Our story

How we met.

Our story starts on a fateful summer in 2021, coming right out of lockdown. Niek and Monalisa meet for their first Bumble date on the 28th of July at Birra, Niek’s favourite pub in Berlin…

“Niek?” Mona asked when she first saw a guy wearing a yellow shirt in front of the bar. Niek had announced, “I will be the guy in yellow”, Mona still remembers it today. During the date we bonded over things like our favourite Ghibli movie (it’s the same one and not the one you think), TV shows (Friends being a mutual favourite), and places we traveled. It didn’t take long before we were holding hands. A few moments later our first kiss followed, and the night ended with a tipsy walk back home.

Special, but not the most romantic setting for a first date.

What came next were a few dinner-and-a-movie meetups at home, and for our fourth date, Mona had arranged to see a stand-up comedy show. At a specific moment during the show, the comedian started asking couples in the crowd how long they had been together. “4 years,” responded the first couple. The second couple counted for a moment and replied: “2.5 years”. Next couple: “7 years”... The comedian joked mostly about how relationships change the longer they last. Then it was our turn. “So what about you two? How long have you been a couple?” We were a little surprised the comedian assumed we were a couple in the first place, but looking back, who could blame him? We were sitting there shoulder to shoulder, holding hands as we still do to this day. We wanted to play it cool, but instead we awkwardly responded that we had only met a few weeks before. Now it was the comedian’s turn to be surprised, and he fired back with some backhanded joke to Mona saying “Congratulations on your EU passport”. It didn’t matter, a little seed was planted.

Over the next weeks, we kept on meeting for dinners, movies and cocktails in Berlin, and often talked about the places we wanted to see. Next to Middle Earth — a special place Mona had never heard of, which we then visited for 13 hours straight on a cosy Sunday as part of our 8th date — Norway was mentioned, as Mona was planning to go there to celebrate her 30th birthday. Niek said he had always wanted to see the northern lights, to which Mona replied that that was exactly the plan. So right there and then it was jokingly agreed that Niek should come along for the trip. What Mona didn’t expect at that moment was that our 9th date would really, actually last an entire week...

The Hunt

On October third, Mona’s last day as a twenty-something, Niek (freshly booked ticket in hand) met Mona and her brother Akarshan at Berlin Airport. Off to Bergen, to celebrate Mona’s big day with her cousin and his family. Mona was a little nervous how Niek would handle the Indian family setting, but also what her cousin would think of the whole endeavor with Niek. Mona therefore informed her parents in India and also informed her cousin in Norway beforehand, to save any awkward questions later on. It is not so common in Indian culture to introduce girlfriends/boyfriends during family events who they might not see ever again in case things don’t work out. In our situation, we didn’t even have the “What are we?” talk yet. We were just going with the flow.

The birthday girl and her niece Twesa.

After the birthday celebration, Mona, Akarshan and Niek went onwards to Tromsø for three days to try and catch the northern lights. We booked a tour with a professional northern light chaser for the first night. This turned out to be a good call: Norway’s terrain is rugged, and local guides with a car know the spots with the least light pollution in the fjords around. On top of that, they are in contact with other aurora hunters and enthusiasts in other towns across the region. We hadn’t even reached Tromsø yet when the organisers told us the sky would be too overcast to see anything, and the tour was delayed by a day. Attempt 1 out of 3: missed.

On the second night, the clouds were gone and we were optimistic. Our driver and guide, Robin, pulled up in his van and asked the group who wanted to be in front. Whoever sat up front had one job: keep Robin awake during the long night drive. Both min-maxers, Niek and Mona immediately volunteered and chatted away while the rest of the group quietly chilled in the back of the van. After 4-5 hours of driving back and forth and a faint glow in the distance, we gave up as no aurora was visible to the naked eye. Attempt 2 out of 3: missed.

“What can we do?”

During this week of travel, Niek and Mona became extremely comfortable with each other. In our minds, if we could survive this trip together it meant we were compatible.

For the last day up north we had planned to rent a car of our own and drive around this incredibly beautiful part of Europe. Being his father’s son, the first thing Niek did was take Mona and Akarshan on a hike. On the way up, Niek decided that upon reaching the top of the mountain (called Nattmålsfjellet), it would be romantic to officially ask Mona to be his girl. That day, the 8th of October, around noon, both of us walked up that mountain single and came down a committed couple.

Hike 1 - Ersfjordbotn up onto Nattmålsfjellet

Throughout the day, Mona and her brother quickly realised what it meant to be with a northern European, as they were kidnapped for not one, but two more hikes above different fjords. The clouds of the morning hike made way for the sun that afternoon, so every hike treated us to increasingly stunning scenery.

Hike 2 - Ornfloya

Hike 3 - Hillesøy

After the drive back to Tromsø, we were all pretty knackered from the day, so we had pizza at a gas station outside of town before dropping off the car. Upon reaching the hostel at 9pm we got out of the car and realised that the sky had broken wide open. This was it. This was our last attempt at seeing the northern lights, and we still had the car! Maybe we could still go and look for them!? After a day of driving, Niek and Akarshan didn’t feel like driving around aimlessly in the dark and leaned towards dropping off the car and packing our bags, since our flight was in 7 hours, at 4am. Mona, on the other hand, was more persistent and had the idea to call Robin. We had bonded with him the night before, and he had given Mona his number.

During the phone call our mood immediately changed as Robin told us he was looking at the aurora “as we speak”, and that he was about to leave on a drive with some other lucky travellers. Since we still had our own car, we had our friend Robin, and since we had been unlucky the night before, this legendary aurora hunter told us we could just meet him right now and follow their van by car! At this moment Niek realised his new girlfriend and he followed the same religion: Manifestation.

Robin also told us he was waiting at the same gas station where we had pizza 45 minutes earlier, and that they would wait for us before taking off into the night 🤯! Safe to say, after this phone call we immediately jumped back into the car, chugged a Red Bull at the gas station and were ready for attempt 3. Because who in their right mind goes to sleep when auroras are showing?!

It took about 20 minutes of focused driving, following Robin’s van through the increasingly dark landscape when the van pulled up onto a parking lot. No idea where we were, we halted and looked up through the windshield of our car. Bright, colourful lights were dancing above us. We couldn’t believe our eyes. What could possibly be a more memorable time and place to start a relationship? Not only did the stars align. The solar winds did too.

The next morning, after landing in Oslo, Niek checked his GPS timeline from the night before. “What!?!” he exclaimed.

We couldn’t believe where the parking lot Robin had guided us to the night before was. The base of Nattmålsfjellet, the same mountain where we officially started our relationship during the first hike that day! Talk about full circle.

The Journeys that Followed

Since that trip to Norway, we have never stopped strengthening our connection. Of course while in Berlin, but even more so while following our shared passion for travelling. We love our collection of memories, and we hope you enjoy them too: