Why We Travel
A few notes about this project.
We’re Mike and Birgitte — travelers drawn to cities, coastlines, mountains, and the quiet spaces between them. We’re not trying to collect every country, though we may cross many. What pulls us forward is something simpler: curiosity, movement, and the joy of noticing.
Fish n Fly began as a way to keep track of that noticing —
a travel journal shaped by motion through landscapes, cultures, and weather.
Over time, it has come to represent something broader:
not just movement through places, but attention to what lies beneath them,
and the patterns that emerge as you move between them.
Sometimes fishing appears as part of that movement, sometimes it doesn’t.
But the spirit behind the name remains:
to move farther, and to pay closer attention.
We’ve learned that the most meaningful parts of travel rarely sit on an itinerary.
It’s the early-morning light in a canyon,
the way a city reorganizes itself after rain,
a long road through olive groves,
a detour you didn’t expect,
a conversation you couldn’t have planned.
This site is built around that idea.
What guides us
- Traveling through countries rather than skimming across them
- Moving slowly enough to understand how places actually work
- Paying attention to what sits beneath the surface
- Following detours when the day shifts
- Staying open to the textures that don’t fit inside guidebooks
Why field notes?
Because they allow space for incomplete thoughts,
for impressions,
for the small details that don’t belong on a list
but stay with you long after you’ve left.
About fishing
Fishing is never the reason for the trip,
but sometimes it’s the doorway into a place —
a way to understand water,
to stand still long enough to notice what would otherwise pass,
to talk to people who live where the river bends.
It becomes less about the catch, and more about attention—
patience, persistence, and the ability to adjust to conditions that are never fully controlled. Movement follows currents, timing, and subtle shifts that are felt more than directed.
What unfolds cannot be forced.
It is navigated.
When it belongs in the story, it appears.
When it doesn’t, it remains part of the way we look.
What this project is becoming
Over time, the stories have revealed a pattern:
every country carries an undercurrent — a myth thread —
something beneath the surface that shapes how it is felt.
Morocco holds tension between mountain and desert.
Jordan and Egypt follow the rhythm of water and return.
Spain is defined by edges and thresholds.
The Netherlands, Belgium, and Eastern Europe reveal how systems hold, adapt, and persist.
Turkey shows how systems overlap, extend, and converge without fully resolving.
Each trip becomes part of a larger exploration —
how structure, landscape, and movement interact,
and how meaning emerges through experience rather than explanation.
What we hope
If anything here is useful,
let it be the encouragement to travel slowly,
to listen as much as you look,
to leave room for weather
and wrong turns
and moments that don’t have names yet.
Because this project isn’t about seeing everything.
It’s about noticing more of what you see —
and understanding a little more of what lies beneath it.
More Field Notes
See other movements across landscapes: