While living in Spain with time on my hands, I started exploring the internet not just using it, but building on it. My first websites were built with Joomla. I didn’t have a plan, just a feeling that I’d rather create than consume. That’s when the idea took root: the internet could be my tool. I just didn’t know what for yet.

In 2012, I started driving a rickshaw in Salzburg as a summer job, no big plan, just a way to earn money. But it changed everything. That job turned into community, friendship, identity. I fell in love with my hometown and, for the first time, loved my work.

That summer opened a new path. In winter, I started working at the Yoho Hostel, where I stayed for eight years. I kept riding rikschas and worked in other corners of Salzburg tourism too. The city and the work began to shape each other, and shape me.

After years of working in Salzburg tourism, I wanted to go deeper. In 2016, I signed up for the official guide course, a 1.5-year commitment with hundreds of hours of training, exams, and history. I wasn’t sure where it would lead. But in 2018, I became a licensed Austria Guide. And that same year, I launched something I could call my own: Free Walking Tour Salzburg. A real tour from a real local. It was the first project I ever saw through to the end. A full build. A public offering. A thing that worked.

The pandemic hit, tourism collapsed. There were no more tours. But something else opened up. My partner Hyunok had spent her life teaching Korean. I’d seen her in action. She was the best teacher I’d ever had. Her Korean course at the community college in Salzburg is where we met in 2014. Now, her language courses were moving online.

And I had time, the tools, and the urge to build something new. So we launched a YouTube channel together. I handled the branding, filming, editing, design and she brought the method, the teaching, the heart.

After years of going deep on Salzburg, Roam Austria was my attempt to zoom out.  I wanted something bigger, a platform for the whole country. I wrote blog posts, explored new places, tried to build something that felt broad but still useful. But Salzburg pulled me back in.

By then, Free Walking Tour Salzburg had grown into a team. A system. A shared effort. That gave me space, and momentum to rethink the local story. I realized I didn’t need to go wider. I needed to go deeper. Roam Austria faded into the background. Paused. It’s a project I might return to. But the focus again shifted back to Salzburg, more intentional than ever.

After years of building, tours, content, systems, something clicked. We didn’t need a new niche. We already had one. It was Salzburg. Not just the tourist version, but the lived version. The version we walked every day, worked in, ate in, grew up with. The version we wanted others to see with real context. So we started building Introducing Salzburg.

It’s not just a blog. Not just a guide. It’s a platform meant to hold everything: tour content, recommendations, deep history, real-life tips, videos, and the ecosystem behind it all. It’s the clearest thing we’ve ever built, a digital base for everything we know about this city. And more than that: a place we could finally build from, not just into.

Before everything else, there was the rickshaw. That’s where I started, pedaling tourists around Salzburg with no idea it would shape my life. Claudia, the founder of Rikschatours, gave it soul. And in 2022, she passed the company on to me.

Right now, it’s paused. Waiting. But not forgotten.

Rikschatours will come back in 2026. Not bigger. Not better. But different. Clean systems, strong structure, and a focus on the tours that matter. Just joyful exploration powered by real people. It’s a full circle moment. And one I’m building toward slowly, with intention.

I used to chase ideas. Start new things just because I could. Now, I’m more careful. The goal isn’t to grow bigger. It’s to go deeper. Salzburg is the anchor. The projects already exist. Now, it’s refinement, consistency, and connection. Introducing Salzburg will grow into the most helpful Salzburg YouTube channel. Rikschatours will return, not as a new product, but as a different version of what it always was. Sitio may open its doors, or stay a quiet base for clarity and collaboration. Korean may remain two channels and a few books.

Everything else… we’ll see. But it’ll be intentional, and built to last. Because that’s what I’m really trying to do, make things that matter, and keep them alive.