Hello! My name is Michelle, and I am one of the co-founders of VeganTravel, and I am so excited to see our idea for a community to unite traveling vegans take off in the form of this site. I also study in university in Finland, and will graduate to be a subject teacher in English, Philosophy, and, hopefully (once I learn enough of it), Spanish. I have grown up traveling, so languages are a bit of a passion of mine. I am Finnish-American, and trips back-and-forth and anywhere in between were regular throughout my childhood. Since graduating high school, I have taken every bit of spare time to travel. I took advantage of the European Erasmus+ program to go study at the University of Glasgow for a year, broadening my understanding of another culture and how it feels to be an outsider living in another country, something I hadn’t experienced before. When I’m not physically traveling, I’m usually reading, which is kind of like traveling, if you think about it. I’ve learned about different worlds, seen myself as diverse characters, and have been introduced to new things. Reading is as much of a passion of mine as is traveling. In addition to travelling and reading, I like cooking and baking, singing (although mostly not while traveling, because I have such bad stage fright), hanging out with friends, and playing video games.

I first considered vegetarianism when I was 7 years old, when I asked my dad what ‘kosher’ meant. He told me that to be kosher, an animal has to be killed without causing them pain, and without shooting them. My reaction, as I’d imagine would be quite typical to a child, was horror. I was eating animals?? But I loved my animal friends! And they were killed painfully? I wanted to go vegetarian then, but my mother thought it was unhealthy, especially for a growing child (which I suspected, and have now learned, is absolutely not true). I finally got to go vegetarian at 15, when I watched Earthlings, and went vegan 3 years later.

My next few trips will be to Berlin with the VeganTravel team and the sponsored travellers, as well as to India and Peru/S. America later this year and next spring. So if you have any tips for any of my upcoming trips, I would be so grateful 🙂

The photo is of me enjoying some fresh-squeezed orange juice in Marrakesh, which I would definitely recommend if you go to Morocco, because that stuff is addictive and so good!!