About
ABOUT
from the author
Coming from the land of sauerkraut and pretzels, my name is Bianca and I am a 27-year-old Alsatian with a passion for adventure. I am the author and creator of this travel blog, where I share my discoveries, experiences and questions as a young woman traveling alone.
From a communications student...
My student life at a business school in Strasbourg opened up many opportunities for me to discover the world. It all started when I was 18, when a ticket to Ireland marked the start of my first adventures outside my comfort zone. For three months, I perfected my English while discovering a culture that already aroused curiosity in me. Only a year later, at 19, I flew to Central America. Costa Rica, where I worked as a volunteer, and Mexico, where I studied, shaped my view of the world and taught me to appreciate fleeting encounters and the challenges of the unknown.
Back in France, I resumed my studies with a master's degree in event communication. During these last two years on the school benches, the call of elsewhere has never been so powerful, it resonated in me as an obvious fact.
Faced with the end of my studies, my decision was not easy to make. I watched the students around me question their professional project, while the only dream that drove me was to travel the roads of the world. I dreamed of discovering what is on the other side of the oceans, of letting myself be carried away by the ephemeral encounters of a journey, of feeling the adrenaline that the unknown gives me. I dreamed of living this freedom induced by the nomadic life.
As soon as I graduated in 2022 , I took off to travel the roads of the world alone with my backpack, my overflowing curiosity and my wandering madness.
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... with polar guide
Crossing the Americas from Patagonia to Alaska, hitchhiking around Iceland and working as a seasonal worker across Canada, I discovered not only incredible places, but also facets of myself that I didn't know existed.
Today, I am pursuing a new adventure beyond the Arctic Circle, in northern Norway. Driven by my passion for the great outdoors and drawn to icy lands, I am training to become a polar tour guide in the hope of sharing my fascination for these extreme lands.
By telling my story, I hope to inspire other dreaming souls to dare the unknown, because beyond the oceans, there is a world of experiences and encounters just waiting to be lived.
So, welcome to my blog, and thank you for traveling a little with me through my stories.
Kitchen
Italian
Destination
Costa Rica
Passions
Treks and Kayak
Author
Sarah Marquis
I opened this blog in October 2018, where I began to write article after article, as if to relive all these moments a second time. I write to bear witness, to share, to give desire, magic and dreams, to communicate this melancholic thrill that I feel when admiring the wonders of each country. All this because it was firstly the writings and photos of previous travelers that encouraged me to live this adventure.
It's after a little while on Instagram and being encouraged by quite a few of you that I'm taking the plunge. With many questions every day about financing my travels or my studies, I thought that a blog could reveal a little more. So I'm opening the site biancavagabonde.com to show that studies can easily be combined with travel.
This site therefore answers all these questions, by explaining my journey, by sharing my discoveries, my adventures and misadventures and by giving some advice about transport, accommodation and activities in the different places.
Always having my camera in my hands when I'm out and about, my articles will help you discover different countries through my lens.
FOR WHAT
this blog?
Strasbourg
Cork
I come from a small Alsatian village of 2,000 inhabitants, in the North-East of France. Since I started my higher education, I have been living in the city of Strasbourg, the capital of Europe.
This city in the South of Ireland welcomed me for three months during which I followed intensive English courses during my first year of higher education, in 2017.
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Monterrey
Puerto Viejo
I studied for a year in this city in the North of Mexico during my Bachelor in International Affairs. Monterrey is a gigantic city of a million inhabitants surrounded by mountains.
This small village on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica amazed me with its Jamaican atmosphere. I lived there for two months when I was volunteering at an animal shelter.
THE CITIES
where i lived
Yellowknife
During my PVT in Canada, I moved to Yellowknife for a year to work as a dog sled tour guide in the winter and a kayak tour guide in the summer. An experience in the Great North that will remain unforgettable!
