Some time ago we got a nice surprise: Marianne, who has the great Norwegian travel blog glimtavvderden.com nominated us for "The Liebster Award". The idea behind the award is to highlight other good (travel) blogs that you think deserve more attention. Marianne asked us 11 questions, which we answer in this post. At the end, we've formulated 11 new questions that we'll pass on to a few selected travel bloggers...
Table of contents
What is the Liebster Award?
Through "The Liebster Award" you can give some travel blogs you like a "High Five". We would like to thank Marianne for giving this award to us, and it's great to be able to pass it on!
The rules seem to vary, but the point is simply to get people to discover new (travel) blogs. Here are some rules that you can follow:
- Answer the 11 questions given to you by the Awardee in a blog post.
- Nominate 5-11 bloggers who are in the same category as yourself (travel bloggers) and who you think deserve to be highlighted.
- Write 11 new questions to be answered by your nominees.
1. What is the scariest (most frightening) thing you have experienced while travelling?
The 2007 elections in Kenya! Probable electoral fraud led to two tribes fighting each other. The situation became very violent and we were stuck in a small guesthouse in Mombasa while shops, roads and airports were closed. When we learnt that 50 women and children had been burned to death in a church by an aggressive mob, we were truly frightened.
After a few more days the road opened up and a (very nervous) taxi driver agreed to take us to the Tanzanian border in return for paying him the equivalent of two months' wages. He locked the car doors and we drove quickly through slums full of armed men and around car wrecks still smouldering from fires.
Once inside Tanzania, we planned to celebrate the escape, but instead we fell asleep early in a small hotel in an unknown village... Later we learnt that 1000 people were killed and 300,000 were displaced during the unrest.
2. What is the strangest (most unusual) thing you have experienced while travelling?
Naked City in Cap d'Agde in France. Here, people are naked not only in the naturist campsite but everywhere in the city: in the streets, in the shops and in the restaurants.
3. What is the most special thing you have eaten (ätit)?
Horse milk balls in a yurt in the Mongolia. But the list could also include cobras in sweet and sour sauce (China), sheep's testicles (Iceland) and sea cucumber (China).
4. What is the most memorable public transport experience you have had?
When we were on the island of Mindoro in the Philippines, I got really sick to my stomach and the hotel maid came with us to find a doctor. First we had to take a so-called "jeepny" through the rainforest and when we arrived at the next village we had to change to a tricycle (moped with sidecar). There we sat shaking in the sidecar until we arrived at a small house in the countryside with a small Philippine doctor's office.
5. What kind of camera equipment do you have with you when travelling?
Peter has a Samsung Galaxy NX with telephoto and macro lenses. Helena has a Nikon D5200. Sometimes we bring a tripod too.
6. Name three nature experiences you have had that you can recommend to others.
- Verdon Gorge in France - Europe's own 'Grand Canyon'
- Plitvice National Park in Croatia - amazing lakes and waterfalls
- New Zealand - from volcanoes and glaciers to rainforests.
7. Which village that you have visited is the most charming?
Tropea in Calabria in southern Italy is truly unbelievably charming.
8. Which three countries would you recommend others to travel to and why?
- New Zealand - for the beautiful nature and all the adventures
- France - for the beautiful nature and good food
- Croatia - for the crystal clear water and all the cosy villages.
9. What are your favourite places in your own country?
- Stockholm - our city with places like Djurgården and Old Town
- The Stockholm archipelago - with all its beautiful islands
- The west coast - everything from Gothenburg and Smögen to Halmstad and Tylösand
10. Which three places in the Nordic region would you most like to visit?
- Greenland - seems exotic and exciting
- Svalbard - seems even more exotic and exciting!
- Denmark's west coast - supposed to be beautiful, we hear.
11. Which three destinations are at the top of your wish list?
- Northern Canada - nature seems so powerful here
- Central Asia - we dream of visiting Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan ...
