Quite a long time ago, I was nominated for the Liebster Award by Cess, a Norwegian girl who's based in London. She blogs about travel, animals, food, fitness, and enviroment.
This award exists only on the internet, and is given to bloggers by other bloggers. It is a way to be discovered but also to connect and support the blogging community.
1. Who is your best travel companion?
My best travel companion is my boyfriend, Michael. We started our round the world trip more than 6 months ago and we found it is so much
different than than a vacation. There are ups and downs, but definitely more ups. I couldn't ask for a better travel companion. We enjoy similar things like outdoors, hiking, beach,
snorkeling/diving, etc. It's great to travel with someone who accepts you the way you are and who has a similar rhythm to your own. Especially in really stressful situations, you find out who is
a good travel companion.
2. What do you collect?
When I am at home in Austria I collect lots of things. I love to buy random stuff at flea markets or antique shops. I collect post
cards and letters from friends. Nothing is more special to me than a handwritten piece of paper with personal words. And I love frogs since I'm a child. That's maybe weird... I have lots of frogs
and Froschkönige in my shelf. The last beautiful I got was from my mum candleholders shaped as frogs. The more natural they look the more I love them.
While I travel, there is not a lot of things I could collect, but I keep all my flight tickets and a coin of each currency.
3. How did you choose the name of your blog?
It was quite difficult to come up with a name. Then, I forgot about it and decided to go with a name that I got four years ago when I lived for half a year in Mozambique. My host family called me Mafambani in their local dialect. That's the name for a person who is never sitting still, who's always walking. I loved to discover this beautiful country. So any of the cool names that I thought about were already taken. That's when I decided to stick with something that I really am. When I went back this year to Mozambique, it was so great to tell people that my blog's name is actually Mafambani.
4. What is your favorite cocktail?
I am not really a beer person, I rather enjoy wine or cocktails. My favourite is either fresh like a Mojito or anything with fruits which is not too sweet. I hope I'll make it to more happy hours during my travels in South East Asia.
5. What is your life motto?
I don't really have a life motto. The longer I travel, the more I set up my own mottos or rules. And I am still learning about 'life mottos'. Somethings I learnt so far, is that I am important. And I want to grow more, love more, be happier and become a better version of myself. I can only reach this by surrounding myself with people who support me, who live a life they make worth living, who inspire me. If I find myself surrounded with negative people or who just talk about themselves and who put me down, I leave them. I found out my time is limited and I should surround myself only with people I feel comfortable with. Also, everything that feels good, is good for me. I listen more to my gut feeling. And we should all do what we really, really love.
6. Where would you like to be right now if you could teleport yourself?
Difficult question. I'm now on a trip around the world and there is nothing better I could ask for. The beach is always close, we
enjoy beautiful sunsets, we meet amazing people along the way. But, if I could teleport myself back home to Austria for a day to give everyone a big hug and tell them how much I love and miss
them, I would do so.
7. What annoys you the most about your fellow citizens when you encounter them abroad?
If I meet Austrians abroad (which is not often the case), it annoys me if they complain about everything. If they expect luxury in a place which is not made for luxury, for example. In general, it makes me happy whenever I hear Austrians. And it's always lovely to talk to someone from home.
8. Which book would you recommend?
I love to read. I would recommend to read books that could change your way of thinking, like 'The Magic'(*) by Rhonda Bryne. It opens up a completely new world where we are responsible for our future and for what we achieve. When it comes to travel, 'The Traveler' (*) by Daniel Baylis inspired me a lot before we headed off to our around the world trip. In 12 chapters he tells the story from each country and his experiences as a volunteer. If you want to read more about the books I read so far, please go my RTW bookshelf.
9. What is your favorite social media?
That's Facebook because it makes it so easy to keep in touch with friends, family and people we meet along our travels. For travel and photo inspiration or to let my mind wander, I love Instagram. There is nothing better than going through beautiful pictures.
10. What has been the worst situation you have been in while traveling?
Being sick and having diarreah in India is for sure the worst situation I have been on this trip. Every traveler knows it, it sucks out all the energy of your body, all happiness. I immediately lost weight and felt horrible. It didn't help at all to sleep in a low budget room with no AC with 42 degrees outside. I missed home a lot during these days. But, that's probably something people have to go through when they travel. My tip: If you get sick, upgrade your room or move to a better hotel where people take good care of you.
11. Do you have a bad habit you can't get rid of?
I do too many things at the same time. Looking up three different kind of things while writing a post, checking my whatsapp, 'oh
wait a new message on facebook?' and cleaning my laptop screen at the same time? Yep, that's so me. I definitely want to change it and want to focus more on one thing at a time before I start
with another. It would help me so much to get more things done and be more productive. It's a long way to go, believe me.
So, now it's your turn!
My nominees
Instructions to follow
Create a blog post on your site answering the questions that I have provided below. In your post, be sure to link back to the blog who nominated you (in this case, Melanie from Mafambani) with a thank you and shout out. After answering the questions I gave, provide questions for your nominees. Now, usually you should select, list and link 11 other bloggers with under 200 followers and give them the instructions below, but here's my concern. It took me very long to find other bloggers who are interested to be nominated. If I'm honest, it took me too long. So, if anyone of you don't want to nominate others, I completely understand. If I would get the award again, I wouldn't take it anymore. I recommend new bloggers to rather focus on writing content on other bloggers. That will drive more readers on your blog.
For anyone still interested, here is what you have to do:
Don't forget to create 11 questions for them to answer. Notify your nominees and provide a link to your post so that they'll know what to do. Once you're done, come back here and comment with the link to your post so I can check out your answers.
Questions for my nominees
- If you could earn money with anything, what would it be?
- When you travel, what do you buy to treat yourself?
- What does a perfect travel day look like for you?
- Postcard or e-mail?
- What do you miss most when you're on the road?
- What does your perfect Sunday morning look like and where would you spend it?
- Breakfast or brunch and why?
- What do you read before you go to bed?
- What's your funniest story from your travels?
- We should never stop learning. What's the next thing you want to learn?
- What's the craziest thing you want to do on your bucket list?
Leave your posts here in the comments. If you're not nominated, but want to answer any questions, I would be so happy to read them.