Liebster Award - 10 questions to me & 10 to you!

Souvenir of a Black Cat has been nominated for the Liebster Award and I'm very happy about this :)
It's not a real "award", but it's more like a chance to get to know new emerging blogs.
It's like a sort of virtual chain which consists of answering to the 10 questions made from who nominates you and nominated yourself 10 other bloggers asking them 10 new questions.

Sara from Vagabondamente is the one who has nominated me, and I thank her so much, because I truly enjoy this sort of stuff.
And here are my answers to her questions... 

 
1. Which kind of message do you want to transmit through your blog?
I'd like to share with those who read me the beautiful things that are around the world and that have left me something when I've seen them.
I'd like to stimulate my reader to daydream a little bit, to get inspired at grabbing his suitcase and leave, or even just to discover a different point of view on places he already knows. 

2. Your blog article you are most attached to.
It's difficult to choose just one, because there are so many which have been driven by a certain emotive involvement, which I've tried to transmit when writing - since there are so many places I've visited which have emotioned and inspired me.
But I have to admit that those I dedicate to my city, Turin, are always written with particular fondness: I'm convinced that it's a very beautiful city, but still a bit unknown, so I almost feel it as a kind of mission trying to let know its charme, with my humble means.
So I choose my post about the Magic of Turin, because all the legends and myths connected to my city have always charmed me so much.
 
3. A trip or a place that have disappointed you.
I have a bad memory about my trip to Portugal made many years ago with my parents, but it's mostly dued to the fact that I had felt very sick after a food poisoning - but I'd love to give a second chance to the places, sooner or later.
Maybe the most disappointing destination has been Manchester, because, since I love UK unconditionally, I had never met a city or a town that I *didn't* like before - but Manchester has been an exception, I really didn't like it.
Too modern and chaotic, I even nicknamed it the "British Milan" ;)
 
4. The main reason why you travel.
Seeing, knowing, exploring new things maybe sound a bit too obvious?
Somebody used to say that we can reinvent ourselves for as many cities there are in the world, and I like to think that it actually is this way, that we can discover new aspects of ourselves by dipping into settings that are different from the usual ones, that can push us to overcome our comfort zone.
And then there is the pure and simple aesthetical pleasure of beauty, of giving our senses an eye candy with the masterpieces of nature and of human genius.
 
5. The cutest animal you've seen in your trips.
Hairy Highland coos are my fave!! They are cute and pretty.
But it's also been great to find, on a beach in the Isle of Arran (always in Scotland), a group of seals relaxing peacefully on the rocks.
In New York we've got enchanted at contemplating a raccoons family begging for food in the heart of Central Park; and in Salem we lost our train because we have stopped to wonder about a marmot-lookalike who has grazing along the railway, asking ourselves which kind of animal it was.
 
6. A fear you have when you travel.
I'm a sort of control-freak, I always need to have everything set and under control - so, maybe, my biggest "fear" (or better, anxiety) when I travel is the unpredictable, expecially connected to the delays and cancellations of the means of transport.
But after all the unpredictable is an unavoidable part of life, and therefore of travelling; so I must say, exactly because I have been facing a certain number of them during my journeys, has helped me to let go a bit this need of control and to become a bit more zen.
 
7. Where have you met the most kind and friendly people during your trips.
Let's say that I've always been quite lucky, because I've never found particularly nasty or unpleasant people, or at least not a big amount of them all stuck in one place.
I'd also want to dim the myth of the Parisian being stuck up, because in the French capital I've been helped twice by two kind strangers who asked me if I needed help when seeing me a bit lost while looking at my map.
But I guess that the Kindest award must be given to the British, because courtesy and good manners are so much embedded in their culture, while in most of other places they are kinda overlooked, or maybe just considered old fashioned. Once, after a reasonable queue in a post office, I've even been apologized by the clerk for having waited for that long - which, since I'm used to Italian grumpy standards, almost touched me :D
While I'd say that the most friendly are the Irish, because nowhere else I've found people so willing to chat with random strangers and so curious to get to know you.

8. The piece of art or of architecture that has striked you the most.
Well, now it is really difficult to choose just one...
But I've always been having a huge passion for gothic cathedrals, that bewitch me for their majesty and the cure of the details: in every place where there is one I stop to contemplate it enchanted (and to make it a photoshoot like it was an Hollywood star).
Among the ones I've seen so far my fave is the York Minster, very tall and shiny in its white stones.
 
9. The natural landscape that has striked you the most.
Another topic where we could have a potentially enormous choice; but this time I'm pretty much decided in choosing Connemara, because the charme I've felt when I visited that region is still alive after almost ten years.
It was such an amazing landscape, with so vivid colours and such a dreamy atmospheare, that it almost seemed surreal: the kind of landscape that my mind had been created so many times while reading fantasy novels, but that instead was there, real and concrete, all around me.
 
10. One way ticket - where to?
My temptation would be to obviously answer England, because the idea of leaving everything and moving there wanders in my mind since an indefinite amount of time - and sooner or later I will gather the courage to make it come true...
But, since this summer I've given up the idea of making a much longed trip to Australia, mostly for economical reasons, then I'll take advantage of this offer saying Sydney - so at least having already the outward journey paid, maybe I'd be able to afford the trip ;)

Good, now it's up to me to choose the nominees that, if they want, will answer my questions...
Since this blog exists in double version, English and Italian, I will choose 5 blogs in Italian and 5 in English, dividing the nominees between my two versions.
So here we go with the English ones!
Maybe some of them are not really "emerging bloggers" anymore, but I'd like to read their answers anyway!




- Antonette from We12travel
- Ashley from A Southern Gipsy
- Stefania from The Italian Backpacker
- Kamila from The Wanderlust
- Chris & Heather from A Brit and Southerner



...and here we go with the questions!
1. How much does photography counts when you travel? If you had to do one trip without being able to take any pictures would you consider it a "wasted" one or you wouldn't care that much?
2. Always talking about photos, which "unusual" subjects do you like to picture when travelling? (for example I do have a thing for streetlamps...)
3. Which destination has made you unexpectedly fall in love even if at first you thought you wouldn't have liked it?
4. Who is your ideal travelmate and which charachteristics are making him/her so?
5. Do you still send out postcards when travelling or do you consider it a bit nonsense nowadays?
6. Which experience have you done while travelling that you would have never considered you'd have found the courage to do?
7. Which is your favourite travel quote?
8. Who is the weirdest charachter you have ever met when travelling?
9. Have you ever made an organized tour? Which is your opinion about it?
10. Which particular goal would you like to reach with your blog?  

Thanks to everyone who will partecipate & have fun!