Great news… a few weeks ago I received my first award! I am so honored to have been nominated among an incredible amount of great blogs!

I was nominated by Lyn from The Travelling Lindfields, who is based in Australia and has a lot of interesting posts about Australia and New Zealand, including where to see wild kangaroos and koalas and great places for cycling. Thanks Lyn for the nomination and sorry about the delay in passing it through!

I know it has taken me some time to write about the award, and you will not probably believe that I was thinking about it this week. And then… I got nominated again! Whoooa, cannot believe it!

The most funny thing is that I have received it from a person I wanted to nominate, Kiara from Gallop Around The Globe. I discovered her blog through the Sunday traveller link up and felt we have a similar way of traveling. I specially enjoyed her three-month adventures in Peru, including some off the beaten path destinations. Thank you Kiara! 

The Liebster Award: what is it and how it works?

A Liebster Award is a peer-nominated blogging award, typically given to new or upcoming bloggers to reward and promote their work, and to help getting to know each other by answering some questions.

So here is how it works:

• You receive a nomination, great!
• If you chose to accept the award, you write a blog post in which you answer 11 questions posed by the blogger who nominate you.
• Nominate five bloggers for the Liebster award and let them know about it.
• Pose 11 questions to your nominees.
• Share the post in social media.

In my case, I received two Liebster awards so I have 11 questions from Lyn and 11 from Kiara. If you would like to know a bit more about myself, please sit down and make yourself comfortable, it might be a bit long!

Lyn’s questions and my answers

1. What inspired you to begin blogging? 

It was the book Aleph, by Paulo Coelho. It is not the main topic of the book, but in it I read about the Chinese bamboo, who grows only roots for five years before growing the plant itself. That woke up an idea. I had been traveling and living abroad for ten years, meeting people from other cultures and learning from them (growing roots) and I felt I would like to share these experiences (grow the plant).

In addition, I wanted to explore my creative side (writing and photography).

2. What is your blog about? 

Colibrist is a travel blog in which I talk about the places I visit from a personal point of view, as well as about the culture and the people I meet. I also share what I learn on the way, because I think the world is the best school.

3. What is it you love (and/or hate) about blogging?

What I love the most is the creative part: writing, selecting and editing the photos and giving shape (format) to the posts. I also love getting to know other bloggers.

What I do not like is the promoting part: SEO (I do not understand it), social networks (I use only facebook), other kinds of promotion/ marketing.

4. List eleven random facts about yourself 

• I believe in dreams.
• I have always loved reading and think it is a way of traveling.
• I love traveling but do not like driving.
• I love eating but not cooking.
• I am very active but like to sleep a lot.
• I enjoy meeting people but need solitary moments as well.
• The most frequent question I have received in this trip is how old I am. I look younger than I am (specially in half hippie half traveling clothes), but I am not a run-away teenager nor a university student in a gap year. I actually worked seven years before taking my sabbatical leave!
• I do not like sports. I enjoy walking though, and hiking and cycling from time to time.
• I love the sea and other water places such as lakes and rivers.
• I love heights and seeing things from a different perspective.
• I do not have any sense of orientation. Thanks google maps to make my life easier!

5. What is the best post you have ever written – the one you like the most, not necessarily the most successful? 

My favorite post is One important thing I learnt while traveling.

6. What piece of advice would you give a new blogger starting out? 

I do not think I am not the right person to advice on blogging, since I do not do any of the things a blogger is supposed to do! But there it is:

• If you want a blog as a hobby, just for fun: concentrate on the parts you like (see my answers on what I love/hate). Blogging takes a lot of time so you better spend it in what you enjoy.
• If you want a blog to make money: do not follow my advice!

7. If you had three wishes, what would they be? 

For the world: peace, health and wisdom for everyone.

And for me: finding my own path, publishing a book, getting a two-floor house with a garden (we are dreaming, right?).

8. What is the place you have loved visiting most in the past? 

Since I am traveling alone I have fallen in love with all the places where I have spent a few weeks, I really cannot chose only one! India for the culture, Laos for the slow pace of life, Cambodia for its people, Malaysia for the food, New Zealand for the landscapes, Chile for the combination of food and landscapes…

9. If you could visit one place in the world, where would it be? 

At the moment I am visiting a lot of my dream places, so dreaming even more… Antartida!

10. What do you do, or wish you could do, when you want to indulge yourself? 

Traveling on a low budget and light luggage is difficult to indulge myself… but lately I indulge myself in terms of food.

