Meet Dani and Jessica of The Globetrottergirls

30 March 2011 | 31 Filed under: Travelling As A Couple

Meet Dani and Jessica, the nomad couple behind Globetrottergirls.com. They also happen to be this week’s couple on our Meed a Traveling Couple series.

Jessica and Dani, tells us about yourself.

Dani and I have been together for nearly five years now, though the chances of us meeting were so slim to begin with!

I was living in the small Germany city of Erfurt for three years, where Dani is from. We happened to meet at the end of my time there, and as fate would have it, both of us, independently of one another, had already decided to study for one year in England and had plane tickets just two weeks apart.

Even though our universities were a 5 hour train ride away from each other, at least they were in the same country.

After persevering through a long distance relationship that first year, we moved to London together where we lived for three years before our digital nomad phase.

What are you doing now and where are you heading out to next?

We just finished up our travels through Central America and Mexico, and are now traveling through Europe this spring before heading to Canada and the US for the summer and early Fall. After that, it’s off to Asia or South America – we are not sure about that yet.

We are currently in the snowy German Alps, where we are house-sitting for 5 weeks, a heavy change from the sunny and hot Panama City we just left behind!

How long have you guys been on the road?

We have been on the road for almost a year – we will be celebrating our first year of travel anniversary in April. We are big believers in slow travel, so in that time we have ‘only’ been to eleven countries – the US, Mexico, all of Central America, plus Germany and Austria so far in Europe, but we have traveled extensively throughout Europe before setting off onto our RTW adventure.

Who came up with the idea first, how did you talk your SO into doing this together?


We are both avid travelers and we had both lived abroad before we met: Dani lived in Spain and Austria as well as in England, and I’ve been traveling and living abroad full time since 2001 (Costa Rica, Guatemala, Germany and London).

During our time together in London we went on weekend getaways and long vacations up to 8 times a year. When Dani quit her full time office job in February 2010 we said if we don’t travel now, we’ll never do it

With little planning and a lot of excitement, we were on the road two months later.

What was your biggest pre-departure concern and how did you mitigate it?

We work and travel at the same time, so the biggest concern was whether we could make enough money and really adopt a successful ‘digital nomad’ lifestyle. So far it has been a huge success, and we are just very motivated and keep ourselves in line – we always put work before fun…well, almost always.

What do you think is the biggest disadvantage of traveling with your SO? If any.

We feel like we don’t meet as many people as we would if we were alone. When we are working so often and both of us then want to relax, we go out together, which makes it harder to meet people than someone who is alone.

How about the biggest benefit?

There is one other person in each of our lives who knows exactly what the trip is like. It’s a privilege to share this exciting lifestyle with the person you love the most!

What is the most endearing thing about your partner?

Dani has to stop and pet every.single.animal we see in the streets along the way – all street dogs and cats. I am also a fan of giving them a bit of love and attention, even food, but Dani comes close to missing buses while she plays with every stray. It’s cute, but can sometimes you just want to get somewhere.

Apparently I squeal like a little girl every time I see a spider and make Dani kill it…that might be true…

In a tough situation that requires a good cop/bad cop approach, who’s the bad cop?

We don’t really do bad cop/good cop. Usually I play the upset one, while Dani usually plays the ‘blonde victim’ card (where she tries with – ‘oh, really, I had no idea, can you give us a second chance’).

Her being blonde and playing the victim in Latin America has really helped us out more than a few times (overstaying visas and border issues, for example).

Tips on successful travel as a couple?

Alone time is key for us – most of the time, we like to explore together, but when we are working on our own projects, or even on things for our blog, we spend time immersed with headphones on so that by the end of a long work day, we actually still always look forward to talking and spending time together.

Another big thing is to find time for romance. Traveling together 24/7 can really extinguish the spark, so you have to be creative and spontaneous, and still show your partner that they are more than a travel buddy or best friend.

What is the one situation/country that has challenged you together as a couple?

Even though we just finished up 6 months traveling through here, Central America in general has been a challenge for us. It’s hard to ravel as a lesbian couple through very catholic and non-gay-friendly countries.

We have to restrict our affection in public, deal with separate beds sometimes and just overall sort of tone down our relationship in a way we would never consider doing in Europe or the US. We are looking forward to seeing how well Asia treats us in that respect.

Of all the countries you’ve been to, where would you like to live and why?

As anyone who reads our site knows, we LOVED Mexico. I am not sure if we could live there forever, but we could certainly spend half the year every year in Playa del Carmen or Isla Mujeres. Who knows where else we will want to live along the way.

