Friday, July 8, 2011

My Seven Links


I was pleased to receive an invite from one of the finest travel bloggers, Barbara of Hole in the Donut Cultural Travel to participate in a fun initiative. The brainchild of TripBase and titled "My Seven Links", it offers a method to unearth and dust off old blog articles based on a series of questions. Barbara's can be found here while mine appear below. To finish off, I'll tag a further five bloggers to keep the chain going. It is a great way to learn about a few new travel blog.

1. My Most Beautiful Post

One of the most striking and naturally beautiful countries I've ever visited is the Iceland and its natural wonders. Littered with waterfalls, glaciers, volcanoes, weird rock formations and geysers all explained in Icelandic sagas and all left in their wild natural state, I can heartily recommend Iceland to any traveller.

2. My Most Popular Post

With help from lots of Google hits, I am surprised that my most popular article is on the artistic optical illusion art of M. C. Escher and his museum in The Hague. As you stare at Escher's art, you notice waterfalls that constantly travels down-hill or connecting staircases that forever lead upwards.

3. My Most Controversial Post

I don't tend to write controversial articles preferring to focus on the wonderful sights and treasures, both popular and little known, that the world has to offer. So very few articles have provoked even an occasional distasteful comment or upset email. A couple upset remarks arrived by email on discussing Peru's national dish of guinea pig or cuy. While cultures and nationalities, within reason, are entitled to choose what they eat, I can't see anything distasteful about trying Peru's national dish but a few weren't happy.

4. My Most Helpful Post

I received three wonderful emails from fellow Australians who lost beloved relatives in World War One in a savage battle for a small French village in the north of France. Whether reminding or helping someone relive memories of or in one case triggering an email exchange for them to eventually visit the tiny town, my article on a day in Villers-Bretonneux helped readers out. A humble plaque in the museum says "they gave their today for our tomorrow" - a simple and wonderful tribute.

5. A Post Whose Success Surprised Me

Travels has been featuring a Drink Around the World series for around 18 months that highlights a monthly iconic or unusual drink that I've tasted in my travels. The Scottish bright orange soda Irn-Bru and their creative ads triggered memories for lots of travellers who ventured to Scotland.

6. A Post I Feel Didn’t Get The Attention It Deserved

Early on in the life of the blog, it often felt articles that had a lot of time invested received little traffic or comment. One favourite place is the rarely visited Lofoten Islands in the north of Norway in an article that I (immodestly) believe captured some of the wild natural beauty and life on these remote Norwegian wilderness islands.

7. A Post I'm Most Proud Of

To my mind, the finest one day travel experience available anywhere is to trek through rich jungle and spend an hour with the endangered Mountain Gorillas. I'd like to think that my article captured some of the effort, excitement and uplifting experience of seeing a group of gorillas in their natural habitat, the trekking fee helping preserve the last few hundred of these majestic primates.

And finally to hand the baton on to five fellow bloggers who host excellent travel blogs:

Vera at A Traveler's Library
Eunice at TravelerFolio
Ryan at Pause the Moment
Lifecruiser
Folie à Deux

Enjoy reading and please subscribe if you are keen to get regular updates.

8 comments:

Nisha said...

That was quite a post.

I agree with you on your series "Drink Around the World series". It is a successful & innovative idea.

Barbara Weibel said...

Hi Mark - thanks so much for participating and for the nice comment about me. Thought I'd read most all of your posts, but there's a few new ones for me to check out here, but I really agree that your endangered Gorilla post was really special.

Mark H said...

@nisha: Thank you.

@barbara: That is the good thing about this initiative is it lets people discover some older articles that the author themself really liked.

Anil said...

I found the reaction to the #3 a bit surprising and interesting to show how what we consider edible varies around the world.

Mark H said...

@anil: People are too often judgemental on what others eat just because it is different to what they eat. Part of the beauty of travelling is a chance to try and taste and expereince the food and drink of other cultures, peoples and countries.

Heather on her travels said...

It's fun to look back at some of these posts - I've also been moved by visiting a war grave in France of a relative at the beautifully kept cemetery. I also have a guinea pig post and it seemed to get a lot of interest, although nothing too negative.

Mark H said...

@heather: Sounds like we have been to quite a few matching places...

Flights to Sydney said...

Climb to the top of the boulder that blocks your way, and enjoy the view from a different perspective.

 
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