What a week! Much to discuss.
Bits and Bytes
- While debate rages on about the voice of a destination versus the personality of a writer at Traveling Savage, what also hooked me this week is our emotional triggers to travel. Travel writers sometimes focus on great beaches or eats, but neglect the personal impact. My new favorite writer, Suzy Guese, returned to Ortigia, Sicily with intentions of recreating moments she spent there as a student. Her article triggered my own trepidations on returning to Thailand. Could this mean revisiting a place is about recreating the person we were at the time? I wonder. Thailand can’t be about that, since I was a miserable, chubby sod. Whatever transpires, I’m certain it’s about triumphing over my past self. You’ll be surprised what Suzy discovers.
- Moving on from reacquainting to farewells, The Adventures of D wrote a poignant post about saying goodbye to her co-workers. In all the heady planning, we forget the finality of “goodbyes”. Yet, I try to view those moments as a door opening to new “hellos”.
- On the business back end, have you all signed up for Travel Blog Success yet? I haven’t, just weighing all the options. I’m also interested in the webinars offered by Global Bloggers Network. I’m impressed with the caliber of resources for fresh bloggers. It’s reassuring that someone’s done it before, and accomplished it tenfold.
- A couple of resources I’m dying to check out is Casa Casa and Housecarers.com. Casa Casa is the price of a hostel with the interaction of couch surfing. What does $10 or $15 get you? Hopefully extra pancakes at breakfast. House Carers is handy for aspiring layabouts. You can do house sitting stints for a week to several months. The advantage? A crabby flashpacker like me doesn’t have to share space with rude hostelers, and they don’t have to share space with my snoring. It’s beneficial for all. Little hint: If you’re a travel blogger it’s free to sign up with Casa Casa.
Nomadic Chick News
- I found a man! Hold off on my bridal registry, I meant a web designer. He’s local and hopefully able to bring my site to a new level of stupidity and confusion. Betcha you can’t wait. Again, I ask your patience as design changes occur.
- Still massaging my potential contributor. We’re meeting over muffins on Sunday to catch up and cover particulars. Wish me luck! She would seriously offer entertainment and infect others with her passion for travel, I just know it.
- I’d like to welcome Elke (@inmyhands_). She just signed up as my follower, which is special, but what’s more significant is her desire to adopt a nomadic lifestyle. It’s always comforting to meet others on the same track.
- My infamy grows: a piece I penned will appear on One Travel. Thanks to Aldo Singer for the chance to wet my feet, but when he asked that the topic be romantic destinations, my gut tightened. Contrary to gender stereotypes, this chick is not Ophelia gone mad for Hamlet, the death of my femininity symbolized by the womb of a willow tree (casket) and drowning (bad girl, for sexing up Hamlet). Translation: I blow at romance. Ever the consummate professional, I pulled a rabbit out of my rear end. Notebook Part Deux should be online February 18. Oh, and if you should need cheap flights, Aldo can help you there as well.
When Harry Met Sally
I’ve baited you long enough. My first tweet-up with Shawnosaurus was surreal. Can anyone else relate to this? It had all the components of a date without a grope or sloppy kiss. Hmm.. that’s the majority of my real dates. I digress, the surreal aspect was the chance to interact with a live person from the travel blogging and Twitter streams. We blab about travel and resources from such a distance that meeting face-to-face was slightly nerve-wracking.
The restaurant:
Oh the food! Perogies and vegetarian cabbage rolls washed down with Baltic beer. Scrumptious! I gorged myself. Shawn probably thought, what a horse-eater…
What you’ve all been salivating for, pictorial evidence (photo courtesy of our authentic Ukrainian server):
Topics of discussion included travel writing, blogging, forums, Dave Lee’s charisma, and some personal info I won’t divulge here. Use your imagination and fill in the dialogue. The main event centered around swapping travel stories. It was refreshing to regale tales and not have the person’s gaze drift to a stain on the tablecloth or better yet, the yawn. Ohhh, so tired, can we stop talking about your travels, because I’m jealous and petty?? Suffice it to say, Shawn should churn out a non-fiction book about his past adventures. He started vagabonding before the term was invented. Sorry, Rolf.
Quick note about the Ukrainian Village, servings were generous with a price tag of $17.95, I thought it was a decent deal.
All in all, I had a fabulous time. It felt like I was interacting with a peer, which has been sadly lacking thus far. I encourage others to do a tweet-up in your area. Join the tribe, it’s worth it.
