Liebster Award!

I’ve been nominated for the Liebster Award! Thank you, Anita! Feeling honoured, as this is a first time for me 🙂
You find Anita’s lovely blog about music and a wide range of other topics on http://notedinnashville.com/.

I started blogging in May 2012. After having found back to music on a 2-week-walk on the Way of St. James in 2010, I had decided to bring my music with me to finish the remaining 600 kilometers in 2012. It seemed very natural to give something back after having received that gift in 2010. I felt it would be an utter pity to make people interested in my music and journey and then not give them a chance to find me on the net. That’s how I started this blog.

So I finished my first recordings in May 2012, built up the blog, put the music on the net. I remember finishing in the morning at 2am and having to get up at 5am to get to the plane in time. You could kinda say I arrived to Spain rather tired because I had been working on that blog for much too long! 😉

Leading a blog requires a lot of work. I spend hours and hours uploading pictures from my walk. And the blog posts don’t write themselves. And then you have those slooooooow connections out in the countryside and whole posts are lost because of a sudden technical problem. My blog first reached a peak the day I arrived in Santiago. And people keep on finding it. Though progress is slow, as live out there doesn’t allow to write posts on a daily basis. So thank you very much for this award, it really seems like a milestone! 🙂

Here’s the answers to some of the questions Anita asked those nominated for the award:

1. Do you now, or have you ever played a musical instrument?
Yes, I was kinda forced to learn how to play recorders when I was 6 years old. And I stopped taking lessons as soon as I could!
Instead, I started playing guitar in the age of 11. A visitor to my family had impressed me deeply, singing “La Bamba” and accompanying himself on his guitar. As I didn’t like classical music, I started copying the lyrics and chords from songs played in the radio and brought them with me to the lessons. That helped me to partly evade having to play classical music pieces.

2. Do you sing in the shower?
At the moment I don’t. But I sometimes used to sing in the shower to practice songs for musicals or other concerts.

3. Who are your favourite musicians?
There are too many to name them all! Finding new music from allover the world has been one of my huge hobbies since I was a teen. I loved Susheela Raman (UK, India), the more traditional songs of Sevara Nazarkhan (Uzbekhistan), Mayra Andrade (Cape Verde), Miriam Makeba (South Africa), Salif Keita and many more. I currently listen a lot to Passenger aka Mike Rosenberg. I absolutely love his lyrics about life, love, learning experiences and his thoughts about people and the system. In terms of mastery I value Porcupine Tree very highly. They are a prog rock band and quite critical about our system. It would take me like 3 pages or so to name all of the other musicians and bands I am listening to. There’s a whole lot of great music out there! Maybe put in short: I don’t like most of the stuff played on radio stations…

4. How do/did you celebrate New Year’s
Quite boring…at home. I’ve been moving out of my flat during those past days and was really happy about not doing anything at all for once.

5. What are your blogging goals for 2013?
Blogging about my experiences abroad in a meaningful way and giving my readers an insight about life in several countries. Of course I am also taking my guitalele with me. So parts of the blogging will be about music as well. It would be great to not only get a few readers to my blog but actually as well listeners to my music…*sigh* 🙂

My nominations for the Liebster Award are:

http://thirdeyemom.com/
http://thecultureur.com/
http://idolanuel.com/
http://mselenalevontraveling.com/
http://prashlive.wordpress.com/
http://lifeoutofthebox.com/

Questions for nominated bloggers:

1. Why did you start blogging, and what do you love most about it?
2. In which country would you most like to live? Why?
3. What was your greatest experience in life up to now?
4. For which character traits do you admire other people the most?
5. What does music mean to you?
6. Which is your favourite language? Why?
7. Who/what does most inspire you?
8. What is your favourite dish?

To accept this award, please:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and share a link to that blog.
2. Attach the award icon to your site.
3. Answer some questions from the previous blogger and choose new ones for your nominees.
4. Nominate other bloggers for the award.

All the best,

Miya