What are the Liebster Awards?
Liebster WHA? We had no idea until we were nominated by the wonderful Laura from Passport Collective. The Liebster Award is an online award for bloggers. It comes from the German word Lieb or Love and is a way for bloggers to show their love to other fellow bloggers. We are all about supportive blogger and instagrammer communities, so we LOVED this concept!
Our Answers:
1. Have you ever lived overseas, and if not where would you move to?
Bassam: I was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. I lived there for 14 years before moving to Los Angeles, California.
Lena: I have never lived overseas but always thought I would love to live in Paris for a year. I can never seem to get enough of Paris, so maybe an entire year could satisfy my cravings!
2. Where was your first overseas holiday?
Bassam: Syria when I was 10 years old, however, I don’t remember very much from the trip.
Lena: Germany, England, and Iran when I was about 5 years old. We have family in each of those countries and we went to visit them.
3. What is your favourite childhood holiday memory?
Bassam: In my twenties, my best friend, who is like my brother, and I spent the weekend in Lake Havasu. From there we went on a cruise in the Caribbean and visited Cayman Islands, Mexico, and Jamaica. I did adventurous things I had never done before like ziplining. That’s when the travel bug hit me.
Lena: My favorite holiday {vacation for us non-Aussies} memory is from my early 20’s rather than childhood. My family and I spent about a month in Spain and went all over the country. It was an incredible experience and I loved all of it! But the most memorable part was a night my sister, my mom, and I had a “girls night” while my dad and brother had a “guys night”. We walked around to different cafes and drank sangria. It so simple, but so much fun and a great bonding experience. It was also my first and only time drinking with my mom.
4. Does the travel bug run in your family?
Bassam: No, my parents are more content with staying home than with traveling to new places.
Lena: Yes, to some extent. My parents love to experience new places and see other countries, however, they do get homesick fast and are always ready to come home. Also, they can get stuck in their routines, so it’s not always their priority, but once they travel they become motivated to do it again!
5. Which place / country have you found it the most challenging to travel in?
Bassam: China was a tough trip for me. The air pollution triggered serious allergies. My face was completely swollen and I could barely breathe. I spent the whole trip trying to be near a medical clinic just in case. Also, I am very picky about food cleanliness. When I saw the way they were handling the food, I couldn’t eat it anywhere. I ate snacks I brought from home the whole trip. That’s out of character for me because usually I’m a big foodie.
Lena: Probably the Middle East. It’s not that the countries there were difficult, but they were just the most DIFFERENT from the states.
In Lebanon we usually stay with family. Not staying at a hotel gives you the true experience of life in that country. Everyone in Lebanon only has electricity for half of the day. They must purchase a generator or buy electricity to have it 24 hours a day. While Bassam’s family does have a generator, it’s not strong enough to handle things like air conditioners and hair appliances. Not being able to straighten my hair at any hour of the day or have AC when it’s sweltering hot outside was a bit difficult and made me really appreciative for the amenities I have at home.
In Egypt it is advisable to cover your shoulders when walking in the street. This was difficult for me to get used to because I didn’t need to do this in the other Middle Eastern countries I visited. Also, there were so many poor children on the streets that it was just heart breaking to walk around sometimes.
6. What changes / sacrifices have you made in your life in order to be able to travel?
We’ve always wanted to be young parents and thought we would’ve had kids by now. We decided to delay having kids a bit to try to travel to most of our bucket list. Our bucket list is so long there is no way we will get it all done before then, but we are working on it!
7. Have you ever been somewhere that didn’t live up to the hype?
We really thought about this question, but we couldn’t come up with an answer. Ultimately, everywhere we have gone we have enjoyed. Even if it wasn’t necessarily what we were expecting, it was still different and offered many unique experiences. We believe travel is what you make of it. We go into our travels with an attitude of curiosity and exploration. With that mindset, everywhere is a very enjoyable experience.
8. If money wasn’t an object, where would you holiday for a week?
A week? If money was no object we’d go for at least a year and try to see the whole world! We’d start off with: Italy, Greece, France, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, Turkey, Spain, Norway, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Japan, Thailand, Cuba, Argentina, Maldives, and that’s just getting started! We’d want to eat, see and do EVERYTHING while we are there. Hmmm… this could possibly take longer than a year!
9. Do you research your destinations or travel on a whim?
Some combination of the two. We usually choose our next destination based on a location that we can’t get out of our head or a location that works best for the number of days we are able to take off work. We often wait until the very last minute to book hotels and flights. We do lots of research looking up the destination because we just love seeing pictures and reading about the destination we are craving, but we rarely plan what we will do there ahead of time.
10. What destination keeps popping up on your feed that intrigues you?
Bassam: Iceland and Ireland.
Lena: ICELAND!!! Italy and Greece.
Planning trips to go to all of them sometime this year or next…
11. Why did you start blogging?
It’s really two-fold. First, on our first year anniversary trip to Costa Rica we took TONS of pictures {more than anyone could ever need} and thought it could be cool to share our pictures, adventures, and travel tips with others. Since we don’t travel year around, but instead try to find the adventure in every day life, we thought our mentality could bring a new spin to the sea of travel bloggers out there! Also, we are passionate about finding the joy and adventure in everyday life. We wanted to share that with others and inspire them to do the same!
Second, our first year of marriage was very difficult due to some events that occurred. {We may share more about this in the future}. We thought starting this blog could be a great way to focus on all the positive aspects of our life. It’s only been two months, but the blog has brought so much happiness to our lives. Bassam has discovered an immense love for photography and Lena loves to express her creativity through writing our blog posts.