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
@Lauren (Casa Casa) – You’re so welcome. Hey, that’s what I hope to do, highlight new services for travelers. I can’t wait to try it out. :)
Thanks for the shout-out on Casa Casa! Once you join, you won’t even have to travel far to use it – there are great hosts in Victoria, Salt Spring, Nanaimo…
Also, I could swear I’ve been to the Ukranian Village before. There are so many awesome restaurants on Denman.
AND about Travel Blog Success… I think I might check out some testimonials on it and see how it’s going for folks… I don’t make $anything off my labor-of-love blog, Northwest Cheapsleeps (http://www.nwcheapsleeps.org), but wouldn’t it be nice to at least pay for hosting costs ;) Hope to meet you sometime soon.
@Suzy – An accolade well deserved, lady! Keep writing your heart out. :)
@CA (Monkey Man) – I think you got something better. Stephanie Elizondo G. in person at your university. That’s not shabby. :-D
Sounds like you had a busy week! I still haven’t met anyone from twitter yet, I’m kind of envious of these tweetups and twates (ok enough twitter talk). Good luck on the graphic designer, I’m excited to see the changes.
Thank you so much for the shout out here! Your words are far too kind, but I’m glad the piece inspired something in you. I am honored to be your new favorite travel writer this week! Although maybe it’s because we both fancied ourselves little mermaids as children ha. Thanks again!
@Johnny Vagabond – Neato. Thanks for the input. Did a monkey defile you today?
@Candice – I felt the same. In a way, it was a relief it was only Shawn. His personality takes up the whole room anyways.
@Carol – My goodness, such pressure to be anybody’s go-to, but for you, anytime!
@Shawn – Oh man, we do have to try another meet-up. The dang Olympics makes it annoying to travel.
@Keith – If you just stopped writing decent articles, the PR would stop.
@Shannon OD – I was pretty excited to find Casa Casa as well! If you sign up, let me know your thoughts.
@Dave – Shawn said you’re a good guy! I hope to be on TBS soon as well.
@Aly – Yay! On the Hop and Jaunt blog roll! Haha, we laugh, but it was weird that I could talk past 140 characters. :)
awww tweet-ups! Did you have to stop your self from replying in under 140 words? :) Great article will have to look into all the new sites, and yes, we would love to link exchange!!
Thanks for the Travel Blog Success mention. It’d be great to see you in there!
I’ll be presenting for the Global Bloggers Network in a few months. I think we’re taking two very different (yet complimentary) approaches toward helping people build quality travel blogs.
That Casa Casa site looks most excellent and I had never heard of it! The meetup sounds like a lot of fun and good food :-)
I love this style of post – very informative and keeps the connections growing. Can’t thank you enough for the PR! Very cool on the tweet-up.
The Shawn fellow you met sounds hella dreamy! In my opinion. You should probably send him a cake. I’m pretty sure that’s standard post twatdown etiquette.
Seriously, that was really cool and I hope we can fit in at least one more hangout night before we both leave BC.
I’m hooked on your blog. How else would I learn about other blogs like Traveling Savage – I just jumped into that discussion – and I’ll have to check out Travel Blog Success too. You’re my go-to girl!
NICE! Gotta say, the prospect of meeting so many Twitter friends all at once is terrifying. What if their expectations are too high?! What if they don’t like me?! Etc, etc. I guess the beer helps.
Suzy is great, isn’t she?
I went ahead and joined travel blog success — digging it so far. I’ve only read through 3 of lessons so far. The forums have the most promise, imo. Being able to get a critique of your site and advice from successful travel bloggers is really helpful.
@Anil – Nicely said. You should click my Traveling Savage link (above) and join the discussion.
@Chris – Where did I miss this first tweetup of yours? What’s interesting is we were throwing out these terms and other patrons reacted with waaa?? What the hell are those 2 talking about?? That also added to the absurdity of it.
On the road, the small is big. It’s possible to give voice to the many permutations and combinations any given place can offer a traveller.
The destination will speak what is asked of it by the ‘voice’ of a traveller.
Looks like you weren’t keeping up with Shaun in the drinking :) I caught up with Bobbi (@HW_Travel) yesterday and your right its nice to talk to others that are on the same playing field so to speak.
I’ve also been tossing up joining travel blog success if for nothing else than the forums to chat with everyone. I think I am sold on it.