Liebster Award

First and foremost Happy New Year to you all! I hope you all have a wonderful 2018! 2017 was a pretty good year for myself and following this I do plan to post a little round up of my year in full. Hopefully that’ll come this week.

I had got in to a really good routine with regular blogposts and then between going to Germany (November), Christmas and New Year (Edinburgh) I’ve lost my way a bit. So I suppose my New Years Resolution should be getting back at it and sticking to posting regularly on the blog.

Before the end of the year I had a surprise but appreciated nomination for the Liebster award from Chloe. Thank you! You should definitely go and give her blog a read for all things travel and doing so as a newbie vegan! You can find Chloe’s blog here: Chloevsworld

Anyway here’s my response to the questions that nomination brought:

Where is the best place you’ve ever visited?
I usually end up overcomplicating this because can you compare a theme-park orientated holiday (hi Disney!) to a city break or relaxed beach holiday? Probably not but if I’m being honest my snap first thought is always New York City.

I went with high hopes that it could perhaps rival my love of London – it did and the only thing that really gives London the edge is bias as a London born individual.

New York City has everything for everyone and whilst I can understand people being reluctant about wanting to live there, I struggle to think anyone wouldn’t enjoy a visit. If you haven’t been already – go!

What scares you the most in life?
This is a tricky question. I think the thing that scares me most is after life opposed to IN life. I’m not religious and admire those that have that faith. I choose to believe in an after-life through hope rather than actual belief so the idea of time being up perhaps motivates me most to travel and enjoy every minute whilst I can.

Actual in life fears I’m not too sure. I’m a pretty chilled and laid-back person. Some of the long-term things I probably should be worrying about such as a career and home and family and whatever else don’t tend to faze me. They’ll happen when they happen and I’m content with how my life is.

So I suppose the thing that scares me most in life is not enjoying it. Is that a rubbish answer? Haha.

What’s a hobby that you have besides blogging?
As a travel-focused-blog I’ll skip over the obvious so my other big hobby is football (soccer). Football gets a lot of criticism, a lot of it more than justified and I’m still adamant nobody hates football more than a football fan. The game is incredibly flawed and infuriating but despite the bad points it’s also an incredible thing to pour your heart in to.

What makes football special for me personally isn’t even the sport. To some degree you can take the football out of the equation and you’re still left with something special.
In a trivial sense it is just a sport with 22 overpaid people kicking a ball around (Trivial? I didn’t mean that!). What makes it the most popular sport in the world is the depth beyond that.

It’s hard to describe unless you “get it”. Nevertheless it’s one of my biggest hobbies and the extremity of my obsession is I often have to plan my travels around the stupid game.

Something you really want to achieve in 2018?
As sad as it may be, I think I’d just like to make some progress with the blog. Not necessarily to get to a “full-time-blogger” stage but just to make more effort with it and engage better with other bloggers (thanks again Chloe!).
2017 was a good start to “Jason likes to travel” but I’d like to think there’s still a lot to come from this.

I’m not a career-orientated person and I’m pretty happy with the aspects of my personal life so this is definitely something to focus on in 2018.
I’d also like to keep persisting with learning German and Spanish. I’ve slacked a little towards the end of the year but it’s something I’ll be picking up again to keep it fresh in my mind. I don’t know if fluency is realistic but I’ll keep striving towards it.

What are your 3 favourite things about yourself?
1: My attitude towards life. I think I try and enjoy it as much as I can and don’t worry too much about the big stuff. I’m carefree and always optimistic which certainly has its downsides but I’m really glad it’s the way I am.

2: My attitude towards other people. Don’t get me wrong, I’m introverted and hopeless in social situations but in spite of that I think I do have compassion for people and try not to judge people. I had a lot of good influences on my life growing up and I think it shaped me as a person. As a kid I wasn’t perfect and I’m still not now but I do think I’m always getting better in this area and try to treat people right. I think on the whole I’m doing a good job and always look for the best in people.

3: How much I’ve grown as a person. I’m very much a person that likes to reflect on the past (whilst continuing to look forward), I’m really proud of the progress I’ve made in recent years. That’s not without help and without making mistakes and learning lessons along the way but I definitely think I’ve tried to push myself in to more situations that I’m not naturally comfortable in. Whilst cliche, travel has definitely helped with that.

Who would play you in a movie of your life?
My first thought was Michael Cera, although I did need a little help from Google as I’d forgotten his name haha. I’ve seen him in a few things and I think he’d play me pretty well. I’ve just got to wait for the phonecall on that blockbuster movie on my life now, right? You’re all invited to the premiere

Hot or cold weather?
Definitely hot. It’s not that I dislike the cold, I do like snow for example but I’d much rather be doing something with the benefit of decent weather. I’ve been away before where the weather hasn’t really helped. Ideally though I’d prefer something in between the two – very much a typical Brit but we long for the summer weather and then want the heat to disappear after a day or two because it’s too hot.

What is the most read post on your blog?
Encouragingly it’s actually my most recent post. The big 3-0! I turn 30 in the summer and I’m planning on spending a month in the USA. The post was based on some of the things I’ll be thinking about in planning such a big trip. You can read it in full here: The big 3-0!

Best advice you’ve ever been given?
I really don’t know, I’ve always been given advice throughout my life but I don’t think there has been anything I’ve consciously taken on board that has been life-changing. I’ve probably been given advice that subconsciously I’ve taken notice of but I’d struggle to name one specific piece of advice.
So if you’re looking for some inspirational quote, unfortunately I’m lacking.

What’s your favourite cuisine?
It has to be Italian. Visiting Italy in 2015 was a dream come true and the food didn’t disappoint. It’s a travesty I’ve only been to Italy once in fact, I’m overdue a return and craving some good pizza and gelato.

Something you did in 2017 that you’re proud of?
I got back to believing in myself. On the whole 2016 was a good year but there were struggles and my confidence took a knock. I particularly struggled with a break up and despite being a positive person it took me a little time to get back on track. 2017 ended up being a really good year and I ended it in a really good place – literally (Edinburgh) and mentally. I’m feeling good about 2018.

The idea is I’m now to nominate 11 bloggers here to answer 11 questions of their own but I’m just going to limit this to 5 bloggers as I’m still making connections in the blogging world. So here are my nominations of blogs I’ve particularly enjoyed reading:

Caffeine and Foxes
2 Weekend Wanderers
Rapetti Review
Duri Rolvsson
A Traveled Life

To those 5, here are your 11 questions:

1) What are your blogging goals for 2018?
2) What are your personal objectives for the year?
3) Why did you start blogging?
4) What other platforms do you use to promote your blog?
5) What’s a typical weekend for you?
6) What do you like to do outside of the blogging world?
7) What’s your dream job?
8) If you were on deathrow, what would your final meal be?
9) What was your highlight of 2017?
10) Who is your favourite fictional character?
11) Would you ever like to live in another country?

Thanks for reading!

Jason