Slowly, the blog has been gaining readers. I can see the clicks rise, a little here, a little there, then fall again….

But I can definitely see my followers on Twitter increase a lot lately, and it’s not only people who follow me back, but people that seem to discover me, somehow.

It is a great way to get in touch with other travelers too, discover their blogs and tips… It’s such a great community out there!

Two of them, fellow travellers Mei & Kerstin from Openupnow, have nominated me for their Liebster Award List.

Thanks girls, for the honor!!!

And thanks for making me discover your trips and see the world through your eyes!  It’s amazing!

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What is the Liebster Award?

The Liebster Award or rather Liebste Auszeichnung in German, which literally means “Dearest Award” or “Beloved Award”, has been created by bloggers for bloggers.

It’s a friendly way to support new bloggers, recognize their hard work, and introduce them to the community.

Receiving the Liebster Award usually means that you write a blog post following these rules:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you for the Liebster Award with a link back to his or her blog.
2. Answer the 11 questions that your nominators asked you.
3. Nominate 5 to 11 bloggers of your own, with under 500 followers, whom you think are awesome and deserving of this honor.
4. Create 11 questions for your nominees.
5. Display the Liebster Award logo on your page.
6. List these six rules in your post.

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So here are my answers to Mei & Kerstin’s questions:

When did you get the travel bug?

I think it evolved gradually. Having one of my sisters move to Paris in the 1980s probably was the trigger. My parents let me visit her often and I could roam around the city unsupervised. Later, I slowly overcame my fear of flying, and I started taking more and more trips. It’s a sliding slope, once you start, you cannot stop…

It came to a point, somewhere in 2010/11 when I realized I spent roughly half of my weekends out of town, and not at home in Brussels. Brussels is truly well located for weekend trips in Europe. London? Hop on the Eurostar. Paris: 1h20 and I’m in the Marais, sipping coffee… It’s infectious.

What could possibly make you give up traveling?

Nothing. Pretty sure. The question is rather: what do I give up in order to travel? I’d love to have a pet… a guinea pig, or a dog… but there is no way I could organize 40+ trips in a year with a little bugger back home.

I also realized by being away so often I did lose touch with the city I lived in, and with some friends, who always presumed me out-of-town anyway… It can be a pretty vagabond life.

But I can’t imagine I’d run out of destinations to visit or places to live in.  And I realized: the more I travel, the smaller the globe becomes. A 12-hour flight to Tokyo? Now problem, let’s do it!

Three things your travel experience taught you

1. That I am fine being by myself, even for a longer time. I have travelled alone, weekend trips and even two, three weeks. But now I know I can go on much longer, and I will not be alone.

2. I can make new friends, anywhere. Sure, sometimes I do miss the deeper conversations you can only have with a friend who knows you long enough. But in every place that I go, I can make new friends, maybe not quickly, but over time, I would. And I would create a new home there, wherever it is.

3. Things will work out fine. Always. As an over-organized, rather-one-hour-too-early-than-five-minutes-too-late-German, I learned not to be to stressed too much. I will find a good place to sleep, I will figure out a good itinerary… it will all work out well in the end. Trust in it. The universe will provide.

Three things you always carry around wherever you go

1. A camera, of some sorts, be it my iPhone for emergencies, my little point&shoot  or the full-fledged Nikon with all the lenses, tripods and stuff that you can think of, when I know I have an opportunity to take some pictures.

2. My paper diary, where I write down what happened during the day, in short, sometimes nearly bullet-point style. Just to remember what happened during this day, so I can recall the details, later.

3. A tiny yellow rubber duckie, the sort that swims in your bathtub.

It’s a gift of my friend Sven from Brussels, and the only ‘nostalgic’ thing I took with me on this trip. It stands for all the friends I left behind.

 

Why did you start blogging and how would you sum up your first year of blogging?

Seriously, for this trip. My sister and I posted a few pictures and texts on a little Blogspot site during our travels.

That gave me the idea to start something more serious, to keep a kind of digital diary, for friends and family at home, and for myself. I am so glad I did it.

I can move back in time and remember details about the trip that have been buried under layers and layers of other, fresher memories… So much is happening every day.

To sum up the first year: I’m glad it worked that well, without major IT bugs.

I wish I had more time to make it a really great blog, I wanted to include maps and all that stuff… I need to find a new layout… I have so many ideas…

But then I always push that back for the next rainy day, and it has been pretty sunny throughout the year.

Truth be told, I wish I could devote more time to it but then I feel I’m missing out on traveling…

If you hadn’t started a travel blog, what would you have blogged about?

I don’t think I would have… Ok, I have a few passions besides traveling, taking pictures, and my Madonna obsession.

But I don’t think I would have blogged about that. I don’t think it would be that interesting. But then, I never thought this blog would interest anyone besides the people who know me.

The question is: what willI do when the trip is over???? Blog withdrawal syndrome…!!!

Three posts you secretly wish would go viral and why?

1. The two posts with the pictures from the TamTams du Mont-royal in Montréal. I took thousands of pictures on these two weekends…

2. Final frontier: It was one of the most amazing views ever, gazing out into the Milky-way, in the middle of the South Island in New Zealand.

3. Super/Natural: If I live to be a hundred years, I will remember that moment at night on Hot Water Beach, New Zealand. It was the most magical, amazing, breathtaking experience.

Three advises about travel blogging you’d like to share with your fellow bloggers.

1. Be personal. I want to know what you experienced, felt, saw… take me on your journey. It’s unique.

2. Share your photos. If not on the blog itself, link up to flickr or other sites. I love to see the world through your eyes.

3. Short sentences. Paragraphs. Screen readability is key. Even if it stretches out the text, make many paragraphs, it’s extremely hard to follow a long block of text on a tiny screen.

Deep inside, are you more of a traveler or a blogger/writer? Why?

A traveller. Definitely. I sometimes have to drag myself to sit down and update the blog.

But then I try to post something about my day, every day. Maybe that was a bit too ambitions.

But when I go back through my blog, I’m glad I did it. I can re-live my journey pretty well through it.

It also gives my days a little bit of structure: usually I do the writing and photo sorting in the morning in a café, along with emails, and booking or organizing the trip.

What is your favorite travel quote and why?

OMG. That is so hard to answer…. Probably one of these:

We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls. (Anais Nin)

How do you finance your traveling?

I saved the money. For a long time. I wanted to have a some money to spend on a crazy thing, like a six-month sabbatical. Then the idea got bigger and bigger. So I sold all my furniture 😉

I’m going to spend it all on this trip and not regret a single Euro… I hope to come out of it with zero, or maybe I’ll have to ask my sister for a little loan at the end. To buy a new bed.

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Now this would be the place where I have to nominate other fellow bloggers for my award… but that isn’t as easy as I thought.

I realized, the sites I follow have much more followers than the rules allow, and are already kind of semi-professional, with partners and stuff…

So it wouldn’t make much sense to nominate them. I decided to give myself more time with that, and come back with my nominations and questions to then at a later stage. Promised.