Tag: recap

Nomination for a Liebster Award

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Oh, how exciting, I am nominated for a Liebster Award!

Liebster Awards

First of all, thanks Neha and Abhishek!

I’m very honored to receive this nomination. For some weeks now, I have seen fellow blogs being nominated and it makes me so happy that I can join the club now. Let me introduce Neha and Abhishek from Revolving Compass: They are, as they say on their blog, a techie couple enthusiastic for traveling which is a passion that they share. First as a couple and now together with their toddler they have been exploring wonderful places in India for over 3 years! Please keep these wonderful posts coming, I wish you all the best for your future adventures!

Now, You’ll probably ask: What is the Liebster Award?

When I started my blogging adventure more seriously and joined all these awesome groups on Facebook, I kept seeing blogs being nominated for a Liebster Award and nominees talking about it. Even though I didn’t really know what it was, I actually applied and mentioned my blog on the very first day. Now I know as it is stated on the Facebook Page:

The Liebster Award is a way of promoting and recognizing fellow bloggers, (on the internet) for their efforts and accomplishments in becoming a blogger.

Doesn’t that sound just great?! Bloggers being supportive of other bloggers is just a wonderful and generous thing. As Neha and Abhishek mentioned in their entry, the name of the award – Liebster – comes from my homecountry – Germany – and it means: The dearest and kindest. And that it just is, the dearest and kindest way to connect fellow new bloggers in the industry, to give them exposure and the recognition they earn for sharing their stories with the world.
When you are nominated for the Liebster Award, you are supposed to do the following:

  • Thank those who nominated you and link the blog in your post
  • Write an intro about the Liebster Award and spread the awareness
  • Answer the questions about your blog
  • Nominate another 5 to10 other people for the Liebster Award and inform them via social media
  • Set up a few interesting  questions for the nominees

So, here come my answers to Neha’s and Abhishek’s questions

Thanks for the great set of questions, guys! I’ll do my best answering them! It has been such a great week for me reflecting on all your questions.

What inspired you to start traveling?

Actually, I was 15 when I took my first flight and traveled to another continent, so I’d say I started traveling extremely late. All my other friends had been traveling way before that age. At the same time, I suppose that it impressed me even more than others who had been traveling a lot before. I remember sitting in the plane back to Germany (from New York City) at that time, crying because I was overflowing with emotions: Happiness because I just had so many great days and sadness because I had to leave and go back to school. That moment I promised myself to keep on exploring different countries and cultures.

Which travel destination is the closest to your heart and why?

Definitely the USA: see the story above. Also, I spent a year living in Ohio and have so many fond memories of that time. I have also visited a couple of places there already (such as New York, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland) and was always so lucky to meet great new people or catch up with old friends. When I’m there, it only takes a couple of hours and I feel at home.

What fuels the motivation behind your travel blog?

At first, I wanted to share my adventures with friends and families and the blog served as a convenient method to let them know that I was still alive whenever I was abroad on a solo trip. Then I realized that I have so many stories to share and tell with others and I decided to make this blog more public to inspire others that they can do it as well. Traveling or traveling alone is fun, not scary! I’m very passionate about the places I have been and I love to inspire and share my ideas or share my advice.
I also enjoy writing in English, even though German would be an easier choice. I’m Munich-based and I have had visitors from different countries now, which was when I realized that I should also share some tipps and tricks about Munich. It’s a wonderful city!

Where do you envision your blog a couple of years down the line?

Hopefully still going strong and maybe even stronger than now,
I want it to be filled with many new adventures, destinations and tricks for everyone out there. Plus, I’d love to be able to make people go out and travel more. I also want to keep up adding more photos because apparently the move from the free wordpress site deleted them all.

How do you combat home sickness after days of travel?

This is actually a subject that I have been thinking about a lot lately. I usually try to stay busy and go out. Take a walk, explore, calm myself down. Keeping in touch with friends and family can help as well. But all in all, I’d say that the most important part is to remember that homesickness or loneliness is a normal part of being “on the road” and that you can allow yourself to be lazy or sad or anything you want to be. It’s important to be at peace with yourself and what you feel when you are traveling.

What is the most important thing you have learnt during your travel journey?

For me, the most important thing that I learnt was and still is that you can’t plan everything. I’m a pretty organised person when I am at home and when I write my dissertation, so of course I try to be as prepared as possible when traveling. I’ve learnt over the last couple of years that I have to let go and be more spontaneous.

What was your toughest travel experience so far?

I haven’t had many bad experiences, luckily, compared to many other travelers. The toughest experience thus was probably being robbed in my dorm by the girls I shared the place with. It sucked pretty bad and almost ruined a perfectly pleasant stay in San Francisco. Plus, I felt so stupid and bad loosing all the cash.

Do you have a bucket list that you are ticking off slowly?

I do have a very long bucket list. It keeps growing and growing, especially now that I am home-stuck for a little while. Many destinations on my bucket list are far away, such as Canada, Japan and New Zealand. Other than that, I have many different cities that I want to visit for the first time or for a second time, such as Prague (going there in January now!), London, Paris, Rome or New York City.

What was the most heart touching experience you had during your travel ?

I’m always touched when I meet nice people on my trips. Since I am usually traveling on my own, these short or long encounters always make me feel happy. On my last trip I took the train from Portland, OR, to San Francisco, CA. When I entered, all window seats were unfortunately taken, but the woman next to me switched seats with me for a couple of hours so that I was able to enjoy the view. She told me that I was a guest and should enjoy my trip and that I would do the same in Germany for her. It was incredibly sweet of her!

Given a chance to travel day in and day out, would you grab it?

Probably not – to give the short answer. I love traveling, but a huge and wonderful part for me is coming home which requires having a homebase somewhere. For me, traveling is giving myself a timeout, being more spontaneous and having an adventure on my own. I’m investing a lot of time and energy into my studies which I am also very passionate about and could never give up completely!

What would be your one liner for someone who wants to start travel blogging?

It’s my favorite saying and the tag line of my blog: “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” (Confucius). In a longer version: Go out and do it, but do it with all your heart and be yourself.

Here are my nominees for the Liebster Award 2016:

1) Wading Wade
2) Abstract Heaven
3) TravelTorgeir
4) The Wandereuse
5) Little Duckie’s Adventures
6) Up&At’Em Travel
7) Island Girl In-Transit
8) Loudy’s Dream
9) Honey in the Desert
10) DreamTrip of a Lifetime 

Congratulations! I can’t wait all of your answers to my questions!

And my questions to the nominees:

  1. What is your favorite place in your hometown or home country?
  2. How do you finance your travels?
  3. Which places are on your bucket list?
  4. What was the best experience that you had while traveling?
  5. Which travel tip would you share with a new traveler?
  6. What inspires you to travel and blog?
  7. How did you come up with your blog name?
  8. How has your travel style changed as compared to when you just started traveling?
  9. What is the one thing that always makes you cringe when you are traveling abroad?
  10. What do you struggle with as a travel blogger?
My USA packing list: review

Review: My USA packing list

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Some of you might remember that I spent this year’s July in the US, on a backpacking adventure along the West Coast. This trip has been my first trip without a large heavy suitcase or backpack. I have to admit that I tend to overpack, mostly because I am always worried that I might forget something or that there will be some kind of emergency. I have shared my USA packing list shortly before my trip, so today I want to review this list – with a bit of distance on what was good to pack and what I could have left at home.

Review: My USA packing list

Three months after my last trip, I review my first USA packing list. Let’s hear what worked and what didn’t. | www.travelthewholewideworld.com

 

Things that I forgot on my USA packing list

The most obvious thing that I forgot or more or less ignored during packing was my travel adapter/ charger. For some reason I couldn’t find mine at home and was totally sure that I would find one in Seattle very easily. Turned out that it cost me almost half a day to find a decent one because all the adapters that I could find at first, were for travelers from the US going to Europe, not the other way round. I now carry a tiny USB plug in my camera bag (even though I’m back in Germany) – just to make sure I will at least be able to charge my phone next time.



Another thing on this list would be a hoodie, or comfortable clothes in general. Germans don’t wear yoga pants or hoodies very often. If they do, it is mostly for working out or sleeping, so for some reason I didn’t bring any comfortable clothing along. Also, I underestimated the weather or rather wind and rain, so that I actually loved my warm hoodie and my yoga pants that I had to buy on my trip.

Things that I could have left at home

I still love my Lonely Planet books, but to be completely honest, I didn’t use them too much on this trip. I have read a lot about people having the ebooks on their Phones and I’m sure this is a better alternative than having to carry two travel guides in your backpack. Those books get heavy after some time! I plan to change that in the future – on Lonely Planet’s last sale I purchased a lot of ebooks that should last me for a while!

