Liebster Award

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The Liebster Award goes to:

♪♩♫♭♪♯♬♪♫♩♫♭ ♪♯

(tcham tcham ram ram…)

“Love & Road!!!!”

 

Aplausos

This is our first award and we are so proud and happy to be nominated to the Liebster Award by Morgan from Mapped by Morgan  and Shelly & Darrell from TuristSite.

 Thanks Morgan, Shelly and Darell!! It´s a pleasure to share with you this award and also some travel dreams. This year has been a life changing adventure for us, 2014 was the beginning of Love and Road, and a completely new style of life.

And as everybody knows: Third Time is a Charm! We just got honored also by No Time for travel? Thanks so much!!!

We wish all the best in your journeys! Keep posting awesome articles that inspire us a lot!

Liebster Award is made by Bloggers to Bloggers. A lovely way to recognize the hard work we newbies do. It is so good to know that not only family and friends are following our adventure. There are nice people around the world that appreciate our stories too!

A special THANKS for all our Twitters, Facebook and Instagram followers.

Obrigada

Now that I finish my speech lets get back on business. 🙂

 

When you receive the Liebster Award you have to write a blog post following these rules:

  1. Thanking the blogger who nominated you for the Liebster Award with a link back to his or her blog.
  1. Answer the 10 – 11 questions that your nominator asks you
  2. Nominate 5 – 11 bloggers of your own, with under 500 followers, whom you think are awesome and deserving of this honor.
  3. Create 11 questions for your nominees.
  4. Display the Liebster Award logo on your page.
  5. List these rules (1-6) in your post.

 

liebster logo

 Here are our answers to Mapped by Morgan questions (this is our first online interview, uhullll!):

  • What trip made you fall in love with travel?

In 2006 we decided to travel to Buenos Aires, it was our first couple trip. The main reason for this trip was an eletronic music festival (Creamfields), but turned out to be a great experience.

For the first time we had to be together 24 hours, sharing room, bathroom, meal… We discovered in each other a great partner for travelling. After a few days that we were back in Brazil  we started talking about how we could travel and see the world. One year later we were moving to Ireland  and never stopped travelling.

Liffey River
Dublin, our first home away from home.
  •   What’s your favorite thing about travel?

For us travelling is all about meeting new people, new culture and for sure new food!

We love to experiment and learn new things and get out of our comfort zone. We are food markets lovers, always searching for something local and unique.

 

  • What’s the first thing you do when you get to a new place for the first time?

We always look for a good coffee!

I´m a coffee addicted and after a good espresso I am ready to explore any city!

 

  • What’s your dream trip?

Probably will be the next one!  We have been in some many different and wonderful places that I have never imagined. So now I believe that all destinations are possible, you don’t need to dream about it, you just need to have courage and book the flight to there!

 

  • What advice do you have for new travelers?

Rob`s advice: Put effort on your planning. A well planned trip turns out to be a more enjoyable one.

Nat`s tip: Fall in love! Enjoy every moment, everything, every place, food or person. Do your trip with an open heart and full of emotion. I am sure you won’t regret it.

And that´s why Nat stands for LOVE and Rob for ROAD.

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A good balance between emotion and reason.
  • What do you hope to accomplish with your travel blog?

We want to inspire new travellers, share information, tips, advices… Leave a nice story behind, and of course, we want to make it our way of life.

 

  • What’s your favorite travel related book?

Two book are really inspiring for us:

  • 10 Anos No Mar (1995), Heloisa Schurmann
  • The bold Man of the Sea (2001), Jim Shekhdar

 

  • Is your travel pace fast, medium or slow?

We are in a medium pace, and trying to make it slower. Till now we spent four months around Europe, for the next destination we are planning to stay two months around Turkey.

 

  • Do you travel solo? Why or why not?

We are partners in crime! Four months on the road, 24 hour together, sharing almost everything. Believe it or not, we are doing fine! Still alive, no fights.

Our recipe: Love + Respect + share the same Dreams + lots of Talk + bunch of Fun! When you learn to make fun of yourself and trust in your partner everything becomes easy!

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LOVE is beautuful 🙂
  • If you could live anywhere, where would it be?

Can we make a list? So far it would be:

Summer city: Barcelona

Autumn city: Berlin

Winter city: Budapest

Spring city: Dublin

But I’m sure this list would change in the next season or in the next trip!

 

  • Where have you experienced the most culture shock?

In  Morocco definitely. The poverty, so many children begging on the streets and everything so dirty that made us feel uncomfortable.  Also the pressure from the sellers on the shops and restaurants, most of them treat you like a bunch of walking money.

Of course we met amazing people and really enjoyed, but took us a couple of days to get comfortable.

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It took us a while to get used to Marrakech.

 

Now our answers to TouristSite questions:

  • Tell us something surprising about yourself

One surprising thing about us is that before we started travelling we never thought seriously about having a baby. But now that we are on the road we are kind of talking about it. It´s so weird, in those eight years together being parents wasn’t in our plans and now we discuss about which country we are going to rise our kid.

