Adventure Travel with Kristine Eksteine-Nizka - Love Your Italy

Guest Bio

Kristine Eksteine-Nizka is the founder of Love Your Italy, a travel planning service and blog focused on helping travelers explore Italy, with a special emphasis on the Dolomites. Kristine and her husband Michal live in Europe and draw from their personal experiences living in Northern Italy and extensive travels throughout the country to create tailored itineraries and practical advice for visitors. Her approach combines a deep understanding of Italy’s diverse regions with a commitment to responsible and enjoyable travel.

Show Summary

In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Kristine about her journey from growing up in Latvia to becoming a travel planner specializing in Italy’s Dolomites. They discuss how Kristine’s passion for travel evolved through years of personal exploration, including her time working as a flight attendant and living near Lake Iseo in Northern Italy.

The conversation delves into what makes the Dolomites unique, from their limestone peaks and extensive cable car networks to the challenges of overtourism and the importance of responsible travel. Kristine shares how her business, Love Your Italy, offers custom itinerary planning and a vibrant online community for travelers seeking to navigate the region thoughtfully and safely.

Listeners also learn about the practical side of Kristine’s work, including why she chooses not to handle bookings directly and how she supports travelers with detailed planning advice, emphasizing safety and local respect. The episode highlights her dedication to making Italian adventures approachable, especially in areas less familiar to the average tourist.

Big World Made Small guest features are invitation-only and selected based on story, experience, and fit with the show. Guest support helps make the episode possible, but it does not determine who is featured. This helps keep the show free of third-party ads and interruptions while keeping the focus on real, story-driven conversations.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_02 (01:05):
Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of
the Big World Made Small podcastfor the Adventure Traveler.
Super excited to have each andevery one of you back today, and
also super excited to have myguest.
I'm I'm gonna do this a littledifferent because our our
regular listeners are used to metotally messing up names almost
every other episode.
And I'm gonna do somethingdifferent today.

(01:25):
I'm not even gonna try.
I'm just gonna say Christine.
We've got Christine here, andthose of you looking at the show
notes uh can see how her lastname is spelled.
I'm gonna ask her to tell us alittle bit about her last name
and how to pronounce it.
Christine, welcome to the show.
Happy to have you here.

SPEAKER_00 (01:40):
Hi Jason, so happy to be here.
So the last name.
Yeah, that's that's yeah, that'sa thing.
So my last name is EksteineNiska.
So it's a Latvian Slovak mix.
When I got married to myhusband, I could not let go of
my Latvian last name.
So I decided I will just add theNiska O to it.

SPEAKER_02 (02:02):
It's now I it works and it sounds so great when you
say it.
But I as you know, I tried a fewtimes before I hit the record
button, and I was right up untilI hit the record button, I was I
was gonna take a stab at it.
I thought, you know what, let'sjust let's play around with this
just a little bit.
And and you mentioned thatpeople where you're at now,
cause you cause you live telleverybody where you live now.

SPEAKER_00 (02:25):
Right now I live in Czech Republic, just next to
Prague.
I actually see it out of mywindow.
And uh yeah, people herestruggle.
They do not struggle with theNiska part, because you know,
Czechoslovakia, they havebasically the same, although
they do spell it incorrectly allthe time.

SPEAKER_02 (02:41):
I bet.
But you don't you don't use likeyour last name and an email
address at all or anything, doyou?
Because I because I know thereason I asked that is I've
learned to make my, you know,anytime I try and choose an
email address or whatever, tryand make it as easy as possible.
Because there's so many timeswhen people are like, let me get
your email address, and you'reyou gotta spell it all out for

(03:01):
them.
And I was just curious if ifthat comes up.

SPEAKER_00 (03:04):
Yeah.
I do not use it in my workemail.
Yeah, it's just Christine atloveyouritaly.com.
That's easy.
That is, but the work em uh thepersonal email, I'm sorry, is
Christina.eksteina at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_02 (03:18):
So did do that.
Yeah, yep.
Any anyway, so so you've gotyou've got quite a story.
You've obviously do not livewhere you grew up.
And so we're gonna get we'regonna dig into that, kind of
figure out how you got fromwhere you were to where you are
throughout the course of theconversation.
But let's just start with LoveYour Italy, because because

(03:40):
actually that's we've we'vealready mentioned two countries
now, now we're on the thirdcountry.
So, you know, your company,you're the founder of Love Your
Italy.
So let's give our listeners kindof an idea of what you do at
Love Your Italy.

SPEAKER_00 (03:51):
I'm gonna start from the back of it all, like from
the end, because Love Your Italyright now has niched down to
Dolomites travel planning.
Okay.
So we have a blog part where weteach people how to tra plan
their trips to the Dolomites,and we have travel planning
services where we offer customitineraries, we offer itinerary

(04:12):
reviews, consultation calls, andpretty much everything can be
worked out.
But it started actually, I had ageneral travel blog before.
It was a different website.
I was writing about Japan, I waswriting about Patagonia and then
I started writing about Italy,and I was like, oh yes, this, I
want to write about this andthis and this and this and this

(04:32):
and this.
And I had like 20 articles onJapan, 20 on Patagonia, and then
it was already at like 40 forItaly, and I was like, okay,
this is getting a bitunbalanced.

SPEAKER_02 (04:43):
Obviously, there's something about Italy that's
caught my attention.
Yeah, uh-huh.
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (04:47):
Maybe, maybe.
So I decided, okay then, I amgonna start a new website about
Italy, hence love your Italy.
And then I started writing aboutthe Dolomites.
And that was, I think at thispoint it was three years ago
that I started writing aboutdolomites with the idea that we
are gonna be writing about allof the other of Italy.

(05:08):
We are still on the Dolomitesand nowhere near finished.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (05:12):
So so you only do the doll what I heard you say,
this is what I picked up out ofwhat you just said, was that you
help people uh through obviouslythe blogs, gathering information
to help them prepare their owntrips, but you also work with
them to help build itineraries,review itineraries.
And is it is it exclusively thedolomites then?
If if somebody comes to you andsays, We want to go to southern
Italy and here's the itinerarywe're looking at.

(05:35):
Can we can we work with you tohave you help us put it
together?
I suspect you probably could,but it sounds like the dolomites
are really your what you'redoing.
Help me figure that out.

SPEAKER_00 (05:45):
That's actually a bit of a disagreement point with
my husband at this point.

SPEAKER_02 (05:51):
Okay, so are you saying we shouldn't discuss
this?
We should say all right.
Tell us your side.
You you're the one with the mic.
Tell us tell us yourperspective.

SPEAKER_00 (06:00):
It's actually really funny because we were just
talking about it today with myhusband.
We started talking about becausewe are kind of uh reworking all
of the main pages on the websiteright now, and he's going
through the about me section,about us, and I have all of
Italy there.
And he was like, but we aredoing just the Dolomites, and I
was like, but you know, we knowall of basically all of Italy.

(06:23):
So yeah, if someone came andwanted to do southern Italy,
like we could do it.
I would be honest about theparts which we have visited and
which we haven't, obviously, sothey know what's happening and
what's not, but we know Italy,we know how people think there,
we know how Google Maps and theactual roads there look, how to

(06:44):
do everything.
So for us personally, and I useus because my husband is also
travel planning with me, so it'skind of our common thing.
And for us, it's much easier tofigure everything out, all the
details out, than it is forfirst for a person who hasn't
been to Italy.
And even if they've been to likeRome, it's completely different.

(07:05):
If you go to Rome, that's likeit's tourists.
It's prepared for tourists, it'sgonna be okay with it.
But if you go to like the middleof nowhere Sardinia, that is
gonna be a lot different.
So it's kind of like you can doit.

SPEAKER_02 (07:20):
I get that because you know, if you look at the US,
for example, let's say you'refrom Europe or Latin America and
talking about visiting the US,well, visiting New York City,
which is where most people gothe first time.
Difference between visiting NewYork City and maybe getting an
RV and travel around the Westand visiting Yellowstone and the
Grand Canyon, those are twototally different types of

(07:42):
trips.
Not that either one are reallysuper complicated and they
people can figure them out, butit is a it's a different thing.
So so should we have you putyour website like if I go to
your website right now, it saysLove Your Italy, is there a
branding change coming on herein the future that you want to
announce on this show?
Or because because this thisepisode is gonna be around for a

(08:02):
while.
So do you think that if somebodylistened to this several months
from now is it's gonna be LoveYour Dolomites, or are you are
you shifting at all, or what doyou think?

SPEAKER_00 (08:11):
No, we are sticking with Love Your Italy because we
still think that we will do thewhole Italy.

SPEAKER_01 (08:15):
Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 (08:16):
And I think fingers crossed that we are adding
Venice.

SPEAKER_01 (08:21):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (08:21):
I I wanted to say by the end of the year, but let's
be realistic.
Next year we'll add Venice andMilan and like other
destinations.
So northern Italy for now.

