The Liebster Award

The Liebster Award is an online award given to bloggers by other bloggers that helps spread the love that we all so desperately desire. Liebster is a German word that translates to “dearest” so getting nominated for this is bound to give you a warm, fuzzy feeling.


The rules are as follows:

- Post the award on your blog so everybody knows how awesome you are.
- Publicly thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog.
- Answer their questions about yourself, feel free to add photos!
- Nominate 5 – 10 people with less than 1000 followers, inform them via social media.
- Write your own set of questions for your nominees.
- Feel good about yourself for winning an award and passing it on.

Lyz on Top of the World was nominated for a Liebster Award by Josie Acland from Six Year Gap Year. Thanks so much for the nomination, girl! Everyone else, check out her blog right now which is all about solo travel, long-term travelling, budgeting and more. Josie has been to twenty-five countries (I'm jealous!) and has plans to travel some more in the near future.

My answers to her questions are:

- Where was the first country you travelled to? That would be Vietnam in 2010—my first out-of-the-country trip and also my very first plane ride.
- Where’s the last country you travelled to? Hong Kong, just last July.
- When was the last time you were in your home country? I'm currently living here. For now.
- What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done? I'm not really into extreme adventures sports, so I guess I'd have to say that ziplining was the scariest thing I've ever done. But since I've done it so many times, I realise it isn't quite so scary anymore and so I'm thinking of bungee jumping or skydiving next.
- Have you ever volunteered abroad? If not, would you? Not yet, but I would really, really love to! It's definitely in my plans for someday.
- Do you take a lot of photos or do you believe in living in the moment? A mix of both. I take photos of places I go to, but I make sure that I am not too caught up in taking photos that I miss the point of being there and enjoying things for myself. This is probably why I'm not so fond of taking selfies or asking people to take photos of me.
- Have you ever travelled solo? If not, would you? Not yet. But soon.
- Which country has the best food? Or the worst? I'm not a picky eater so I will always enjoy everyone country's unique cuisine.
- Have you ever felt homesick for a place you only visited? Oh, yes, more than once. Especially if it's a place I really enjoyed (like Hong Kong) or a place I stayed so long and got to know the people a great deal (like Cambodia).
- Why did you first leave home? It was for a cross-cultural trip, part of a requirement for my college course.
- What piece of advice would you give to a younger version of yourself? Travel more, travel often, don't be afraid to take risks. Sometimes, all you need to do is take that trip or leave that city or grab that opportunity you've always wanted. Do it so you don't spend the rest of your life facing the regrets of what could have been.

My nominations are:

Kiara from The Art in Cities - about art and travelling and music and other lovely things you can find in cities (shout-out to a fellow Filipina!)

Grace and Alice from The Tale of Two Sisters - about sisters exploring the world and writing about their adventures (hooray for sisters who travel!)

Courtney from Travel Daze - about slow travelling and wandering (also, she is New Zealand right now, which is one my dream countries)

Arrianne from Travel Habeat - about itineraries, places to stay, and food to eat (shout-out to another fellow Filipina!)

Isabel from Bel Around the World - about travel guides hacks, budgets, and her international exchange experience in Europe (I'd definitely love to do this someday!)

My questions for you are:

• How did you fall in love with travelling?
• If you could stay in any country (other than where you are right now), what would it be and why?
• What are some travel essentials you can't leave without?
• What does your dream round-the-world trip look like?
• What are your top 3 favourite places (can be town, city, country, etc.)?
• What was your funniest travel experience?
• What are some of your budget tips for travellers?
• What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
• Do you collect anything from your travels? If so, what are they?
• What advice would you give to those who are travelling for the first time?

That's it for now. So thanks, again, Josie, for the nomination. Dear readers, I hope you get to check out the websites listed above. I love what each one of those ladies are writing about. You will surely get a lot of travel inspiration from them.