Trekking in the Balkans
Volunteer at an animal shelter ( done in Costa Rica )
Walking through the Namibian desert
Hiking in Hawaii
See the penguins on the South Sandwich Islands
Pass my 1st diving level ( done in Malta )
Kayaking on a lake in Canada
Take a Motorcycle Roadtrip from Arizona to Wyoming
Do the Tour du Mont Blanc trek
Swimming with sharks ( done in Mexico )
Experience a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railway
Trekking in the Dolomites
Diving in the Galapagos Islands
Kayaking around the Ionian Islands
Complete the Pacific Crest Trail
Faire de la plongée aux Philippines
Faire un safari en Afrique
Naviguer sur un bangka (fait aux Philippines)
Faire une randonnée nocturne dans la jungle
Faire le tour de l'Islande en autostop (fait)
Voir un volcan en éruption (fait en Islande)
Voir un lac rose (fait à Rio Lagartos)
Marcher dans les Grandes Rocheuses du Canada
Voir des baleines (fait au Mexique)
Nager avec des otaries (fait au Mexique)
Faire un roadtrip en autostop (fait en Irlande et en Espagne)
Voir des rennes en Laponie finlandaise
Faire la fête à Cancun (fait)
Mettre les pieds au Groenland
Visiter Amsterdam sous la neige
Parcourir la Route 66 et ses villages authentiques
Observer les ours polaires à Svalbard, en Norvège
Rencontrer une tribu indigène (fait au Costa Rica)
Parcourir la Ruta 40 en Argentine
Voir des orques
Partir avec un aller simple en avion (fait en 2022)
Faire une expédition kayak et bivouac dans la jungle amazonienne (fait en Guyane)
Plonger avec des raies manta géantes
Vivre le festival Burning Man
MY
dreams
Tromso
I am currently spending the year in Tromso, this Norwegian city north of the Arctic Circle.
MY
course
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2017
I was just 18 and had just graduated from high school. I then joined a business school in my area and went to study English intensively from the first year. I spent three months in the city of Cork, in the south of Ireland, during which I explored the four corners of the country by hitchhiking with a friend. My first backpacking adventures!
2018
In my second year of my Bachelor's degree, I founded an association with four other students to defend the animal cause.
So I went to Costa Rica for two months at the end of the school year to work as a volunteer in an animal shelter on the country's Caribbean coast.
At the end of my mission in Costa Rica, I flew straight to Mexico where I was about to begin my third and final year of my Bachelor's degree.
I studied for a year in the city of Monterrey, in the North of Mexico, thanks to a university exchange. With only two days of classes per week, I had to find a new project. So I created the blog www.etudiantevagabonde.com to start sharing my travel stories with my loved ones.
2019
After three years of higher education rich in cultural experiences abroad, I obtained my Bachelor's degree in International Affairs.
At that point, I decided to do what is called a "gap year". I needed to take some time to discover more professional fields before committing to a master's degree. So I did a six-month internship and then I went to Asia during the second part of the year.
2021
A few months after my return from Asia, I started a master's degree in event communication. Alongside my studies, I was employed as an apprentice in a company in my region. I found myself with my feet tied for two years, a real blow for me! Ultimately, this experience was very useful for me to understand what drove me and what made me vibrate.
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2022
While finishing my studies, I am slowly preparing to live one of my biggest dreams: experiencing the nomadic life.
Once the summer is over and I have my master's degree in hand, I fly to Peru on a one-way ticket. It will be the first destination of a never-ending journey...
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2020
Ah, the famous year of the health crisis... I was in the middle of a trip to the Philippines and I found myself completely stuck on the island of Siargao. I finally managed to return after several weeks of relentlessness and then I started to think seriously about the rest of my studies.
2024
It's been two years now that I've been backpacking through the Americas. From Patagonia I've gone up to Alaska, passing through the highest peaks of the Andes and the second largest coral reef in the world in the Caribbean... I've had some incredible experiences.
I am now in Canada on a PVT (Working Holiday Visa) where I live in a small converted van. I work seasonal jobs across the country and take advantage of the in-between jobs to travel around with my van.
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2025
After two years spent on the roads of the world, I rediscovered myself through different professions and lifestyles. I realized that the communication sector was not the one in which I wanted to evolve professionally in the near future. I then began a one-year training course to learn how to guide in polar regions.