SPEAKER_02 (08:31):
When a traditional tour operator that actually has
packages they put together andthey they've got packages on
their website, when they mightsay we're adding a new
destination means they're addinga new itinerary that you can
book with them, that type ofthing.
Is that what you're talkingabout?
Or when you say we're gonnaprobably add Venice, does that

(08:52):
mean you're just gonna startwriting more blog posts about
Venice, more information aboutVenice?
Because it sounds like you workwith a lot of maybe the more
do-it-yourself type people.
And I don't want to put words inyour mouth, so correct me if I'm
wrong.

SPEAKER_00 (09:04):
No, actually, that's a really good question because
we are gonna be adding thearticles and it's gonna be like
uh how to plan a trip to Venice,what you need to know, where to
stay, best activities, what todo on a rainy day, and stuff
like that.
Because we kind of have at thispoint 50-50 with people who want
to plan their own trips.
So we want to help with that.

(09:25):
Our goal, our our mission is forpeople to find the things that
they love in Italy.
That's how the name actuallycame for to me that love your
Italy, because each one of ushas something different in it.
And uh so for Venice, it will belike all of the stuff you need
to plan your own trip.
Plus, let's say we haven'tgotten that far yet, but it's

(09:46):
probably gonna be eitherNorthern Italy travel planning
services or just Venice or justgeneral.
We haven't gotten to that part.
What we are doing right now iswe are trying to fix the
confusion that my ADHD createdon the website.

SPEAKER_02 (10:00):
Yeah, you and I you and I discussed the ADHD thing a
little bit last time we spoke,and it was it was pretty funny
because I can relate to itcompletely.

SPEAKER_01 (10:09):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (10:10):
Yeah, yeah.
So so travel, I I I want to diginto for our listeners and just
kind of me in general.
I'm just curious.
When you say travel planningservices, because there's a lot
of different words we useadvisors, planners, agents, all
these different words, and I andsometimes they mean exactly what
it sounds like they mean, butfor you, somebody says, Look, I

(10:33):
read your articles, I want to goto the dolomites.
Can you set it up for me?
So a traditional travel agentmight say, Okay, yep, I'm gonna
book your flights, I'm gonnahave someone meet you at the
airport, I'm gonna have someonedrive you to the lodge, I'm
gonna have your guide meet youthe next morning, take you on a
hike, and they just kind of bookit all for somebody.
And then there's others thatdon't necessarily book the

(10:55):
stuff, but will sit down and gostep by step.
Okay, this is a great place.
Here's what I suggest.
You can do this, do this, dothis.
So, where do you fit in thatspectrum and what should people
expect if they want you to helpthem plan their trip?

SPEAKER_00 (11:08):
I will not book things.

SPEAKER_02 (11:10):
Okay, that's I thought that might be the case,
and that's why I wanted to getinto that.
So, what's the value to theperson working with you then?
If you don't book things,there's probably other value
that balances that out.

SPEAKER_00 (11:21):
Yeah, as one of my last clients said, the Dolomites
are so confusing.
And that's a person who'straveled Switzerland, Austria,
the US, and like everywhere.
I think he said he's actuallyclimbed Kilimanjaro, and the
Dolomites confused him.
So the value is that we have 10plus years of experience with

(11:47):
Italy in all shapes and forms.
We did live in Italy.
We missed that part, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 (11:51):
So we're gonna we're gonna get to the history.
We're gonna get to the history.
We're just we're just figuringout how you how you do things
now.

SPEAKER_00 (11:58):
So Yeah, uh, that's one that's the one country I
didn't mention, though.
I mentioned a lot of othercountries where I've been and
did not mention Italy.

SPEAKER_02 (12:07):
Well, yeah, we're yeah, that's true.
But I'm happy I'm happy youbrought that up.
It's making a lot more sense nowwhy you do Italy stuff.
But okay, so you don't bookstuff, but you you know the
stuff.

SPEAKER_00 (12:18):
I know the stuff and I plan the trip.

SPEAKER_02 (12:20):
Why don't you book the stuff?
I'm just gonna ask you whybecause I have some ideas in my
head of why you don't getinvolved in that part of it, but
I'm just gonna ask you, youknow.

SPEAKER_00 (12:28):
It's more reasons because I did not want to go
through the struggle of settingup a travel agency with all of
the legal stuff since I don'twork like it would probably be
easier if I worked only withCzechs here in Central Public.
But since I work with the US,since I work with UK and all of
the other countries, like it'sjust not worth it for me because

(12:50):
I do not want to book things.
It might be a bit controversial.

SPEAKER_02 (12:55):
I I get it.
I'm I'm listening to you, I'mlike, yeah, it's a which is why
some people use traditionaltraveling, but oh, I think the
light bulb just went off,Christine.
Tell me.
Here's what I just here's whatjust popped into my head, and
I'm curious.
I don't know if okay, if I'm atravel agent, I'm in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, I'm a travel agent,and I've got a client that wants

(13:18):
to go to the Dolomites, and Ireally know nothing about the
Dolomites, but I know Christine.
So maybe I reach out toChristine and say, Hey,
Christine, this is kind of whatthese clients want to do.
Can you if you can work withthem or me or whatever to put
together the itinerary, I'lltake care of booking everything.
Does that happen, or is thatjust like a brilliant idea?

(13:39):
Or where does like that?
Because that's what I'mthinking.
So the person that doesn't wantto book their own stuff, maybe I
don't know.
Is that a business idea?

SPEAKER_00 (13:46):
That's a that's a business idea.
That is awesome.
Yeah, and by the way, the mainreason but that doesn't seem to
happen.

SPEAKER_02 (13:53):
It sounds like based on your reaction, that doesn't
sound like a typical scenario.
I was envisioning that as like,oh, that must be part of how it
works, but maybe not yet.

SPEAKER_00 (14:02):
Well, not yet.
Now it's gonna be on air.
Yeah, but like the reason why Idon't want to book stuff is I
don't want to triangulate.
You know, if someone has a hotelthat I booked for them and they
can't make it to that hotel,they tell me I cannot make it to
the c hotel.

(14:23):
Can you figure out if I can comelater?
I call the hotel, like, hi, myclient cannot make it today.
Can they come later?
Yes, they can.
They can come on this date.
They will need to pay this.
Okay, let me see.
Hi, so the hotel said blah,blah, blah.
Hmm, can you ask them?

SPEAKER_02 (14:41):
Yeah, I I get it.
And you know what?
Probably everybody that'slistening to this can relate to
that because there's enough ofthem that have worked in tourism
long enough, either as advisorsor or whatever.
And I've been on a few differentsides of that as well.
So I get that.
In a sense, it's and withtechnology the way it is.
I mean, if you help them puttogether a great itinerary that

(15:01):
that is all lined out, they'vegot the phone number right
there.
Or maybe, you know, just callthe hotel.
It's probably, and you knowwhat?
A lot of guests are like thattoo.
They're like, why am I gonnabother calling my my agent or my
advisor when I'm, you know,three hours away from the hotel,
my advisor's in another kind ofI'll just call the hotel.

(15:21):
So exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So that makes sense.
And obviously, your clients umit works well for them.
Do you get involved in helpingpeople with everything from just
like a day activity all the waythrough multi-day itineraries?
Or what is that?
You I mean, because sometimespeople are just reading your
stuff and and doing it, so youmight not even know exactly what
they're doing.
But the ones that actually reachout to you and ask for help, is

(15:43):
it usually, hey, we're gonna bethere and we want to do
something on Thursday?
Can you help us figure somethingout?
Or is it more, hey, we're gonnabe we want to go in three months
and can you help us put together10 days?
So what does it usually looklike?

SPEAKER_00 (15:55):
Anything in between.
Like all of that and everythingin between.
I have a client who reached out,oh, it's been already like nine
months at this point.
She's gonna be going to theDolomites next month.
So we've been doing the tripplanning.
I helped actually with the wholenorthern Italy uh sorry,
northern Italy for her.

(16:16):
So I planned everything fromMilan to like Como, Verona,
Dolomites, and she and sheactually changed it.
She ends now in Venice, so it'sbeen a nine-month process.
She's so lonely though.
Yeah I love working with her, soshe's she might be listening.

SPEAKER_02 (16:33):
That was like really important.
She sounds she sounds like awonderful person.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (16:40):
She is so nice.
Like, I'm each time she reachesall that, like, hey.

