Whoot! In the 10 months since we started this blog while housesitting in Salt Lake City, we’ve learned a lot, connected with some cool fellow bloggers, and have definitely challenged ourselves to write and create more. We have some exciting travel plans already in motion for 2017 and lots of past stories still to be shared here on our corner of the Internet. It was great to end 2016 with some recognition from fellow bloggers.
The Liebster Award is a recognition given to bloggers by other bloggers. It’s a way for bloggers to help people discover new blogs and to welcome each other to the community. Upon acceptance, bloggers then pass it on to other bloggers to continue sharing the love and discovering new blogs. Nominees answer 11 questions about themselves, and then ask 5 new bloggers 11 new questions!
Thanks to WanderlustVegans for nominating us for the Liebster Award! Wanderlust Vegans is a Canadian couple living (for now) in Birmingham, England. They blog about their adventures traveling around Europe and eating all the vegan food!
We had fun answering the questions and also connecting with some great new bloggers!
Here are the questions that Wanderlust Vegans asked us:
Where is the best place you have ever traveled to and why?
Together, and not including places we’ve lived (so not counting NYC and Madrid) probably the Northwest of U.S. We loved the beautiful forests and the all amazing vegan options, especially in Portland!
I mean…just look at these trees!
What is your most essential travel item?
Veren: A collapsible salad spinner – gotta get those greens!
Sam: my camera!
If you could live in any place, where would you choose?
That’s hard to answer, as we like being a bit nomadic for the moment. Right now it’s hard to envision ourselves settling somewhere permanently, but we’re sure it’ll happen sometime in the future.
What is your favorite mode of transportation?
Definitely walking. It’s the best way to see a place closely and slowly.
What is the most incredible travel deal you have ever gotten?
Two free non-stop flights from NYC to Madrid thanks to our travel rewards card and some creative travel hacking!
Where would you love to travel to, but are afraid?
Expensive places that are out of our budget, like Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand 😉
What’s the longest you’ve traveled at one time?
This one’s a hard question to answer for us, as we prefer to slow-travel and often housesit or live for months at a time in one place. So it’s hard to draw the line for us between traveling and simply living. We housesat pretty much full time for eight months this year and are living (for now) in Madrid.
Where have you traveled to that you wished you had more time at?
Portland! Clearly, we love Portland. We spent just a few days there on a road trip last summer, but could easily have spent much more time there. Hopefully in the future!
Ivy covered buildings in Portland!
When did you realize that traveling was a passion of yours?
We can’t exactly pinpoint a moment but basically we like traveling because it lets us live the way we want to live – we actually spend less money and have more free time when we are housesitting full-time.
Who is your favorite travel companion? (If applicable)
Each other, of course! 😉
How do you decide where you are going to next?
Where opportunities arise. We don’t force going somewhere if it is going to be too difficult or expensive. We apply to housesits in places we are interested in going and are flexible to going to whichever ones we are picked for! For example, we applied for a bunch of housesits over the holidays and we ended up connecting with a couple from Florence, so we are going there for a week to take care of their four cats.
Our Liebster Award Nominees:
The Restless Designer – Jenny is an expat living in Copenhagen. We met briefly at a blogger meetup for Legal Nomads readers and chatted over travel and blogging. She was the one who inspired me to get beautiful business cards with my photographs printed on them! Jenny blogs about living in Copenhagen and her travels in Europe and beyond. She recently posted a great essay on her experiences in Cuba.
Charlotte’s tips for ecological living in Madrid – Charlotte has been living in Madrid for 3 years and writes about sustainable and ecological living in Madrid as well as vegetarian and gluten-free living. Her posts are always super useful and detailed with great photos. She also makes vlogs of vegan and vegetarian restaurants around Madrid!
A Roaming Duo – We came across Angela and Jim in a Facebook group for housesitting. They’ve been housesitting full-time for about a year in the Western part of the U.S. They’ve taken care of an incredible number of pets (34 housesits) in a short period of time and their blog gives a great inside look at the life of full-time housesitters.
We are the Earth – Yalou is from the Netherlands and writes her blog in both Dutch and English, and impressive feat by itself! She’s an anthropology student (yess, another anthropologist!) at the University of Amsterdam and writes about vegetarianism and sustainable living in general. She’s written a recent series of eye-opening posts on zero-waste living!
Hidden Cafes and Alleyways – A fellow Samantha! The tagline is of Sammy’s blog is “ethical travel for the happily lost and forever searching” – definitely something we can get behind. Her series “Vegan Cafe Spotlight” highlights different vegan cafes she’s found and enjoyed on her travels. Warning: do not read hungry.
Our 11 Questions for Nominees
1 – If you had all your basic needs (food, shelter, etc) met, what would you be doing?
2 – What’s the most random place you’ve ever been to?
3 – Ideally, where do you see your blog going?
4 – Do you feel like your blog completely reflects how you live your life or are there parts you don’t include?
5 – If you could have a pet that goes with you wherever you go, what would it be?
6 – What’s your favorite place in the world (or top 3)?
7 – Have you been somewhere you didn’t like? Why didn’t you like it?
8 – What is one thing that could improve your experience blogging?
9 – What’s one of your favorite/most memorable meals you’ve ever had?
10 – Who are some of your favorite bloggers?
11 – What are your goals for 2017 (doesn’t have to be blog related!)?
The rules:
- Thank and link to the blogger who nominated you
- Create a post on your blog, displaying the Liebster Award Logo
- Answer 11 questions assigned by the blogger who nominated you
- Provide rules/instructions for accepting the award
- Nominate 5-11 new favorite bloggers for the Liebster Award
- Come up with a list of 11 new questions for your nominees
- Notify the nominees (or do this before you post in case they do not wish to accept)
- Post your Liebster Award blog post link in the comments of your nominators Liebster Award Post
Thanks again to Wanderlust Vegans for the nomination, we had fun participating!