Our Nominations:
Liz & Cody from Travel Devoted
Liz and Cody are one of the first travel couple bloggers we met. They are one of the sweetest couples you will meet and genuinely love blogging and making real connections with others. This passion and sincerity shines through in their blog posts which are always informative and fun to read!
Kallsy & Logan from Pages of Travel
We just love Kallsy and Logan’s blog and Instagram feed. We are all about adventures and their posts scream “adventure” + “love”. Can’t get any better, except it can, because they are also one good looking couple!
Shanna & Topher from Our Empty Nest Adventures
We’ve been stressing lately about how to keep adventures going after we have kids. {No bun in the oven, just thinking ahead!} Maybe that’s why we love Shanna and Topher’s work so much. It shows that just because you have kids doesn’t mean the fun needs to stop. They are an active, gorgeous, and fun loving couple with awesome travel tips!
Erin from Books in the Wild:
Erin is the only non travel blogger we nominated. We couldn’t resist nominating her because we just love her blog and Instagram feed. As soon as Lena came across Erin’s Instagram, she knew they had to be friends. Books and Adventures are two of Lena’s favorite things and Erin’s feed is DROOL worthy for any book and adventure lover.
Lia & Jeremy from Practical Wanderlust:
Have you ever wondered how some people seem to travel constantly, post glamorous pictures, and never work? We have and we have no idea how they do it. Lia and Jeremy don’t either. They post the “real” side of travel and show others how to travel in the most affordable way possible and while juggling full time jobs.
Amanda and Brian from Eat Work Travel:
Amanda and Brian are all about our two favorite things: eating and traveling! They love to experience all that life has to offer. They aspire to show others how to fit in all those wonderful experiences, even if you have a 9-5 job; hence the “work” in their name.
Alex from Mindful Mermaid:
Alex fell in love while traveling in Croatia and took a huge leap of faith to move there a few months ago. Her stories and photos of her new expat life are beautiful and inspiring. If that’s not enough inspiration, she’s also huge on sustainability and many of her posts have a sustainability focus.
Our Questions:
1. Why did you start blogging?
2. What is your favorite thing about blogging? Least favorite?
3. What book do you recommend for easing wanderlust cravings?
4. Where is your favorite place you’ve visited and your favorite things to do there? {Can be your hometown!}
5. What is your favorite food you’ve eaten while traveling?
6. What does your perfect day look like?
7. How do you keep fit while traveling?
8. What annoys you most about your partner when traveling?
9. What do you get most homesick for when traveling?
10. What are your best travel hacks or travel gadgets you can’t live without?
11. What are the top 3 hotels you’ve stayed at?
The rules:
(there are lots of variations, but we went with Laura’s rules for consistency)
- Thank and link to the blogger who nominated you
- Create a post on your blog, displaying the Liebster Award logo
- Answer the 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
- Post your Liebster Award blog post link in the comments of your nominator’s Liebster Award Post
Thanks again to Laura for nominating us! We had a great time writing this post and feel honored to have joined the ranks of other fellow Liebster nominated bloggers! Be sure to check out Laura’s site, Passport Collective.
Photo credit for all photos: Jillian Rose Photography
Erin Rolfson says
Wow guys I loved your answers so much!! It was so fun to learn more about you 😊
And thank you for the nomination! I feel extra fancy for being the only non-travel blogger!
I’m so glad to have “met” you and can’t wait to see what adventures you go on next! You two are amazing.
happilyeveradventures says
Thanks Erin! We are happy to have nominated you and can’t wait to read your post! We love following your adventures as well!
Laura says
Love it! I can relate to the electricity woes in Lebanon. You’d come back and see all the street lights off and know there was no power. This meant no power for the mosquito zappers. I learnt the word ‘bargosh’ – mosquito in Arabic really fast because I was being eaten alive!!! Thanks for answering my questions so well 😆
happilyeveradventures says
Tell us about it- Lena is a mosquito magnet! She still has scars from being bitten up so much on one trip. Thank you for nominating us! We had so much fun answering your questions!
Logan & Kallsy says
It was really fun reading your responses! Especially your bucket list of places. We feel like it’s never ending for us too. You two are going to make amazing parents someday and regardless of when it happens we know you won’t stop traveling! It will be so fun to give your children those experiences. 🙂
We are honored to have been chosen by you for the Liebster Award. Can’t wait to get started on this! 🙂
happilyeveradventures says
Thank you Logan and Kallsy! We really appreciate your sweet comments! We agree, we will definitely continue traveling with kids! It’ll be such a great bonding experience as a family and such great learning opportunities for them! Can’t wait for your post!
Alex Cote says
Thank you again for the nomination! It’s truly an honor and hope that I can buy you two a drink when I come visit Cali someday (and hopefully my boyfriend can come with me!)
Here’s the link to my post, as stated in the rules 🙂 https://mindfulmermaid.com/2016/10/26/the-liebster-award-ive-been-nominated/
happilyeveradventures says
LOVED you post! It was so much fun learning more about you and we can’t wait for you to come visit!
Logan & Kallsy says
Hey hey! Thank you again for the nomination. We are so lucky to have friends like you two!
Here is the link to our Liebster Award post: https://pagesoftravel.org/2016/10/28/pages-of-travel-liebster-award/
happilyeveradventures says
Loved your post! So much fun learning more about you and we are lucky to have friends like you too!
Flunkingmonkey says
Love this post! Really nice reading about your first travels and your responses to some of the questions. Great to hear about Costa Rica and your first ventures blogging.
-@FlunkingMonkey
happilyeveradventures says
Thanks Flunking Monkey! Glad you enjoyed learning more about us and thanks for stopping by!