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.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ The Dolomites are a distinctive limestone mountain range in northeastern Italy, part of the Alps, known for their lighter-colored rock formations and natural beauty.
- ✓ Visitors do not need to be avid hikers to enjoy the Dolomites; cable cars and short walks provide accessible ways to experience spectacular views.
- ✓ Overtourism affects popular spots in the Dolomites, leading to tensions between locals who rely on tourism and those frustrated by its impacts.
- ✓ Responsible travel is essential in the Dolomites, including staying on marked trails, respecting private property, and avoiding illegal drone use.
- ✓ Kristine’s travel planning services focus on personalized itineraries and advice rather than booking, helping travelers navigate the complexities of the region.
- ✓ Her background as a flight attendant provided extensive travel experience and shaped her understanding of what travelers need in planning meaningful trips.
- ✓ Kristine runs an active Facebook group where she and other experts answer questions, share tips, and promote safe, sustainable travel in the Dolomites.
- ✓ Many travelers underestimate the physical demands of mountain hikes; Kristine emphasizes preparation, including proper footwear and adequate water.
- ✓ The Dolomites offer a wide range of activities beyond hiking, such as zip lining, via ferrata climbing, canyoning, e-biking, and winter sports like sledging and skiing.
- ✓ Kristine’s passion for Italy grew from a spontaneous, budget-conscious trip that sparked a lifelong connection to the country’s nature and culture.
What You’ll Find on Love Your Italy
- ✓ Detailed blog posts focused on planning trips to the Dolomites and Northern Italy, including practical travel tips and destination guides.
- ✓ Custom travel planning services offering personalized itineraries, itinerary reviews, and consultation calls tailored to individual traveler needs.
- ✓ A supportive and active Facebook community centered on Dolomites travel, where members can ask questions and exchange advice.
- ✓ Emphasis on responsible tourism and safety, providing guidance to help travelers prepare adequately for mountain conditions.
- ✓ Insights from years of living in Italy and firsthand travel experience, offering nuanced local knowledge beyond typical tourist information.
- ✓ Resources for both independent travelers and those seeking expert help to create manageable, memorable, and meaningful trips.
Learn more about Love Your Italy and connect with Kristine at:
https://loveyouritaly.com/
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Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Jason (00:01.062)
Welcome back everybody.
To another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the Adventure Traveler. Super excited to have each and every one of you back today, and also super excited to have my guest. I I’m gonna do this a little different because our our regular listeners are used to me totally messing up names almost every other episode. And I’m gonna do something different today. I’m not even gonna try. I’m just gonna say Kristine We’ve got Kristine here, and those of you looking at the show notes can see how her last name is spelled. I’m gonna ask her.
Kristine (00:27.608)
Okay.
Jason (00:32.308)
to to tell us a little bit about her last name and how to pronounce it. Kristine, welcome to the show. Happy to have you here.
Kristine (00:39.744)
that’s yeah, that’s a thing. So my last name is Eksteine Nizka So it’s a Latvian-Slovak mix. When I got married to my husband, I could not let go of my Latvian last name. So I decided I will just add the Nizka onto it. And now it’s it’s
Jason (01:05.05)
It’s it it it works and it sounds so great when you say it. But I as you know, I tried a few times before I hit the record button and I was right up until I hit the record button I was I was gonna take a stab at it. I thought, you know what, let’s just let’s play around with this just a little bit and and you mentioned that people where you’re at now ’cause you ’cause you live tell everybody where you live now.
Kristine (01:15.086)
Yeah.
Kristine (01:30.388)
Right now I live in Czech Republic just next to Prague. I actually see it out of my window. And yeah people here struggle. They do not struggle with the Nizka part, because you know Czechoslovakia, they have basically the same, although they do spell it incorrectly all the time. But
Jason (01:49.434)
I bet. You don’t you don’t use like your last name at an email address at all or anything, do you? Cause I cause I know the reason I asked that is I’ve learned to make my you know, anytime I try and choose an email address or whatever, try and make it as easy as possible. Cause there’s so many times when people are like, let me get your email address and you’re you gotta spell it all out for them and I was just curious if if that comes up.
Kristine (01:55.98)
Mm.
Kristine (02:09.741)
Mm-hmm.
not use it in my work email. Yeah, it’s just Kristine at loveyouritaly.com. But that is. But the work e the personal email, I’m sorry, is Christina.ecena at gmail.com. So
Jason (02:20.229)
That’s easy. Yeah.
Jason (02:29.339)
You did do that. Yeah, yep. Any anyway, so
Kristine (02:34.205)
Yes.
Jason (02:36.291)
So you’ve got you’ve got quite a story. You’ve obviously do not live where you grew up. And so we’re gonna get we’re gonna dig into that, kinda figure out how you got from where you were to where you are throughout the c the course of the conversation. But let’s just start with Love Your Italy, because because actually that’s we’ve we’ve already mentioned two countries now, now we’re on the third country. So, you know, your company, you’re the founder of Love Your Italy. So let’s give our listeners kind of an idea of what you do at Love Your Italy.
Kristine (02:47.489)
Mm.
Kristine (02:57.931)
Ha ha ha.
Kristine (03:07.182)
I’m gonna start from the back of it all, like from the end, because Laver Italy right now has niched down to Dolonite’s travel planning.
Jason (03:18.467)
Okay?
Kristine (03:18.887)
So we have a blog part where we teach people how to tra plan their trips to the dolomites and we have travel planning services where we offer custom itineraries, we offer itinerary reviews, consultation calls, and pretty much everything can be worked out. But it started actually, I had a general travel blog before. It was a different website. I was writing about Japan, I was writing about Patagonia.
And then I started writing about Italy, and I was like, yes, this, I want to write about this, and this and this and this and this and this. And I had like 20 articles on Japan, 20 on Patagonia, and then it was already at like 40 for Italy, and I was like, okay, this is getting a bit unbalanced.
Jason (04:04.401)
Obviously there’s something about Italy that’s caught my attention. Yeah, uh-huh, okay. Mm-hmm.
Kristine (04:11.895)
Maybe, maybe. So I decided, okay then, I am gonna start a new website about Italy, hence love your Italy. And then I started writing about the Dolomites. And that was I think at this point it was three years ago that I started writing about Dolomites with the idea that we are gonna be writing about all of the other of Italy. We are still on the Dolomites and nowhere near finished and
Jason (04:38.353)
Yeah.
Kristine (04:40.7)
Yeah.
Jason (04:41.659)
So so you only do the doll what I heard you say, this is what I picked up out of what you just said, was that you help people through obviously the blogs, gathering information to help them prepare their own trips, but you also work with them to help build itineraries, review itineraries. And is it is it exclusively the dolomites then? If if somebody comes to you and says, Well, you want to go to southern Italy and here’s the itinerary we’re looking at, can we
Can we work with you to have you help us put it together? I suspect you probably could, but it sounds like the dolomites are really your s your what you’re doing. Help me figure that out.
Kristine (05:18.553)
that’s actually a bit of disagreement point with my husband at this point. what I was actually
Jason (05:26.001)
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 your perspective.
Kristine (05:36.846)
No. It’s actually really funny because we were just talking about it today with my husband. We started talking about it. Because we are kind of
Jason (05:42.817)
Kristine (05:48.778)
reworking all of the main pages on the website right 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 are doing just the Dolomites and I was like, but you know, we know all of basically all of Italy. So
Jason (05:55.089)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (06:06.299)
Mm-hmm.
Kristine (06:08.203)
Yeah, w if someone came and wanted to do southern Italy, like we could do it. I would be honest about the parts which we have visited and which we haven’t, obviously, so they know what’s happening and what’s not, but we know Italy, we know how people think there, we know how Google Maps and the actual roads there look, how to do everything. So for us personally, and I use us because my husband is also a travel person.
planning with me so it’s kind of our common thing. And for us it’s much easier to figure everything out, all the details out, than it is for a per s for a person who hasn’t been to Italy.
Jason (06:42.225)
Mm-hmm.
Kristine (06:51.645)
And even if they’ve been to like Rome, it’s completely different. If you go to Rome, that’s like it’s tourists. It’s prepared for tourists. It’s gonna be okay with it. But if you go to like the middle of nowhere Sardinia, that is gonna be a lot different. So it’s kind of like we can do it.
Jason (07:08.817)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well I I get that because, you know, if you look at the US for example, let’s say you’re from Europe or Latin America and
Talking about visiting the US, well, visiting New York City, which is where most people go the first time. difference between visiting New York City and maybe getting an RV and travel around the West and visiting Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, those are two totally different types of trips. Not that either one are really super complicated and they people can figure them out, but it is a it’s a different thing. So so should we have you but your website, like if I go to your website right now.
Kristine (07:26.933)
Yeah.
Kristine (07:39.04)
Yeah.
Jason (07:51.662)
Now it says Love Your Italy. Is there a a branding change coming on here in the future that you want to announce on this show? Or because because this this episode’s gonna be around for a while. So do you think that if somebody listening to this several months from now is it’s gonna be Love Your Dolomites or are you are you shifting at all or what do you think?