3 things we don’t know about you
Note: they gave us 6 and told us to pick 3. Since they’re all gems I ended up listing them all.

Dani has an amazing sense of direction, like her own Google maps in her head.
Jessica is great with foreign language accents (especially Spanish and German), and has a hilarious Chinese English accent.
Our favorite TV show of all time ever is THE WIRE.
We both love Taco Bell, even though it doesn’t have anything to do with Mexican food at all (which we also love!)
We both have a thing for gangster rap.
Jess is a dog person, whereas Dani is a cat person.
We both have a crush on Mila Kunis at the moment (Ed’s note: who doesn’t? :p)
We love movies and our favorite game on long bus rides or flights is the iPhone version of ‘Scene it’.

Most romantic place you’ve ever been to?


Paris – it’s cheesy but it’s true

We grabbed fresh baguettes, a bottle of wine and some cheese and headed to the shore of the river Seine, where once a week Parisians of all ages dance tango.

Watching them dance and listening to Argentinian tango music while the sun set over the city was purely romantic.

Who’s your on screen couple and why?

Not so much on screen, but in the public eye: Ellen DeGeneres and Portia DiRossi. They seem to be made for each other and are always so happy, displaying their love for each other publicly, even after many years spent together.

What are you currently reading and what are you listening to?

We have been reading non-stop since our travels began – for the last few months we were stuck with books we found at book exchanges in hostels though – not always our first choice!

We both just finished the Memory Keepers Daughter (which was actually quiet good) and American Psycho (which left us both pretty disturbed), I just finished Three Cups of Tea and For Whom the Bell Tolls.

I am currently loving Jay Z, the last P!nk album, Kaiser Chiefs and The Gossip.
Dani is listening to Eliza Doolittle, Ellie Goulding, KT Tunstall, and the new Kings of Leon CD.

Biggest misconception people have about traveling in general and traveling as a couple in particular?

Misconception about travel in general: That traveling is somehow an extended vacation – long term travel is rough at times, and is both physically and emotionally draining.

Misconception about traveling as a couple: That you get sick of each other- we actually miss each other when we spend a day apart!

Just for fun, If you’re not with your SO, where would you go to find a new partner?

Dani would go to Colombia
This was hard for me to decide, but I’d agree with Colombia and add France.

Words of wisdom for us and others who are about to embark on a RTW trip?

Don’t plan your route in too much detail before setting off because your plans are likely to change plans more than you would think. However, once you know your next stop, research the location and accommodation options so that you spend your time enjoying yourself rather than getting lost, changing hotels or missing some of the more interesting, but perhaps lesser known aspects of a place outside of the main tourist sites.

Also, try to spend at least three or four nights in each place. Faster than that, you might burn out, plus slower travel is cheaper travel. We choose quality over quantity, and feel that i you only visit three places in a country but loved each and had a great time, that’s better than rushing through a ton of places and not taking much away from the experience.

Thanks much for the interview, girls.

Twitter handle: @travelworklive
Website: http://globetrottergirls.com
Your Facebook: http://facebook.com/globetrottergirlsfanpage

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31 Responses to “Meet Dani and Jessica of The Globetrottergirls”

  1. bethany 2 April 2011 at 2:06 pm Permalink

    Oh I love this interview! So great to learn more about them and I can’t believe they way they met and going to London at the same time. Life is really strange sometimes huh? Great job :)
    bethany recently posted..World-Class Cycle Holidays in MajorcaMy Profile

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  2. Christy @ Technosyncratic 1 April 2011 at 4:52 pm Permalink

    How could you ever pass a stray kitten and NOT pet it?!? Although to be fair, my love of stray animals around the world has almost gotten me bitten a few times… :)
    Christy @ Technosyncratic recently posted..Trapped in the Dark at the Carlsbad CavernsMy Profile

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    • jill 1 April 2011 at 9:23 pm Permalink

      Yeah, I won’t be able to resist petting stray animals either. Or feeding them. Or spending hours trying to figure out how I can take them with me. We used to have a colony of stray animals congregating around dinner time at the front of our house in Indonesia because we’d feed them — until the neighbors complained about the mess they left behind :(

  3. Akila 1 April 2011 at 10:38 am Permalink

    Love this interview and love these ladies. I can only hope that we’ll get to met them in real life someday. And, I am SO happy to hear you say that about Isla Mujeres because I think we might be going there for our 10 year anniversary. I’m going to hit y’all up for some advice. :)

    Reply
    • Globetrottergirls 1 April 2011 at 4:18 pm Permalink

      Definitely get in touch about Isla Mujeres, Akila. Now, about those hashbrowns…a 7th fact that you may not know is that I am obsessed with frozen potato products, hash browns are at the top of this list! I have slowly been able to get Dani into hashbrowns, so we will DEFINITELY be giving these a try next time we are in the US.

