It’s been a year since we first came up with the idea of a travel blog. A year since we decided to start this project together.
A year of Life To Remember.
With this post, we want to share the beginning of our blog and what our first year as travel bloggers looked like. Get excited, this one feels quite emotional.
A short story – how it all began:
It’s July 22, 2024. Life is quite confusing, Johanna just ex-matriculated from UNI and only has a short period of time left to decide what her next step will be. Being the way she is, she made a list and then another one, and then… another one. Each list covered different topics, including pros and cons, different options (study, work, or travel), heart-led vs. mind-led decisions, and so on. At some point, it felt ridiculous. Staring at the paper, knowing there wasn’t enough time left. Not a single option on this list made her feel good. Except for one. Travelling has always been the passion of Johanna and Emma. Nothing felt as good as sharing great memories together, while travelling the world and experiencing new cultures in different countries.
She called Emma, who was surprisingly just a few minutes away (which is actually a miracle, since the two of them are often on the road and rarely both at their parents’ homes). Both of them are sitting in bed, ready to share what’s been going on in life lately.
And that’s where it all began. Johanna shared that she had been thinking about starting a creative project with Emma, something to capture their travels, even when they couldn’t be out exploring the world themselves at that very moment. But also something that could inspire and help others along the way: a travel blog. It didn’t even take five minutes before they were deep into research and already starting to create.
Life To Remember is turning 1 year old today. Still far away from the finish line, but very proud of how far we’ve come this year. A silly little idea that turned into hours of calls and working constantly on a topic we both love: travelling.
Since so much has happened over the past year, I want to do a short recap of some special moments along the way. Don’t worry, I’ll include plenty of pictures to keep this one fun!
Roll the Highlights!
On the day we first talked about creating a travel blog, we were actually so invested that by that same night, we had a fully finished Notion page with to-dos, a vision board, logo, style sheet, and more. We had a clear vision of our project and worked on it the whole night, so it’s safe to say we were invested from day one.
A week later, we found ourselves in Vienna, taking pictures together for the website and being very excited about this whole chapter. So many ideas and things we wanted to do, but not enough time since Emma is leaving for a semester abroad soon.
Then Emma left the country and started studying abroad. Which led to endless Zoom calls and a lot of productive nights, which both of us enjoyed so much. Catching up and working on our blog made everything so much more fun. It helped both of us through our time in a long-distance friendship!
Our Hot Cross Buns were basically the main characters of our Zoom calls. A sweet present (well, not entirely, Emma had to pay for hers) that I bought for both of us. Ever since we discovered Hot Cross Buns in Australia, they’ve lived in my head rent free.
That’s usually how I waited for Emma to answer my call.
Getting active on social media also means reconnecting with past travel buddies. It’s actually really fun to catch up with people you once spent the best time with.
First time reconnecting during the Christmas season and picking up Emma from the airport. We were finally able to work next to each other again.
Being together also means having time to try out new things we could recommend on our blog. A very special moment was celebrating New Year while creating vision boards. Hosting a vision board evening was the best decision we could have made on New Year’s Eve.
We spent as much time together as possible and truly enjoyed our Christmas break, filling it with fun activities like pottery painting. Of course, we also worked harder than ever on the blog, making sure we could bring our vision to life.
What also happens during the process of creating a website is finding yourself in situations you never thought you’d be in. Like, what do you mean we have to do coding? Yes, we failed.
Working together also means being responsible for each other’s health. Of course, I make a doctor’s appointment for Emma, to get her blood values tested… so I don’t have to suffer alone.
Getting the first responses to our posts is something I’ll never forget. It’s such a special feeling to know that people are actually reading and valuing what we share. It makes me really happy to see that we’re not only doing this for ourselves, but also for others. Messages like these truly fill our hearts with joy!
Emma left again for another semester abroad, so our communication switched back to this: If you ever wonder how long you can make a phone call on WhatsApp, it’s exactly two and a half hours.
Don’t ask why I call her Gurk, it was a random insider from a long time ago, and I can’t even remember the joke anymore. You can imagine how happy Emma is about this name…
Back to our roots. It took a while, but we finally figured out the perfect time to meet in London, another travel experience together. This trip was filled with so many highlights, finally spending some time abroad together again and also getting some more content and inspiration for many of the following blog posts.
One of the things that excites me most about our community is connecting with other travel bloggers and being featured in their blog posts. We’re really honoured and love working together with all of you, connecting through travel and the love to create.
Of course, it didn’t take too long until I made my way to Paris to visit Emma. Two weeks together filled with travelling and working on the blog.
Finally, having more time to concentrate on the blog, we were able to tackle some technical difficulties and being able to work with so many different people in just a few days.
That’s a very rough overview of our first year as travel bloggers. Thank you so much for being part of our journey; it truly means the world to us. Obviously, this is just the start, with more to come!
So, stay with us and start to live a life to remember!
See you soon,
Johanna and Emma
Johanna
About the Author:
If Johanna were a word, she would be "stardust" – nondescript, quiet, demure, until the passion appears that brings the stardust to fully unfold. She’s a traveler at heart, constantly curious to see more of the world, with a camera always close by to capture every moment just as it is. Whether she’s at a concert, lost in the music, or exploring a new city, Johanna’s world is filled with an endless curiosity and love for the little details that make life feel like stardust.
Johanna
About the Author:
If Johanna were a word, she would be “stardust” – nondescript, quiet, demure, until the passion appears that brings the stardust to fully unfold. She’s a traveler at heart, constantly curious to see more of the world, with a camera always close by to capture every moment just as it is. Whether she’s at a concert, lost in the music, or exploring a new city, Johanna’s world is filled with an endless curiosity and love for the little details that make life feel like stardust.