Kristine (07:54.145)
Yeah.
Kristine (07:59.048)
Okay.
Hehehe
Kristine (08:11.879)
no we are sticking with Love Your Italy because we still think that we will do the whole Italy. And I think fingers crossed that we are adding Venice. I I wanted to say by the end of the year, but let’s be realistic. Next year we’ll add Venice and Milan and like other destinations. So northern Italy for now.
Jason (08:16.611)
Uh-huh,
Jason (08:22.329)
Okay.
Jason (08:30.903)
So when a traditional tour operator that actually has packages they put together and they they’ve got packages on their website, when they might say we’re adding a new destination means they’re adding a new
Itinerary that you can book with them, that type of thing. Is that what you’re talking about? Or when you say we’re gonna probably add Venice, does that mean you’re just gonna start writing more blog posts about Venice, more information about Venice? Because it sounds like you work with a lot of maybe the more do-it-yourself type people. And I don’t want to put words in your mouth, so correct me if I’m wrong.
Kristine (09:11.423)
No, actually that’s a really good question because we are gonna be adding the articles and it’s gonna be like how to plan a trip to Venice, what you need to know, where to stay, best activities, what to do on a rainy day, and stuff like that, because we kind of have at this point fifty-fifty with people who want to plan their own trips, so we want to help with that. Our goal our our mission is for people to find the things
Jason (09:26.417)
Mm-hmm.
Kristine (09:41.31)
that they love in Italy. That’s how the name actually came or to me that love your Italy because each one of us has something different in it. And
Jason (09:49.485)
Mm.
Kristine (09:54.1)
So for Venice, it will be like all of the stuff you need to plan your own trip, plus let’s say we haven’t gotten that far yet, but it’s probably gonna be either Northern Italy travel planning services or just Venice or just General. we haven’t gotten to that part. What we are doing right now is we are trying to fix the confusion that my ADHD created on the website.
Jason (09:54.149)
Got it.
Jason (10:22.129)
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 ’cause I can relate to it completely. yeah, yeah. So
Kristine (10:33.737)
Yeah.
Jason (10:36.803)
So travel I I I wanna dig into for our listeners and just kind of me in general, I’m just curious. When you say travel planning services, because there’s a lot of different words we use. Advisors, planners, agents, all these different words, and I and sometimes they mean exactly what it sounds like they mean, but for you, somebody says, Look, I read your articles, I wanna go to the Dolomites.
Can you set it up for me? So a traditional travel agent might say, okay, yep, I’m gonna book your flights, I’m gonna have someone meet you at the airport, I’m gonna have someone drive you to the lodge, I’m gonna have your guide meet you the next morning, take you on a hike, and they just kind of book it all for somebody. And then there’s others that don’t necessarily book the stuff, but will sit down and go step by step. Okay, this is a great place, here’s what I suggest: you can do this, do this.
do this. So where do you fit in that spectrum and what should people expect if they want you to help them plan their trip?
Kristine (11:44.701)
I will not book things. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason (11:46.642)
Okay, that’s I thought that might be the case and that’s why I wanted to to get into that. So what’s the value to the person working with you then? If you don’t book things, there’s probably other value that balances that out.
Kristine (11:58.414)
Yeah, as one of my last clients said, the Dolomites are so confusing. And that’s a person who’s traveled Switzerland, Austria, the US and like everywhere. I think he said he’s actually climbed Kilimanjaro and the Dolomites confused him.
Jason (12:06.789)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (12:17.745)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Kristine (12:21.353)
So the value is that we have ten plus years of experience with Italy in all shapes and forms. We did live in Italy, we missed that part by the way. So
Jason (12:33.403)
We’re gonna we’re gonna get to the history. We’re gonna get to the history. We’re just we’re just figuring out how you how you do things now. So
Kristine (12:40.555)
Yeah, that’s one that’s the one country I didn’t mention though. I mentioned a lot of other countries where I’ve been and did not mention Italy.
Jason (12:46.865)
Well yeah we’re yeah, that’s true. But I’m happy I’m happy you brought that up. It’s making a lot more sense now why you do Italy stuff. But okay, so you don’t book stuff but you you know the stuff. S so why don’t you book the stuff? I’m just gonna ask you. Why bec I have some s ideas in my head of why you don’t get involved in that part of it, but I’m just gonna ask you. You know, like
Kristine (12:51.981)
Yeah.
Kristine (12:58.594)
Yes, sir.
I know the stuff and I plan the trip.
Kristine (13:11.935)
It’s some more reasons because
I did not want to go through the struggle of setting up a travel agency with all of the legal stuff. Since I don’t work like it would probably be easier if I worked only with Czechs here in Czech Republic. But since I work with US, since I work with UK and all of the other countries, like it’s just not worth it for me because I do not want to book things. It might be a bit controversial.
Jason (13:22.481)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (13:39.858)
I I get it. I’m I’m listening to you, I’m like, yeah, it’s it’s a which is why some people use traditional travel a but I think the light bulb just went off, Kristine. I here’s what I just here’s what just popped into my head and I’m curious. I don’t know if okay, if I’m a travel agent, I’m in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I’m a travel agent, and I’ve got a client
Kristine (13:53.8)
Mm. Tell me.
Kristine (14:01.367)
Mm.
Jason (14:09.445)
That wants to go to the Dolomites, and I really know nothing about the Dolomites, but I know Kristine.
Kristine (14:16.749)
Yeah.
Jason (14:18.979)
So maybe I reach out to Kristine and say, hey, Kristine, these this is kind of what these clients want to do. Can you if you can work with them or me or whatever to put together the itinerary, I’ll take care of booking everything. Does that happen or is that just like a brilliant idea? Or where to like that cause that’s what I’m thinking. So the person that doesn’t want to book their own stuff? Maybe, I don’t know. Is that a business idea?
Kristine (14:31.985)
Kristine (14:41.194)
that that’s a that’s a business idea. That is awesome.
Kristine (14:51.243)
Yeah, and by the way, the main reason
Jason (14:52.441)
So that doesn’t but that doesn’t seem to happen. It’s like based on your reaction, that doesn’t sound like a typical scenario. I was envisioning that as like, that must be part of how it works, but maybe not yet, huh?
Kristine (15:04.321)
Well not yet. Now it’s gonna be on air.
Yeah, but like the reason why I don’t want to book stuff is I don’t want to triangulate. You know, if someone has a hotel that I booked for them
Jason (15:10.79)
All right.
Kristine (15:22.003)
And they can’t make it to that hotel. They tell me I cannot make it to the co hotel. Can you figure out if I can come later? I call the hotel. Like, hi, my client 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? Hmm, hmm.
Jason (15:45.446)
Yeah, I I get it. I a and you know what? Probably everybody that’s listening to this can relate to that because there’s enough of them that have worked in tourism long enough, either as advisors or or whatever. And I’ve been on a few different sides of that as well. So I get that. In a sense it’s and with technology the way it is. I mean if you help them put together a great itinerary that that is all lined out.
They’ve got the phone number right there. Or maybe, you know, just call the hotel. It’s probably and you know what? A lot of guests are like that too. They’re like, why am I gonna bother calling my my agent or my advisor when I’m, you know, three hours away from the hotel, my advisor’s in another kind. I’ll just call the hotel. So it yeah, yeah, yeah. So that makes sense. And obviously your clients it works well for them.
Kristine (16:13.229)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Kristine (16:33.205)
Yeah, exactly.
Jason (16:41.873)
Do you get involved in helping people with everything from just like a day activity all the way through multi-day itineraries? Or what is that you I mean, because sometimes people are just reading your stuff and and doing it. So you might not even know exactly what they’re doing. But the ones that actually reach out to you and ask for help, is it usually, hey, we’re gonna be there and we wanna do something on Thursday, can you help us figure something out? Or is it more, hey, we’re gonna be we wanna go in three months and can you help us put together 10 days? So what does it usually look like?
Kristine (17:12.561)
Anything in between. Like
Jason (17:13.851)
Yeah, that’s what it
Kristine (17:14.281)
All of that and everything in between. I have a client who reached out it’s been already like nine months at this point. She’s gonna be going to the Dolomites next month. So we’ve been doing the trip planning. I helped actually with the whole northern Italy sorry, northern Italy with for her. So I planned everything from Milan to Lake Como, Verona, Dolomites, and she and
She actually changed it. She ends now in Venice. So it’s been a nine-month process. She’s so lovely though. I love working with her, so we’re just like I love her. She is so nice. Like I’m each time she reaches out, I’m like, yay!
Jason (17:52.176)
Yeah. She’s l she might be listening. That was a really good point. She sounds she sounds like a wonderful person, yeah.
Jason (18:07.021)
that’s that’s cool. That’s that’s the fun part. And especially if you’re not the one involved in the the in-between with the hotels and all that that we were just discussing. Hey, it just occurred to me though, I I feel like I kinda dropped the ball. Where the heck are the dolomites? I I think you you finally you know, you did mention Northern Italy en enough a couple of times, so it’s like, yeah, I’m sure a lot of people already know, but
Kristine (18:15.425)
Yeah.