  4. Jaime 1 April 2011 at 10:21 am Permalink

    I AM CRACKING UP… EVERYTHING ON HERE IS 100% TRUE (not that it wouldnt be)… After spending 2 weeks traveling with them I have grown to love them so much more!!! I do have to admit I hated that Dani would stop and pet every single cat/dog/anything we would come across. The reason behind that is because sometimes we would come across like a million cats and she would pet them all… lol!!!

    I miss you girls!!!
    Jaime recently posted..Photo Round Up – Week 4My Profile

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    • Globetrottergirls 1 April 2011 at 4:24 pm Permalink

      Jaime!!!! I totally included the animal-petting-story for you!!! :-) I am so used to it by now I didn’t even notice it any more until you were there and I realized it might not be soooooo normal to wait five minutes for Dani every.single.time. we passed a fluffy animal. We totally miss you too and can’t wait to meet back up again as soon as possible!!!
      Globetrottergirls recently posted..Polaroid of the week- Our favorite little donkey in the AlpsMy Profile

  5. Juliane 1 April 2011 at 9:56 am Permalink

    Booked some tickets for Kings of Leon yesterday and asked myself where you two probably are right now – here is my answer :) Good to see that you two are still enthusiastic about your travelling – and it’s even better to see that you are actually pretty close at the moment! Even though you must have suffered a massive temperature schock in the Alps!

    Keep travelling girls, you are my eyes to the world :)

    Reply
    • Globetrottergirls 1 April 2011 at 4:07 pm Permalink

      The temperature shock isn’t as bad as we thought. After a few really cold and snowy days, we now have spring weather and it’s really nice actually. Jealous about Kings of Leon tickets – that’s one thing we thought we would do more of – is go to concerts. We’re long overdue for a good concert…
      Globetrottergirls recently posted..Polaroid of the week- Our favorite little donkey in the AlpsMy Profile

  6. Erin 31 March 2011 at 3:05 pm Permalink

    Great interview! We had the pleasure of meeting the girls in Panama and will be seeing them again in Vancouver. They have enlightened us on the joys of Taco Bell which we’ll be trying out when we get to the US!

    Agreed – The Wire is an awesome TV show, although the West Wing just beats it in our top shows list.

    Reply
    • Akila 1 April 2011 at 10:42 am Permalink

      Taco Bell! And, you also need to find a Waffle House and get their amazing hash browns. Actually, I should have put that on my food recommendations list. Definitely find a Waffle House and order their hash browns.

    • Globetrottergirls 1 April 2011 at 4:05 pm Permalink

      You guys! That’s right! Now that you’ll be in the States you can really get into Taco Bell. I am scared, like what if you dont like it. But that’s craaaazy, of course you will! Dani can send you a link of all the Taco Bells near your housesit, like she did on our first trip to New York City! :-) Dani gave me the complete box set of the West Wing for Christmas before we left, and no dvd player to play it on now…See you soon!
      Globetrottergirls recently posted..Polaroid of the week- Our favorite little donkey in the AlpsMy Profile

  7. For 91 Days Travel Blog 31 March 2011 at 2:37 pm Permalink

    Great interview – learned so much more about you! Loved it and the pictures as usual are superb!
    For 91 Days Travel Blog recently posted..The Surprising Generosity of PorteñosMy Profile

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  8. Lisa @chickybus 31 March 2011 at 8:09 am Permalink

    Great interview….so nice to finally ‘meet’ the Globetrottergirls! Looks like you’ve had a great journey so far that’s only getting better–and a wonderful partnership. Very cool! And that cabin looks like a great place to be….I look forward to seeing what’s next!
    Lisa @chickybus recently posted..The Triptastic 10- Recommended Reading Right NowMy Profile

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  9. AynHgelina 31 March 2011 at 4:10 am Permalink

    You must come to South America to see me! Although after our cross Canada road trip you may have had enough of me and will want to escape to Asia.
    AynHgelina recently posted..My first tornado is a little devilMy Profile

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  10. Debbie - European Travelista 30 March 2011 at 5:32 pm Permalink

    Another great interview! It is great to read about traveling couples since I am planning on being one soon. Thanks for being willing to share a part of yourselves!
    Debbie – European Travelista recently posted..Is a Yurt LodgingMy Profile