SPEAKER_02 (16:45):
That's that's cool.
That's that's the fun part.
And especially if you're not theone involved in the the
in-between with the hotels andall that that we were just
discussing.
Hey, it just occurred to methough, I I feel like I kind of
dropped the ball.
Where the heck are thedolomites?
I I think you you finally, youknow, you did mention northern
Italy and enough a couple times,so it's like, oh yeah, I'm sure

(17:06):
a lot of people already know,but I'm not sure I'm crystal
clear.
I know it's northern Italy, butI don't know if the Dolomites
are part of the Italian Alps.
I don't know if it's on theborder of Switzerland.
I have no, I don't really know.
So without the use of maps orgraphics, because some people
are just listening to this, helphelp our listeners figure out

(17:27):
where the dolomites are andmaybe kind of why they should
why they should know what theyshould know about the dolomites.
Because you said they wereconfusing too.
So I want to touch on that alittle bit.
Or at least the one manmentioned that it was confusing.

SPEAKER_00 (17:39):
It's the northeast Italy.
So the Dolomites, people thinkit's one huge national park,
it's actually a bunch ofnational parks stuck together,
and it's a UNESCO World HeritageSite, so kind of like it's all a
mix there.
And people are not exactlyagreeing on the exact borders of
the Dolomites.
So because sorry, I jumped likeover.

SPEAKER_02 (18:01):
No, no, yeah.
Well, here let me let me ask youthis just based on what you've
said so far, is what I hear isthe Dolomites are a a mountain
range, a range of mountains.

SPEAKER_00 (18:11):
That's the that's the part that I missed to
mention.
Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 (18:15):
But but it makes sense.
So they're a mountain range, andif we use if we talk about
Italy, I'm trying to try tothink how we describe this with
without a map or whatever, butso people think of Italy as a
boot, right?
So if you go up the heel, if yougo from the heel all the way up
along the coast to the very topwhere somebody's the back of

(18:36):
their knee would be or theirtheir calf would be or something
like that.

SPEAKER_00 (18:41):
The front of their knee, actually.

SPEAKER_02 (18:43):
Wait.

SPEAKER_00 (18:44):
So it's the you know where Venice is?
That's kind of like easier tofigure out.

SPEAKER_02 (18:48):
Yeah, but it's on the back side of the boot,
right?

SPEAKER_00 (18:51):
So it's up.
I did not make it into the uhyeah, no, I got confused as all.
So yeah, that's like the shape.
The shape is like this.
So if you go up and to theright, to the right, when you
look at the map, that's whereVenice is.
So basically in between Veniceand top right corner.

SPEAKER_02 (19:09):
Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (19:16):
Or something.
I just confused myself with themap.
I'm geographically challenged.

SPEAKER_02 (19:22):
Don't say that.
You're a travel advisor, notadvisor, but you know what?
Just kidding.
Okay, well, so a lot of ourlisteners like, geez, Jason, I
think we kind of figured it out.
You didn't have to bring up thewhole boot thing.
You just anyway, so okay, Igotcha.
It's up in the top right corner.

SPEAKER_00 (19:38):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (19:39):
It's a mountain range.
There's a bunch of nationalparks that are kind of in that
mountain range.
Now, is that mountain range partof the Alps?
Or are the Alps on the otherside?
Or what is how does that allwork?

SPEAKER_00 (19:52):
It's uh part of the Alps, and it's the limestone
Alps.
So the unique thing about theDolomites, why they are so
special, is that they areactually a bit of a different
material than your typical Alps.
They are limestone, so they arelighter in color.
So if you look at pictures,generally the dolomites are a
bit like lighter colors.

(20:13):
They are light grey, beige,sometimes orangey.
So they are made of limestone,so that's the main thing that
makes them so special.
And um on the on our last trip,we found out that there used to
be volcanoes, also.
So there are some parts of thedolomites that actually have
black rocks, and that's likemillions and millions of years
ago there used to be volcanoes.

(20:35):
So you might even find some old,old lava there.

SPEAKER_02 (20:38):
Okay, very cool.
And I've seen so many beautifulpictures, and they really do
stand out.
It's it's almost I I'm not anexpert by any stretch, but if
somebody showed me a picture ofthe dolomites, I would probably
recognize oh, that looks likethe dolomites.
Because it does, it does lookdifferent.
I'm sure there's other places inthe world that have similar
rocks, but it does seem to standout.

(20:59):
Obviously, it's the mountains,so obviously it attracts people
that like to hike and climb andspend time in the mountains, but
I suspect there's other stuffthere as well.
And I don't know what it is.
So let's talk a little bit aboutwhat else should people know
about the dolomites other thantheir lighter colored limestone
rocks that have spectacularscenery, because I'm sure

(21:19):
there's a lot of other coolstuff there as well that I don't
know about.

SPEAKER_00 (21:23):
One thing that I really, really want to mention
that uh just came up in myFacebook group is that you do
not need to hike to enjoy thedolomites.
Which is one it really, itreally conf uh surprises a lot
of people because they think, ohmy god, I cannot hike that much.
I'm old, or I had the surgery,or like just your general

(21:44):
illnesses that come up with umtrouble walking.

SPEAKER_02 (21:49):
Here's my take on that, Christine, as someone that
is pretty far removed.
I mean, we used to offerdolomites trips.
I ran a travel business, but Ihad somebody on my team that did
it, so I didn't really get tooinvolved with that particular
trip.
But I think the challenge is Idon't know, the tourism board,
the the local community, the theoperators in the area keep using

(22:09):
pictures of people hiking onthese big rocks.
Like, I don't think I've everseen any marketing about the
dolomites that wasn't somebodyhiking on a rock.
So no wonder everybody thinksthat that's the only thing to
do.
And it's what you're sayingmakes sense because if you think
like the Tetons in Wyoming,Yellowstone Park and the Tetons,
how many millions of people govisit the Tetons and never,

(22:33):
never get on a trail, you know?
But they're spectacularlybeautiful.
You know, and but nobody thinksI I don't want to, I'm not gonna
go to the Tetons because I don'tlike to climb.
Well, okay.
So what do you think it is?
Why why does everybody thinkit's only climbing and and I
just want to continue that pathyou were going on?

SPEAKER_00 (22:52):
Yeah, because uh as you said, everyone is always
walking in the mountains whenyou see any marketing, right?
Like so little pictures arearound of people just taking.
A cable car and the view isthere.
I actually I have already ageneral short uh hypes and
viewpoints in the Dolomitesarticle, and I'm planning to

(23:13):
write more because there arejust so many, like in an hour,
even in half an hour, if youwalk for half an hour, you can
find so many incredible views,or you can just take a cable car
up.
The Dolomites have incrediblygood cable car networks in all
of the valleys.
And that brings me back to myprevious point, sorry, why the
dolomites are so complicated,because it's a lot of valleys

(23:36):
there.
So that means valleys, mountainpasses, and it actually is many
regions of uh Italy.
It's Veneto, it's Alto, Adige,so and some more.
I don't want to go into thegeography, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 (23:49):
No, no, I I get that, but but just when you say
valleys with cable cars, I'mthinking it sounds like a really
cool.
I mean, it's almost seems likeyou put together an itinerary of
just a driving itinerary.
You drive, take the cable car tothe top of the mountain, you
know, on Tuesday.
And I really love cable cars.
I'm in I'm in Medellin, Columbiaright now.
They've got an amazing cable carnetwork.

(24:11):
And I can go get on the metroand go to a cable car, go up to
the top of the mountain.
It's pretty damn cool.
And I don't have to I don't usea lot of energy doing it, so you
don't have to hike, I guess.
Yeah.
Are these are are these valleyspresumably there's towns and
villages and stuff like that inthese in these valleys that what
is how would you describe thejust the general nature of these

(24:32):
towns?
Because when people think Italy,they probably have when they
think of villages, I'm not evensure village is the right word.
Is village the right word forItaly?
Not really, is it?
It's kind of like uh Or maybe itis.

SPEAKER_00 (24:45):
I think there was everything from tiny little
villages, basically settlementsto, you know, Rome, Milan.

SPEAKER_02 (24:51):
Okay.
So when Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 (24:54):
In the Dolomites, it's mostly I would say towns
size-wise.
Because they are not really theyare not cities uh that they are
bigger than villages.
Although I do use villages andtowns interchangeably because
it's really kind of like I yeah,I don't know what I have no idea
what the definition would be.

SPEAKER_02 (25:11):
Do you Okay.
And for some reason when youmentioned that, just the way
something about the way you saidthat, like I I don't think we
can have this conversationwithout touching on I guess the
easiest way to say it is overtourism.
Because there's some parts inItaly that that seems to be a
very big issue, talking aboutVenice and Rome and and all that
stuff.
Is that even an issue in theDolomites?

(25:33):
Or are the Dolomites do theDolomites attract a different
crowd?
Do they are they happier to seepeople in the Dolomites than
maybe they are in a no?
You're shaking your head no, sookay, I'll stop talking.
You start.
Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 (25:46):
Well, it is a problem in the dolomites as
well.
A big part of the range isover-touristed, and it's really
it's kind of so sad becausepeople generally tend to go to
the same big names, which isLake Bryas, which is Cacheda,
Alpedicius, Cortina now with theOlympic Games, did not help.

