Liebster Award: Discover New Blogs!

Thank you Henar Gomez of Wanderwings for nominating for a Liebster Award! I’ve seen this award floating around the interwebs in the last few months and wondered what it was, until finally I was nominated. So for all of you that have no idea, it’s an award to recognize and showcase new bloggers, and help others discover new blogs as well! The nominee will ask their 5 nominees 11 questions and each of the nominees is supposed to answer, and pass on the award to 5 other bloggers. I’m honoured and excited to have been nominated. Thanks again Henar!

Here are the answers to Henar’s questions:

What is your dream destination and why?

I would really love to go to Australia and New Zealand. I know those countries aren’t super exotic, but the reason I choose them is because they are more expensive for me to travel in. Since they are more expensive, they seem more unattainable to me at this point in my life, therefore I’m marking them as two of my dream destinations.

If you had to choose one country to move to forever, which would it be?

That’s a tough question. I actually love living in Canada, which is why I’ve chosen to never do the whole expat, live abroad thing. Toronto is one of my favourite cities in the world, so I don’t feel a need to move out of it, at least at this point in my life. I think if I had to choose, I’d really love to live in Southeast Asia somewhere. I love how they have a mix of everything there, great beaches to city life, and also it is relatively cheap to travel and live there, which is a huge plus for me!

Travel to work, or work to travel?

I 110% work to travel. I love what I do, I love where I work, but I’m constantly trying to figure out how I can squeeze as much travel into my 3 weeks of vacation I get every year. I also find it incredibly hard to sit in a cubicle all day, it’s just not for me, but I do it so I can pay the bills and be able to afford the travel I want to do in life, which in turn, is always worth it.

What is your best travel memory?

One that always is the first to pop in my head is visiting the elephants at the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand. This experience was unlike any other I’ve ever had on a trip and one that I’ll truly never forget.

Tell a funny situation you found yourself in while on the road.

I actually recently wrote an article on a funny situation I got myself in while staying in a hostel in Amsterdam. I couldn’t figure out where the light was in the shower room and had to shower in the dark the whole time I stayed there. You can read it here.

What are three things you can’t live without?

My cellphone, my passport, and my family & friends. I know it sounds cliché but those are honestly the most important things to me. My cell phone I can connect with people everywhere in the world, and also I can blog from it, my passport allows me to see the world, and my family and friends keep me grounded and sane!

Why did you start blogging?

It started years ago in 2009 when I was going to work in Spain for a month and knew I’d have limited internet. I wanted a place where I could easily keep my family in the loop without having to individually email them all. If you look back at my blog in 2009 it was terrible, I wrote with no detail and was literally a play-by-play of my day, but that’s what got me started. After that I blogged on any trip I went on, and recently in January I started taking on my blog full force and paying more attention to it by regularly posting and focusing more on the quality of what I was posting.

Where will you travel next?

I’m heading to Milwaukee in June for #BlogHouse, then I’ll be heading to Quebec City and Montreal at some point this summer (hopefully), and lastly, I’m planning a trip to Nepal and India in December. I also recently won a trip to Great Britain at a Travel Massive event in Toronto, so I’m not sure when I will go on that adventure. I need more vacation days!!

Do you prefer solo travel or with other people?

To be honest, I don’t feel solo travel is as glamorous as everyone makes it sound. I will definitely travel solo places, because I can’t always find someone to travel to the places I want to go, and I do enjoy it, but it does get lonely and at times you just wish you had someone else to tackle things with. I prefer to really travel with one other person, and obviously I’m pretty selective of who that one other person is! You can’t travel with everyone.

What is one thing you’ve learnt while travelling?

One thing? It’s hard to pick just one thing! Travel has really taught me a lot about myself, the world around me, and given me a whole new appreciation for my own country and city. I don’t think I would be who I was today without travel, and I think that those that do not travel have a very different outlook on life that I’m glad I don’t have.

What is your favourite/most inspirational travel quote?

“The most dangerous risk of all—the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.” – Randy Komisar

Hope you all enjoyed reading and learning more about me! Now I’m passing on the Liebster Award nominations to the following bloggers:

Holly & Caleigh @ The Brave Little Cheesehead
Carrie @ There Goes Gypsy
Lauren & Justin @ Justin + Lauren (I know you’re currently in Italy, but for when you return!)
The Girls @ Sisterhood of the Travelers
Alexandria @ A Modern Girl’s Travels

Here are your questions:

– Why did you start your blog?
– What is the hardest thing you find about being a travel blogger?
– What’s your favourite part about being a travel blogger?
– If you could move to one place in the world, where would it be?
– Share a place that you visited that gave you extreme culture shock.
– If you could travel to one place tomorrow, where would it be and why?
– Has there ever been a place you visited that you just didn’t like?
– Share an embarrassing moment you’ve had while traveling.
– Do you have any trips planned in the near future? If so, where?
– What has been the best meal you’ve ever had on a trip?
– One random fact about you.

Now go ahead and answer the above questions in a Facebook post, Twitter, a blog post, or however you’d like. Once you answer the questions, pass on the love and nominate 5 other bloggers, and ask them 11 questions!