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    • Globetrottergirls 31 March 2011 at 2:08 am Permalink

      Hey there Debbie! Great to hear that you’ll be part of a traveling couple soon. It’s definitely fun to have your partner with you on your trip – just make sure to plan in some alone time too! ps – awesome piece on the Yurts, now we have to figure out how to plan that in soon as well, that looks like so much fun!
      Globetrottergirls recently posted..Leon’s no gem – that’s what we love about itMy Profile

  11. Dyanne @TravelnLass 30 March 2011 at 11:58 am Permalink

    OMG, that gingerbread cabin in the snowy Alps is simply too “Hans Christian Anderson” to be real! How will you ever bear to leave it?
    Dyanne @TravelnLass recently posted..I heart NYCMy Profile

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    • Globetrottergirls 31 March 2011 at 2:06 am Permalink

      Totally, Dyanne! It is so nice here, the fresh air, and it’s spring so birds are chirping, buds on the trees getting ready to blossom. It’s for real that cute. How will we ever leave? We are going to Cinque Terre in Italy next, so basically Italian food is the only thing that is going to tempt us out of here :-) Thanks for your comment!
      Globetrottergirls recently posted..Leon’s no gem – that’s what we love about itMy Profile

  12. Pete - Hecktic Travels 30 March 2011 at 11:57 am Permalink

    Wonderful interview, and it’s great to learn more about other world vagabonds! So cool about housesitting in Germany, Europe is most likely our next destination, so we are actively trying to find somewhere to settle in. We can’t wait to crack a bottle of wine in Paris and people watch.

    I found myself nodding my head numerous times in this article, especially at the part about the misconception about the travel being an extended vacation. That really boils our blood when people make comments about that. They just don’t get it, or choose not to.

    Despite disturbing, I loved Ellis’s American Psycho (way more than the movie), and have read it more than once, dunno if that’s a good thing. I have to check out Scene It for the iPhone, we’re always looking for good time killers for bus/plane rides.

    Thanks again and safe travels through Europe, North America and wherever else you wander.
    Pete – Hecktic Travels recently posted..Dear Uncle Calvin – With Love- DyanneMy Profile

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    • Globetrottergirls 31 March 2011 at 2:04 am Permalink

      Hey Pete – glad you enjoyed the interview! First – if you will be in Europe at the same time us, maybe we can have a little Tweet-Up! Second – Paris is honestly so romantic and we absolutely loved this tango dancing. When you get to Paris, definitely go there. Third – you read American Psycho more than once? Maybe it’d be better not to meet up…Kidding! It’s strangely compelling but so disturbing that someone could even come up with those things! Lastly – In addition to Scene It, we also really like Trivial Pursuit for the iPhone. Thanks again for your comment!!!
      Globetrottergirls recently posted..Leon’s no gem – that’s what we love about itMy Profile

  13. Lauren 30 March 2011 at 11:24 am Permalink

    Great interview and it was awesome to learn more about you both!
    Lauren recently posted..4 Months Until My Round-The-World TripMy Profile

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  14. The NVR Guys 30 March 2011 at 11:09 am Permalink

    Hooray for traveling couples. Double cheer for traveling gay couples!!

    My favorite part:

    Misconception about travel in general: That traveling is somehow an extended vacation – long term travel is rough at times, and is both physically and emotionally draining.
    Misconception about traveling as a couple: That you get sick of each other- we actually miss each other when we spend a day apart!

    The NVR could not agree more.
    The NVR Guys recently posted..Priceline Isn’t PerfectMy Profile

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    • Globetrottergirls 31 March 2011 at 1:54 am Permalink

      Hey guys, so glad you agree with that. We pack more into our lives now than ever before. It makes life so much more exciting, but definitely not what some people picture, with us sipping margaritas on the beach or something…well – not always at least! This house in the Alps is just what we needed for now to recuperate from a long long year in Central America, that is for sure. Oh yeah, and definitely a double cheer for travelling gay couples!!! :-)
      Globetrottergirls recently posted..Leon’s no gem – that’s what we love about itMy Profile

  15. Nicole @WomanSeeksWorld 30 March 2011 at 10:17 am Permalink

    What a lovely story you guys have – It’s great to hear all your wonderful adventures, and I’ll definitely be stopping by your blog to follow you around the world from now on! : )
    Nicole @WomanSeeksWorld recently posted..3 Hours in Brussels – A Photo JourneyMy Profile

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