WE…

Two Belgians, Kate and Maarten, no house, no job, no plans. Love exploring, housesitting and especially enjoying the small things. Looove eating and crazy ideas. Love finding cheap flights to whatever city: we believe there is always something interesting to see and probably to eat. Barely ever make set plans, but always end up somewhere nice. Love Brussels and its restaurants, parks and little nooks and crannies. Love watching people and wondering what their story is.

So we quit our corporate jobs (again) and sold everything to follow our passion: travelling and eating together. Or we eat and travel, the order may vary. Currently we are travelling since October 2014, but we also explored the world together from October 2009 until December 2010.

She loves Iceland, he loves China, so we might have to live somewhere in between. But for now, we travel!

SHE…

Loves vibrant colors, preferably in shoes. Looooves chocolate and cold chocolate milk. Loves walking barefoot. Loves autumn colours in the forest. Loves it when the sun is out, but it is still cold outside. Loves wondering around in a busy city, probably singing without noticing it. However, she cannot remember any lyrics to any songs, literally never. Loves talking, actually she doesn’t, but she just does it all the time. When travelling, she does not look up a thing, she likes surprises and believes there is a solution for everything (finding a husband who looks up everything is a solution, right? point taken). Does not like bridges and does not like steep hills or skiing.  Loves Iceland and everything about it. Loves a glass of white wine, preferably in a very big wine glass, it just feels fancier. Gets lost all the time, but sees everything, eagle-eye Kate. Laughs easily and most of the time at the tiniest things. She also laughs when something embarrassing or annoying happens. Don’t bet she won’t do something. She will, she has no shame (as long as it does not involve climbing).

HE…

Loves reading and studying, no but really he does. Loves climbing to the highest peak around, just because pictures up there might be better. Loves standing on the smallest ledge of that peak, probably pictures are even better there. Loves his I-pod, he does not leave the house without it. Loves finding the best places to visit, and reads lonely planets and internet reviews as a hobby. Loves studying Chinese. Loves swimming, so even when it’s freezing, he tests the water. Loves taking pictures. Loves China and everything about it. Always wears a long-sleeve shirt, even when bungee jumping of the highest bridge in Europe. Seems to remember everything he reads, it’s annoying. Although he does not seem to remember where to put laundry and dirty dishes, must be a man thing… When reading, he is so concentrated dragons could be flying by and eat elephants along the way, he would not have noticed it. If you ask him what you should have done before you die, he will probably say with a twinkle in his eyes “swim with dolphins in the wild”. When he sees a spider, lizard, ants, whatever small animal, he gets totally excited and goes all national geographic. Has a build-in-compass and always finds his way. If he doesn’t, the map was not properly drawn up.

Our Story

When did we first meet? One of the first days after we arrived at University, we met through mutual friends. It was the year of the ketchup song, which probably added to the magic.

For 7 years, we were just friends, we went out together, cried to each other for break ups (mainly Kate :-)), laughed together, … and while everybody saw it… we didn’t. But then Kate visited Maarten on Erasmus in Vienna, and it began to dawn on us. However, it would take us some months before we knew our wedding dance was created in Vienna, because still we did not see what everybody had been predicting for years.

How did we suddenly start traveling together? Kate had a 2 month break in between jobs. And right about at that time, Maarten was about to leave on his one-year worldtrip. Two weeks before he was to leave, we were stuck in traffic together, and Maarten might still regret trying to pass time by popping the question: “Why don’t you join me for two months?” Which Kate did, because “Why not?” And our first kiss finally happened in the Transiberian after about a week on the road together… So we traveled, and after two months Kate returned home. The lawyer days were back… But not for long, Maarten asked Kate to join him again, Kate sold her precious car, and after 3 months we met again in Delhi.

And traveling we did. We took every train and bus we could find. Ate every strange food we could get our hands on. Discovered new arrays of color, and new dimensions of smell… You can read and see our stories here (Dutch) or here (English).

We came back from our world trip, and started our lives together in the very heart of Brussels. A tourist in our own country, it was just what we needed. We discovered every restaurant in the city… twice… And in the weekends, well… we kept on travelling. Thank God for Ryanair!

We got engaged in the train to Prague, got married in Tuscany and honeymooned in Iceland. And here we are, enjoying a very special continuation of our honeymoon. No job, no house, no plans. Just enjoying the small things in life, travelling, housesitting and eating our way around the world.

Trains?

We first kissed on a train, he proposed on a train, our honeymoon started on a train, we’ve spent several months on trains together. You might say, we have a thing for trains. We just love being on the road and have visited over 50 countries together.

Chopsticks? 

We love eating, and we have a weak spot for anything Asian, food that is.

So blogging about our food & travel adventures seems like a great idea. However, we never seem to be able to take pictures of our dishes before we start eating. We always realize we “should’ve taken a picture”, when the plates are empty. So this might turn into the first food blog without actual pictures of the food, we might often have to ask you to use your imagination.