Me and the Atlas is a blog about travelling, being outdoors and on the road; as well as discovering. It’s about stories about great people, small and bigger adventures, and more or less strange circumstances a traveller can face sometimes. You’ll find experiences about solo travelling as a woman, as well as recommendations in general for travelling.

That’s me …

Julia. Born 82. Curious, versatile interested, wide open to new things, endless optimistic, full of ideas, creative, and very humorous. But also quite chaotic, sometimes a bit childish, even irresponsible, sometimes too impulsive, restless, and almost – or always – tardy.

Where I live

My home is in Freiberg / Germany, nearby the city of Dresden, and not far away from the Czech border. I grew up next to the French border in Baden-Württemberg at the foot of the Black Forest in a small town north of Karlsruhe. Ten years ago, I moved from the west to the east of Germany, and since then I haven’t been able to part with the beautiful landscape of the surrounding Ore Mountains.

What I do

After I had first toyed with the idea of studying arts after my school graduation, I finally ended up in a business administration course of studies – and apparently, I had so much fun with it, that I finally had two diploma degrees in my pocket ten years later. Well, the truth is, in my first study I had a specialisation on taxes and auditing, and was working in a tax and law office – and yes, this wasn’t the perfect job for me. After graduation, I enrolled at the University of Freiberg for a second study in business administration one year later. But then, I specialized in management and leadership, supplemented my knowledge in the area of accounting with additional know-how about controlling, and found my vocation in the third focus: marketing and international trade. Since 2012, I’m working as a consultant in a PR agency with 20 colleagues in two offices. We are specialized in B2B communication for IT and high-tech companies and I really love my job, therefore my work and my leisure activities often go hand in hand.

What I love

I think it’s obvious, that I very much deal with things that are related to marketing or communication issues – both professional and private: When I’m not outdoors to collect new “material”, I’m sitting at my computer and play with my favorites: Photoshop and Premiere. Thus, image editing and video cut. I have a great passion for photography and filmmaking. In general, I don’t miss out the topic of media design in any of its facets. Even if it hasn’t worked out with studying arts, I’m able to fully live out my artistic career here. And when I’m too annoyed of a screen in front of my face, I enjoy myself in an old-school way of arts – with crafting and painting. Now and then, even the walls of my apartment can turn into canvas for my ideas. 😉

… and this is the Atlas:

Our colorful, diverse, exciting, and beautiful world. 🙂

Where I travel

Actually, I haven’t seen that much of our entire planet yet. I’m primarily travelling through Europe and have been travelling outside of our European countries only once – in Israel and Palestine. I think that Europe has very much to offer and that you can discover really beautiful and great places. Outside of Europe, the Orient fascinates me, personally, most. Apart from the completely different culture and nature, the deserts, an incredible number of archaeological jewels, it is especially to travel alone as an independent woman, only accompanied by your loaded bicycle, in this men-dominated Arab world, what I appreciate very much.

How I travel

There are a few attributes, that characterise all of my travels: I often do bike travelling; almost always travel alone; the tent is my (quite) constant companion; low-budget before luxury; sports activities play an important role (running events, mountain biking, hiking, etc.); extremes and superlatives are very welcome, especially deserts or things like “the lowest / northernmost / hottest / highest / southernmost / coldest / oldest etc. point on earth / in Europe”; also the (capital) cities with lots of art and culture are not missed out; and I have a great passion for mountains – both beeing on the top of mountains, as well as being inside of them.

How I prepare

Of course, I also have a “bucket list” of destinations, I would like to visit; things, I would like to see or do; extraordinary marathon events, I would like to participate; and so on. But at the end of the day, I always travel spontaneously somewhere, which fits right now or where I would like to go in my actual mood. This doesn’t mean that I basically never make any travel plans. Indeed, I very much do plans and I really love to work out plans – I just don’t like to stick to it too much: Spontaneity before planning. But exceptions prove the rule. 😉