It’s an honour just to be nominated
If you’re familiar with the small world of travel blogging you may have seen the Leibster Award making the rounds. More an opportunity to support and share other talented bloggers than a physical prize, the Liebster Award is given to bloggers by bloggers as a means of recognition and social interaction. It’s a great way to discover new blogs and share the great work that others are doing.
Meet Jules and Christine of Don’t Forget to Move
And Samantha of The Wandering Wanderluster
Therefore Travis and I are really honored that both Jules and Christine of Don’t Forget to Move and Samantha of The Wandering Wanderluster have nominated us with 10 questions for us to answer about ourselves. With two nominations we received two sets of questions so we’ve Frankenstein-ed them together below.
1. Which country do you think has the best food? We’ve had so many incredible meals while traveling – and even a few good ones at home. If we had to choose a country we’ve been to we’d probably have to say Italy or Greece, the fresh ingredients and Mediterranean flavours are hard to beat. The food in Poland was also amazing – so many different kinds of pierogies. However, if given the chance I’d gladly live off tzatziki. As for places we’ve never been – we love a good Indian or Thai curry when we can get our hands on one.
This reminds me just how far behind we are on food related posts for our last trip through Europe, something we need to catch up on.
2. If you were a country, what country would you be? Although we like to think of ourselves as epitomizing Canada pretty perfectly, it’s too easy to pick our home country. Perhaps the country that best exemplifies who we are is Germany – organized, efficient, and methodical, but with a well-developed appreciation for the simplicity of a pretzel and a good beer.
Berlin, one of many German cities we love and feel oddly connected to
3. If you had a week to live and an unlimited budget where would you head to? With just one week we’d probably go on Safari in Africa. It’s something that we both really want to do and would probably be a wonderful last memory together. If that wasn’t possible maybe we’d just head out to Vancouver Island and sit in front of the Pacific Ocean for awhile.
4. What was your most disgusting travel food experience? During a street food tour of Palermo we sampled some delicious foods but there’s no forgetting the Sicilian specialty Pani ca Meusa. Filled with boiled and fried lung and spleen meat and sharp Caciocavallo cheese the sandwich didn’t taste particularly bad but the texture was a constant reminder that I was eating organ meat. After choking down half the sandwich I let Travis gladly gobble up the rest.
On the other hand, Travis will eat almost anything. He rarely tries something that he would classify as disgusting. His one weakness however – pickles. Explain that.
Palermo’s famous street markets – the best place to find authentic street food!
5. If you had to pick a theme song for your travels, what would it be? This might be the toughest question of the lot, because while we love music I can’t think of one song that embodies everything that our travels are to us. Perhaps “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2. We definitely feel this unquenchable desire to see and do more with each new destination we visit.
6. If you weren’t blogging about travel, what would you blog about? Before starting our travel blog I actually had my own little creative outlet online in the form of a lifestyle blog where I shared all kinds of DIY projects, baking recipes, and home decorating tips. I grew up with a very crafty grandmother and inherited her love for creating things, which is probably why I love building HBWT so much. Although I haven’t given much thought to this old blog recently, in a few years I’d probably go back if we packed it in as travel bloggers. As for Travis and his green thumb I could see him writing about plants and all kinds of weird cacti and succulents.
7. If you could describe your blog in 3 words, what would they be? So. Much. Work.
Joking aside, building and maintaining this site has been more work than I ever imagined. However it’s also extremely rewarding to have a tangible record of our adventures together, and the blog is the main reason we’ve met so many incredibly talented and friendly travelers, writers, and photographers. Perhaps three better words would be So. Very. Rewarding.
Travel blogging isn’t all stunning destinations and afternoon pints
8. What is the strangest travel experience you have ever had? There have been a few – most of which likely deserve a few paragraphs – however the time we got drunk with three Germans on the 6am train from Nuremberg to Prague immediately comes to mind. Needless to say, it made finding our apartment rental in Prague a bit more difficult. There was also the time we spent half an hour awkwardly watching Turkish soap operas in the living room/restaurant of an elderly man in Pamukkale, Turkey. We went in for lunch and instead sat on the floor awkwardly drinking soda for thirty minutes. And we can’t forget the time our neighbours in a small two bedroom guesthouse had the most intense, over-the-top, loudest sex we’ve ever heard while Travis attempted to call home over Skype. So many wonderful little tales, maybe we’ll write a book one day.
9. What is your recommended travel hack? We haven’t tried it ourselves but the other day I saw the most ingenious hack to solve the common not-enough-electrical-outlets problem. Pack an electrical power bar to use in your hotel and then you only need one adapter to plug it into the wall. All your electronics will work with it because it’s the same configuration as at home and every last battery can be charged at the same time.
10. If you could only take three things with you on a deserted island what would you take? Aside from each other…
Physician’s Desk Reference – hollowed out, inside-waterproof matches, iodine tablets, beet seeds, protein bars, NASA blanket and, in case I get bored, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. No, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Also all nine seasons of The Office loaded onto a laptop with a fully charged battery.
(via)
As the Liebster Award is centered around showing recognition, the second part involves us nominating other blogs for the award and providing them with 10 new questions to answer. As I mentioned above the award has definitely been making the rounds as of late so to avoid a lot of repetition we’ve nominated just five other bloggers (that we don’t think have been nominated recently).
Our Nominees:
- Jenny of A Taste of Travel
- Lila of Foreign Feasts
- Justin and Lauren of Justin Plus Lauren
- Adelina of Pack Me To
- Jean Robert and Gemma of Off Track Travel
Our Questions:
- How did you choose the name of your blog?
- What is your one must-pack travel item?
- What country is currently topping your must-visit list?
- If you could have any superpower what would it be and why?
- Which post are you most proud of?
- What aspect of travel do you dread the most?
- Share with us one fact most people may not know about you.
- If you could only eat one food item for the rest of your life what would it be?
- What is your best travel memory to date?
- Where are you off to next?
A huge thank-you again to Jule and Christine and Samantha for nominating us – their blogs are wonderful and definitely deserve a visit if you haven’t before! Lots of good stuff there. Also congratulations to our nominees – hopefully we aren’t piling more work onto the always full plate of the common travel blogger. We think you’re great and just want to pass along a little recognition!