Jason (18:31.185)
I’m not sure I’m crystal clear. I know it’s northern Italy, but I don’t know if the Dolomites are part of the Italian Alps. I don’t know if it’s on the border of Switzerland. I have no, I don’t really know. So without the use of maps or graphics, because some people are just listening to this, help help our listeners figure out where the dolomites are and maybe kind of why they sh why they should know what they should know about the dolomites. Because you said they were confused.
Kristine (18:47.628)
Yeah.
Jason (19:01.069)
So I want to touch on that a little bit. Or at least the one man mentioned that it was confusing.
Kristine (19:07.413)
it’s the northeast Italy, so the Dolomites people think it’s one huge national park. It’s actually a bunch of national parks stuck together. And it’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so kind of like it’s all a mix there. And people are not exactly agreeing on the exact borders of the Dolomites. So because sorry, I jumped like over.
Jason (19:36.037)
No, no, th it well here let me let me ask you this, be just based on what you’ve said so far, is what I hear is the Dolomites are a a a mountain range, a range of mountains.
Kristine (19:36.435)
Yeah.
Kristine (19:46.293)
Yes, that’s the that’s the part that I missed to mention. Sorry
Jason (19:50.414)
okay. But but it makes sense. So they’re mountain range. And if we use, if we talk about Italy, I’m trying to try to think how we describe this with without a map or whatever, but so people think of Italy as a boot, right? So if you go up the heel, if you go from the heel all the way up along the coast to the very top where somebody’s the back of their knee would be or their their calf would be or something like that.
Kristine (20:04.866)
Mm.
Kristine (20:08.99)
They are at the very top.
Kristine (20:18.443)
The front of their knee, actually.
Jason (20:21.989)
Way.
Kristine (20:23.937)
So it’s the you know where Venice is? That’s kind of like easier to figure out.
Jason (20:27.929)
Yeah, but it’s on the back side of the boot, right?
Kristine (20:31.019)
So it’s up. If you look at imagine yeah, now I got confused as all. so well yeah, that’s like the shape. The shape is like this. So if you go up and to the right to the right when you look at the map, that’s where Venice is. So basically in between Venice and Verona
Jason (20:32.451)
I’m that did not make it it. Go ahead.
Jason (20:44.081)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (20:49.659)
Top right top right corner. Okay, yeah.
Kristine (20:51.777)
Top ra top right corner, so it’s there’s Slovenia, there’s Austria, there’s Switzerland, there’s Germany or something. I just confused myself with the map. I’m geographically challenged.
Jason (21:06.351)
Don’t say that. You’re travel advisor or not advisor, but you know what? Just kidding. okay. Well, so a lot of our listeners like, geez, Jason, I think we kind of figured it out. You didn’t have to bring up the whole boot thing. You just anyway, so okay, I gotcha. It’s up in the top right corner. it’s a mountain range. There’s a bunch of national parks that are kind of in that mountain range. Now, is that mountain range part of the Alps or are the Alps on the other side?
Kristine (21:23.862)
Yeah.
Kristine (21:35.772)
Yes.
Jason (21:36.365)
Or what is how does that all work?
Kristine (21:38.72)
It’s a part of the Alps and it’s the limestone Alps. So the unique thing about the dolomites, why they are so special, is that they are actually a bit of a different material than your typical Alps. They are limestone, so they are lighter in color. So and actually on our last trip we found out.
Jason (22:06.511)
Edit, edit, edit.
Okay, not exactly sure what happened there, but we’re fine, we’re back in it. So can you hear me?
Kristine (22:15.634)
Why did my headphones disconnect? That’s interesting.
Jason (22:21.795)
maybe. Did your battery go dead and your headphone?
Kristine (22:23.972)
No, they are fully charged. Is this thing on okay like this? So I can just take them off actually.
Jason (22:27.109)
You wanna
is the sa is the exact same to me, because you’re using the microphone on the computer, so it yeah, yeah, we might as well just All right. So you were talking about how the dolomites are limestone, they’re lighter colored, so just pick up s actually So Kristine, what what makes the dolomites unique? I mean, how are they different than the rest of the Alps?
Kristine (22:36.39)
there.
Surprise!
Kristine (22:50.992)
Yeah.
Kristine (22:57.506)
So they are actually made of limestone. So if you look at pictures, generally the dolomites are a bit like lighter colored. They are light gray, beige, sometimes orangey. So they’re made of limestone. So that’s the main thing that makes them so special.
And on our last trip we found out that there used to be volcanoes also, so there are some parts of the Dolomites that actually have black rocks and that’s like millions and millions of years ago there used to be volcanoes. So you might even find some old old lava there.
Jason (23:35.058)
Okay. Very cool. And I’ve seen so many beautiful pictures and they really do stand out. It’s it’s almost I I’m not an expert by any stretch, but if somebody showed me a picture of the dolomites, I would probably recognize, that looks like the dolomites. Because it does, it it does look different. I’m sure there’s other places in the world that have similar rocks, but the it does seem to stand out.
Obviously it’s the mountains, so obviously it attracts people that like to hike and climb and spend time in the mountains. But I suspect there’s other stuff there as well. And I don’t know what it is. So let’s talk a little bit about what else should people know about the Dolorites other than their lighter colored limestone rocks that have spectacular scenery, because I’m sure there’s a lot of other cool stuff there as well that I don’t know about.
Kristine (24:14.32)
Bye.
Kristine (24:29.666)
One thing that I really really want to mention that just came up in my Facebook group is that you do not need to hike to enjoy the Dolomites. Which is one… It really really conf… Surprises a lot of people because they think my god I cannot hike that much I’m old or I had the surgery or like just your general illnesses that come up with trouble walking.
Jason (24:39.771)
Good.
Jason (24:54.545)
Do you know?
Jason (24:58.245)
here’s here’s my take on that, Kristine, as someone that is f pretty far removed. I mean, we used to offer dolomites trips. I ran a travel business, but I had somebody on my team that did it, so I didn’t really get too involved with that particular trip. But I think the challenges
Kristine (24:59.014)
Jason (25:18.641)
I don’t know, the tourism board, the the local community, the the operators in the area keep using pictures of people hiking on these big rocks.
Like I don’t think I’ve ever seen any marketing about the dolomites that wasn’t somebody hiking on a rock. So no wonder everybody thinks that that’s the only thing to do. Bec and it’s what you’re saying makes sense because if you think like the Tetons in Wyoming, Yellowstone Park and the Tetons. How many millions of people go visit the Tetons and never never get on a trail, you know? But they’re spectacular.
particularly beautiful. You don’t and but nobody thinks, I I don’t want I’m not gonna go to the Tetons ’cause I don’t like to climb. Well, okay. So what do you think it is? Why why does everybody think it’s only climbing and and I just want to continue that path you were going on.
Kristine (26:00.987)
you
Kristine (26:06.866)
Thank
Kristine (26:16.344)
Yeah, because as you said, everyone is always walking in the mountains when you see any marketing, right? Like so little pictures are around of people just taking a cable car and the view is there. I actually, I have already a general short hikes and viewpoints in the Dolomites article and I’m planning to write more
Jason (26:22.609)
Yeah. Uh-huh.
Kristine (26:45.426)
because there are just so many like in an hour even in half an hour if you walk for half an hour you can find so many incredible views or you can just take a cable car up the dolomites have incredibly good cable car networks in all of the valleys and that brings me back to my previous point sorry why the dolomites are so complicated because it’s a lot of valleys there so that means valleys, mountain passes and it actually is
many regions of Italy. It’s Veneto, it’s Alto Adige, so and some more. I don’t want to go into the geography, sorry. Yeah.
Jason (27:25.743)
No, no, I I get that. But but just when you say valleys with cable cars
I’m thinking it sounds like a really cool I mean it’s almost seems like you put together an itinerary of just a driving itinerary. You drive, take the cable car to the top of the mountain, you know, on Tuesday. And I really love cable cars. I’m in I’m in Medellin, Columbia right now. They’ve got an amazing cable car network. and I can go get on the Metro and 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 use a lot of energy doing it, so you don’t have to hike I guess.
Kristine (27:48.583)
Ooh.
Jason (28:01.477)
Yeah. Are these are are these valleys presumably there’s towns and villages and stuff like that in these in these valleys that what is how would you describe the just the general nature of these towns? because when people think Italy they probably have when they think of villages, I’m not even sure village is the right word. Is village the right word for Italy? Not really, is it? It’s kinda like
Kristine (28:01.83)
Yeah.
Jason (28:30.799)
Or maybe it is.
Kristine (28:32.816)
I think there’s everything from tiny little villages, basically settlements to, you know, Rome, Milan. But in the Dolomites it’s mostly, I would say, towns, size-wise, because they not cities that are bigger than villages. Although I do use villages and towns interchangeably because it’s really kind of like…
Jason (28:39.087)
Okay. So when go ahead.
