Welcome to our small corner of the internet!
If you just stumbled across this blog and want an introduction – hey and welcome! 🙂
We are Erika and Alex. We spent years working long hours in our respective corporate jobs. At the end of 2025 we jumped off the corporate ladder, and made 2026 the year of a shared and long-held dream: traveling around the world together.
This blog is dedicated to our friends and family, the people who encouraged us, supported us, cheer us on from afar, and with whom we want to share every possible moment of this amazing journey. To people who never asked us whether we are sure we want to do this and to people we will come back to, once we decide that this chapter will be put on hold for some time – because exploring the world will never be fully “over” for us!
A few disclaimers, before you go on
- We are not influencers — we write and take pictures to share our own points of view on things we experience and places we see, mostly with the amazing people we introduced above.
- We are not sponsored, we don’t take pictures for likes or follows. We do it for the beauty of the process.
- We travel entirely on our own budget, and we are not paid to write about any of the places we visit. We are not travel agents, and we don’t have any affiliations with any of the places we write about. We are just two people who love to travel, and want to share our experiences with you.
- We say it as it is (or at least, as we see it), without any sugarcoating.
- You won’t find any AI generated content or text here — just us, our brains and cameras. Alex insists on using em dashes (—) properly, so you will find those in our writing, despite them having become a common sign of AI-generated content.
- We are both big foodies and wine (Erika) and beer (Alex) lovers. We love exploring the world through good food and one of the first things we look forward to in each new country is to find out what new, delicious dishes we can sample! Plenty of our content will be about that, together with tips where to find a good bite or drink, if you find yourself in the places we’ve been to.
Last but not least: being able to travel is a huge privilege! We are fully aware of that and we try to explore responsibly and sustainably everywhere we go, and live an authentic experience rather than a polished one.
Why Backpacks & Bubbles
Backpacks because that’s what we are traveling with (ask Erika how she felt about packing for a year into a 15kg backpack) and Bubbles because we are both divers, and we are hoping to make a lot of bubbles during this trip.
The second meaning for Bubbles — but kind of inadvertent — is all the kinds of bubbly alcohol we like to enjoy, and frequently do 😉
About Us
Erika
Background
Slovak born and bred, moved to Vienna in my early 20s to escape the corporate law career I picked and studied, only to end up climbing another corporate ladder in sales a few years later.
Traveling has always been a big part of my life, but was always wrapped around my job and what it allowed, both time-wise and brain-capacity-wise. At the end of last year, I left a senior management role in London to pursue what everybody knew I want to, but nobody expected I will: leave everything behind and travel.
For me, this journey is not only about exploring the world, but also about exploring myself, pushing the boundaries of what I think I’m capable of, and build a habit of living outside of my comfort zone with calmness and reflection.
Natural Habitat
A sandy beach at sunset or a dim wine bar with a glass (probably the third) of red in hand.
Places from Alex’s travel diary on my bucket list
Nepal & Canada
Alex
Background
Growing up in the beautiful city of Innsbruck, Austria, I have always loved the mountains and the outdoors, and have spent much of my free time hiking, climbing, skiing, and exploring the natural beauty of Tyrol.
My passion for technology led me to pursue a degree in computer science, and I have been fortunate to work in the tech industry for many years, in various capacities. But traveling has always been a passion of mine, and I have used every opportunity and every available vacation day to explore new places, whether it be on short trips in Europe or longer expeditions to Nepal or other far-away places. Traveling has always been a way for me to recharge and gain new perspective.
A year long trip around the world has always been a dream of mine, and I am excited to finally have the opportunity to make it a reality – after an attempt to do so in 2020 was cut short by the pandemic.
I am looking forward to experiencing new cultures, meeting new people, and creating memories that will last a lifetime, while also challenging myself to grow as a person.
Natural Habitat
I’m happiest when I’m outdoors, whether it’s hiking in the mountains, skiing some steep couloir, diving in the ocean, or simply enjoying a beautiful sunset on a beach with a cold beer in hand.
Places from Erika’s travel diary on my bucket list
Indonesia & Mexico
How we document
Field Notes are dispatches from specific places. They’re a chronological record of our journey,
Countries are summaries of our experiences in each country, with practical information and tips for travelers, as well as some detailed accounting of our expenses and budget.
Gear & practicalities
We don’t travel lightly, but we travel efficiently.
We each carry a large backpack with about 50 liters of usable capacity, which we check when we fly. We also each carry a small daypack for the electronics we cannot check, and which we use for day trips.
We would love to travel with just a carry-on, but we travel through several climates, cities, and islands, and we want to be able to pack for a year of travel without having to do laundry every day.
We also carry a substantial amount of electronics: laptops, camera gear, drone, etc. which we use to document our travels and to work on our own projects.
We try to pack as lightly as possible, but we also want to be prepared for a variety of situations – and some comforts on the road.
Get in touch
We have comments enabled on most of our posts. We also read every message sent via Instagram. If you have a question about a specific place, ask — we’ll try to reply within a few days.