11. What makes you smile? 

Another smile 🙂

Kiara’s questions and my answers

1. Are you a cat or a dog person? 

Cat! Dogs scare me…

2. What is the weirdest/ funniest phrase, statement or question that you know in another language? 

Sono fuori come un balcone (I’m out like a balcony, in Italian, from my erasmus time!). Do not remember exactly what it means… something like you are out of your mind (or maybe drunk?). Any Italians here to help?

3. What was the last book you read? 

Around the world in 80 days, by Jules Verne (and after that, my ebook reader died).

4. What is the most recent place you’ve visited, and your favorite photograph taken there? 

I am slightly cheating here because Frutillar is not the last last place I have visit, but it was very recent and I could not resist choosing it since I love this photo. I like it from a photographic point of view and also what it represents.

The white mountain is a volcano covered in snow, and there is a glacier on the crater. In case of eruption, the glacier would explode and the snow would melt, and that could create a tsunami on the lake (so I was told). So for me, this photo shows at the same time the beauty and the power of nature.

5. If you had to promote/ sell your blog using just one post, which one would you chose and why? 

It would be One important thing I learnt while traveling, because this is the message I would like to shout out loud and spread all around the world: apart from language, clothes, religion and skin color, we – people from different cultures – are not so different from each other.

6. Have you ever made an embarrassing faux pas regarding the culture and customs of another country? If not, what’s the strangest custom or tradition you’ve witnessed whilst traveling? 

I was about to shake hands with a novice monk I met in Laos… when he told me they are not allowed to touch women (oops!). Another embarrassing situation (not linked to the culture) was the day I was coming back to my homestay in Cambodia in the darkness and I entered the wrong house (oooops!).

7. What’s your favorite cuisine?

For every day, Mediterranean! For a change, I enjoy Indian, Malaysian, Chilean, sushi…

8. What’s your most treasured travel souvenir? 

I have never been very fan of buying souvenirs, so… my photos and memories are my most precious souvenir.

9. How would you describe your hometown? and name five things I shouldn’t miss if I chose to visit. 

Barcelona! The city I learnt to love when I moved away and now I miss. In a few words: big but not huge, sea and hills, beach and harbor, large avenues and small hidden streets, high buildings and parks, beautiful architecture and lively atmosphere.

The five things I recommend:

• the old harbor at the end of La Rambla (remember, I am a sea lover!),
• the magic fountain show (Thursday to Saturday evening, I think),
• the cactus garden in Montjuic (I think it is officially called Costa i Llobera),
• good food (Julivert Meu for meat and tapas, Elche for fish and paella),
• Gaudi’s architecture (I have not entered most of the buildings because they are expensive, but they are nice on the outside too!).

10. What are your pet hates? 

Spiders and other small animals with many legs, calling someone I do not know (as a customer service), checking in my luggage

11. What’s your biggest blogging achievement thus far? 

This award!

And even before the award, I consider a big achievement to have readers who are native English speakers, since I am not a native speaker myself.

The nominations for the Liebster Award are…

Le Chic en Rose: Rosemary lives in Perth, Australia, and has written interesting articles about Australia, New Zealand and Europe. She loves traveling by train, check her railway adventures!

An Adventure in Bosnia: the blog of a family living in Bosnia. They write about hidden places, food and culture. I like their philosophy of life and the inspiring quotes!

Evozeta: Luzia moved from Switzerland to US for love. She runs her blog in two languages (English and German), writes about her new life in Texas, and has some inspiring posts and drawings.

Packing my suitcase: Allane is from Brazil and has been living abroad since 2004, just like me! She lives now in Munich and writes in English and Portuguese about her life in Germany and her travels around the world.

Life on my plate: Upasna lives in New Delhi and shares her travels in India and abroad. She loves eating good food so there is a lot about good food in her blog!

If you chose to accept the award, please add the link in a comment below, I would love to read your answers!

Bonus: I wanted to nominate Anna from Slightly Astray, but she has been nominated by Kiara so I will spare her answering 22 questions (unless you wish to do it, of course! Like challenges?).

My 11 questions for the nominees

1. What inspired you to begin blogging?
2. What is it you love (and/or hate) about blogging?
3. Which is your favorite post (not necessarily the most successful) and why? You can share the link.
4. What have you learnt by traveling?
5. If money was not a problem, would you change your way of traveling?
6. Have you had any embarrassing or funny situation in your travels?
7. Which is the strangest food you have eaten, and/or the one you did not dare to try?
8. What is the weirdest/ funniest phrase, statement or question that you know in another language?
9. Which is your favorite photography and why? (add it in the answer)
10. Which is your favorite book or film?
11. List eleven random facts about yourself

I would like to thank again Lyn and Kiara for the nomination, and all my readers for your comments and support. Without you, there would be no blog! 

And special thanks to those of you who read the whole post… you deserve a prize! 

Thank you!

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