About us.

Hi! We are Ani & Julian – two world lovers from Cologne that run the Travel & Surf Blog wavesnbackpack.

When we are not in our favorite city, we are somewhere in the world collecting new moments for ourselves and our photo album. Or we spend the winter on one of the Canary Islands and work remotely from there.

TRAVEL. SURF. OUTDOORS.

How wavesnbackpack came to life

We started our project in 2016, after our first bigger trip together – Sri Lanka. We met a handful of fascinating people and couldn’t stop listening to their stories. An Australian surfer on her world trip, a Sri Lankan with a Bavarian accent, a Filipino living in Thailand who started surfing at the age of 85. And the interesting thing in people with different cultural backgrounds: Every single person of them wanted to share their own impressions with us, share their own story and carry it into the world.

Back home in cozy Cologne, we soon spent several evenings together in front of the laptop, writing down our notes, experiences and feelings about our absolute new favorite country, Sri Lanka.

As soon as the first trip together was behind us, the feeling of wanderlust was awakened in us: trips to Europe, a two-month adventure to Mexico & Nicaragua and another longer trip to Singapore, Indonesia & Myanmar followed. Camper trips through the region in which we live and within Europe, the one or other winter on the Canary Islands.

And still for a long time our wanderlust is not satisfied. Not only to see the world, but to feel it and get to know it. To experience cultures, to feel gratitude, to enjoy the moment and to follow the most beautiful of all sounds – the sound of the sea.

Step by step, numerous blogposts on wavesnbackpack appeared with all kinds of information about the countries we traveled to, a first eBook about the country we immediately fell in love with appeared: Sri Lanka. And with our surf preparation handbook a second one for all of you who want to prepare for your next surf trip. 🙂

… And again and again we pack our backpacks or suitcases with our cameras and a huge portion of excitement for what we may experience.

We hope our wavesnbackpack stories from our beautiful planet earth inspire you for your next trip!

It makes us incredibly happy to have you on board!

Cheers,

Ani

Hobby photographer, left back soccer player and Spanish lover – that’s Ani, 34 years old.

After finishing her studies in Spanish and Linguistics in Cologne, there was an important decision to make: Which camera will it be? Decision made, tickets booked and she was already on the plane to Mexico with Julian.

With the Sony Alpha in her luggage (and preferably a Handycam in her hand), she is always on the lookout to capture moments that we can share with you here and on Instagram. She also likes to improve Julian’s writing style and makes our posts perfect with a lot of attention to detail.

While Julian paddles the next wave, she sits in the café and enjoys a good cup of coffee or exhausts herself in a yoga class.

Julian about Ani

Attention to detail | loves to be slightly tanned | BVB Ultra

Julian

Analog photo fan, movement person and surf enthusiast – that’s Julian. He celebrates 34 and is self-employed as a PR and marketing consultant.

Either Julian is in front of the camera or – most recently – behind his new love, the analog camera Yashica T3.

If neither is the case, it’s because he’s longboarding, jogging to the gym or, ideally, on a surfboard. For Julian, exercise is as much a part of the day as coffee in the morning.

He never gets enough of waves. The feeling of having a surfboard under his feet makes him forget everything around him – his very own form of meditation. Then all that counts is: aim for the wave, paddle, stand up, and…. Wipeout. 🙂