We are Berna & Anıl Ateş,
together since 2012, and we start every day with fresh energy! Exploring is the best thing in the world, and when you do it together it is even more colourful, a real celebration. We have shared dozens of cities and countless streets. Each one is a new story, every photo a memory. In 2016, to add a little colour to our lives and share the joy around, Anıl decided to start collecting and recording our memories.
Our starting point was our first trip as a couple, back in 2012: Vilnius, Tallinn and St. Petersburg, a trip we still haven't managed to put into words. These days we take breaks from our white-collar world, sometimes on a tight budget, sometimes with more luxurious getaways. As much as we love the calm of camping and being out in nature, good company, good food and meeting new people are just as essential to our travels.
Every trip is a new experience, and everything we haven't tried yet is a new thrill! We hope the memories we collect along the way help friends who want to join the adventure…
Berna
Berna, the "Bern" in bernAnıl, believes the only way out of your own little world is to keep exploring. She has always seen every trip as a chance to get to know nature and different people. She loves going deeper with yoga, trying new things, cooking and bringing friends together around a good table; she wants to learn something new every day, get better on the bike and be useful to others. Born and raised in Istanbul with roots in Karabük, she is a loving big sister, the eldest daughter of the family, the innovative side of clinical research and a chemical engineer from ITU.
Anıl
And now the one who started it all: Anıl! Anıl is an R&D engineer who brings the same determination he puts into this blog to his academic path. After studying Mechatronics Engineering at YTU, he began an adventure in rail systems and is now finishing his second master's degree. He can't stand an idle hour; he plans, he schedules, and he is the one behind every surprise on our trips! A fish who came into this world to enjoy life, he loves travelling and having fun but loves being at home just as much. We have to mention it: he is the only son of the family, born and raised in Istanbul with roots in Keşan, and a passionate cyclist!
Frequently Asked Questions
We love travelling, seeing and discovering. We usually don't have much time for it, so we like to plan the few days we have as well as we can before we even leave. Trying not to miss anything, to travel well on a good budget in the shortest time and to find the locals' tips, we noticed that good Turkish content bringing all of this together was very hard to find. So we decided to write up our own routes and share what we learned. We hope our adventures are useful to friends who want to read them.
Our first plan is to make the most of this year's holidays! Our routes again include both Türkiye and abroad. The places we are curious about, and our dreams, are endless!
We both work. We do save, of course, but we see our trips as an investment in ourselves and set aside a monthly travel budget. Some months it goes on flights, other months on a rental car or a place to stay. Visa fees do hurt when they come around, of course. We don't buy many fast-fashion things like clothes, jewellery or shoes. We hardly ever eat out any more. So we keep the daily costs of city life to a minimum and choose to hit the road whenever we can. We follow flight deals for the routes we want to take and research lots of options for accommodation: hotels, Airbnb, and sometimes we look early at night trains. None of our trips has ever cost zero. We don't buy into the "travel the world for free" myth that is trying to become a trend; we just have tips for travelling more affordably.
Travelling while working is hard, but we are not going to give it up just because it's hard, are we? And when you add the preparation, the sacrifices and finishing the posts after we get back, the time spent multiplies. But so what? Nothing stands in the way of a goal! Many people work one job and dedicate their whole life to it. We are against that; while we have the strength and energy to create, we will follow our hobby. For those who want a more detailed answer: believe us, your annual leave is enough. We know it's hard to use it all in one go, so long-haul routes aren't always possible. But combined with your leave, bank holidays and public holidays are precious!