(26:07):
So the spots that you see onInstagram, the locals are
really, really not happy whenpeople go to those spots.
So which is it's kind of likeit's a double-edged sword, you
know, because they kind of liveon the tourism.
A big part of the valley, oh, ofthe valley of the mountains,
lives on the tourism becausethere's a lot of family-run

(26:30):
hotels that families run forgenerations, which is a thing
that I really love.
There's a lot of familybusinesses, little small
businesses of locals that liveon the tourists, and at the same
time, there are the locals whoreally, really do not like
tourists, and I get them alsobecause there are so many times
I'm trying to be reallypolitically correct right now.

SPEAKER_02 (26:51):
Sorry, that's why I'm struggling.
Just go for it.
It'll be out there forever.
Just say whatever.
Don't worry about politics.
Well, let me maybe I can ask theright questions, then it's on me
because nobody will get upsetwith me.
But yeah, so that that is thechild.
I grew up in an environmentwhere, you know, in Sheridan,

(27:12):
Wyoming, at the base of thebighhorns, and tourism was like
summers.
It was tourist season.
And if you drove down MainStreet in Sheridan, there was
motel, motel, bar, restaurant,motel, you know.
It was very, very, verytourism-based.
Guess where I'm going with thisis but and then there were other
people who didn't work intourism or didn't see the direct
connection, especially if theywere a retiree, maybe, or they

(27:33):
had some sort of pension.
They they're like, I, you know,I benefit nothing.
If they're actually it hurts meif the tourists, if the
tourists, the the tourists, thetourists, I can't speak today,
if the tourists are in town, itif they just get in the way,
traffic's bad, things are moreexpensive, my, you know, it's
just a pain in the butt becausethey get nothing, they get no

(27:56):
benefit out of the tourism.
But then you've got other peoplein town that own the motel or
they have a restaurant or theyhave a job as a tour guide or
something like that.
And so I get that.
Everybody listening to thisalready knows this.
They're just chasing each other.
That's that's a minute and ahalf, I'll never get back in my
life.
But where I'm going with this iswhat do they say in these towns?

(28:18):
Is it is it generally a we wantless tourists, we want
higher-end tourists, people thatspend more money, fewer
backpackers, and more luxurypeople, or does there seem to be
a consensus for what shouldhappen in these towns?

SPEAKER_00 (28:34):
The main thing is people want more responsible
tourists.

SPEAKER_01 (28:38):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (28:39):
Yeah, and why I really, really, really
understand the locals who areagainst tourism is, and this is
the polycorrect part, which youdid not guess.
Sorry, the big, big influencerson Instagram, on Facebook, when
they promote the places, quiteoften they do the things that
are illegal to do.

(29:00):
Yeah, so why did I try to bepolycorrect?
They are breaking the law.
No need to be polycorrect aboutthat.

SPEAKER_02 (29:06):
Yeah.
Give us, would you give us anexample?
You don't have to mentionanybody by name.
But I mean, I mean I'menvisioning people getting off
trails or going to vistas thatthey shouldn't be on that
probably are dangerous andthey're filming it, and then the
tourists show up and think, Iwant to go to the same spot and
get the same photo up, right?

SPEAKER_00 (29:23):
Is that the Yeah, they go over fences.
Like, for example, if you go fora walk or a hike in the
dolomites, you will quite oftenmeet farm animals.
You will meet cows, you willmeet goats.
So obviously there is a kind offence at some point point or
another, and people will climbover these fences and go to

(29:43):
private property.
They will walk there, they willhave a picnic there, they will
leave their trash there.
You know?
That was the biggest uh likescandal last year that uh at
Sacheda, which is uh you'veprobably seen it's like those
really big teeth that are kindof like pushed out of the
ground.

(30:04):
Okay, a cliff, and on the otherside there's uh really nice
meadow.
Is how you pronounce it.
Basically a toll gate there.

unknown (30:16):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (30:16):
He just he put a toll gate in the middle of trail
and said, like, if you want togo here, you have to pay five
euros because that's my privateproperty.
And like it is his privateproperty.
Okay.
And like the biggest amount ofpeople that was there, his
number, was 8,000 people, Ithink, went off the cable car in
one day.

SPEAKER_02 (30:34):
If the Okay, you you mentioned the cable car, that
threw me off because what I'menvisioning is a meadow with a
trail, and if you want to go upthe trail, you gotta pay some
five euros.

SPEAKER_00 (30:44):
Uh, you take a cable car up to two and a half
thousand meters, I think.

SPEAKER_02 (30:48):
Oh, okay.
I got your own.

SPEAKER_00 (30:50):
So and then the you have a bunch of trails there,
and there's one really popularone that just goes like it's
called the sacheta blanked mindedge trail, I think.
Okay.
Do not quote me on this.
Sorry, I just blanked on it.
I know the name, I promise.

SPEAKER_02 (31:05):
So anybody taking notes, make sure to go over to
her website and get the name.

SPEAKER_00 (31:13):
So you go from the cable car right at the edge of
the teeth, and you can like lookdown to the different valley,
both sides.
It's a really beautiful place.
And people would just go off thetrail, and they would not care
that there's a fence and it saysprivate property, do not step,
or that it's actually it's anational park, so you should not
go off trails because it'sprotected.

(31:35):
And they would just walk there,destroy the grass, destroy the
plants, they leave trash, theydo not care about the nature.
And that's kind of also a bit ofmy personal problem.
Because on the one hand, I lovethe places, I like promoting
them because they are sobeautiful and so unique.
And at the same time, I'm tryingto teach responsible tourism.

(31:56):
But how many tourists listen tothat part, you know?
Like, do not go off the trail,but the picture will be prettier
from there.
Do not go off the trail.
And then, of course, it'sdrones, which are illegal in
most of the dolomites.
Please, everyone who listens,drones are illegal in most of
the dolomites.
And they have actually nowhired, like many places have

(32:17):
hired rangers, which willconfiscate your drone if you fly
it there.

SPEAKER_02 (32:22):
Okay.
That's that's a good good point.
But I'm curious, I'm still stuckon this turnstile.
I've got this picture in my headof a s of a turnstile in this on
this trail in this meadow.
Because that's what you weresaying.
Somebody said, if you this is ifyou want to access my private
land to go get your photo.
Drop some money into theturnstile, or is it does it take

(32:44):
credit cards?
What is this?
Help me help me picture this.

SPEAKER_00 (32:47):
He did take credit cards.
He has a machine.

SPEAKER_02 (32:51):
But was this but was this all fully mechanized, or
was there somebody standingthere?
Like he he had an employee orsomebody standing there
collecting money.
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (33:00):
Well you can walk around it, you know.
Like it's uh if I could show youa picture, you would see it's
like it's like zigzags oftrails.
So you could take the straightroute, or you could just go all
over and go back up to the mainphotospot.

SPEAKER_02 (33:15):
But like he then you're getting off the trail
again, and that's not you're notsupposed to do that.

SPEAKER_00 (33:19):
No, it's actually a different trail.

SPEAKER_02 (33:21):
Oh, okay, okay.
Well, you know, I I don't know.
So did this guy is there does heget pushback?
Do people are people upset thathe's doing this?
Because just what I've heard sofar, I'm like, well, why not?
Is it like I do know this?
I mean, why not do that?

SPEAKER_00 (33:37):
I mean it Yeah, I agree with him as well, like
completely, because that was theyou know, like it is the tour
bus, the big tour buses come.
That's the tour groups.
They go up, they all go to thesame photospot, and they go back
down.
So obviously, when there's threebuses in a row come, 40 people,
40 people, 40 people, someone'sslower, so someone's gonna go
around.

(33:58):
And like his land, his see, I'mblanking on words today.
I'm so sorry.
Where cows eat.

SPEAKER_02 (34:05):
His land, his meadow, pastures, pasture,
pastures.
Whatever you want to call it.
A place where the cows eat.
A place where the cows eat isusually what I call it.
So that works fine.

SPEAKER_00 (34:18):
So it gets destroyed, like and I
understand.
So he got what he wanted eitherenough money to fix it or enough
people to just go around.
Like, I agree with himcompletely.

SPEAKER_02 (34:30):
Yeah, and you know, and I I'm always thinking of
angles.
I'm like, and if he could dosome sort of trash collection
point, okay, yeah, you gotta payfive euros to go in or maybe 10
euros to go in, but here's atrash collection point.
So leave your trash here orbring it back here or whatever,
make make it really easy forpeople to not litter, because

(34:51):
that's sometimes it's not theproblem.
I'm not ever gonna say thereason people litter is because
there's not enough trash cans.
That's not why people litter.
But even people that that litterare more likely to not litter if
they've got if if they look ifthey've got something in their
hand they gotta get rid of.
I hope this is notcontroversial, but if they've
got something in their handthey're they want to get rid of
and they look around and there'snowhere obvious to put it,

(35:13):
that's when things tend to getput on the ground.
So anyway, I just imagine thisguy with his turnstile, his
trash bins.
Anyway, that's enough of thatsubject.
Okay, what other things arethere to do besides take the
cable cars and take takepictures in the tops of the
mountains?
Is there a food scene there?
Is there uh are there hotsprings or rafting, paragliding,

(35:36):
all that guy, all that goodstuff?