 

  • What`s your favorite travel tip?

Nat´s tip: Girls, do not pack a lot! Few clothes, flat shoes a little make up bag and a bright lovely smile are enough to travel around the world.  And you are hearing that from a girl who used to have a closet packed with stuff.

Rob´s tip: Always check the prices of hotels, hostels and flights in more than one website.

 

  • What´s the most memorable food you’ve tried on your travels?

Nat´s taste: For me the most delicious food that I’ve tried until now was the vegetarian couscous I ate in Marrakech . We stopped for dinner in one of the stall at Jemaa El-Fna and I got this wonderful plate of couscous cooked with prunes, raisins, carrots, zucchini, onions and so many taste and different spices. Love it!!

Rob`s choice: He goes for a paella that we ate at Castelldefels near Barcelona. We had an amazing dinner with Rob`s friend, fresh cooked paella, spanish jamon and cava!

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Our favourite food stall in Marrakech.
  • What´s your favorite quote?

Nat´s favorite: “They did not know it was impossible, so they did it.” Mark Twain. I saw this quote for the first time when I was teenager and it stayed in my mind and heart till I was mature enough to really understand and make it work.

Rob´s quote: “A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” Tim Cahill

 

  • Why did you start your Blog?

When we decided to travel forever (or as long as we can or want) we thought about sharing our journey. For us Love and Road is not just a travel blog, it is our life changing project.  No point to start an adventure, learn different things and collect stories if you cannot share it. Also the blog is a showcase about what you are, what you do and in what you believe.

 

  • Where is your favorite off-the-beaten path location?

Nat´s place: No doubt, for me  is Cala de San Pedro  in Parque Natural Cabo de Gata – Nijar in Spain. You have to park your car around Las Negras village and then walk almost 2 hours hill up and down. The view is amazing, the beach water crystal clear. Just few people on the sand. Such a peaceful and stunning place.

Rob`s: For him is a little town in south of Brazil called Jaguaruna. He has great childhood memories from there. Also the mix of sand dunes, lake and beach makes this city an amazing place to visit!

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After almost 2 hours hiking, that’s the view!
  • Has a movie or a book ever inspired you to travel?

Nat`s answer: I choose two movies, completely different from each other.  First “Thelma and Louise” from Ridley Scott. I was so young when I watched, but after the movie I knew I had to be free as those girls. Travelling around the world in an amazing convertible, and of course with Brad Pitt in the back seat! In second comes “Lost in Translation” directed by Sofia Coppola. It is so interesting how you can lose yourself and find it again when you get out your comfort zone. Cultural clash, unexpected things and an open mind can change your life forever.

Rob´s choice: He picked “The Endless Summer 2”, from Bruce Brown. The idea to surf the best waves around the world and follow an endless summer was his teenage dream. He said that 50% of this dream has already come true, now he is anxious to arrive in Bali!

 

  • Have your travels taken you outside your comfort zone?

For sure! People who knows us for more than 5 years would never imagine that we could be able to sell everything, to rent our house, to pack some clothes and travel the world. Giving up of comfort, of our possessions and becoming minimalist wasn’t in our thoughts a few years ago.  Also I had to learn not to be a freak controller bitch anymore! Live day by bay without a long term plan is really something new. Scary sometimes, but deliciously new!

 

  • Is your travel style luxury or budget?

We are a budget travellers. We have a daily budget and we need to stick to it otherwise we will not be able to travel for long. Of course we like good, tasteful and luxurious things. But we are trying hard to live without them, or at least have them once in a while. Check the full financial plan in your post “How will we survive!”

 

  • If you weren’t blogging about travel, what would you blog about?

Probably we would be blogging about fashion. And the funny thing is that both of us have the same opinion. But if fashion would´t work, I would talk about sex. 😉

 

Now our answers to No Time for Travel? questions:

  • What is your best travel memory and why?

We have so many good memories, amazing places that we never thought we would visit. Talking about this we decided to choose as our best travel moment the day and night we spent in the Moroccan Desert. That sky, the sunset and star… So peaceful, so powerful, something that words can not describe.

Desert sunset
Will never forget this sunset!

 

  • Do you prefer solo travel or travel with a companion?

We travel together, partners in crime! It is hard to imagine ourselves travelling solo.  But that is something that we shall try.

 

  • Do you have any regrets from your travel such as places you missed or things you would do differently?

Yes. We have been in Buenos Aires (Argentina) two times e we didn’t manage to visit the Zoo. It is a such special place where you can touch and be with the animals. Another regret was to not plan in advance our visit to Granada and Alhambra (Spain). We were so close but they didn’t visit because the tickets were sold out for the whole week.  đŸ™

 

  • What is your preferred method of travel e.g. train, bus, boat, camel etc.

Rob  loves to travel by car. The freedom to stop wherever you want and travel on his own pace is something that he really enjoy.

Nat´s favorite: Despite all the hassle during the passport control and X-ray, I do love to fly. Trains come in the second position!

 

  • Do you pay attention on reviews on sites like trip advisor?

