The Travel Speak’s Featured Travelers : Annette and Daniel
Annette & Daniel share their motivation for travel with us in our series of inspiring traveler stories. They are a young couple who have sold all their stuff and have taken on a full time traveling plunge for the next 5 years! Read on to see how have they achieved doing this.
You can follow this lovely couple and their travels on their Instagram profile. You can also checkout their passionate travel blog.
Here they are sharing their travel story.
Annette and Daniel’s Travel Story (unedited)
My name is Annette Fortner and my husband and I sold all of our stuff and quit our jobs to start traveling the world full-time for the next five years. After an eye-opening 2017, we are now trying to make a career out of travel journalism and inspire others to chase their dreams through our YouTube Channel Chase for Adventure. and website www.chaseforadventure.com. On there I write travel guides, and motivational posts encouraging others to live an authentic and passionate life. The website also features a “Travels for Under $1000” series, where I debut a free guide for a week trip in cities like Paris, Rome, and Barcelona affordably.
It all started with our first travels through Europe in 2015. Daniel and I studied abroad in Florence, Italy for two months, and we visited: France, England, Ireland, Germany, Bulgaria, Greece, and the Netherlands. That trip showed us the passion we have for cultural immersion, and travel. After we got back from the trip, we thought we had gotten all of the travel out of our system. I graduated college, we settled into our full-time management jobs, and started saving up for a house.
After a major life occurrence in the beginning of 2017, all of those plans started to change. I had to learn how to live my life not abiding by the rules society has taught us to follow, and I figured out that the safe option isn’t always safe. I realized that I would rather work my butt off for my dreams, than to help achieve somebody else’s. My “failures” turned me into someone highly inspired to live a full life. I brought up the idea of moving abroad to Daniel, and although he was willing to do it for me, he wasn’t completely sold on the idea.
A couple of months later
Daniel decided it was time to find a better job. He was hired at a emergency care clinic in town managing two facilities. It was the job he was “supposed” to get after graduating with his bachelors in business. Even though the pay was good, that job was not making him feel happy, or fulfilled. We both started fantasizing about how nice it would be to just drop everything and travel the world.
Around this time, I was working as the receptionist at a preschool in town, where I got to greet parents at 6:30AM. Somedays I would have parents who looked like they hadn’t gotten any sleep the night before. They come in with their child who just wet their pants, so now, not only did they get no sleep last night, AND they have to change their child, but NOW they are also running late for work. They walk out of their child’s classroom in tears because they are so emotionally exhausted… How about hell no. I am so completely not ready for that. Parents would tell me on a daily basis, do everything you want to before having kids. Go travel, go on dates, enjoy the silence when you’re pooping, and take many showers by yourself because that all ends when you have children.
Then the wedding came
After the wedding, I had a panic attack when I realized I had to go to work on Monday. There was so much leading up to that day, and our wedding was such a happy day, that I wanted to feel that every day. Now, don’t get me wrong… I love my job, but Daniel and I wanted to spend more time together, and feel like we were living life to the fullest. We sat down that Monday night and budgeted out how long it would take us to save up $40,000 to quit our jobs and travel the world. When our calculations said we wouldn’t be able to save that amount until 2021, we felt like we couldn’t breath. We felt trapped. It was that night that we decided.
“The selling begins now”
We started by selling our guitars that very same Monday night. We posted them on a Facebook page and within 45 minutes, we sold both! That kickstarted the next two months worth of selling our stuff. Now remember, we had *just* gotten married and had a bunch of gifts from our guests. As heartbreaking as it was, we had to go back and return everything, leaving us with hundreds of gifts cards to stores that have NOTHING travel related. Note to the wise: if you’re thinking of dropping everything to travel after you get married… make that decision BEFORE you register for hundreds of gifts. Anyway, for the next couple of months we continued selling our things (including Daniel’s truck), ended our lease, and moved into my in-laws house.