SPEAKER_00 (35:38):
Zip lining, I'm just adding to your list because all
of those are there.
There's ziplining as well.
Okay, if more adventurous,there's climbing, there's via
ferratas, canyoning, e-biking isreally great now.
And well, if you have the legsfor it, mountain biking as well,
winter activities, snowboardskiing, uh sledging, that was

(35:59):
really fun.
The bogganing.
The bulganing.

SPEAKER_02 (36:02):
Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 (36:03):
That was so fun.

SPEAKER_02 (36:05):
Yeah, that's that is fun.
And that's something, you knowwhat, that's probably something
a lot of people have not donethat should go do that.
I mean, we did that as kids.
That was a big thing, but okay.
All right.
We've talked a lot about theDolomites.
Um, we've talked a lot aboutyour business.
We haven't, we haven't figured,we haven't even got to figure
out how the heck you got to thisplace in your life.

(36:25):
So let's go back in time andtell us about, let's go back to
when you were, I don't know,let's say 12.
What was going on in your worldwhen you were 12 years old,
Christine?
We're gonna start there and wemight go further if we need to.
So let's just pick that spot.

SPEAKER_00 (36:42):
When I was 12, I'm working through in therapy what
I was going through.
No, okay.

SPEAKER_02 (36:48):
Don't tell us everything.
Just should we pick a differentage?
Yeah, you know what?
I think we're all I think we alleither are going through therapy
to about what happened when wewere 12, or we should be.
Most of us anyway.
Probably even more so if youwork in the tourism business.
If I had a time machine and Iwent back to when you were

(37:09):
roughly 12, 13, 14, and I said,Christine, what do you want to
do when you grow up?
What would you have said?
Is that an easier question?

SPEAKER_00 (37:17):
That is easier, yes.

SPEAKER_02 (37:18):
All right.

SPEAKER_00 (37:19):
I think around that point I was changing from the
traditional I want to be asinger to the I want to be uh I
want to own my own business.
But I was thinking about uhhaving a shop, like a little all
you can buy shop, all you needto buy.
Because my parents have one.

(37:39):
They've had it since before Iwas born, so my first steps were
done in a little village, and Imean like 500 people live there,
village shop, oh what in aconvenience store.
They have a convenience store.

SPEAKER_02 (37:54):
A convenience store.
Okay, and this was in where yougrew up was Latvia.
Latvia, yeah.
That's I for a minute I wasafraid I'm gonna say Lithuania,
but I think it's Latvia.
All right, so Latvia.
You know what was going on inLatvia at that in your
childhood, do you remember?
Because you're presumably you'reyoung enough that it was you
know, you weren't there when theUSSR fell apart or anything like

(38:18):
that, but I suspect there weresome remnants of that.
Maybe your maybe your family andstuff.
So what was it like growing upin Latvia?

SPEAKER_00 (38:26):
It's kind of it's a small village, it's a lot of
poor people, a lot of people donot have education, so it was a
lot of people thinking that itwas better in USSR.
And I kind of get where they'recoming from because in the USSR
there was if there was one goodthing, is that everyone had a
job.
They knew they will have a job,they knew they will have their
income, they might not have beenable to buy anything from that

(38:49):
money, but they had the safetynet that they will not be
starving, they will have what todo, they will have
opportunities.
So when I was a kid, actuallyaround that time, let's go back
to my 12 years old.
I was already dreaming aboutgetting out of the village
because I've always been reallyfascinated with traveling and

(39:13):
with seeing the world, withlearning more.
And yeah, so I was already sthinking I will have my own
business, but I will not have aconvenience store in a village,
but I will have my own bigcompany, I will be doing things
that will make help me earn alot of money so I can travel.

SPEAKER_02 (39:29):
So and you also mentioned you mentioned singing.
It sounded like you you shiftyou transition from maybe
wanting to be a singer earlier,but oftentimes when somebody
says something like, I want tobe a singer, there's this desire
to go somewhere and use that.
It's it's like saying I want tobe a professional basketball
player, football player, oractor.
It's that's a an opportunity toget out of a place that maybe

(39:51):
you don't want to spend the restof your life, right?

SPEAKER_00 (39:54):
Actually, that's really a good way to look at it.
That's actually pretty a lightbulby moment for me.

SPEAKER_02 (40:00):
So yeah.
Epic.
And well, maybe, maybe I knowbecause um I grew up in a small
town in Wyoming and and got veryinvolved in theater and music.
And you know, I went to collegeas I was a music and theater
major, and I I guarantee, Iguarantee part of it was I want
to go, you know, to California,I want to go to LA, Hollywood,

(40:23):
that you know, that didn't lastvery long for me because I
realized it wasn't it wasn'tabout music and theater, it was
about me just wanting to goexplore the world.
And then I found other ways todo that.
So you did too.

SPEAKER_00 (40:34):
It sounds like I don't think those years until I
actually got to the point whereI met my husband are the ones
that are interesting for all ofthe listeners or viewers.

SPEAKER_02 (40:49):
Okay, well how well tell okay, at least as I'll make
you deal as long as you tell ushow you got out of the town.

SPEAKER_00 (40:55):
Uh so from the first step was I went to the secondary
school in the big town.
Half an hour.

SPEAKER_02 (41:02):
Half an hour away.

SPEAKER_00 (41:04):
Half an hour away.
Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 (41:06):
Sounds good.
And what did you study insecondary school?

SPEAKER_00 (41:09):
In the secondary school, I went to the general
secondary school, which had astrong math and sciences
leaning.
So then guess what?
I went to university forbusiness administration.

SPEAKER_02 (41:22):
Alright, yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 (41:24):
That's dreams come true.

SPEAKER_02 (41:27):
Hey, I get it.
The second time I went toschool, it was business
administration.
So yeah, we we have we have afew things in common.
All right, so what in your mindwere you still thinking?
You mentioned Canine Store, butI think you were thinking much
bigger than that.
So when you went to businessadministration, what was the
goal for the with that?

SPEAKER_00 (41:46):
The funny thing is, at that point I did not want to
own my own business anymore.
I wanted to work in somedirector role for someone else.

SPEAKER_01 (41:56):
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (41:57):
Because kind of if you own your own business, you
always have to think about yourown business.
If you're working for someoneelse, you work your nine to five
and sell a V.
At least in Europe.
I know it's different in US.
You always think about yourwork, but in Europe you can kind
of like you clock off your away.
But in about of depression, Idropped out of that university

(42:20):
because nope.
So then I was working in abigger convenience store.
Let me think, let me think, letme think.

SPEAKER_02 (42:28):
It's like a I I just want to know how you got out of
town.
I will just jump quickly becausethis is like I see you squirming
and wiggling around.
So go ahead.
Let's talk about what you wantto talk about.

SPEAKER_00 (42:44):
No, no, this is like my this is my ADHD moment.
So um, like I was um first levelmanager, like a senior cashier
shit bleed in uh Walgreens, Iwould say, as the equivalent for
it.
And um then I decided to use myvacation and every single euro I

(43:05):
had in my pocket to go to Italy.

SPEAKER_02 (43:07):
Okay, very cool.
From because you were still inLatvia, you were working in
Latvia.
So you're like, I'm takingeverything I've got, I'm gonna
spend it on a trip to Italy.
I love that.
All right.

SPEAKER_00 (43:17):
Yeah, and I was couch surfing, like I did not
have money.
I was couch surfing, I waseating McDonald's in Italy
because I could not afford thenormal meal, but I did go to
Italy and Ryan there, thetickets were like 40 euros, I
think, round trip.
So that's like for free.
So I spent a week in Italy andthat was my travel bug that beat

(43:40):
me.
So then I was looking at somejob opportunities because the
job was not good that I wasdoing, and a flight attendant
role was open.
So that was the capital citythen.
I applied.
I went through the hiringprocess because there was a
process for it.
I went through the medical checkand I got hired.

SPEAKER_02 (44:00):
So all right.
Couple quick questions.
Do you remember, like, okay,I've got a little vacation time
and I've got very little cash,but I want to you just you
obviously wanted to gosomewhere.
You didn't want to buysomething, you wanted to go
somewhere.
Do you remember what was drivingyou to go and why you chose
Italy?