- Japan - seems to be so different from all the places we have visited
Travel bloggers we nominate
We follow a lot of travel blogs and it is extremely hard to pick just a few. However, we've chosen a few (big and small) travel blogs that we think deserve a little more attention:
- Life from the bright side
- 4000 mil
- Our motorhome holidays in Sweden and the world
- 155 cm challenges the world
- Jeanette Seflin
- Motorhome criss-cross
- 29 degrees
Our questions for travel bloggers
- How do you prefer to travel (charter, backpacking, car holidays, etc.) and why?
- Tell us about a destination that you think is underrated and that more people should discover!
- What are your three favourite cities and why?
- Which three countries have the best food in your opinion?
- Is there any place you never want to go back to and if so, why?
- What languages do you speak, and how does this affect your choice of travel destinations?
- Tell us about a meeting with people that led to something unexpected!
- Have you ever made a cultural mistake? Tell us about it!
- Tell us about a time when you challenged yourself and did something you didn't really dare!
- If you had unlimited money, where and how would you travel?
- Where is the next journey?
Goatfish says:
Gomorron! 😀
You've had some great adventures. Ugh, when you think about it afterwards, right?
Nice to get to know you a bit more, in a challenge like this.
Have a really good time. I am going to go and get a refill of the TBE vaccine.
10 June 2016 - 7:58
Mr Steve says:
The blogging world is full of awards. Not so strange perhaps as it is constantly growing. It's great to be recognised as a professional blogger in various contexts.
Thanks to the 11 questions you answered, I learned a lot about your travelling and your nerve-wracking adventures.
10 June 2016 - 7:58
Lanclin-Linnea says:
Such a fun award 🙂 Some blogs on your list were new to me, thank you!
10 June 2016 - 8:15
Only British says:
What an experience you had in Africa!
10 June 2016 - 8:35
4000mil says:
Oh what fun!
Thank you for the nomination and the challenge, we will of course jump at it!!!
10 June 2016 - 8:44
admin says:
Geddfish, sometimes it gets TOO adventurous, so to speak... There are no guarantees when travelling, and not in life in general either... 😉.
Steve, sometimes there have been a lot of these awards, but now it's been a while, I think. Fun sometimes to answer such questions, it can be things that you do not think of writing about otherwise 😉 .
Lanclin-Linnea, what fun if we could highlight some new blogs, that's the idea I guess 😉.
Just British, yes you can say that, not really the kind of "adventure" you want... However, we have been back to Kenya once after this, and then we had a great experience in the country!
4000 miles, what fun that you are hanging on! 🙂
10 June 2016 - 8:53
Ama de casa says:
Congratulations on the Award! 🙂
Really good questions and very interesting answers 🙂 .
Have a great Friday!
10 June 2016 - 9:51
Lena & Jan says:
BIG CONGRATULATIONS you are ABSOLUTELY worthy as a PREMIUM CLASS blogger ???☺️
10 June 2016 - 10:13
OnTripdk says:
Congratulations on your Award, it is so deserved 🙂 .
Exciting to read your answers and get to know you a little better 😉 Phew what an experience in Kenya, good you got out of there in one piece.
10 June 2016 - 10:23
Denandraresan.com says:
Congratulations on the award! I think your blog just gets better and better. Will check out some of the blogs you mentioned that I haven't seen before.
10 June 2016 - 10:28
Ditte says:
Congratulations! It's great to be nominated. I'm really happy for you.
It's great to see the questions and especially your answers, of course.
Some of the other travel blogs I follow and some were new. Always fun to see and read more.
10 June 2016 - 10:40
admin says:
Ama de casa, thank you and same to you!
Lena & Jan, thank you! What super nice praise!!! 🙂 🙂
Ontripdk, thank you so much! Yes, when we were in Kenya we weren't sure how it would end... but it went well in the end (for us anyway, many others got hurt, terrible)
Denandraresan, thank you for the nice praise! Glad to hear that you think so! 🙂
Ditte, thank you! Yes, the idea is a bit to highlight blogs that may not be discovered by everyone, but which may be worth being seen;)
10 June 2016 - 11:47
Days by Johanna says:
Fun to read! 🙂
Do you want to take part in the competition? If so, send me an email and I'll add you if the form doesn't work.