Not really, we always do our researches on travel blogs, touristic official websites and talk with traveller. That´s is the best to way to get good info and precious tips. Now we are using Trippy to share advice and make question to other travellers. So far it has been a good experience.

 

  • Have you ever got lost while travelling and what happened?

A lot! Two days ago we were walking around the Grand Bazaar here in Istanbul and got completely lost. The same happened to us in the souks of Marrakesh. The good thing about getting lost is that you find amazing new places, sometimes you discover new paths and end up having an awesome time!

 

  • Favorite country and why

That´s hard to answer, especially that we haven’t visit all the countries yet. but so far may answer would be:

Nat´s choice: Italy and Spain

Rob´s choice: Spain and France

 

  • Do you have a guilty pleasure when you are travelling?

Oh yeah! We are coffee addicted so once a while we treat ourselves with a good gourmet coffee. This guilty pleasure is really easy to satisfy when we are in countries like Italy that the regular coffee is already amazing. But when we were in Morocco it was so hard to get a nice cappuccino. And that was tough for me.

 

  • What can you not travel without?

There are so many essential things but we go for: camera and mobile.

 

  • Do you prefer desert, ocean, mountains or rainforest?

Ocean!! We love beach, sand, sun, swim…

ocean spain
Ocean is our favorite one! We can’t stay away too long!

 

  • What are your travel plans for the next 12 months?

Don´t you think 12 months plan is too much? We have plans just till October of this year, when our apartment rent finishes here in Istanbul. After that nothing is sure and everything is possible! The idea is to travel around Turkey and after go to Southeast Asia. Visit Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia till April next year.  By the end of April we might be back in Europe. Rob will run the Paris Marathon and we have some brazilian friends to visit us. After that we have no clue about what gonna happen! And all this insights maybe change in the next week!

 

Now that you already know a bunch of new things about us, let´s introduce our nominees:

  1. Derek and Marc from The Migrant Expats or @MigrantExpats
  2. Mei and Kerstin from Open Up Now or @OOOpenUpNow
  3. Buddy and Vicky from Buddy The Travelling Monkey or @traveling 1223
  4. Rachel from Rachel Travels or @RachelTravels_
  5. Michela from The Travelover or @michygaro
  6.  Ă‚ngela from Naonde  or @angelagolds

 

Congratulations guys, you totally deserve it!

Now you have a tough task: answer our questions with Love!

  1. What did fire you up to travel?
  2. What was the hardest thing to leave behind?
  3.  What is your favorite travel memory?
  4. Funniest thing that happened on a trip:
  5. Worst thing that has happened on a trip:
  6. When did you decide to blog and how did you choose the name of it?
  7. What do you dislike about blogging?
  8. How do you finance your travelling?
  9. One precious advice about travelling:
  10. Do you travel alone or with a partner? Why?
  11. Which amazing place would you love to keep hidden just for you?

 

We can’t wait to read all your answers and check the new blogs you are going to nominate. We truly wish all the best in your travels and blog! Keep up the good work, inspiring us with new adventures and awesome stories.

Thank you again Mapped by MorganTouristSite and No time for travel? for choosing us, it is a big pleasure to be on your list! Hope you like the newbies bloggers we have picked, theses guys are working as hard as we are.

Have a nice trip you all!

With Love,

Nat & Rob

 

16 thoughts on “Liebster Award”

  1. Hey guys! Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions, I really enjoyed reading your answers. Glad to see some fellow coffee addicts, it’s also one of the first things I try to scope out when I arrive somewhere. I love how you picked a different place to live for each season. Thanks again, keep up the great work! 🙂

    Reply
    • It was our pleasure to answer the questions, or I should say our first online interview…lolololol… Thanks again for the nomination. We know how difficult is to be a newbie and the Liebster is a good way to boost our confidence and keep the hard work
      Hope one day we can catch up and talk about our travels.
      All the best,
      Nat.

      Reply
    • ParabĂŠns Ângela!
      A gente sabe como ĂŠ difĂ­cil começar um Blog! Muita sorte, bom trabalho e Ăłtimas viagens… Estamos curiosos para saber suas respostas e conhecer os prĂłximos indicados.
      Abraços,
      Nat & Rob

      Reply
    • Obrigada FĂŞ!
      Espero que esteja gostando do Blog. Estamos trabalhando bastante, sĂŁo apenas dois meses de histĂłria, mas acredito que estamos num bom caminho. Super beijo!!
      Nat.

      Reply
    • Thanks Rose!
      I am really glad that you appreciate our Blog. We do follow your Blog too, and really liked the way you talked about Romania!
      All the best
      Nat & Rob

      Reply
  2. Thanks Sarah!

    Don´t tell us about The East Coast and The Great Ocean Road in Australia…. We are dreaming to go there! Our dream is to rent a campervan and drive all around. Good idea isn’t it?

    Thanks again for following us!
    Nat

    Reply
  3. Awesome guys! Congratulations. We read all your stories and love your posts. You are an example of what good things happen once one decides to follow one’s heart.

    Reply

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