SPEAKER_00 (44:18):
Italy for a couple of reasons, because I've always
dreamt about Italy, going,visiting, because it's just been
such a fascinating place for mewith the nature, because you
have like normal four seasons atthe top, and then you have the
south, which is warm always.
And there's so much history,there's so much nature, there's
so many differences, and it'sjust always been fascinating to

(44:40):
me as a location, and I alwayswanted to go.
So I was looking through it wastwo thousand and I want to say
thirteen when I was lookingthrough the tickets.
So there were not so manyoptions for cheap flights.
So when I noticed that oh youcan fly to Italy for really,

(45:01):
really cheap, that's where I'mgoing.

unknown (45:03):
Like

SPEAKER_00 (45:04):
I did not do any research.
I think it's somewhere on mywebsite that that was my first
trip on my own.
I did not do any research.
I did not even check what to seein Italy.
I just knew I wanted to go.

SPEAKER_02 (45:16):
I love it.
Did you actually, I gotta askyou this because this is the
first time I've heard somebodysay that what you just said.
I ask a lot of people when Imeet them if you could go
anywhere in the world, wherewould you want to, where would
you go?
You know, if you could gosomewhere anywhere for two
weeks, where would you go andwhy?
And I'm not surprised a lot ofpeople say Italy, especially

(45:36):
here in Latin America.
They will say Italy and thenI'll say why.
I've never heard anybody say usethe word nature when they talk
about Italy.
I've heard culture, food, mostpretty much culture and food,
you know, they want to, or they,or the sites, you know, they
want to see, they will literallysay, I want to see the Coliseum.

(45:58):
And in my mind, I'm like, that'swhy you want to go to Italy, but
okay, whatever.
But I I haven't heard people saynature.
So I'm curious, are you sayingnature now as somebody that
knows an awful lot about Italy?
Do you believe that back in 2016or 13 or whatever you said when
you bought that plane ticket?
If I had asked you then why doyou want to go to Italy, do you
think you would have saidnature, or is that ch just

(46:19):
changed as you learned moreabout the country?

SPEAKER_00 (46:22):
No, actually, one of the places I was checking how to
get to was like Como.
So that's um that's the naturealready then, because I I just
remembered one of the things.
My mom really loves all of thoseromantic movies.
I don't know who makes them, buta lot of them are set in Italy.

SPEAKER_02 (46:39):
Like the no novella type movies.

SPEAKER_00 (46:42):
Novella type movies, and you know they are by like
Como or like Gaza.
So yeah, that's where the naturecame from because the tickets
that I could get to were toBergamo, which is Reiner calls
it Milan Bergamo, although theit's like one and a half hours
on the highway to get from oneto the other.
But so we went to Bergamo withmy friend, and then we explored

(47:06):
there for a few days, and thenwe took the train to Milan, and
I was checking like if I couldgo, how I could go to Como to
see the lake, and I decided notto because we did not have so
many days.
We had like seven days, I think,altogether.

SPEAKER_02 (47:18):
Um you had enough days to change your life.
That's pretty cool, right?
So look how many look how manymore opportunities you had as a
result of that$40 Ryanairticket.
So then you and then you'relike, I want a job that allows
me to travel and do this stuff,and you got a job as a flight
attendant.
So tell us about that.

(47:41):
Was everything sexy about theidea of being a flight
attendant, or was it like, I'mjust gonna use this opportunity
to go see more places?
Tell us a little bit about whatyou thought going into it and
then what the reality of it wasonce you started working the
job.

SPEAKER_00 (47:56):
Yeah, so uh I thought it's gonna be this, you
know, movie portrayal of theflight attendant, like oh, tick
tik tic tic tic tick service andstuff.
The reality was a bit different.
It started with the six weeks ofintense training, and by that I
mean from eight in the morninguntil six in the evening, you

(48:18):
had lessons, and then you wenthome, swallowed some food, and
took your notebook of safetyregulations and procedures, and
then you read it until you fellasleep and repeat for five
weeks, and only one week of itwas service, how to tour drinks.
So if anyone listening isthinking that oh, flight

(48:38):
attendants are just glamorous uhwaitresses.
Nope, we have a lot of training,we will be able to save your
life up in the air, which iskind of I've had situations that
no, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (48:51):
Well, the curious person in me wants to dig into
that a little bit, but I I don'twant you to have to rehash too
much trauma, but but I I loveBut I love what you said about
yeah, because people that don'tknow any different, pretty much
that's what they see of theflight at the end.
It's like, okay, you have to goto school to learn how to do the
demonstration to put on the thelife track or how to put on the
oxygen mask, how to buckle yourseatbelt, and then serve drinks.

(49:15):
And there's obviously so muchmore involved that people never
see.

SPEAKER_00 (49:19):
You learn how to deal with bomb threats on
boards, you learn how to dealwith medical emergencies.
You spent, I think, two days, itwas just CPR training.
So, you know, on the normalsized person, on an infant, you
have the infant doll and youlearn how to make or do CPR on
infants.
It's kind of so you learn towhat to do if uh poisonous

(49:41):
chemicals appear on board, if afire starts, evacuation
procedures on ground, on thewater, if half of the exits are
not working, if less than halfof the exits are working, if you
have the tail up, so you need toevacuate everyone.
And you learn to evacuate everysingle plane in less than 90
seconds.

(50:01):
So it doesn't matter how manypeople are on board, it can be
evacuated in less than 90seconds.

SPEAKER_02 (50:07):
Christine?
Jeez, as I listen to you, I'mthinking, how how long was the
overall training?
You you mentioned a five-weekphase, but I think it was
longer.

SPEAKER_00 (50:16):
How it was six weeks altogether uh of um school
theoretical training.
Then you have, oh geez, I don'tremember already how many uh
flights you do, actual flightswith a trainer.
It's called line training.
So you do everything and uh eachyear you have again a recurrent

(50:36):
training.
So you go over the proceduresand exams and here's yeah,
here's what popped into my head.

SPEAKER_02 (50:43):
I was like, geez, if I spent five weeks of practicing
and learning about all the stuffthat can go wrong, I'm not sure
I'd want to get on a plane.
I think I get to get into myfive weeks and like, okay, now
it's time to go get on theplane.
I think, uh I think I'm justgonna go home and I'm gonna take

(51:05):
a boss.
Do people do people drop out?
Because that not only is it justconstant reinforcement of all
the bad things that can happen,but there's also a constant
reminder that it's your job todeal with it.

SPEAKER_01 (51:17):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (51:18):
And that not everybody wants that kind of
responsibility.
So what does that look like?
Is do people drop out frequentlyb just because not because they
can't handle the workload, butjust because they're like, whoa,
uh that that just feels like alot.

SPEAKER_00 (51:33):
Yeah, people drop out for different reasons.
And it's not just that you learnthese things, you have exams at
the end.
So you need to pass those exams,and they are not easy.

SPEAKER_02 (51:44):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, uh yeah, I'm I'm happy wetouched on it.
So tell me, when you startedrealizing, oh, okay, it wasn't
quite what I thought it wasgonna be, how did that end up
working out for you?
Did you move forward?
How long did you do it?
And kind of what were yourbiggest takeaways from your
because obviously you're not aflight attendant right now.
So what are your biggesttakeaways from that part of your

(52:06):
life?

SPEAKER_00 (52:07):
My biggest literal takeaway is my husband.
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (52:10):
All right.
It's a good one.
All right.
So how long into how long intothat part of your career was it
before you met him?
Was he on your first flight?

SPEAKER_00 (52:20):
It was half a year.
Okay.
So it was uh quite a funnystory.
I love set telling the storybecause it was like half a year
into my flying, and he had beenoff for half a year or so for
personal reasons.
He needed to take time off.
And on the first two flightsback to work, I was a flight
attendant.

SPEAKER_02 (52:40):
So So what just just so I'm clear, when you say he
had taken some time off and hecame back to was he working, was
he working as an attendant orwith the airline as well?

SPEAKER_00 (52:51):
Yeah, the most important part, he was a pilot.

SPEAKER_02 (52:53):
Okay, okay.
I mean, I could have guessedthat.
Just based on a lot ofstereotypes, I was gonna guess
that that I didn't want to.
All right, so okay.

SPEAKER_00 (53:02):
But just a note on your about the stereotypes.
When you spend 200 hours a monthin an airplane, you kind of
don't have time to meet anyoneelse.

SPEAKER_02 (53:13):
Well, and and also just the reality of like, okay,
you meet somebody else, and thefirst question is, you know,
they meet you on an app or theymeet you in a a bar or rest
probably a restaurant or at theconvenience store when you're
trying to go get something toeat because you don't have a lot
of time.
And it's like, oh, well, oh,where do you live?
You know, I live just down thestreet around the corner.

(53:34):
Where do you live?
Well, I live in another city andI'm just here for you know three
more hours before I get on theplane to go to the next place.
And but I come through often, somaybe here I let's exchange
numbers.
It's yeah, it would be reallyhard to meet people, especially
people that wanted to have arelationship.
But if you meet somebody thatbasically live in the same
lifestyle, it it makes sense,right?