Jason (28:45.841)
Okay.
Jason (28:55.833)
Mm. I yeah, I don’t know what I have no idea what the definition would be. do you okay, and for some reason when you mentioned that, just the way something about the way you said that, like I I don’t think we can have this conversation without touching on
guess the easiest way to say it is over tourism because there’s some parts in Italy that that seems to be very big issue talking about Venice and Rome and and all that stuff. Is that even an issue in the Dolomites or are the Dolomites do the Dolomites attract a different crowd? Do they are they happier to see people in the Dolomites than maybe they are in a no you’re shaking your head no so okay I’ll stop talking you start go ahead
Kristine (29:17.244)
Yeah.
Kristine (29:41.043)
No, it is a problem in the Dolomites as well. A big part of the range is over-touristed. And it’s really… it’s kind of so sad because people generally tend to go to the same big names which is Lake Brias, which Seceda, Alp d’Isuzi.
Cortina now with the Olympic Games did not help. So the spots that you see on Instagram, the locals are really, really not happy when people go to those spots. which is, it’s kind of like, it’s a double edged sword, you know, because
Jason (30:28.945)
All right.
Kristine (30:34.652)
They kind of live on the tourism. A big part of the valley of the mountains lives on the tourism because there are a lot of family run hotels that families run for generations, which is a thing that I really love. There is a lot of family businesses, little small businesses of locals that live on the tourists. And at the same time, there are the locals who really, really do not like tourists. And I get them also because
Jason (30:44.027)
Mm-hmm.
Kristine (31:05.2)
There are so many times I’m trying to be really politically correct right now. I’m sorry, that’s why I’m struggling.
Jason (31:11.755)
just go for it. Well w it’ll be out there forever. Just say whatever. Don’t worry about politics. That it then it’s on me ’cause nobody’ll nobody’ll get upset with me. but yeah, so that that is the child. I grew up in an environment where, you know, in Sheridan, Wyoming at the base of the bighhorns and
Kristine (31:16.146)
I was like, I just wanna play with him.
Kristine (31:24.978)
you
Jason (31:35.474)
Tourism was like summers, it was tourist season. And if you drove down Main Street in Sheridan, there was motel, motel, bar, restaurant, motel, you know. It was very, very, very tourism based. I guess where I’m going with this is but
And then there were other people who didn’t work in tourism or didn’t see the direct connection, especially if they were a retiree, maybe, or they had some sort of pension. They’ve they’re like, I d you know, I benefit nothing. If they’re actually it hurts me if the tourist if the tourists the the tourist the tourists I can’t speak today, if the tourists are in town, it they just get in the way, traffic’s bad, things are more expensive, my you know, it’s just a pain in the butt because
they get nothing, they get no benefit out of the tourism. But then you’ve got other people in town that own the motel or they have a restaurant or they have a job as a tour guide or something like that. And so I get that. Everybody listening to this already knows this. They’re just chasing each other. That’s that’s a minute and a half, I’ll never get back in my life. But where I’m going with this is
Kristine (32:39.41)
you
Jason (32:49.605)
What do they say in these towns? Is is it generally a we want less tourists, we want higher end tourists, people that spend more money, fewer backpackers and more luxury people, or does there seem to be a consensus for what should happen in these towns?
Kristine (33:09.19)
The main thing is people want more responsible tourists. Yeah, and why I really, really, really understand the locals who are against tourism.
Jason (33:13.937)
Okay. Okay.
Kristine (33:23.154)
is and this is the point correct part which you did not guess sorry the big big influencers on instagram on facebook when they promote the places quite often they do the things that are illegal to do they yeah so why did i try to be polite correct they are breaking law no need to be polite correct about that
Jason (33:40.997)
Okay.
Jason (33:50.694)
Yeah. Give us would you give us an example? You don’t have to mention you buddy by name, but I mean I’m in I’m envisioning people getting off trails or going to vistas that they shouldn’t be on that probably are dangerous and they’re filming it and then the tourists show up and think, I want to go to the same spot and get the same photo up, right? Is that the issue?
Kristine (33:53.777)
Yeah, sorry. That’s the… Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, they go.
Kristine (34:09.786)
Yeah, they go over fences. Like for example if you go for a walk or a hike in the Dolomites you will quite often meet…
farm animals, will meet cows, will meet goats. So obviously there is a kind of fence at some point or another and people will climb over these fences and go to private property. They will walk there, they will have a picnic there, they will leave their trash there. So you know that was the biggest like scandal last year at Seceda which is you’ve probably seen it’s like those really big
that are kind of like pushed out of the ground you have a cliff and on the other side there’s a really nice meadow. Local just put a turnstile is how you pronounce it basically a toll gate there he just he put a toll gate in the middle of trail and said like if you want to go here you have to pay five euros because that’s my private property and like it is his private property and like the biggest amount of people that was there
Jason (34:49.957)
Okay.
Jason (34:54.801)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (35:01.583)
Okay.
Jason (35:05.998)
Uh-huh.
Jason (35:13.137)
Okay.
Kristine (35:16.986)
number was 8 000 people I think went off the cable car in one day.
Jason (35:23.991)
It the okay, y you mentioned the cable car, that threw me off ’cause what I’m envisioning is a meadow with a trail and if you wanna go up the trail you gotta pay some five euros.
Kristine (35:35.791)
You take a cable car up to two and a half thousand meters, I So, and then you have a bunch of trails there. And there’s one really popular one that just goes like, it’s called… Seceda… Blanked, mind. Edge trail, I think. Do not quote me on this, sorry. I just blanked on it. I know the name, I promise.
Jason (35:39.859)
okay. I gotcha. Okay.
Jason (35:56.306)
Okay.
So anybody taking notes, make sure to go over to her website and get and get the name. Go ahead.
Kristine (36:06.546)
Thank you. So, you go from the cable car.
right at the edge of the teeth and you can like look down to a different valley to both sides. It’s a really beautiful place and people would just go off the trail and they would not care that there’s a fence and it says private property do not step or that it’s actually it’s a national park so you should not go off trails because it’s protected and they would just walk there destroy the grass destroy the plants they leave trash they do not care about the nature.
Jason (36:28.497)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (36:34.395)
Mm-hmm.
Kristine (36:42.964)
And that’s kind of also a bit of my personal problem because on the one hand I love the places, I like promoting them because they are so beautiful and so unique. And at the same time I’m trying to teach responsible tourism but how many tourists listen to that 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’s drones which are…
illegal in most of the Dolomites, please everyone who listens, drones are illegal in most of the Dolomites and they have actually now hired, like many places have hired rangers which will confiscate your drone if you fly there.
Jason (37:30.513)
Okay. That’s that’s a good good point. but I’m curious I I’m still stuck on this turnstile. I’ve got this picture in my head of a st of a turnstile in this on this trail in this meadow. Because that’s what you were saying. Somebody said if y this is if you wanna access my private land to go get your photo, drop some money into the turnstile, or is it does it take credit cards? What is this help me help me picture this.
Kristine (37:35.377)
you
Kristine (37:55.993)
He was actually he take credit cards. He had a machine.
Jason (37:59.878)
Yeah. But was this but was this all fully mechanized or was there somebody standing there? Like he he had a an employee or somebody standing there collecting money? Okay. Well so
Kristine (38:08.006)
There was somebody standing there. You can walk around it, you know, like, it’s a, if I could show you a picture, you would see it’s like, it’s like zigzags of trails. So you could take the straight road, or you could just go lower and go back up to the main photo spot. But like he got his… No, it’s actually a different trail.
Jason (38:18.928)
Yeah.
Jason (38:24.09)
yes.
Jason (38:30.607)
But then you’re getting off the trail again and that’s not you’re not supposed to do that. okay, okay. Well, you know what, I I don’t know. So d did this guy is there does he get pushback? Do people are people upset that he’s doing this? Because just what I’ve heard so far, I’m like, Well, why not? Is it’s his pr it’s his property. I mean, why not do that? I mean it
Kristine (38:50.224)
Like, I do not disagree.
Kristine (38:56.538)
Yeah, I agree with him as well, like completely, because that was the, you know, like it is the tour bus, the big tour buses come, that’s the tour groups, they go up, they all go to the same photo spot and they go back down. So obviously when this three buses in a row come, 40 people, 40 people, 40 people, someone’s slower, so someone’s gonna go around and like his land, his…
Jason (39:09.329)
Mm-hmm.
Kristine (39:25.03)
See, I’m blanking on words today, I’m so sorry. Wear cow’s eat.
Jason (39:28.753)
Pa h his land, his meadow, pasture. Whatever you want to call it. A a place where the cows eat. A place where the cows eat is usually what I call it. So that works fine.
Kristine (39:33.252)
No, guess faster, faster.
So, yeah, his passion gets this…
Yeah, so it gets destroyed like and I understand so he got what he wanted either enough money to fix it or Enough people to just go around like I agree with him completely
Jason (39:47.942)
Yeah.
