I am not quite sure how I discovered Amanda of A Dangerous Business. I probably picked her up off of someone’s blogroll or saw a comment on a blog, but I have been enjoying her blog for a couple of year’s now and have highlighted her several Saturday Six posts.
I also participated in one of her 150-word challenges which was a total blast!I love her travel philosophy (read about it here) and her blog is fun and extremely well written. The perfect candidate for my Traveler Tuesday series!
[1] When and how did you become a traveler
Of course the first question you give me is one I don’t know the answer to… I’m not sure there is a singular place or time that a person “becomes” a traveler. I think a traveler is something you grow and develop into over time. But I do know that I started getting interested in the idea of travel back in high school. I loved history and geography and knew that someday I wanted to see the world.
I made New Zealand my first mission (I was a huge “Lord of the Rings” nerd), saved up for a couple of years, and eventually went there for 2 weeks with my mom right after I graduated high school in 2005. That was my first taste of international travel, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
[2] What is travel to you in 10 words or less?
An adventure. A challenge. A window into the unknown.
[3] What is your favorite mode of transportation and why?
I really love trains. Maybe it’s because I don’t ride them often, but there’s just something about train travel that is all at once soothing and exciting to me. I wish we had more great train journeys in the U.S.!
[4] What do you typically do while traveling by plane?
I almost always have the very best intentions of getting work done on longer flights – maybe edit some photos, write a draft of a blog post… But once I get settled in with some good tunes on my phone or a nice in-flight entertainment system, all those good intentions tend to go right out the tiny window. I sometimes try to sleep, but it hardly ever works. So instead I usually end up listening to music, reading, watching a movie if they are available, and sometimes chatting up my neighbor.
[5] What is your favorite travel memory involving food?
Another tough one! I’m not a huge foodie, so my best travel memories involving food aren’t necessarily the best because of the food involved, but more because of the people and the experience in general. I guess one of my favorites is from this past summer, when I was traveling with a small group through Eastern Europe. We were in a tiny town in Bulgaria called Gorno Draglishte, and were just wandering aimlessly down a worn cow path because it was so nice outside and we had some time to kill before dinner.
All of a sudden, a lady was leaning over her front gate, gesturing and smiling at us. Through our Polish guide (who could understand very basic Bulgarian), we learned that the woman wanted to invite us into her house. Even though we couldn’t really communicate with her, we spent the next hour sitting in this woman’s home as she spoiled us with coffee, tea, fresh sheep’s cheese, blueberries, and a whole watermelon. It was some of the best food simply because I knew it came from a place of pure generosity and a curiosity to meet people from foreign lands.
[6] What is one blogging tip or lesson that you have learned along the way that you can share with my readers?
That, above all else, you have to find your voice. You can read all the tutorials about leveraging social media and posting your content at the optimum time and designing the perfect website. But if your content doesn’t reflect your personality, the rest of it doesn’t really matter. Whether you’re blogging about food or travel or relationships or the latest episode of “Game of Thrones,” you have to find a way to let your personality come out through your writing. Because, at the end of the day, people do not follow Twitter accounts or Facebook pages or even websites alone. People follow people.
[7] Where to next?
I’m off to northern Canada in early March to (hopefully) catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights. Then, once I’ve de-thawed, I’ll be heading down to Costa Rica for a week. Even though both trips will be very different, I’m looking forward to the variety, as well as the opportunity to travel to some cool places without leaving this continent!
Thanks Amanda!
You can catch more of Amanda on her blog or Facebook page and check out her chatter on Twitter, wherever you catch her, I am sure you will enjoy her adventures!
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