10 June 2016 - 12:57
Across the board says:
Congratulations to you and Thank you please! Will deal with this as soon as I get my computer up and running and this hugely erratic internet.
10 June 2016 - 14:32
BP says:
I've also learned a lot about your travelling that I didn't know.
The Kenya adventure is scary, but in retrospect, that's what you remember.
Naked City - well;-)
The food - yep. I love 'unusual' food and have eaten mutton steaks in Morocco - I didn't realise Iceland had them. Sensitive subject, at least for our men. Or mine at least;-)
Japan is something special and it's probably on my to-do list. Maybe my 10 semesters of studying Japanese will come back to my memory. The only thing I remember in Japanese is to ask for the central station;-)
10 June 2016 - 18:07
Matts Torebring says:
I just said to Birgitta on the way down, when a large motorbike passes us at full speed, with a sidecar attached. "Would you dare to ride in the sidecar"? I don't need to write the answer, it's easy to figure out. The post's motorbike and sidecar were in a class of their own.
10 June 2016 - 19:29
Discovering The Planet says:
Congratulations on the award. Always fun 🙂
Have a good laugh at the answer in no. 2!
10 June 2016 - 20:03
admin says:
Days by Johanna, thank you for your comment! I'll check in with you again tomorrow 🙂
Across the board, no hurry! But very happy if you join in!
BP, but so fun if we could tell you something new 😉 Kenya was an unpleasant experience, but in retrospect, it has mostly affected me in the way that I realise how tough many others have it... And you have read Japanese then!!!? Oh, how exciting! I understand that it must be very difficult........?
Matts, haha, I actually think I would have declined the sidecar, if it wasn't for the fact that I REALLY needed to see a doctor 😉.
Discovering the planet, a lot to see... 😉.
10 June 2016 - 20:33
Emma, sun like sun? says:
I actually have friends who are planning to move to Japan when their children grow up and finish school. It really sounds like something you would like to see.
Congratulations on the award.
10 June 2016 - 21:05
admin says:
Emma sun as sun, oh what an exciting plan! I can settle for just visiting Japan, but that alone sounds interesting 🙂 .
11 June 2016 - 8:29
Nilla says:
Thank you for the nomination ? ??
and great fun to read about your experiences!!!
Damn, what a lot I've experienced now!
Today is a good day to start on those questions because now that prom and student are over, we have left home to a very desolate place ???
Goodbye
11 June 2016 - 14:57
Linda, 155cm.se says:
Thanks for the nomination. Here is my post in response 🙂 http://www.155cm.se/2016/06/11/the-liebster-award/
11 June 2016 - 15:04
Simone says:
What stories you must have!
11 June 2016 - 18:16
Lisa & life on the bright side says:
Thank you again! Now I have answered your questions 🙂 .
http://livetfrandenljusasidan.se/2016/06/12/11-resefragor-fran-freedomtravel/
12 June 2016 - 10:07
admin says:
Nilla, how nice that you followed!!! Have commented with you!
Linda, how nice that you joined us! Have read and responded to you!
Simone, travelling gives a lot of experiences, sometimes good and sometimes bad, but once you get hooked on travelling it's hard to stop! 😉
Lisa, glad you joined us and thank you for your nice comments about us and our blog!!!!
12 June 2016 - 20:29
AdrenaLina says:
Congratulations on the award! What wonderful questions and especially fantastic answers 🙂 So fun to learn about your experiences!
14 June 2016 - 20:32
Christine - 29°. says:
But how funny, and fun! 🙂
And what wonderful questions and answers from you.
15 June 2016 - 11:54
Marianne - Glimpses of the world says:
So much fun to read your answers! 🙂
29 June 2016 - 21:20