Jason (39:58.79)
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, and I I’m always thinking of angles, I’m like and if he could do some sort of trash collection point, okay, yeah, you gotta pay five Euros to go in or maybe ten Euros to go in.
But here’s a trash collection point. So leave your trash here or bring it back here or whatever. Make make it really easy for people to not litter. Because that’s sometimes it’s not the problem. I’m not ever gonna say the reason people litter is because there’s not enough trash cans. That’s not why people litter. But
Even people that that litter are more likely to not litter if they’ve got s if if they look if they’ve got something in their hand they gotta get rid of. I hope this is not controversial, but if they’ve got something in their hand they’re they wanna get rid of, and they look around and there’s nowhere obvious to put it, that’s when things tend to get put on the ground. so anyway, I just imagine this guy with his turnstile, his trash bins.
Anyway, that’s enough of that subject. Okay. What other things are there to do besides take the cable cars and take take pictures in the tops of the mountains? Is there a food scene there? Is there are there hot springs or s rafting, paragliding, all that guy all that good stuff? Okay.
Kristine (41:04.242)
I’m
Kristine (41:09.682)
my god.
Kristine (41:14.354)
yeah.
Kristine (41:20.124)
Yes?
Kristine (41:23.608)
Zip lining, I’m just adding to your list because all of those are there, there’s zip lining as well. Okay, more adventurous there’s climbing, there’s via ferratas, canyoning, e-biking is really great now and well if you have the legs for it mountain biking as well. Winter activities.
snowboard skiing, sledging, was really fun. Tobogganing. Tobogganing. That was so fun.
Jason (41:52.7)
What is okay. Yeah. That’s that is fun. And that’s something you know what? That’s probably something a lot of people have not done that should go do that. I mean, we did that as kids. That was a big thing, but okay. Alright. We’ve talked a lot about the Dolomites. we’ve talked a lot about your business.
We haven’t we haven’t figured we haven’t even got to figure out how the heck you got to this place in your life. So let’s go back in time and tell us about let’s go back to when you were I don’t know, let’s say twelve. What was going on in your world when you were twelve years old, Kristine? We’re gonna start there and we might go further if we need to. So let’s just pick that spot.
Kristine (42:33.164)
I’m working towards it.
Kristine (42:38.802)
When I was 12, I’m working through in therapy what I was going through.
Jason (42:44.009)
no, okay. Maybe don’t tell us everything. Just should we pick a different age? Yeah. You know what? I think we’re all I think we all either are going through therapy to r about what happened when we were twelve, or we should be. Most of us anyway. But all right. So tell us let me change this around.
Kristine (42:50.962)
you
Kristine (43:03.388)
Yeah.
Jason (43:10.509)
If I had a time machine and I went back to when you were roughly twelve, thirteen, fourteen and I said, Kristine, what do you want to do when you grow up? What would you have said? Is that a easier question?
Kristine (43:26.928)
That is easier, yes. I think around that point I was changing from the traditional I want to be a singer to the I want to own my own business.
Jason (43:28.377)
Alright.
Kristine (43:40.775)
but I was thinking about having a shop, like a little all you can buy shop, all you need to buy, because my parents have one. They’ve had it since before I was born. So my first steps were done in a little village. I mean like 500 people live there, village shop. So.
Jason (43:49.275)
Okay.
Jason (44:04.069)
What and
Kristine (44:06.962)
They have a convenience store.
Jason (44:08.185)
A conveni a convenience store. Okay, and this was in where you grew up was was it Latvia, yeah, that’s I for a minute I was afraid I’m gonna say Lithuania but I think it’s Latvia. All right, so Latvia. So what was going on in Latvia at that in your childhood, do you remember? ‘Cause you’re presumably you’re young enough that it was you know
Kristine (44:13.594)
Latvia.
Kristine (44:21.147)
You know?
Jason (44:32.485)
weren’t there when the USSR fell apart or anything like that, but I suspect there were some remnants of that, maybe your f maybe your family and stuff. So what was it like growing up in Latvia?
Kristine (44:32.536)
Yeah, I was born in the…
Kristine (44:44.21)
it’s kind of…
It’s a small village, it’s a lot of poor people, a lot of people do not have education, so it was a lot of people thinking that it was better in USSR.
and I kind of get where they are coming from because in the USSR there was if there was one good thing is that everyone had a job they knew they will have a job they knew they will have their income they might not have been able to buy anything from that money but they had the safety net that they will not be starving they will have what to do they will have opportunities so when I was a kid actually around that time
Let’s go back to my 12 years old. I was already dreaming about getting out of the village because I’ve always been really fascinated with traveling and with seeing the world, with learning more. And yeah, so I was already thinking I will have my own business, but I will not have a convenience store in a village, but I will have my own big company. I will be doing things that…
Jason (45:33.873)
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Kristine (46:00.057)
will make help me earn a lot of money so I can travel so
Jason (46:04.485)
Well, and you also mentioned you mentioned singing. It sounded like you you shift you transition from maybe wanting to be a singer earlier, but oftentimes when somebody says something like I want to be a singer, there’s this desire to go somewhere and use that. It’s it’s like saying I wanna be a professional basketball player, football player, or actor. It’s that’s a an opportunity to get out of a place that maybe you don’t wanna spend the rest of your life, right?
Kristine (46:33.362)
actually that’s really a good way to look at it that’s actually pretty a light bulb moment for me so yeah so
Jason (46:39.919)
Yeah. happy. And well maybe maybe I know because I grew up in a small town in Wyoming and and got very involved in theater and music and you know, I went to college as I was a music and theater major and I I guarantee I guarantee part of it was I wanna go, you know
Kristine (46:56.018)
Jason (47:00.955)
To California, I want to go to LA, Hollywood, that you know, that didn’t last very long for me because I realized it wasn’t a it wasn’t about music and theater, it was about me just wanting to go explore the world. And then I found other ways to do that. So you did too. It sounds like sounds good.
Kristine (47:01.647)
else.
Kristine (47:05.552)
I love.
Kristine (47:14.864)
Yeah, so… Yeah, I did as well. So let’s jump forward a bit. So I don’t think those years until I actually got to the point where I met my husband are the ones that are interesting for all of the listeners or viewers.
Jason (47:30.989)
Okay. Well ha well t okay. At least as I’ll make you deal, as long as you tell us how you got out of the town.
Kristine (47:38.343)
So from the first step was I went to the secondary school in the big town half an hour half an hour away
Jason (47:44.483)
Okay. Half an hour away. Okay. Sounds good. And what did you study in secondary school?
Kristine (47:53.467)
In the secondary school I went to the general secondary school which had a strong math and sciences leaning. So then guess what? I went to university for business administration.
Jason (48:08.351)
Alright, yep, okay. That’s
Kristine (48:11.836)
dreams come true.
Jason (48:12.861)
Yeah. Hey, I get it. The second the second time I went to school it was business administration. So yeah, we we have we have a few things in common. All right, so what in your mind were you still thinking you mentioned convenience store, but I think you were thinking much bigger than that. So when you went to business administration, what was the goal for the with that?
Kristine (48:15.472)
Yeah, but…
Kristine (48:19.088)
Yeah.
So, I’ll see you soon. Bye.
Kristine (48:34.906)
The funny thing is at that point I did not want to own my own business anymore. I wanted to work in some director role for someone else.
Jason (48:44.869)
Okay.
Kristine (48:45.734)
Because kind of if you own your own business, you always have to think about your own business. If you’re working for someone else, you work your nine to five and so on. At least in Europe. I know it’s different in US. You always think about your work, but in Europe you can kind of like you clock off, you are away.
Jason (48:57.125)
Uh-huh.
Kristine (49:07.386)
but in about of depression I dropped out of that university because nope so then I was working in a bigger convenience store
Jason (49:24.677)
Okay.
Kristine (49:26.972)
Let me think, let me think, let me think. It’s like, sorry. So I will just jump quickly because this is like every time I… No, no, it’s…
Jason (49:28.997)
We don’t we don’t have to go in. I I just wanna know how you got out of town. I I see you s I see you squirming and wiggling around, so go go ahead. Let’s talk about what you wanna talk about.
Kristine (49:44.815)
Now this is like my, this is my ADHD moments, so. Now, like I was a first level manager, like a senior cashier, shift lead in Walgreens, I would say, is the equivalent for it. And then I decided to use my vacation and every single euro I had in my pocket to go to Italy.
Jason (49:47.697)
Yeah, okay.
Jason (49:59.932)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jason (50:11.385)
Okay, very cool. From because you were still in Latvia. You were working in Latvia. So you’re like, I’m taking everything I’ve got. I’m gonna spend it on a trip to Italy. I love that. Alright?
Kristine (50:15.418)
I was still in that room, yeah.
Kristine (50:21.656)
Yeah, and I was couch surfing like I did not have money. I was couch surfing, I was eating McDonald’s in Italy because I could not afford the normal meal, but I did go to Italy and Ryanair, the tickets were like 40 euros I think around trip so that’s like for free. So I spent a week in Italy and that was my travel bug that bit me.
