Hey there!
I’m Chloë, a travel & adventure obsessed teacher from Yorkshire in the UK. During the madness that was 2020 pandemic times, I moved to Switzerland with my boyfriend, where we now spend our free time exploring everything from mountains and lakes, to cities and coffee shops. It’s also turned out to be the perfect base country for travelling more of Europe (Only a 2 and a half hour train journey to Italy?! Don’t mind if I do!)
Interested in getting to know me and my travel story a little better? Then keep on reading! Want to know what kind of content you can find on Travel Teach Read? Then head to this page!
Quick Travel Facts About Me!
- I first fell in love with travelling when I did a solo backpacking trip in Australia, aged 18.
- Italy is the country I’ve visited the most. (Five times so far and I’d happily visit 100 more!)
- The most relaxing trip I have taken was a week sailing through Croatian islands.
- My most adventurous trip was spending 5 days sea kayaking and wild camping in Sweden!
- The destinations that satisfied my foodie side the most were Florence, Lisbon and Barcelona.
Quick “Living in Switzerland” Facts!
- We live in Zürich which is my absolute fave city in Switzerland.
- My favourite hike here in the Oeschinensee panoramic hike in the Bernese Oberlands.
- One place I keep revisiting is Lauterbrunnen in the Jungfrau Region – such an incredibly beautiful part of the country.
- My most memorable moments while living here have been hiking with views of the Matterhorn, doing a guided trek on the largest glacier in the alps, spending Christmas in a snowy alpine village, and mountain lake swims in the summers.
My Travel Story
Let’s start at the very beginning…
When I was just 7 years old, my parents took me to visit some family friends in Australia for 3 weeks. It was my first time on a plane and one of my only trips abroad during my childhood. As you can imagine, this meant the experience remained such an extraordinary one for me. The wildlife and the landscapes were unlike anything I had come across before. So although I was only young, I have such vivid memories of my time there and I became slightly obsessed with the idea I would return one day!
When I was 18 years old, I finally turned that dream into a reality.
I remember doing my A-levels at school and being completely uninspired by the prospect of the “school, uni, job” direction that everyone else seemed to be headed towards. I had been talking about Australia for so long that going travelling there instead of heading to university just made sense to me. After eight months of working full time at McDonalds and part time at a swim school, I finally has enough money saved up to go for it!
So with 22kg stuffed into my backpack and my bright pink camera in hand, I embarked on a solo adventure of a lifetime! Since I was fresh out of school and didn’t know anyone else who had done a trip like this, I booked a hop-on, hop-off bus pass with a travel agency beforehand. This meant I could travel up the East Coast of Australia at my own pace, booking my buses, excursions and hostels through their system as I went. I felt like this give me the perfect combination of flexibility and reassurance for my first solo trip.
The next three months were full of meeting new people, spotting Aussie wildlife, exploring beaches, islands and waterfalls, drinking a little too much and trying to tick plenty of activities off my bucket list.
The travel bug had well and truly bitten…
If you hadn’t already guessed, that Australia trip waaay back in 2013 was only the beginning for me. While I did decide to go to university in the end, travel still remained a massive priority for me. During my undergraduate degree, I also worked part time, saved hard and spent a lot of time reading travel blogs! I clearly had an incurable case of wanderlust! My hard work paid off as after graduating I was able to head off on some more incredible backpacking trips. This time through Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and back to Australia again.
Europe Travel and Moving to Switzerland…
As I began my teaching career in Leeds, my boyfriend was working hard to complete his PhD. This meant our travel style changed a little as we worked towards our next big adventure; moving abroad! While studying and working, we explored closer to home with city breaks and trips in the UK and Europe. All the while dreaming about actually living abroad and being completely immersed in a new country and culture some day!
People are often surprised when I explain Switzerland wasn’t actually our specific goal! In fact, we weren’t too bothered about where we lived, we just wanted to experience life ANYWHERE new!
We were very fortunate that Jamie’s hard work and dedication during his PhD opened a lot of doors for us to try living abroad. He began to apply for different post-doctoral positions around the world, including one here in Switzerland. Six months later (yep SIX. These things seem to take a crazy long time!) he heard back and was invited to an interview. And I think you can guess how that went, seeing as I’m currently writing this while sat on our balcony in Zürich!
So, in 2020, we packed up our belongings, shipped them to Switzerland and began our new life here! (With a short period living in limbo at my mum’s house with all our stuff in boxes – the joys of a global pandemic hitting when we were just about to move!) We’ve been living, working and exploring in this beautiful country for almost 4 years now, and, as far as my travel story is concerned, it’s completely changed the way I think about adventures – I am well and truly a mountains and hiking addict now!
So, what’s next?
Although living abroad is full of ups and downs, we’ve no plans on moving back to the UK anytime soon! We are so thankful for the memories we have made and adventures we have had so far in Switzerland. So for now, we will continue living in and exploring more of this magical country for a while longer. After that, who knows?! I guess we will see where life takes us!
Anyway, I think thats enough from me now! Thanks so much for reading my story, and I hope you find something on Travel Teach Read that inspires you!