Against better knowledge and against every packing list’s advice, I also packed my small travel-sized hairdryer. It even almost made it on my must-pack list because I always get sick when I don’t dry my hair! Turns out that I didn’t use it very much. In Seattle that was thanks to the missing adapter and sharing a room with people who often slept in. In Portland, the hostel actually provided hair dryers (at least there was one in each bathroom) and San Francisco was warm enough to walk around with damp hair.

I also never wore that one dress that I brought or the leggings for that matter. Maybe I’m not a dress person, I rarely wear them at home and I feel uncomfortable when I am in one and have to walk a lot. And I did walk a lot on that trip. My advice would therefore be: Only bring clothes that you would also wear at home!

Most helpful things on my USA packing list

I really loved my Eagle Creek Pack-It cubes that I bought a few months before my trip. I didn’t think that I would be able to keep up being that organized, but it turned out just fine and I actually used them during the whole time. Although they were not cheap, I can now say that it was money well spent.

I was positively surprised by the travel towels that I brought. They really looked like they wouldn’t work for me, but after a few days I was very convinced. They pack small, dry fast and were easy to wash when needed. I also sometimes used them to separate my bed from the rest of the room.

Everything else on my packing list was useful as it was! I brought just enough clothes to last for a week, so that I had to do laundry every seven days. I’d recommend that to everyone, because it means that you’ll have enough to wear without having to worry but it also fit into a small carry-on suitcase. I’d probably research more on the weather, I didn’t bring a rain coat (for example) which would have been nice to have, but could be replaced by an umbrella!

2015 Recap

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Oh time flies when you are having fun!

It is February 2016 now and I just noticed how lazy I have been. I apologize, dear followers, and I promise to try my best to do better.

So let’s see: What did I do in 2015 – travel-wise?

In March I spent a few days in Mannheim, Germany at a conference. I wouldn’t much call it traveling or a holiday, as I spent most of my time in the university there, still, I liked what I saw and I am planning to go back and explore more. Unfortunately, no pictures were taken due to my lack of nerves concerning presentations.

In April I was happy to welcome two of my best friends in Munich. A. came all the way from Florida to visit me and was later joined from H. who came from Berlin at that time. Though it was just for a week, we had lots of fun and did a lot of sights in Munich, Salzburg and Füssen. My first visit to Neuschwanstein! I definitely should devote a post to that!

In June I spent a few days with my mom at the beautiful Lago di Garda in Italy. It’s one of my favorite places. We have been going to the same towns since I can think, so it feels a lot like coming back to many nice memories, always looking for changes. Places change so much over the years! It was incredibly hot outside, but more on that another time!

In September I was accepted to spent a week in Kleve, near Düsseldorf, Germany at a Summer School on Digital Storytelling. There are still so many impressions on my mind that I have no idea how to put that into words. The week was filled with good memories, but also a lot of work.

In hindsight, my year didn’t look that boring, but still it felt extremely empty with no trip longer than a week. I missed my being-abroad-on-my-own a lot and I’m looking forward to this year and hopefully more time spent away from Munich.

Until then, take care!

Cheers,

Eva

Another year went by….

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And yet I’m still so much behind on blogging. Last year in May, I was able to travel a little bit in the US. For a travel addict like me, those were the perfect three weeks. Not only did I get to see my college friends again (after four incredibly long years), but I travelled all alone for the first time in my life!

What seemed to be scary at first, now makes me want to tell everyone I talk to: Pack your bags and get up and on the road!
I started in Munich and took a really exhausting flight to NYC. I usually love New York City, but this time due to being so tired, I just felt miserable most of the time. However, I tried to seize the day and took some new photos!

I had to sit on the doorstep of a church for some time because the rain surprised me and I was without an umbrella. It gave me time to get used to the pace of New York, relax and do some people watching!

Isn’t the facade of this building stunning?! I could look at it for hours, it’s mesmerizing!

Those were my bags, I didn’t try to pack small then, but had to carry all these bags with me. It was ok while I was driving but other than that – just too much stuff! Carry-On only for the win from now on!

Puppies in a window display. This always breaks my heart! How can you look at these cute animals and not want to take them all home with you? I’m glad we don’t sell animals like that in Germany!

Amazing street art awaits you wherever you go if you just keep your eyes open. Especially along the High Line which is a long narrow park that I sat down to relax and get over my jet lag!

Times Square right after a big downpour of rain. It always amazes me how busy New York City and especially Times Square is. It’s almost overwhelming but at the same time you feel life pulsating!