Liebster Award: Mein Liebster Travel Blog

Liebster Blog Award

Receiving an award is definitely a great honor. Even if the Liebster Award happens to be a virtual award that is passed around between bloggers instead of a fancy statue, it still provides a moment of appreciation and it shows that someone out there is actually valuing your work. In this case, two fellow bloggers were kind enough to value my work and send the love over to my blog, Margharita from The Crowded Planet and Daidri from Thee Getaway Gal. Thank you both for the nomination! (Thank you also to Nancie from Aperture of my Soul for the recent third nomination)

Admittedly, I knew of the Liebster Award, but I didn’t know much about it besides the fact that the name sounded German. Liebster, in German meaning “favorite” is an indication that the award is being passed around to one’s favorite blogs along with 10 questions to be answered. In this case, since I happened to receive two nominations and 20 questions, I took the liberty of condensing the questions and honoring some of the remaining ones by passing them on for the next bloggers to answer.

Obviously I couldn’t resist doing some research about the origins of the Liebster Award, but all I could find were some German blogs, first using it 2010. Back then it consisted of a simple sticker plus a pre-written German text, nominating 3-5 favorite blogs as their “Liebster Blog” which ideally had less than 3000 followers. This Liebster Blog Award did not contain any questions, answers or photos, instead it was simply about spreading the Liebster love and sending a virtual hug in form of a link to your favorite blogs. While much has changed about this award, at least the underlying idea is still the same…

Blog and Travel Questions

1. What’s your earliest travel experience?

Having been raised in Europe, I have always been visiting other neighboring countries with my parents, but the most memorable experience that changed my travel behavior forever, happened when I took myself for a trip to Miami. While this was really my first trip all alone, I was fortunate enough to meet a guy who had just set out to travel around the world on his own. Hearing all about his stories, his preparations and his travel plans, this encounter really marked the beginning of my own world travels a few years thereafter.

2. What inspired you to start a travel blog?

There was actually never such a thing as a moment of inspiration or a great intention to start a travel blog, it was much rather something that simply evolved over time. During my first world trip I only posted my daily whereabouts and experiences on facebook and eventually those updates grew into a comprehensive travel diary, which finally grew into an actual travel blog.

3. What’s your favourite food destination?

There are obviously a lot of great countries with a lot of amazing food out there, but I personally am mostly in favor of Asian food. Especially since I turned vegetarian, Asia has in general been a great place to for me to travel. And out of all the Asian countries, India would probably be my very favorite. Not only is India probably the biggest vegetarian country in the world, but also the variety of delicious dishes seems absolutely unparalleled.

4. What’s your favourite street festival?

Well, I am not sure if I really have a favorite street festival, but one that I managed to participate in twice was Holi. While it was one in India and once in Nepal, I really liked the approach in Kathmandu where people were given the choice to participate in the colorful spectacle or rather just watch. But if you were an easy to spot foreigner walking on the streets, then to the great amusement of all people present, you obviously volunteered to participate.

5. What was your craziest experience on the road?

Thinking of experiences actually on the road, one of the craziest happened in Nepal when I almost got stuck in Lower Mustang in the Himalayas. After two weeks of trekking I was supposed to fly from Jomsom to Pokhara which would have been a 30 minute flight, but unfortunately the rainy season had set in early. So not only all the flights got cancelled, but driving on the dirt road took 5 buses, 4 jeeps, 1 taxi and a lot of drenched walking in-between. In the end, this two-day trip including driving through flowing mud, climbing over landslides and wading through freezing cold streams that had washed the road away, truly became an unforgettable trip.

6. How do you capture your travel photos? Camera or Phone?

That is quite an easy question to answer as I got rid of my cell phone when I started travelling. Not only was there no need to call anyone while on the road, but I also really liked the idea of simply not being reachable at all times. This probably makes me quite a bad travel blogger, but I really enjoy being off the grid sometimes and taking my photos the old-fashioned way with an actual camera.

7. What’s your travel style?

My travel style would probably be best described as independent budget travelling or backpacking. What was mainly born out of necessity to save money, turned quickly into a conviction and I always tried to avoid being seen as a tourist. While in the beginning I used to travel rather quickly in order to see as many places as possible, I noticed that my travel style has slowly changed over the years and now I rather enjoy slow travels, ground transportation, and spending more time in fewer places…

8. Where’s your favorite place to write?

In general my favorite place to write would be a quiet place outside. While I like sitting in a garden or backyard, I am also finding areas with a nice view very beneficial for writing. A quiet restaurant overlooking mountains, a lake or the sea has always been a perfect place for me to enjoy the afternoon with a cup of tea while processing some reflections on my trips.

9. Would you most likely be caught reading or watching a movie?

Since I was living in the US for a couple of years, I simply gave up watching television and movies altogether. After having cable TV for one entire year and realizing what a crazy waste of time it was to watch the almost continuous loop of commercials, I got rid of the TV and now rather enjoy reading a book than watching anything.

10. What one thing are you most determined to do this year?

Usually I don’t have any great plans for the year, but after having travelled three timed around the world already, one thing I really wanted to do was to stay closer to home and explore a little bit of Europe. And instead of backpacking around, I am currently fixing up and old army van and planning a little road trip during the summer.

Spreading the Liebster Love

Slightly unsure how to interpret the original 3000 follower suggestion, but assuming that it related to Blogspot, where the award originally came from, I decided to stick with the intent and pass the award to blogs that I actually like.

• Frank from Frank About Croatia for making me want to visit Croatia so badly.
• Jonathan from Life Part 2 for his minimalist style and mature views of things.
• Agness from eTramping for their interesting posts and great budget approach.
• Jon from Jon is Traveling for his humorous views of very serious travel topics.
• Christa from the The Fairytale Traveler for her really not ordinary way of travels.
• Marco from Path to Yoga for his way of combining travel with yoga teachings.

 

New Questions

1. How did you start travelling?
2. What kind of traveler are you?
3. What would you like to achieve with your blog?
4. Which country draws you in and you keep visiting it?
5. Which destination are you dreaming about, but haven’t visited yet?
6. Which was your biggest challenge or culture shock while travelling?
7. Do you feel that travelling has changed you as a person?
8. Which is your favorite travel related book or movie?
9. What is a great lesson learned from your travels?
10. Which advice can you give to new travelers?

 

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