Xenia
Organizaton brain, computer nerd and chef
Organizaton brain, computer nerd and chef
I was born in September 1986 in Switzerland and grew up close to the capitol city Bern. Already in early years it became clear that I was not the typical girly girl. I was in love with computers, cars, sports, camping and loved to help my dad crafting around the house. Therefore it was not a great surprise when I started an apprenticeship as a computer specialist. After I finished with school and the apprenticeship I left for nearly a year to Australia and South East Asia to improve my English skills and get infected with the travel bug. If I would have known before how horrible this fever would be, I would have never left home.
Back in Switzerland I went straight back to work and some more school. Of course I did some longer and shorter trips around Europe, North Africa and the States but it didn’t help much to calm my travel fever. After a while I had to leave again for a long trip, this time to Central and South America, where I also met Martin.
Honda NX 250
Already before this trip I was thinking about doing my motorbike license but because of different reasons I postponed it several times. While I was in South America I decided that right when I am back home, I really HAVE to do this. Even before Martin was back from his trip I already signed up for the motorbike course, bought some good gear and could borrow a cute Honda NX 250.
My first course day was quite a blast. It was December, raining cats and dogs and after the first try with a friend of mine I had to ride by myself to the meeting point of our course. Just before I arrived there, I was able to do my first wheelie, well of course by accident. Lucky me I could hold myself on the bike and made it in one piece to the meeting point.
A friend of mine and I had the plan to make a trip by motorbike to the black sea and back in summer 2013, of course with loads of gravel roads. Later Martin became a part of our team because he was not stoked about the fact that I would leave on a motorbike trip without him.
In spring 2013 I bought my first bike, my beloved XT 660R. With this bike I went to my driving test exactly one week before we left for our Balkans trip.
Luckily I mastered the test in the first round, otherwise it would have been imposible to leave for our trip. In Romania I had my first experience with gravel roads, of course with one of the most difficult roads I ever rode so far (even Martin had some troubles there). After some panic attacks – I didn’t allow myself to show my fear because I was the only girl in this team of three – I got totally hooked with riding in the dirt! Since this day, there is not much that I enjoy more than riding through rivers and over rocky, dirty gravel roads. Sadly there are not many legal possibilities to do so in Switzerland, therefore Martin and I travel as much as possible to other countries.