Welcome, Stranger!
Strangerless is a space for anyone curious about the world beyond their own cultural window — through the encounters that happen when you travel slowly, the complexities of raising children between cultures, and the belief that a bicycle is the best tool ever invented for getting to know a place from the inside. Here you’ll find stories, ideas and reflections on intercultural encounters, multicultural parenting and transcultural cycling. For press coverage, click here.
Life Between Cultures
I’m Sissi — a Finnish intercultural communication specialist with a curiosity for how cultures understand, misunderstand and shape each other. I’m especially drawn to how languages and education shape our reality and how bicycles serve as a device for social and cultural justice. I explore these (and other) questions through multimedia journalism — writing, documentary film and audio storytelling.
I grew up between continents. At eight, I arrived in the USA knowing one word of English: lipstick. Years later I enrolled at the Wirtschaftskundliches Bundesrealgymnasium highschool in Vienna — nice one to pronounce, eh? After that, I spent summers waitressing in Italy, studied Social and Cultural Studies with a major in linguistics at the Polish-German border, and later completed a MA in Intercultural Communication in Finland, with further studies in Anthropology and Societal Change in the recent years.
I’ve spent most of my adult life working across continents, in intercultural communication training and in audiovisual and written journalism. In addition to extensive work periods in Italy, I’ve lived and worked in Mozambique, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Colombia and Spain. I speak fluent Finnish, English, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish and Portuguese, good Swedish, and very basic Catalan and French.
For my visual portfolio, click here.
From Solo to Family Cycling
In 2015 I loaded a bicycle and set off to cycle from Ushuaia, Argentina, to Mexico. In the three years I spent on my saddle, I stayed with local people to learn as much as I could about Latin American cultures from the inside, through local homes. In Mexico, in front of a bicycle shop, I met my now-husband, Rodrigo, who had also spent three years cycling to Mexico from his hometown, São Paulo.
We now have two quad-lingual children, with whom we’ve done long bicycle journeys through Europe, last one ending in Spain where we’re now. Soon, we’ll hit the road again, this time worldschooling our kids as we travel. I love observing the world through them, as their way seeing things is with immense curiosity and zero prejudice.
Our Journeys
First we traveled on our own, now as a family.
Sissi Cycling
Latin America
Ushuaia to Mexico City in 2015-2018.
Rodrigo Cycling
Latin America
São Paulo to Mexico City in 2015-2018.
Family Cycling
Europe
Finland to Italy and Spain in 2020 and 2024.
Encounters
Meaningful interactions between people with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Also a space for critical reflection on intercultural dynamics, communication across cultures, and the structures that shape how cultures meet.
Parenting
Raising children in a multilingual environment, shaped by migration, travel and bikeschooling. Supporting identity and roots while exposing children to different realities, with the aim of fostering a multicultural mindset from early on.
Cycling
Bicycle travel with the intention of cultural exchange. Moving slowly enough to explore how people live and make sense of the world. In transcultural cycling, the bicycle becomes a means of cultural encounter instead of mere transportation.
Let’s talk.
Got a question, a collaboration idea or just want to say hi? I’d love to hear from you — whether you’re a fellow cyclist, a multicultural family, a researcher or simply someone who ended up here and found something that resonated.
