Nanna Josefine – A Young Dane about to Conquer the World
Nanna is a childhood friend of mine who I recently bumped into again during a music festival in Denmark. She is just 18 years old and still doing her upper secondary. Still, she has fallen in love with traveling and finds the time to go on adventures as often as she can.
1) Who inspired you to travel?
My sister was an exchange student in 2003. Back then I was only 6 and just starting school. My sister was 16 and about to go on her biggest adventure. I don’t think I realized back then how much it inspired me, but now that I’ve grown older, I know that her courage and her choice to be an exchange student (for a whole year) inspired me to be one as well. (And that’s how I got to live in Australia for a year)
2) What is your biggest fear?
Lol. This one is easy. Not having enough money to go travelling of course! In all seriousness though, my biggest fear is actually leaving. And yep, that sounds weird, because that’s what I do all the time. But I’m so afraid of leaving, and then coming back to something missing.
3) What is the most memorable moment you’ve had while traveling?
I think this one will be hard to understand for other people. But the most memorable moment I had was when my best Australian mate taught me how to drive a car. Not that I ever learned. But just the hours we spent together on that parking lot in that car.. (it was a very special car to us) It is something I’ll cherish forever.
As Winnie the Pooh says; sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in our hearts!
4) Who would you want to be stranded with on a deserted island?
Someone who’d challenge me. I think it would be too boring to be stranded on an island with the people I love. It would be more pleasant surely! But knowing myself I’d probably be bored.
(oh and if Chris Martin could come too, that would be nice)
5) Aside from necessities, what one thing could you not go a day without on travels?
I don’t think I have a special object that I bring. I kind of just go and see what happens!
6) What does your family and friends say about you travelling so often?
“How do you get the money to go travelling so often?”
7) If you had a warning label, what would yours say?
Stubborn and loud. I’m a very outgoing person and that typically involves me yelling at something or getting drunk and dancing. lol.
8) What’s on the top of your bucket list right now?
This one is tough. The world is so big and filled with beautiful places, but for a long time now I’ve wanted to go to South America. I also want to live in Paris some day (I promised mum to stay in Europe. She doesn’t want me to live too far away from her)
9) What is the worst misadventure you’ve had during your travels?
For a long time I kept this story a secret. I didn’t want people to know that about me, but again people grow older, and as we do, we get wiser and less concerned about what other people think of us.
The worst thing that has happened to me during my travels is not something I want to go into details about, not completely anyway. But when I was living with my second host family in Australia (When you’re an exchange student with Rotary, you typically live with 3-4 families in a year to get to know different family cultures) I had the best relationship with my host dad. He was the best. They even brought me on a 3-week road trip around Australia and I loved it.
Long story short, when I moved on to my third family they had to go away for a weekend and I had to go back to my second family. I was, like I had been a million times before, alone with my host dad. Only this time was different. As I said I didn’t want to go into details about it, I wasn’t raped that day thank god, but I was sexually assaulted and it is something I had to carry with me alone for a long time. I guess the essential thing is that I eventually told people about it, and it has made me a stronger person.
10) What is the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?
Vegemite. The strange thing is, that I like it when I’m in Australia and I absolutely hate it when I’m back home in Denmark.
11) How do you make money and control your expenses to be on the road so often?
Honestly, I have no idea.
12) Have you ever traveled alone, why or why not? If yes, where did you go the first time you did?
The first time I travelled all by myself was when I visited Australia a year after my exchange year. Shit, I had no money back then and chose the shittiest flights and ended up waiting in the airport in Qatar for 10 hours.
13) Tell me about the craziest or most unforgettable night out during your travels.
There are a few that I’d love to tell you about, but I think you’d have to be there. However, there was this one night in Dublin, where my classmates and I had no idea where to go out. I happened to know someone living there and contacted him. The guy came and he had brought some Irish friends and we started off going to this 2 level bar that kind of felt like a club but still just looked like a bar. Anyway we sat there for a while and it got boring so we left, (I guess I have to say we started out being like 15 people) ultimately we were only 5 people left and the Irish dudes took us to this underground bar/club (bar in one end, club in the other) and we ended up dancing our faces off the entire night, and every time we wanted to leave the dance floor, they just played another classic and we felt like we had to stay.
14) Where did you go on your most recent road trip?
I went to Dublin on a study trip with my classmates. Next up is Santorini, Greece with 3 of my amazing aussie mates.
15) What is one travel advice you’d like to give?
Just go <3 and as cheesy as this will sound: Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone.
