PLACES WE’VE BEEN · STORIES WE CARRY · LIFE WE SHARE
Two Hearts. Two Cultures.
One Unexpected Journey.
A life shaped by travel, love, unexpected turns and the places that become home.
Welcome To Lizz & I
— our personal blog about travel, love, memories, and the unexpected coincidences that shape a life.
This is not a classic travel guide. You will not find lists like “The Top 10 Things to Do Before Breakfast” or “How to See Paradise in 48 Hours Without Sweating.”
Instead, this blog is about real journeys: the beautiful ones, the confusing ones, the funny ones, and sometimes the painful ones. It is about places that stayed with me long after I left them — Sri Lanka, Fiji, Hawaii, Australia, the Philippines, and many more.
Most of all, it is about how travel led me to Lizz. Through Fiji, German friends, Skype, and one unexpected message from the Philippines, my life changed completely. What started as a journey away from routine became a journey toward love, marriage, and eventually a new home.
Here, I write about the roads we took, the people we met, the objects we collected, the hotels we loved, the places that disappointed us, and the memories that still make us laugh, cry, or shake our heads in disbelief.
This is our story — told one journey, one memory, and one strange coincidence at a time.
Explore Our World
Every journey tells a story, and every moment holds a memory worth sharing. Join us as we explore life between two cultures, discover beautiful places, capture special moments, and share the experiences, reflections, and little treasures that make our journey uniquely ours. From the Philippines to Germany and everywhere in between, there’s always a story waiting to be told.
Stories Worth Reading
Some stories stay with us long after the journey ends. Others make us laugh, see the world differently, or remember how unexpectedly life can change. Here are three stories from our collection that capture a little of what Lizz & I is all about — the places we’ve been, the experiences we’ve shared, and the moments that made us who we are.
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A Funeral with Chandeliers, Coffee and Empanadas
I still remember the first time I attended a funeral in the Philippines. It was Lizz’s grandmother who had passed away at a very advanced age, and her body was laid out for viewing at Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes in Davao City. Now, I must admit, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Lizz had…
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White Christmas at 30 Degrees: My First Filipino Holy Night
Christmas in the Philippines begins on September 1. Yes, you read that correctly. While I, as a German, was still mentally somewhere between summer, cold beer, and trying not to melt, the Philippines had already pressed the Christmas button. Suddenly there was Christmas music everywhere. Not a little bit. Not shyly in the background. No,…
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The Big El Niño Scare: Waiting for the Sky to Make Up Its Mind
I knew about El Niño long before I first arrived in the Philippines. I also knew about its moody opposite, La Niña. These two weather phenomena have been playing with the Pacific for a very long time, long before we had satellite images, colour-coded forecast maps, and Facebook experts with dramatic background music. El Niño…