Jason (50:26.181)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (50:39.942)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (50:47.537)
Mm-hmm.
Kristine (50:48.524)
So then I was looking at some job opportunities because the job was not good that I was doing and a flight attendant role was open. So that was the capital city then. I applied. I went through the hiring process because there was a process for it. I went through the medical check and I got hired. So.
Jason (51:07.835)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (51:14.169)
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 wanna you just you obviously wanted to go somewhere. You didn’t want to buy something, you wanted to go somewhere. Do you remember what was driving you to go and why you chose Italy?
Kristine (51:38.035)
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 me with the nature because you have like normal four seasons at the 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’s just always been fascinating to me as a location and i always wanted to go so i was looking through it was 2000 and
I want to say 13 when I was looking through the tickets so there were not so many options for cheap flights so when I noticed that oh
You can fly to Italy for really really cheap? That’s where I’m going. Like I did not do any research. I think it’s somewhere on my website that that was my first trip on my own. I did not do any research. I did not even check what to see in Italy. I just knew I wanted to go.
Jason (52:30.661)
Mm.
Okay.
Jason (52:46.129)
I love it. Did you actually I gotta ask you this because this is the first time I’ve heard somebody say that what you just said. I ask a lot of people when I meet them, if you could go anywhere in the world, where would you wanna where would you go? You know, if you could go somewhere anywhere for two weeks, where would you go and why?
And I’m not surprised a lot of people say Italy, especially here in Latin America. They will say Italy and then I’ll say why. I’ve never heard anybody say use the word nature when they talk about Italy. I’ve heard culture, food, most pretty much culture and food. You know, they wanna or they or the sites, you know, they wanna see they will literally say, I wanna see the Coliseum and
Kristine (53:27.282)
home.
Jason (53:40.75)
In my mind, I’m like, that’s why you want to go to Italy. But okay, whatever. but I I haven’t heard people say nature. So I’m curious, are you saying nature now as somebody that knows an awful lot about Italy? Do you believe that back in 2016 or 13 or whatever you said, when you bought that plane ticket? If I’d asked you then why do you want to go to Italy, do you think you would have said nature, or is that ch just changed as you learned more about the country?
Kristine (54:09.392)
No, actually one of the places I was checking how to get to was Lake Como. So that’s the nature already then because I… I just remembered one of the things. My mom really loves all of those romantic movies. I don’t know who makes them, but a lot of them are set in Italy.
Jason (54:29.617)
like the no novella type movies? Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.
Kristine (54:32.666)
Noela type movies and you know they are by like Como or like Gata so yeah that’s where the nature came from because the tickets that I could get to Bergamo which is Reiner calls it Milan Bergamo although the it’s like one and a half hours on the highway to get from one to the other but
Jason (54:38.265)
Okay.
Jason (54:52.305)
Mm-hmm.
Kristine (54:54.098)
So we went to Bergamo with my friend and then we explored there for a few days and then we took the train to Milan and I was checking like if I could go how I could go to Como to see the lake and I decided not to because we did not have so many days we had like seven days I think altogether and
Jason (55:12.913)
Okay. But you know what, you had it you had enough days to change your life. That’s pretty cool, right? So look how many look how many more opportunities you had as a result of that forty dollar Ryanair ticket. So then you and then you you’re like
Kristine (55:18.768)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kristine (55:25.424)
Yeah.
Jason (55:30.371)
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. Was everything sexy about the idea of being a flight attendant, or was it like I’m just gonna use this opportunity to go see more places? Tell us a little bit about what you thought going into it and then what the reality of it was once you started working the job.
Kristine (55:36.113)
Yep.
Kristine (55:55.191)
Yeah, so I thought it’s gonna be this, you know, movie portrayal of the flight attendant like all tick tick tick tick tick tick service and stuff.
The reality was a bit different. It started with the six weeks of intense training and by that I mean from 8 in the morning until 6 in the evening you had lessons and then you went home swallowed some food and
took your notebook of safety regulations and procedures and then you read it until you fell asleep and repeat for five weeks and only one week of it was service how to pour drinks so if anyone listening is thinking that all flight attendants are just glamorous waitresses nope we have a lot of training we will be able to save your life up in the air which is kind of
Jason (56:28.891)
Mm-hmm.
Kristine (56:54.416)
I’ve had situations that… No. But… Yeah.
Jason (57:00.785)
Well, the curious person in me wants to dig into that a little bit, but I I don’t want you to have to rehash too much trauma, but but I I love but I love what you said about yeah, ’cause people that don’t know any different pretty much that’s what they see of the flight attendant.
Kristine (57:08.921)
Welcome!
Jason (57:17.489)
It’s like, okay, you have to go to school to learn how to do the demonstration, to put on the the life jacket, or how to put on the oxygen mask, how to buckle your seatbelt and then serve drinks. And there’s obviously so much more involved that people never see.
Kristine (57:33.084)
no.
you learn how to deal with bomb threats on board, you learn how to deal with medical emergencies, you spend I think two days it was just CPR training so you know on the normal sized person on an infant you have the infant doll and you learn how to make do CPR on infants it’s kind of so you learn what to do if poisonous chemicals appear on board if a fire starts
evacuation procedures on ground, on the water, if half of the exits are not working, if less than half of the exits are working, if you have the tail up so you need to evacuate everyone and you learn to evacuate every single plane in less than 90 seconds. So it doesn’t matter how many people are on board it can be evacuated in less than 90 seconds.
Jason (58:32.721)
Jean Kristine? Jeez, as I listen to you. I’m thinking how how long was the overall training? You you mentioned a five week phase, but I think it was longer how
Kristine (58:44.858)
It was six weeks altogether of school theoretical training. then you have, geez, I don’t remember already how many flights you do actual flights with a trainer. It’s called line training. So you do everything. each year you have, again, recurrent training. So you go over the procedures and exams and…
Jason (58:47.099)
Okay.
Jason (59:01.584)
Okay.
Jason (59:09.617)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (59:13.905)
Here’s, yeah, here’s what popped into my head. I was like, geez, if I spent five weeks of practicing and learning about all the stuff that can go wrong, I’m not sure I’d want to get on a plane. I’m just saying. I think I get the end of my five weeks, and like, okay, now it’s time to go get on the plane. I think,
Kristine (59:14.096)
It’s…
Kristine (59:32.85)
you
you
Jason (59:43.036)
I think I’m just gonna go home and I’m gonna take a bus. Do people do people drop out? Because th not only is it just constant reinforcement of all the bad things that can happen, but there’s also a constant reminder that it’s your job to deal with it. Bec and that not everybody wants that kind of responsibility.
Kristine (01:00:00.017)
Yeah.
Jason (01:00:06.157)
So what does that look like? Is do people drop out frequently b just because not because they can’t handle the workload, but just because they’re like, whoa, I that that just feels like a lot.
Kristine (01:00:06.5)
I think,
Kristine (01:00:18.758)
Yeah, people drop out for different reasons and it’s not just that you learn these things, you have exams at the end. So you need to pass those exams and they are not easy.
Jason (01:00:30.865)
Yeah, yeah. Well it yeah. I’m I’m happy we touched on it. So tell me, when you started realizing, okay, it wasn’t quite what I thought it was gonna 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 your biggest takeaways from your cause obviously you’re not a flight attendant right now. So what are your biggest takeaways from that part of your life?
Kristine (01:00:56.27)
the biggest literal takeaway is my husband.
Jason (01:00:59.577)
Okay. All right. It’s a good one. All right. So how long into how long into that part of your career was it before you met him? Was he on your first flight?
Kristine (01:01:03.538)
Yeah.
Kristine (01:01:12.056)
was half a year so it was quite a funny story I love telling this story because it was like half a year into my flying and he had been off for half a year or so for personal reasons he needed to take time off and on the first two flights back to work I was a flight attendant so
Jason (01:01:13.815)
Okay. Wow. All right.
Jason (01:01:35.217)
Okay, so what just just so I’m clear, when you say he had taken some time off and he came back to was he working was he working as an attendant or with the airline as well?
Kristine (01:01:42.7)
sorry. Yeah, the most important part, he was pilot.
Jason (01:01:48.995)
Okay. Okay. I mean I could have guessed that. Just based on a lot of stereotypes, I was gonna guess that. But I didn’t wanna all right, so okay.
Kristine (01:01:56.435)
Just a note on your about the stereotypes when you spend 200 hours a month in an airplane you kind of don’t have time to meet anyone else
Jason (01:02:08.059)
Get it. Well, and and also just the reality of like, okay, you meet somebody else, and the first question is, you know.
They meet you on an app or they meet you in a a bar or rest probably a restaurant or at the convenience store when you’re trying to go get something to eat because you don’t have a lot of time. And it’s like, well, where do you live? You know, I live just down the street around the corner. Where do you live? Well, I live in another city and I’m just here for f you know, three more hours before I get on the plane to go to the next place. And but I come through often, so maybe here I let’s exchange numbers. It’s yeah, it would be really hard to meet people.