Fast forward to now
We are still in the process of selling the rest of our things, saving up as much money as we can, and buying the rest of our necessary equipment. In the next couple of weeks I’ll share with you guys all of the fun toys we’ve gotten for the trip so far. If you ask us how we feel about it… we are so scared. Daniel and I give each other pep talks on a daily basis. Fact of the matter is, leaving everything you know is scary. We’re going to countries where we don’t know the language, the customs, or anybody there. But it will be okay. We would rather go do it and fail, than to never have tried at all. ”
Travelogue on why you should travel Europe in your twenties
In 2015 I studied abroad in Europe and embarked on the greatest adventure of my life. We traveled to 13 different countries and 26 different cities! I spoke to friends who had traveled and they all talked about how the trip changed their whole lives. Quite frankly, I didn’t believe them. I have always been passionate about learning different languages and cultures, but my ignorance didn’t show me the lasting impact that trip had on me as a person. I’m so thankful I had the guidance and support from my friends and family to travel now. These are the reasons why:
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You are never going to have this time back
When I went to Europe, I was about to start my senior year at the University of Florida and was working part-time. I was able to work my schedule to be able to drop EVERYTHING for two months. If I had waited for the following summer, I would’ve had my full-time job and been unable to go. As you get older, it becomes difficult to leave your ever-growing responsibilities. When else are you going to be able to drop everything to travel?
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Sure, you can go when you’re retired, but it’s not the same
People will tell you that you always have time for it later in life after kids, and you’re retired. This, although true, doesn’t mean it’s the same experience when you’re older. You’re probably not going to want to go on a pub crawl in Munich, drinking liters of beer, and then stumbling home to your sketchy hostel when you’re in your 60’s. Life is short!
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Go while your metabolism can still handle it
One of my favorite parts of Europe, as you can imagine, was the food. On a daily basis I would have at least a bottle of wine (I was living in Italy, after all), two entire personal pizzas, any snacks they were offering in the market. This is not to mention my body weight in gelato. This becomes more difficult as you get older and your metabolism slows down. Even with the miles upon miles I was walking, I still came back to the US 20lbs heavier. #Noregrets
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It will teach you to take the media with a grain of salt
It wasn’t until I was in Europe that I realized just how DRAMATIC the news is here in the US. In July of 2015, Greece was going through a rough financial crisis. The country had to decide whether they wanted to keep the Euro, or go back to their old currency. My parents in the US were scared because the news channels kept saying how there were riots in the streets, and the protests were getting violent.
I was worried because Daniel and I were supposed to land in Greece the day before the referendum, but because we missed our flight we ended up arriving in Athens airport just 2 hours after they made the decision. When we got to the streets, they were all closed because people were partying! They were elated to leave the Euro. There wasn’t a moment in Greece that I didn’t feel safe. The US media feeds on American’s fear, keep that in mind the next time you watch the news.
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You won’t realize it while you’re there, but you’ll come back a different person
The pace of life in Italy changed my life perspective more than most other experiences I had in Europe. Going to dinner is a three-hour affair; they close down businesses mid-day for naps, and drink wine with almost every single meal. They live every moment mindfully, relaxed.
What are we in such a hurry for? Death? Life goes by quickly enough, yet we focus on the next big thing. We live so stressed that we don’t have time for hanging out with friends or eating a proper meal. I’m pretty sure I gave my Italian professor a heart attack because she could not fathom that there was an industry for “to-go” food. Italians don’t believe in eating while standing or doing other things. Because of Italy, I live my life more mindfully. Had I not experienced that, I would’ve lived my entire life rushed. What kind of life is that?
Now go book your flight! 😉
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~ Annette & Daniel
Places Visited
- Italy
- France
- Germany
- Netherlands
- Città Vecchia
- England
- Ireland
- Greece
- Bulgaria
- Spain
- Panama
- Costa Rica
- Belize
- Mexico
- Curacao
- Aruba
- U.S Virgin Islands
- Bahama
- Dominican Republic
- Haiti
- Grand Cayman
- PuertoRico
- Jamaica
Favorite Destination
For beaches: U.S Virgin Islands, particularly St. Thomas.
For Sights: Florence
Annette and Daniel’s Favorite Travel Quote:
Their favorite travel quote comes from Mary Anne Radmacher, who said,
“I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world”
Editor’s Note
As Annette stresses on to “live an authentic and passionate life”, it is great to see that both Annette and Daniel seem to practice what they preach. It’s not easy to sell all your stuff, quit your job and set on to a 5 year long travel around the world! Kudos to them for having the courage to act on their dreams of traveling together across this beautiful world.
Their favorite quote from Mary Anne Radmacher couldn’t be much apt with respect to how travel helps you to broaden your views about various cultures and lifestyles around the world. All of us desire to leave our jobs and travel all over the world, but not all of us are able to take the plunge. Hope this story from Annette & Daniel inspires you to act and make your wishes of world travel a reality.
Thank you Annette & Daniel for sharing your travel story with us. We wish you both all the best and many more memories all over the world. Keep traveling and sharing your stories with us.
Be good. Do good. Travel more.
Happy travels.
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