four years. Together during our university years, we managed to visit 33 countries, from Asia to the Caribbean at a minimal cost. We experience various adventures on the road, meet people with interesting stories, try different foods and visit interesting places. And we would like to inspire you a little through our blog and make it easier to plan your trip. You will find everything from stories to itineraries :). In addition, for most trips, we write the exact amount of our costs to confirm that travel is really cheap.
Michaela
Traveling is something I can’t imagine my life without. As a child, I loved to travel and travel, but probably the biggest break came after a month in Ireland. I love the feeling of happiness after buying a ticket / ticket somewhere unknown. Traveling is also the best “school of life”, every experience, good or bad, moves me forward and broadens my horizons. I really like meeting new people, trying new foods and discovering new places. I have 39 countries of the world on my “account” and all the countries that exist on my imaginary bucket list. So far, I have probably liked Georgia, Albania and Iceland the most and I am very happy to have someone to share these trips with ❤️
my bucket list of what I would like to do in a few years 🙂
Radek
Hi! My name is Radek and I’m 25, actually 26 years old, shit, the time goes so fast… I fell in love with travel during my childhood, when our people took me on a holiday together. What started with a great fruit cocktail on the beach in Tunisia has turned into my greatest passion and lifestyle at the same time. I visited 42 countries, from which I brought thousands of beautiful memories. I like to say that we will not find the real world on our monitor screens, but out there.
Like every traveler, I have my dream destinations / activities that I would like to make true:
How it all started
Our story began in 2017 in Prague, at a bus station, where we officially met for the first time! (We are very happy to say that it was actually beyond the Arctic Circle – it sounds better, doesn’t it?). At that time, we both traveled in an organized way, and that brought us together. We both went with our families on a nearly 3-week bus trip around the Arctic Circle and, by some strange coincidence, sat side by side across the alley. The story was a bit more complicated, but to cut it short, fate brought us together again a few months after the aforementioned journey .. And since then we have formed an inseparable couple – partners for life and travel!
Backpack Yourself
throughout the years
The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.
It all started this year. We met on a bus sitting next to each other across the aisle on our way to Scandinavia. During 3 weeks of traveling through Finland, Sweden and Norway, we found out how much we have in common and how much we completely disagree on certain things. Radek lived in Prague and Michaela in the north of the Czech Republic, but despite the distance we got together.
Our 1st trip together was to Great Britain, the land of the Beatles, Queen Elizabeth and Mr. Bean. This was followed by a trip to Venice, where we celebrated Radek’s birthday. During the year, we took trips to the neighboring states of the Czech Republic. Our next destination was Belgium, which we drove north from the capital Brussels. Towards the end of the year we went to Phuket, Thailand, with a one-day transfer through Istanbul, Turkey. Thailand was such a highlight of the year, we bathed together with elephants, sailed along Phang nga bay and swam at Diamond beach.
We started 2018 with a trip to Berlin and a month later to Vienna. Just like last year, this year we wanted to celebrate our birthday in a foreign country. And so we made a small tour of Italy. We went to see the Colosseum, had real Italian pizza in Naples, visited the mysterious Pompeii, had a glass of wine on top of Vesuvius and swam in the crystal clear water of Capri. This year also started our love for Eastern Europe when we went to Georgia. We drove it all the way from the seaside city of Batumi, through the capital Tbilisi to the beautiful mountains in the North. Our next trip was Budapest, Hungary. We had to taste the real Langoš and visit the local spa. We then celebrated the end of the year together with our friends at the Christmas markets in Wroclaw.
This time our first trip was headed to the Balkans. We went to North Macedonia with a short stop in Budapest. We explored the surroundings of the capital Skopje and drove to the beautiful city of Ohrid. One of the trips included a stop in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, where we had the honor of knowing the generosity and willingness of the local people. This year too, we set up in Belgium, from where we soon left for Paris. We watched the sunrise next to the Eiffel Tower and went to say hello to Mickey at Disneyland. From Paris, we set off in the direction of the Caribbean Islands, specifically Martinique. Beautiful beaches, beautiful nature, hidden waterfalls in the middle of the jungle, even an active volcano. Martinique has everything you can imagine. We then spent December in sunny Spain, where we went to Malaga.
We started the year by hiking in the Slovak Tatras. On the very first day, we did the most challenging 18 km in our lives and met not only a fox, but also a bear. Even though we were completely exhausted after the 1st day, we eventually fell in love with the incredible freedom and have been trying to hike as much as we can since then. The next stop was Cyprus, a country of beautiful churches, wonderful sea, great wine and nice people. We rented a car and had a wonderful time.
Portugal followed, we flew to Lisbon and immediately fell in love with it. We visited beautiful Sintra, Europe’s westernmost point Cabo da Roca, the port town of Cascais and ate at least 50 pastel de nata.
We ended the year with a visit to Copenhagen and a 6-week stay on the island of Fejo in Denmark, where we became professional apple pickers and producers of cider and apple juice.
After never ending lock downs, we spontaneously decided to buy a one way flight to Tirana in Albania. We immediately fell in love with this amazing country and its people. We traveled to different places in Albania, visited picturesque cities, enjoyed amazing food and made a lot of friends. We ended up spending a month in this beautiful country. Our next adventure led us to Bucharest in Romania, from which we visited seaside town of Constanta. We continued to Bulgaria, where we visited various towns and breathtaking Seven Rila Lakes. In August we decided to finally visit wonderful Kiev, where we spent a few days exploring the city and its surroundings. In autumn we decided to return to our favorit little paradise in Denmark. We spent two months apple picking in Fejo, earning some money for our next adventures. We ended the year with a very interesting trip to Moldova and Transnistria, where we tried some amazing wine and explored the capital cities.
Even year 2022 was full of amazing destinations. We were able to tick beautiful Madeira off our bucket list. We rented a car, hiked beautiful waterfalls and mountains, swam in amazing natural pools and ejoyed rib boat dolphin safari. In april we celebrated Radek’s birthday in Jordan. We rented a car and enjoyed an awesome roadtrip through the country. We visited Petra, one of the world’s wonders, slept under the stars in Wadi Rum and enjoyed floating in the Dead Sea. After all these amazing adventures we started to miss our favorite Balkans. So guess what! We returned to our beloved Albania, spent time with our friends and continued through Montenegro to the city of Dubrovnik in Croatia.
Why “Backpack Yourself”?
The name was quite a nut for us, we admit it .. but the phrase “Backpack Yourself” perfectly describes us and the style of our travel. In 99 cases out of 100, we only travel with a small backpack, which low-cost airlines usually allow onboard the aircraft for free. So why are we actually doing this? In the beginning, it was mainly to save money and not have to pay extra for bigger luggage. Over time, we have realized how great it is to take with us only the things we need and use. Traveling with a backpack is much easier and it is also true that the less we have, the less we can lose or forget.
Where u can follow us?
We are both quite creative individuals, so in addition to writing a blog, we also do youtube. You can watch travel videos on our youtube channel Backpack Yourself. We will be very happy if you take a look at our Facebook page, where we regularly add photos, videos and stories, and the same goes for instagram.
work
With us