Especially people that wanted to have a relationship. But if you meet somebody that’s basically living the same lifestyle, i it makes sense, right? I get that. All right.
Kristine (01:02:56.848)
Yeah. Yeah. And
Like back to the story, I did not know he’s a pilot because I had been working for the whole time that he was off. But the senior, like on each flight there’s a senior and if it’s a bigger flight there’s a purser. But in our case there was a senior flight attendant, she knew him and she sent him in the business class. I did not know that he’s a pilot. And I thought that he’s the business class passenger and she was like, would you like to serve our business class today? was like, mm-hmm, okay.
Jason (01:03:08.294)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (01:03:31.387)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Kristine (01:03:31.956)
because that’s a higher way of service and she was like, okay, go and look, go and offer him some food, go and offer him some drinks. And he doesn’t have a ring, know? Like, do you wanna know, him? And I’m like, no, he has a ring. No, no, he doesn’t.
Jason (01:03:48.804)
Yeah.
S so she so she knows he’s a pilot. She’s messing with you a little bit, trying to get you to go flirt with this guy who you’re probably gonna end up working with, you know, in a few weeks, you’ll probably be on a flight together. But yeah, okay.
Kristine (01:03:51.89)
And in the end, like…
Kristine (01:03:57.136)
Yeah.
Kristine (01:04:05.554)
and then he wrote to me on Facebook and I was like how the heck did he find me because we had like 10 Christine’s at that point in our Baltic so but since he works for worked for the company he could just check who was on that flight so he could find me on Facebook
Jason (01:04:21.573)
Yeah, yeah. So were you creeped out like initially where ooh he’s he’s he’s stalking me or he was he cute enough ’cause or was he cute enough that you didn’t care?
Kristine (01:04:34.258)
He was like, hi, you were on my, I was on your flight and like I was like reluctant to reply like, you know. And by the way I work as well like, yeah, like okay you work for the company, that makes more sense. So we started chatting and yeah, already hobbling.
Jason (01:04:43.099)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (01:04:58.395)
Did you w were you based in the same city? I I don’t know
Kristine (01:05:02.01)
Yeah, at the point we worked for Erbotic and it had only one base, so it’s like we were based in the same city and yeah, half a year later we started living together.
Jason (01:05:15.441)
Okay. And Air Air Baltic would be a Latvian comp I don’t is that what okay. So you’re so you’re more or less living in Latvia but you’re travelling quite a bit, it sounds like. Yeah.
Kristine (01:05:20.368)
Yeah, Latvian National Airline. Yeah.
Kristine (01:05:28.646)
Yeah, at that point that was like that. So we we worked a lot as I said, but then he had an opportunity to change the airline for actually for Ryanair, which offered at that point better opportunities. And then we had to figure out where to go. And then we were looking through the bases for Ryanair because they have them all over Europe.
And one of the three that he could put in was Bergamo. Because I was like, Bergamo, I want that. It was beautiful. Italy. So, and he got assigned to Bergamo. So that’s how we moved to Italy at that point.
Jason (01:06:04.731)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (01:06:13.777)
Very cool. Where where was he from originally? He okay. I thought so because we had the conversation about the last name, but I just wanted to make s so he was fr okay. All right, very cool. So did you end up did you switch over to Ryanair? Did you go a different direction? What did you do?
Kristine (01:06:17.542)
Slovakia, here’s Slovakia.
Yeah, yeah, it’s fine.
Kristine (01:06:32.37)
We decided that I will not be working so I went back to university I got a degree in business psychology and it was distant studies so my university was in Latvia and I was studying online before it was cool
Jason (01:06:49.253)
Yeah. Look at you, remote learner. do okay. And your life had changed since the first time you went to school, ’cause you went for business administration at one point and you said you decided at some point this okay, this is not working for me. When you went back the second time, you were a little older, maybe more ready for it. What was your
So the person I the reason I want to go here is the person that’s listening to this that might need some inspiration. When you went to school the second time you were doing it online remotely, what was was that just way better for you? Did that work out well? Or was anything you want to share with somebody that might be thinking about going back to school, I guess? I don’t know what I’m I don’t know where I’m going with this.
Kristine (01:07:31.763)
Yeah, so what was changed was I knew myself better because look
you are telling 18 year olds to choose what they want to do for the rest of their lives and many of those people are gonna go into crazy depth and they still don’t know so like first if you can take a gap year to find yourself or like to travel even to just work try some jobs before because i tried uh one two
Jason (01:08:04.241)
Mm-hmm.
Kristine (01:08:10.364)
three, four different jobs before I settled on the business psychology. And by that point, I already knew that, okay, no, like shops and that kind of stuff, it’s not for me. I knew I liked working with people. I was looking into psychology general, realized, no, my head is not okay for all of the medical terms. Nope, not gonna happen.
Jason (01:08:15.025)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (01:08:34.245)
Mm-hmm.
Kristine (01:08:36.178)
But I still had this curiosity about business, so when I found this business psychology and I looked into what’s there, what I’ll be studying, what I can do, I was like, oh yeah, this is exactly for me, this is perfect. By the way, I jumped over the part while we were working for AirValtic, we traveled so much, so I traveled…
Jason (01:08:49.297)
Mm-hmm.
Kristine (01:09:01.31)
I myself traveled to like 20 different countries during those two years. We worked for two years there. Actually, that picture, I don’t think the light is good enough for it, but that’s from Oahu. We went to Hawaii. So like for us, it’s exactly opposite in the world, know, 12 or even more hours.
Jason (01:09:04.591)
Wow. Yeah.
Jason (01:09:13.393)
Okay? Very cool. Now
Jason (01:09:19.185)
Yeah, exactly. It’s a little ways away for you. presumably you had
benefits to fly with partner airlines and stuff like that ’cause I’m imagining Air Baltic I’ve been I haven’t seen them in too many airports so but I but they’re part of a network you get to get to get to take advantage of. I’m happy what you shared about the school because what I heard was the first time you went for business administration and you’re working at a a Walgreens type of place, thinking, you know what, I just want a job that I can go nine to five and when I’m done I’m done and and
Kristine (01:09:35.495)
Yeah.
Jason (01:09:54.79)
just wanna have that to now fast forward we’re having a conversation about going back to school and figuring out what you really want to do based on some experiences you’ve had and obviously you know you you’re a business owner and I know that you’re not working nine to five. So I mean so any so anyway, so you go back and you
Kristine (01:10:17.682)
you
Jason (01:10:22.671)
Alright, so take us take us from there. You’re you’re going to school online, you’re in Italy. When did the business really kind of start to take shape with the blogging and how did that all come? How did we get from that point to where we are now?
Kristine (01:10:42.198)
So while I was in school, I didn’t really work. was in the university. I was going to language courses as well to learn Italian. So I did not really have time for any work. And…
By the time I was already almost finished with the school, had… Okay, almost finished. Out of four and a half years, I had one and a half left. My husband got an even better job offer in Slovakia. So we moved over to Slovakia. I decided that while I study remotely, I can also work. I started working, I got pregnant.
Jason (01:11:06.545)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (01:11:19.525)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (01:11:22.971)
Course. Mm-hmm. Alright. So you’re in Slovakia, you’ve got a little bit of school left. You just started a job and now you’re pregnant. Alright. So
Kristine (01:11:27.58)
So.
Kristine (01:11:33.52)
Yeah, thank heavens for probationary periods because I could just say, okay, not gonna do this.
Jason (01:11:42.321)
Yeah, I’ve given it some thought. I just don’t think this right fit for me.
Kristine (01:11:47.919)
not fit for me nope so yeah by that time then
I was already thinking that I want to do something because this school and by the way different language courses, Slovak this time I was like okay I want my own income I cannot just I don’t like asking my husband for money like I would like at least something for myself so I was trying to figure out what we what I could do and somehow the blogging was kind of coming up from time to time like I would see it on Facebook I would see some
add somewhere or whatever so that was kind of already dripping in my mind so it started and actually actually started in Italy just before we moved that the blogging kind of already started so when I was pregnant I realized that okay my husband has
Jason (01:12:35.983)
And you’ve been to a bunch of places.
Kristine (01:12:48.298)
no schedule basically. He has eight days off a month and then he has standby days and he can just be called like okay you’re going for 10 days to somewhere.
Jason (01:13:00.379)
Wherever. Yep.
Kristine (01:13:01.934)
So since I was pregnant I was like okay I cannot work a nine to five or any other work because we will have a kid your way like how kindergarten or whatever you know I need to take her so I was looking into the vlogging more and more so I started the first vlogging course while still in university while having a newborn on my hands and
Jason (01:13:13.137)
Yeah.
Jason (01:13:28.749)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And you did it. And and look it so you so you did you make the decision immediately to go into travel blogging? Cause that’s kind of earlier in the conversation you mentioned you were writing about Japan and other places and then just more and more Italy stuff. And so you shifted into Italy and then the Dolomites and
Kristine (01:13:31.504)
Yeah, so… I did it!
