Welcome to My Blog.

I am Zuzana. I’m from Slovakia, and after finishing my master’s degree in biomedical engineering, I immigrated to Canada. As a kid, I never liked to sit in a stroller and I was always on the move. My quick speed in walking, hiking, and making decisions is definitely a gift I was born with. My first hike was at 4 years old. My parents were hikers. I came from a middle-class family. We didn’t have a lot of money, but we had a lot of opportunities to be outside and play. I started cross-country skiing at 5 years old because you didn’t need to have a lot of money compared to downhill skiing.

I always dreamt of having a bigger life and having more opportunities to live differently. As a kid I always wanted to be the best because I realized that if I were average I couldn’t achieve anything, or I would not have a better life. I remember when I was studying at university to be a paramedic, they announced that the best student would go to Germany through the Erasmus program. I told myself I would get it, and I put in a lot of work and sacrifices. I got it, plus I had all straight As and got money for scholarships. I realized very early that if you put in the work, you can achieve anything.

When I immigrated to Canada, the economic situation in Calgary was really bad. There were no jobs for healthcare professionals, and getting a job was about who knows who. I didn’t expect that after sending thousands of résumés, I would always be rejected. I felt hopeless. This is when I started to think about what I had achieved before — that made me go even harder when I didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. I got a job in healthcare with Alberta Health Services. This was like a miracle. Hard work paid off. I was excited because I had met a lot of people with higher education in Canada who never made it. After a few years, I realized that the position I was in was great for others but not for me. I was overqualified for my job, and the promises of better opportunities never came. It was good for other people but not for me. The week that I wrote my resignation, I got a call from my mom. We lost someone unexpectedly. I still can’t talk about this. But I will tell you if you lose someone, your life changes forever. This is why I don’t believe in tomorrows. Tomorrow is not promised.

2018 was the hardest year of my life. I traveled through Canada and the United States for more than 3 months and met incredible people. When I went back, I opened an Airbnb and worked by myself. I did it for one year, but Calgary is not the best place for that. I got a job in research in Edmonton and I moved there. I remember how they asked me how I handle problematic people. I was thinking that the manager was talking about some patients because this sometimes happens and it’s normal. When I got the job, I realized that it’s the people I needed to work with who were the problem. What a nightmare. Everybody was from a different country, and the problem was their attitude — a lot of problems with their private lives, and they had never built a good life in Canada. For example, they were a coordinator in Canada but back home had been a doctor or a manager, and here they barely survived. Or they didn’t have enough money to live a better life. After a few months, I wrote a resignation letter, and then Covid hit. I knew I needed to start something on my own. If you had more than 500 hours of work in the prior years, you were supported by the government. I was still sending résumés for a job but was also working for myself. If you want to open a business, you need to be 2 people – one for the social media and marketing side, and one to work with the customers and product. After 6 months of not seeing any results, it started working, and because my lifestyle was humble and I was saving a lot, I could live a normal life and get through the quiet season before the busy season in the business. When borders started to open again, I realized what if I travel through Europe and finish Europe first? Then I could hope for another continent. I never announced that I was going to every country in the world. But honestly, if you look at how I was traveling, it would make sense. I knew I could do it because I owned my time. I know how to travel on a budget and see a lot of places.

When I finished Europe, I was left with 3 countries — Russia, Belarus, and Iceland. Around the same time, I got my green card, moved to the USA, and bought a house.

The second year was traveling through Central and South America. I finished, and when I arrived home, the house had been hit by a hurricane — it was severely damaged, flooded, windows broken, hole in the roof and all ceilings in the living room had collapsed. In this condition, I was living and working. But I was happy that I had a home to live in. After more than 20 repair companies came to check, I found one company that could fix it so that I could live like normal people. I promised myself from the beginning whatever happens in my life, I will go to the end and finish every country in the world.

I have strict rules. I think I developed a really great observation – a lot of people run out of money at the end. Every country is a marathon, not a 5 km run. If you start spending more, you cannot make it. One other thing you need to realize is that your income can change, you can lose your job, and a lot of unexpected things can happen, so you need to be prepared. I completed traveling through all of the Middle East and went from Japan through various countries to Bhutan, traveling for more than 3 and a half months.

I usually traveled for 3 months, twice a year. I usually started early in the year and then again around the end of September until the end of December. I went home exhausted but happy with how much I had seen. I made it. I remember I hiked to Annapurna Base Camp after 3 months of traveling. I felt exhausted, and I wasn’t sure if I could do it. But I went. My parents thought I was crazy. I had never been so nervous, and the reason was because I knew how I felt. It was not a great idea. I did it in record time. In 2 days we were at Annapurna Base Camp — an incredible achievement. The 3rd day we went 23 kms all the way down. I knew one thing: I was made for mountains, and I am a warrior. I was left with 6 countries to visit in Asia and a new chapter traveling the African continent.