Jenna Philippe, 27-year-old, was born in France and raised around the world. She is a breeze of fresh air and a source of inspiration. If you too dream of endless travels you might want to stop reading this article right away. You’ll probably end up exasperated.

With a passion for nature, people, history, culture and travels Jenna felt very early in life that she didn’t fit in. Her curiosity towards life pushed her further. She left home to live abroad when she was sixteen, only to come back nine years later.

Ask her in how many countries she has lived and she won’t be able to give you the exact number. Nepal, India, Singapore, Malaysia, China, North America, Ecuador and Galapagos Islands, Ireland, England, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovenia, Uganda and Kenya are just a part of her adventures.

“I have moved to different countries every 5 to 8 months since I was 16 until I turned 25. I live in Vienna now. It has been already two years since I moved here. Without really planning it. So my life has been a kind of an endless travel, which is still going on. I used to say: wherever I’m sleeping more than two nights is ‘home’,” says Jenna.

Driven by an enormous curiosity, dazzled by freedom and with a rapid heartbeat, Jenna inevitably ended up on top of a motorcycle. At the age of 24 she discovered the best wings to fly with!

“I got my driving license when I was 24; I bought my first motorbike, a Honda hornet 600 from 2012, two weeks later”, Jenna says, “I will always remember the first time on a motorcycle. I told myself: “This is it!”. My heart was jumping around, I had sparkles in my eyes and I was simply flying. I first fell in love with the sensations of balance and speed, the accelerations, brakes, movement of the clutch, curves, the body expression and harmony of its actions with the reactions of a motorcycle. I was curious about how the machine worked and how the combination of my actions and gears, shafts, couplings were working together. I just wanted to learn and understand, find the perfect way to use the machine at its optimal capabilities.”

On May 17th 2017 she left Vienna on her motorcycle and rode 28.824,3km in 152 days. For most of the trip she rode alone, facing all the challenges of a solo adventure ride for the first time and exploring all the opportunities to fully dive into the world a trip like this gave her. She says “It’s a complete experience, full of joy and challenges: you truly need to live it to realise it.”

Her Instagram jenna.philippe, full of eye candy, can help you realise what’s out there, standing firmly and waiting to be discovered over and over again by every single one of us. It’s not a light move, to pack and go, but she assures you it’s doable and worth it. You’ll adapt, like we human beings always do. It’s a discovery of yourself, your limits and how stretchable they actually are.

“When I didn’t know where to go or when I thought I was lost I just enjoyed it: I could go wherever I wanted and it didn’t matter when I would decide which direction I would take: I was completely free. And to be honest, whatever the problems were, I had the impression that there was always a solution, and was never alone.”

Some travel for pure pleasure, some do volunteering work on their way, to give something back to society, some are just driven by motives they do not know. The beauty of travelling also comes from the insight it gives you about the world you live in. After seeing different realities you’ll look at yours with a different pair of eyes. Experiencing different cultures, meeting different people and hearing different stories will make you more empathetic, tolerant, kind. It will always be a win-win experience. First thing you can do before changing the world is changing yourself.

“The best things about travelling or living all over the world is to discover another environment and other people, their history, beliefs, and expressions through culture, arts and religion”, Jenna says, “I have always been eager to understand what makes someone the person he or she is right now. While travelling you discover another world than the one you are used to, and it’s reminding you of the beautiful diversity and infinity of possibilities around you. It makes you think more, think different and understand differently how nature evolves, how people live. You understand better, broader, what’s earth, what’s mankind and you feel more connected to more places and human beings because you build souvenirs here and there. Above all, you apprehend better who you are, because at the end, everything that you understand, is just the building of an own perception of how things are when you discover them”

Jenna is now based in Vienna developing her website on art and motorcycles www.a-moto.com and getting ready to rebuild her Honda from 1986. You should definitely keep an eye on her artworks, check out these cool helmets designs:

As for the next travels, like she says, she has “a lot of unplanned plans”. From Vienna to Greece riding through all the Balkans, or a tour of Australia, or North America, or maybe Japan. Stay tuned to discover her next steps, but mostly… to be inspired!
 

To see more from Jenna, go to:
 

https://www.instagram.com/jenna.philippe/

http://a-moto.com

Photo Credits:

Jenna Philippe

Michael Alschner