Kristine (01:13:41.36)
Yeah, so,
Yeah.
Jason (01:13:54.446)
How far into the blogging did you get before you started realizing, I can actually help people put together itineraries, review itineraries? Did you figure that out pretty quickly or did that come along later?
Kristine (01:14:05.97)
It came along later. I was blogging the first blog for like three, almost four years and that was, I was just going with blogging and when I started the new site I realized, okay, I cannot run both of them so I sold the old one and then I really put myself in. We are already now at 2024 by the way, timeline wise. So I pushed myself into this planning, into the Italy thing and
Jason (01:14:28.975)
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Kristine (01:14:36.785)
My parents actually, my always support, they support me through everything and they were like okay our friend wants to go to the Dolomites, can you help him? was like sure!
we called with a friend like I know him as well he knows me since I was born like a childhood my parents childhood friend and I was just telling him again and again and not again more and more and more and it was like yeah you can do this you can do this and if you go here you can do that and like I finished the call and I was telling my husband I love this I want to do more of this
Jason (01:14:59.409)
Mm-hmm.
Jason (01:15:16.069)
Yeah, yeah, very i it the the light bulb went on and all right. So that’s
Kristine (01:15:19.91)
Yeah, so okay, can I do this actually for people? So I started putting some feelers out about it and then like randomly, completely randomly a lady from USA wrote to me so hi I’m going to the Dolomites and I have this itinerary and I’m really not sure about it. Could you help me? Could you look over it? I will pay you!
Jason (01:15:47.314)
Nice. Very cool. So so
That’s how the business was born, and you’re you’re doing that. Is there anything else that you’re doing in that mix that we well, here, let me just ask you this way, because we discussed a bunch of things, talked quite a bit 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 on what you’re doing, but I want to make sure I I’m not missing anything, and our listeners aren’t. So let me just ask you this way, Kristine. After everything we’ve discussed, is
Is there anything that I either forgot to ask you or you wish that I had asked you to give our listeners a better opportunity to understand about you, your business, Italy, life in general, or anything like that that you that we should discuss before we wrap up?
Kristine (01:16:43.73)
So one thing that’s kind of going through my mind right now is that it’s not just a blog where I help a lot of people I have a really active Facebook group where actually the blog has been kind of on a back burner for a bit because the Facebook group is so active that I just don’t have time to write the articles and like if anyone is planning to go to the Dolomites and like
Jason (01:17:02.513)
Mm-hmm.
Kristine (01:17:09.554)
My services are rather low priced 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 where I can answer questions where I have a lot of experts just like Helping out out of the goodness of their hearts
Jason (01:17:29.133)
Okay. And this and this group is specific to the Dolomites, Italy. Dolomites. just do me a favor, mention the name of the group. Obviously we’re gonna have a link to your website. Presumably if somebody goes to your website they can find the Facebook group, all that stuff. But what’s the name of the group?
Kristine (01:17:35.175)
Yeah.
Kristine (01:17:45.49)
It’s called Dolomites travel tips love your Italy so like literally
Jason (01:17:52.546)
All right, all right, very, very cool. Because I would imagine though with blogging hm hop I don’t blogging seems like okay, I’m gonna sit down, put some time and effort into an article, I’m gonna put it out there and hope that people read it, hope that Google finds it or AI finds it or whatever.
Whereas the the Facebook groups there’s a lot more interaction. You can see the questions that people are asking. Instead of trying to guess what should I write the blog post about, you can see the questions they’re asking and you probably recognize the same questions coming up pr probably every day. Because I’m in a few groups, travel groups as well, and it’s like, you know. But anyway, so it gives you a chance to engage with them with them more. So all right.
Kristine (01:18:19.312)
Yeah.
Kristine (01:18:27.079)
Mm-hmm.
Kristine (01:18:38.426)
Yeah, and that’s how I can push more of the sustainable responsible travel as well. Because like the blog, it’s kind of as you said, you put it out and it’s there and then you hope at some point you will have time to go back and rework the work. But the Facebook group, it’s much more present. Like it’s what’s happening now, what’s important now.
Jason (01:18:58.384)
Right. Yeah.
Kristine (01:19:08.21)
On our last trip, as I told you before, we just went to the Dolomites and I noticed so many people being not safe in the mountains.
Jason (01:19:16.465)
Uh-huh.
Kristine (01:19:18.128)
they would go with half a liter bottle of water like a tiny bottle of water they would go on a hard hike which is exposed you don’t have shade you are going 900 meters altitude change upwards and you have only a tiny bottle of water and like old sneakers that are falling apart so I just made a post on the Facebook group like
I’ve noticed these things, please do not do these things, do these things instead and it had like 60,000 people reach. So, you know, I can reach a lot of people really quickly and these important things they need to get out really quickly.
Jason (01:19:48.143)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Jason (01:19:56.644)
It’s sometimes people just don’t know. It’s really easy for somebody that knows to look at somebody else and say, Well, that was dumb. I saw a video just within the last few days, a older gentleman
Kristine (01:20:06.066)
Thank
Jason (01:20:12.623)
Be careful saying that because I’m an older gentleman, I guess, but an older gentleman was in Yellowstone Park and got too close and a buff a bison, what we call buffalo in the you know anyway, hit him, flipped him up, and broke some bones. And and as somebody from Wyoming, I recognize how easy it is to look at that and say, what a dumbass. You know, wow, why would why are tourists so dumb? Because I grew up in Wyoming, so I know I every
Kristine (01:20:15.922)
you
Kristine (01:20:21.746)
Jason (01:20:42.547)
Every summer we’d see the news and it was Yellowstone was right there, and I grew up around big animals, so I learned not to get close to big animals like that, and the tourists just don’t know. And they literally just don’t know. So I it’s important that you’ve got this ability, you know. Don’t do this. This is not good thinking. People need to hear that message.
Kristine (01:20:55.346)
Yeah, and…
Kristine (01:21:04.76)
Exactly, and I’m so happy for this opportunity because you were asking me what I wanted to do at 12 and actually now I kind of thinking back to it
For my whole life I wanted to help people in one way or another and if I can help someone not get dehydrated or get hypothermia or whatever in the mountains 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’m happy like just please don’t get hurt
Jason (01:21:40.848)
I love it. Yeah. I get it ’cause
People do get hurt. They don’t know. And that’s one of the things about travel. You’re you’re going from a place that you’re you know the dangers and the risks. You’re, you know, you probably don’t do quote unquote stupid things when you’re 50 mile radius of your house because you know what things are stupid and what are not. But then you go across the world and you find yourself in high-altitude mountains all of a sudden in the middle of summer, and you’ve never you’ve never been more than 20 minutes away.
from a convenience store where you can go get a bottle of water. You might not think, we should probably take some water with us. So anyway. Yeah.
Kristine (01:22:23.218)
Last thing, cannot research what you don’t know. If you don’t know it, you don’t know what to search for. So if I can reach 60,000 people who will see this message, and even if half of them will think, that’s dumb, of course everyone knows it, and a bunch of them will think, why are you telling me what to do? I had those comments. Do not look at other people like, uh-huh.
Jason (01:22:31.707)
Yes. Ooh, that’s a good point.
Kristine (01:22:49.868)
I rescue helicopters at least once a day. I will tell this to people.
Jason (01:22:54.489)
I I love it because here’s the thing, if you post, make sure you take water with you. You’re the the people that are gonna comment are probab I I love people, but I’ve I’ve been on social media enough.
They’re gonna, well, of course, duh da, that’s so dumb. Anyone that doesn’t take water is a dumbass, da-da-da-da-da. But there’s that one person that’s like, I didn’t even think about that. They’re not gonna comment. wow, Kristine, thank you so much. Because I it it hadn’t occurred to me. They’re not gonna comment because they’re afraid everybody else’s everybody else has basically already said they’re dumb. So they’re gonna they’re not gonna say thank you, probably, in the comment section. They might but they might reach out to you and say, hey, Chris.
Kristine (01:23:30.543)
See
Jason (01:23:37.691)
Kristine, can you help me with my itinerary? You know, I know I I under I understand how this works. So anyway, Kristine, this has been so much fun. Thank you. Thank you so much for spending so much of your time with us. And Yeah, it was it was see earlier on you said, I’m a little nervous, and yeah, there’s nothing to be nervous about.
Kristine (01:23:40.53)
Please do!
Kristine (01:23:51.42)
Thank you for having me. I loved it.
Kristine (01:24:00.166)
This was really fun, thank you so much!
Jason (01:24:02.425)
we’ll find 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 to Christine’s website, which you can connect through there to to the Facebook group and and just get involved if you’re in I would say if you’re just interested in interesting people, do that. But obviously if you’re interested in the dolomites, it’s a no brainer. So Kristine, thank you so much. Let’s I’ll see you again soon. You have a great day. All right.
Kristine (01:24:26.098)
Thank you.
See ya, bye.
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