My Countries

' No one realises how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow' - Lin Yutang 

• The Netherlands 

My home country. This is where I was born and where my parents still live. I try to visit as often as possible, however, with studying in Austria and falling in love with New Zealand only little time is left to visit. I absolutely love The Netherlands and the people in it and am proud to say I'm Dutch. I left home at the age of nineteen to go and work as a snowboard instructor in Austria, but forgot to return home.

• Austria

This country cannot be more different from Holland. Mountain and snow where home is water and rain. I like to call Austria home as well as I really started to live my life here. I grew up in this country and found out what I wanted in life and where my interests lay. Of course I speak the language, and the dialect, perfect and am a little bit proud of this. At the moment I am living, studying and working in Salzburg; although we will see where the future brings me ;)

• New Zealand

Named by a Dutch guy called Abel Tasman. He came from the province of Zeeland and therefore called this country New Zealand. Small detail: I'm from Zeealand as well, to be exactly, from Zeeuws Vlaanderen. Anyway, it has always been a dream for me to travel to this country and in the summer of 2010 I had the change to do this. It was love, at second, sight. Amazing scenery, awesome people, mountains and sea. The perfect combination for me. New Zealand is in my heart and will always be there, I cannot wait for the day to go back there...