A little about me

I was born in Luban, a small town in Poland near the German and Czech borders, and was part of one of the last generations to grow up under real communism, where choice was scarce but freedom was found in the mountains on weekends.

At 18, I hitchhiked to France to pick grapes and encountered something quietly transformative: not just an abundance of cheeses (far more than I knew existed), but the realisation that choice itself could be vast, varied, and entirely my own. That sense of choice, and its pitfalls, has stayed with me ever since.

After studying Polish literature at Jagiellonian University and taking a few adventurous detours, I moved to Dublin, Ireland, and later (post–Celtic Tiger) to Edinburgh, Scotland. I spent over two decades building and co-leading an international travel company, Cashel Travel, with my fellow director and now husband. It was a remarkable education in resilience, decision-making, and staying calm through chaos, from terrorist attacks and financial crises to COVID-19. In November 2025, the company entered a new chapter as it transitioned into an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).