(53:55):
I get that.
All right.

SPEAKER_00 (53:57):
Yeah, and uh like back to the story.
I did not know he's a pilotbecause I had been working for
the whole time that he was off.
But the senior, like on eachflight, there's a senior, and if
it's a bigger flight, there's aperson, but in our case there
was a senior flight attendant,she knew him, and she set him in
the business class.
I did not know that he's apilot, and I thought that he's

(54:18):
the business class passenger,and she was like, Oh, would you
like to serve our business classtoday?
Okay, because like that's ahigher way of service, and she
was like, Okay, go and look, goand offer him some food, go and
offer him some drinks.
And he doesn't have a ring, youknow.
Like, do you want to know meethim?
And I'm like, No, he has a ring.
Like, no, no, he doesn't.

SPEAKER_02 (54:41):
And if you're gonna go to the room, so she so she
knows he's a pilot, she'smessing with you a little bit,
trying to get you to go flirtwith this guy who you're
probably gonna end up workingwith, uh, you know, in a few
weeks, you'll probably be on aflight together, but yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 (54:54):
And then he wrote to me on Facebook, and I was like,
How the heck did he find me?
Because we had like 10Christines at that point in our
Baltic.
So, but since he worked forworked for the company, he could
just check who was on the flightso he could find me on Facebook.

SPEAKER_02 (55:12):
So were you creeped out like initially?

SPEAKER_00 (55:24):
I was on your flight, and like I I was like
reluctant to reply, like youknow, by the way, I work as
well.
Like, yeah, like okay, you workfor the company.
That makes more sense.
So we started chatting and uhyeah.

SPEAKER_02 (55:39):
Were you based in the same city?
I I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 (55:43):
At the point uh we worked for Air Baltic and it had
only one base, so it's like wewere based in the same city, and
um, yeah, half a year later westarted living together.

SPEAKER_02 (55:53):
Okay, and Air Air Baltic would be a Latvian
company.
I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 (55:57):
Yeah, Latvian airline.

SPEAKER_02 (56:00):
So you're so you're more or less living in Latvia,
but you're traveling quite abit, it sounds like.

SPEAKER_00 (56:06):
Yeah, at that point uh that was like that.
So we were we worked a lot, as Isaid.
But then um he had anopportunity to change the
airline or potentially forRyanair, which offered at that
point better opportunities.
And then we had to figure outwhere to go.
And then we were looking throughthe bases for Rainer because

(56:26):
they have them all over Europe.
And one of the three that hecould put in was Bergamo,
because I was like, Bergamo, Iwant that! It was beautiful
Italy, so and uh he got assignedto Bergamo, so that's how we
moved to Italy as Bergamo.

SPEAKER_02 (56:41):
Very cool.
Where where was he fromoriginally?

SPEAKER_00 (56:45):
Slovakia.

SPEAKER_02 (56:47):
I thought so because we had the conversation about
the last name, but I just wantedto make sure.
So he was for okay, all right,very cool.
So did you end up, did youswitch over to Ryanair?
Did you go a differentdirection?
What did you do?

SPEAKER_00 (56:59):
Well, we decided that I will not be working.
So I went back to university.
I got a degree in businesspsychology, and it was distance
studies.
So my university was in Latvia,and I was studying online before
it was cool.

SPEAKER_02 (57:14):
Yeah.
Look at you, remote learner.
Do okay, and your life hadchanged since the first time you
went to school because you wentfor business administration at
one point.
You said you decide at somepoint that okay, this is not
working for me.
When you went back the secondtime, you were a little older,
maybe more ready for it.
What was your so the person I'vethe reason I want to go here is
the person that's listening tothis that might need some

(57:36):
inspiration.
When you went to school thesecond time you were doing it
online remotely, what was wasthat just way better for you?
Did that work out well?
Or was anything you want toshare with somebody that might
be thinking about going back toschool?
I guess I don't know what I'm Idon't know where I'm going with
this.

SPEAKER_00 (57:50):
Yeah, so what was changed was I knew myself
better.
Because like you are telling18-year-olds to choose what they
want to do for the rest of theirlives, and many of those people
are gonna go into crazy depth,and they still don't know.
So like first, if you can take agap here to find yourself or

(58:13):
like to travel to even to justwork, try some jobs before.
Because I tried uh one, two,three, four different jobs
before I settled on the businessof psychology.
And by that point I already knewthat okay, no, like shops and
that kind of stuff, it's not forme.
I knew I like working withpeople, but I was looking into

(58:35):
psychology general, realized no,my head is not okay for all of
the medical terms.
Not gonna happen.
But I still had this curiosityabout business.
So when I found this businesspsychology and I looked into
what's there, what I'll bestudying, what I can do, I was
like, oh yeah, this is exactlyfor me.

(58:56):
That this is perfect.
Uh by the way, uh I jumped overthe part while we were working
for Air Baltic.
We traveled so much.
So I traveled.
I myself traveled for like 20different countries during those
three years.
There actually, that picture, Idon't think the light is good

(59:17):
enough for it, but that's fromOahu.
We went to Hawaii.

SPEAKER_01 (59:21):
Okay.
Very cool.

SPEAKER_00 (59:23):
So, like, for instance, it's exactly opposite
in the world, you know, 12 evenmore people.

SPEAKER_02 (59:27):
Yeah, exactly.
It's a little ways away for you.
Presumably, you had benefits tofly with partner airlines and
stuff like that.
Because I'm imagining AirBaltic, I've been I haven't seen
them in too many airports, sobut I but they're part of a
network you get to get to takeadvantage of.
I'm happy what you shared aboutthe school because what I heard
was first time you went forbusiness administration and
you're working at a a Walgreenstype of place, thinking, you

(59:52):
know what, I just want a jobthat I can go nine to five, and
when I'm done, I'm done.
And and I just want to havethat.
To now, fast forward, we'rehaving a conversation about
going back to school andfiguring out what you really
want to do based on someexperiences you've had.
And obviously, you know, youyou're a business owner and I
know that you're not workingnine to five.

(01:00:12):
So I mean, so any so anyway, soyou go back and you all right,
so take us take us from there.
You're you're going to schoolonline, you're in Italy.
When did the business reallykind of start to take shape with
the blogging?
And how did that all come?
How did we get from that pointto where we are now?

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:30):
So while I was in school, I didn't really work.
I was in the university, I wasgoing to language courses as
well to learn Italian.
So I did not really have timefor any work.
And by the time I was alreadyalmost finished with the school,
I had okay, almost finished.
Out of four and a half years, Ihad one and a half left.

(01:00:50):
My husband got an even betterjob offer in Slovakia.
So we moved over to Slovakia.
I decided that while I studyremotely, I can also work.
I started working, I getpregnant.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:04):
Of course.
All right.
So you're in Slovakia, you'vegot a little bit of school left.
You just started a job and nowyou're pregnant.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:11):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:12):
All right.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:13):
So thank heavens for probationary periods, because I
could just say, okay, not gonnado this.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:19):
Yeah, I've given it some thought.
I just don't think this rightfit for me.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:24):
Not fit for me.
Nope.
So yeah, by that time, then Iwas already thinking that I want
to do something because this isschool, and by the way,
different language curses,Slovak this time.
I was like, okay, I want my ownincome.
I cannot just I don't likeasking my husband for money.

(01:01:45):
Like I would like at leastsomething for myself.
So I was trying to figure outwhat we what I could do, and
somehow the blogging was kind ofcoming up from time to time.
Like I would see it on Facebook,I would see some ads somewhere
or whatever.
So that was kind of alreadydripping in my mind.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:03):
So you've been to a bunch of places.

SPEAKER_00 (01:02:12):
So when I was pregnant, I I realized that
okay, my husband has noschedule, basically.
He has eight days of a month,and then he has stand-by days,
and he can just be called, like,okay, you go you're going to for
10 days to somewhere.
So since I was pregnant, I waslike, okay, I cannot work a nine
to five or any other workbecause we will have a kid

(01:02:33):
figure away.
Like, how?
Kindergarten or whatever, youknow, I need to take her.
So I was looking into theblogging more and more.
So I started the first vloggingcourse while still in
university, while having anewborn on my hands.

SPEAKER_02 (01:02:51):
And uh look so you so you did you make the decision
immediately to go into travelblogging?
Because that's kind of earlierin the conversation you
mentioned you're writing aboutJapan and other places, and then
just more and more Italy stuff.
And so you shifted into Italyand then the Dolomites.
And how far into the bloggingdid you get before you started

(01:03:15):
realizing I can actually helppeople put together itinerates,
review itinerates?
Did you figure that out prettyquickly, or did that come along
later?

SPEAKER_00 (01:03:22):
It came along later.
I was blogging the first blogfor like three almost four
years, and that was I was justgoing with blogging.
And uh when I started the newsite, I realized okay, I cannot
run both of them, so I sold theold one.
And um then I really put myselfin.
We are already now at 2024, bythe way, timeline-wise.

