May I introduce myself?
Personal information
Welcome beautiful human!
Glad you found my photographic travel blog and seem to be interested in some more information. This page is less about me and more about the way I document the world I visited so far, but here is a brief instruction about myself. I am woman in my thirties (at least I was when I started this blog) born and raised in Berlin, Germany. My mom took my sister and me, when I was 8 years young, to move to Lanzarote one of the Canary Islands in Spain. We spent more than five years living surrounded by a wild ocean. This might be a reason why I feel home as soon as I am near the ocean and I am in love with water, cool wind and a far horizon.
When I was almost 14 years we moved back to Berlin where I lived till my early thirties. Still, since starting my Bachelor of Science in 2009 I was mostly commuting. First to Frankfurt Oder for my Business Administration degree, then German wide for my first fulltime job as the assistant of an executive board member. I held this position for two years and spent almost one of those years commuting to Hamburg each week and in between to different branches in Germany, rarely being in Berlin throughout the week.
After two years I decided to make a fulltime Master of Science in Management and Marketing in Berlin and parallel continued working in the same company. Part of this program was an exchange semester which I spent in Shenzhen, China. This time was one of the best in my life. Being abroad with ton of different influences was mind-blowing. I used every free minute to explore China and countries nearby. Before the exchange I only once had a longer travel experience to the USA where I combined the visit of family with traveling for six weeks in total. In that journey I experienced that traveling on my own gives me so much that I decided to travel a few months on my own after finishing the exchange semester. I had the chance to travel almost two and a half months through southeast Asia before I had to get back to write my thesis. I really loved it and had a hard time going back home afterwards. Nowadays my wanderlust drives me even more.
Finishing my Master, I would have loved to keep traveling, but because of student dept I was forced to start working. I got promoted in my former company as a team lead responsible for two small branches in eastern Germany. Again, I was commuting this time to Dresden and Magdeburg. In this year I opened another branch in Leipzig. I really enjoy the responsibility and the learning I take away from this job. I was in this position for 2 years and I do grew with it.
Edit 2025: Since then I lived and traveled through Canada for over a year, which I loved and visited many other countries since then. I also returned to live in Hamburg early 2021, when Covid forced me to leave Canada and for the first time did not commute anymore but for sure visit Berlin often to see family and friends.
Still I try to travel as much as I can though my regular vacation days and weekends. I try to take some extended weekends off and one or two longer journey each year. I know, as a German I'm spoiled. I do have 30 days off plus the official holidays (mostly 10 days extra each year). As I learned in my travels, especially in China and the USA, 30 days plus are already way more than other nations have, so I appreciate it, so thanks to my home country 😉 Therefore, even though I’m not traveling as much as I’d love to this blog will keep living as my passion project.
Concept
Berlin, my hometown.
The concept of this page is to show you the world through my eyes. I am a hobby photographer and all the pictures on this page are either by or with me on it. Since I can remember I always had a crush for photography, especially landscape and architecture. Most of my life there wasn't enough money for traveling nor a good camera therefore the opportunities for travel photography where limited in my childhood and teenage years. Till my exchange semester in China I only took photos with an old camera of my mother or my phone, thus the results were unsatisfying. Looking back, I believe that you could only like these photos if you have a memory attached to them. At the beginning of this blog I shot with a non professional camera the Panasonic DMC-TZ81 (Edit Summer 2019: I updated to a Sony Alpha 6000, I know, still not professional, but so far good enough for me) or use my phone. I try to compensate it with compositions and perspectives. For sure there is room for improvement, as it will always be. Anyway, I hope you still enjoy my photography.
On this page I plan to combine photography with experiences to give deeper impressions. My hope is that this will enhance the feeling to be on a journey yourself. Till now I never published a personal text, even though I write a travel journal and like to write stories inspired by real-life. I am looking forward for your feedback about this concept, even though it is not a new one, I believe that each person has their own perspective on this beautiful world and I am ready to show you mine. Be my guest.
Lots of love
Mareike