(01:03:46):
Okay, so I pushed myself intothis planning into the Italy
thing, and uh my parentsactually my always support, they
support me through everything,and uh they were like, Okay, our
friend wants to go to theDolomites, can you help him?
We called with the friend, likeI know him as well, he knows me

(01:04:07):
since I was born, like uhchildhood my parents'
childfriend, and I was justtelling him again and again, uh
not again, more and more andmore, and it was like, Oh yeah,
you can do this, you can dothis, and if you go here, you
can do that, and blah blah andlike I finished the call, and I
was telling my husband, Oh, Ilove this, I want to do more of
this.

SPEAKER_02 (01:04:25):
Yeah, yeah, very it the the light bulb went on, and
all right.

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:29):
So this is okay, can I do this actually for people?
So I started putting somefeelers out about it, and then
like randomly, completelyrandomly, a lady from USA wrote
to me.
So, hi, I'm going to theDolomites and I have this
itinerary, and I'm really notsure about it.
Could you help me?

(01:04:50):
Could you look over it?
I will pay you.

SPEAKER_02 (01:04:52):
Nice.
Very cool.
So, so that's how the businesswas born, and you're you're
doing that.
Is there anything else thatyou're doing in that mix that we
well, here, let me just ask youthis way, because we discussed a
bunch of things, talked quite abit about the Dolomites, your
business, the business model,obviously your history, how you
got up to this point.
And I think I'm pretty clear onwhat you're doing, but I want to

(01:05:14):
make sure I'm not missinganything in our listeners'
aren't.
So let me just ask you this way,Christine.
After everything we discussed,is there anything that I either
forgot to ask you or you wishthat I had asked you to give our
listeners a better opportunityto understand about you, your
business, Italy, life ingeneral, or anything like that
that you that we should discussbefore we wrap up?

SPEAKER_00 (01:05:34):
So one thing that's kind of going through my mind
right now is that it's not justa blog where I help a lot of
people.
I have a really active Facebookgroup where actually the blog
has been kind of on the backburner for a bit because the
Facebook group is so active thatI just don't have time to write
the articles.
And like if anyone is planningto go to the Dolomites and uh

(01:05:57):
like my services are rather lowpriced because I'm in Europe, so
the expenses are not so huge,but they might still be too
expensive for some people.
The group is also a place whereI can answer questions where I
have a lot of experts just likehelping out out of the goodness
of their hearts.

SPEAKER_02 (01:06:15):
Okay.
And this and this group isspecific to the Dolomites,
Italy.
Just do me a favor, mention thename of the group.
Obviously, we're gonna have alink to your website.
Presumably, if somebody goes toyour website, they can find the
Facebook group, all that stuff.
But what's the name of thegroup?

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:30):
It's uh called Dolomites Travel Tips, Love your
Italy.
So, like literally.

SPEAKER_02 (01:06:36):
All right, all right, very, very cool.
Because I would imagine thoughif blogging, blogging seems
like, okay, I'm gonna sit down,put some time and effort into an
article, I'm gonna put it outthere and hope that people read
it, hope that Google finds it orAI finds it or whatever.
Whereas the the Facebook groups,there's a lot more interaction.
You can see the questions thatpeople are asking.

(01:06:56):
Instead of trying to guess whatI should write the blog post
about, you can see the questionsthey're asking, and you probably
recognize the same questions.
Coming up probably every daybecause I'm in a few groups,
travel groups as well.
And it's like, oh, you know.
But anyway, so it gives you achance to engage with them, with
them more.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:14):
So all right.
Yeah, and that's how like I canpush more of the sustainable,
responsible travel as well.
Because like the blog, it's kindof as you said, you put it out
and it's there, and then youhope at some point you will have
time to go back and rework thework.

SPEAKER_02 (01:07:30):
Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:31):
But the Facebook group it's much more present.
Like it's what's happening now,what's important now.
On our last trip, uh, as I toldyou before, we just went to the
dolomites and I noticed so manypeople being not safe in the
mountains.
They would go with half a literbottle of water, like a tiny
bottle of water, they would goon a hard hike which is exposed.

(01:07:52):
You don't have shade, you aregoing 900 meters altitude change
upwards, and you have only atiny bottle of water and like
old sneakers that are fallingapart.
So I just made a post on theFacebook group like I've noticed
these things, please do not dothese things, do these things
instead.
And it had like 60,000 peoplereach.

(01:08:13):
Yeah, so yeah, exactly.
I can reach a lot of peoplereally quickly, and these
important things they need toget out really quickly.

SPEAKER_02 (01:08:20):
And sometimes people just don't know.
It's really easy for somebodythat knows to look at somebody
else and say, Well, that wasdumb.
I saw a video just within thelast few days.
An older gentleman, be carefulsaying that because I'm an older
gentleman, I guess, but an oldergentleman was in Yellowstone
Park and got too close, and abuff, a bison, what we call
buffalo in the you know, anyway,hit him, flipped him up, and

(01:08:43):
broke some bones.
And and as somebody fromWyoming, I recognize how easy it
is to look at that and say, whata dumbass.
You know, wow, why would why aretourists so dumb?
Because I grew up in Wyoming.
So I know I every summer we'dsee the news, and it was
Yellowstone was right there.
And I grew up around biganimals, so I learned not to get

(01:09:05):
close to big animals like that,and the tourists just don't
know.
And they literally just don'tknow.
So it's important that you'vegot this ability, you know,
don't do this.
This is not good thinking.
People need to hear thatmessage.

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:18):
Exactly.
And I'm so happy for thisopportunity because you were
asking me what I wanted to do at12, and actually now I kind of
thinking back to it.
For my whole life, I wanted tohelp people in one way or
another.
And if I can help someone notget dehydrated or get

(01:09:39):
hypothermia or whatever, in themountains, if even one person
listens to me and is like, okay,yeah, I'll take more water, I'll
take proper shoes, then like I'mhappy.
Like just please don't get hurt.

SPEAKER_02 (01:09:52):
Yeah, I get it.
Because people do get hurt, theydon't know.
And that's one of the thingsabout travel.
You're you're going from a placethat you're you know the dangers
and the risks.
You're, you know, you probablydon't do quote unquote stupid
things when you're 50 mileradius of your house because you
know what things are stupid andwhat are not.
But then you go across the worldand you uh find yourself in high

(01:10:13):
altitude mountains all of asudden in the middle of summer,
and you've never you've neverbeen more than 20 minutes away
from a convenience store whereyou can go get a bottle of
water, you might not think, oh,we should probably take some
water with us.
So anyway.

SPEAKER_00 (01:10:25):
Last thing is you don't you cannot research what
you don't know.
Like if you don't know it, youdon't know what to search for.
Yeah, ooh, that's a good point.
If I can reach 60 people, 60,60,000 people who will see this
message, and even if like halfof them will think, like, that's
dumb.
Of course, everyone knows it,and a bunch of them will think,
why are you telling me what todo?

(01:10:45):
I had those comments.
Do not look at other peoplelike, uh-huh.
I saw rescue helicopters atleast once a day.
I will tell this to people.

SPEAKER_02 (01:10:53):
I I love it because here's the thing if you post,
make sure you take water withyou.
You're the the people that aregonna comment are probably I I
love people, but I've I've beenon social media enough.
They're gonna, well, of course,duh da, that's so dumb.
Anyone that doesn't take wateris a dumbass, da-da-da-da-da.
But there's that one personthat's like, oh, I didn't even

(01:11:15):
think about that.
They're not gonna comment.
Oh, wow, Christine, thank you somuch.
Because I it it hadn't occurredto me.
They're not gonna commentbecause they're afraid everybody
else's everybody else hasbasically already said they're
dumb.
So they're gonna they're notgonna say thank you, probably in
the comment section.
They might, but they might reachout to you and say, Hey,
Christine, can you help me withmy itinerary?
You know, I I under I understandhow this works.

(01:11:37):
So anyway, Christine, this hasbeen so much fun.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for spendingso much of your time with us.

SPEAKER_00 (01:11:43):
And thank you for having me.
I love this.

SPEAKER_02 (01:11:45):
Yeah, it was see earlier on you said, Oh, I'm a
little nervous, and yeah,there's nothing meaner about.
All right, well, let's uh we'llfind areas and ways to
collaborate in the future.
And for all of our listeners,please do make sure and go to
the go to the show notes.
There'll be a link right toChristine's website, which you
can connect through there to tothe Facebook group and and just

(01:12:08):
get involved if you're in.
I would say if you're justinterested in interesting
people, do that.
But obviously, if you'reinterested in the dolomites,
it's a no brainer.
So, Christine, thank you somuch.
Let's uh I'll see you againsoon.
You have a great day.

SPEAKER_01 (01:12:21):
Bye.