Blogger of The Month: July ’15
Preface: This is the first edition of a brand new series on Nomadic Lives. Starting July ’15, I will feature an awesome-sauce travel blogger from around the world. We will mostly talk about travel, life on the road, alcohol, and maybe naughtier things. If this doesn’t interest you, you can always saunter off to the other parts of my blog that talk about dreamier things. Oh and I almost forgot, for the sake of this series, I’ve adopted ‘Dusky‘ for a pseudonym! Why? Well, not like I was born white, but I’ve just returned from 5 months in South India and almost a month in Seychelles. This means during the period when I started writing this was the darkest my skin-colour’s ever been; and I kinda like it! YAY. So off we go then!
The Gorgeous, Dressed For Her Cindrella Premier Gig.
Blogger Bio: Christa Thompson of The Fairytale Traveler. To be honest, I bumped into Christa only because I randomly upped and decided one day to get serious about Nomadic Lives and started scouring social media for travel resources. This is when I stumbled upon a wonderful community of travel bloggers on Facebook that Christa founded and still runs. By the proverbial mile, this bunch of people from around the world I barely know has been my greatest source of moral-support, every-time I look at my blog-stats on a bad day and despair. My introduction to The Fairytale Traveler, thus, was by proxy. In the months that have passed since, it has grown to become one of my favourite travel blogs. This may partly be because I seem to relate to Christa on a personal level. This is a gorgeous girl that plays guitar, has awesome tattoos, is half Irish and LOVES Ireland, names her first-born Guage, and travels the world chasing fairytales for a living – I guess you know by now, we have too much in common! There’s a really personal post on her blog that I love; you can read it here (after you’re through with this interview of course). For now, let’s move on to the rapid barrage of questions (we always start safe, and move on to quirky, okay?):
Dusky: The highest item on your bucket list that you’re yet to tick off?
Christa: I’d have to say New Zealand and the far East (that’s how I sum up a lot of toppers in one answer). There’s so much mythology and folklore to explore there. There are beautiful coastlines and crazy awesome eco-tours. So on the top of my bucket list. And Iceland… that’s 1 right? LOL.
Dusky: One bizarre incident on the road that will stay with you forever!
Christa: When I was sleeping in a historic hotel in an old gold mining town in California… I was awoken at 3 am to banging in the hallway, then on the ceiling, then the door knob. What made this weird was it kept repeating itself in sequence until the sun came up. When I told the front desk they said that the hotel is very haunted and people make the same complaints all the time….
Dusky: This one’s particularly sacred to me and immensely personal. Describe one moment from your journeys that you’d point out as a moment of absolute clarity – one where you felt the most absolute of absolutions about anything.
Christa: On my son’s first trip to Ireland we explored the Wild Atlantic Way from Achill Island to Dingle. We were at a lost village in Achill Island, talking about the ancient Irish people and their beliefs in Gods and Goddesses. Watching him explore in all his intrepid wonder really made me realize that we were destined as a family for a life less ordinary. Since then we have made a commitment as a family to live life intentionally and pursue a non conventional path to learning… we like to call it “world school”.
Dusky: One item you carry with you on your journeys that has absolutely no right or reason to be with you on the road, but you still can’t leave it behind!
Christa: Nothing, I’m very particular about packing and only pack what I truly need.
Dusky: We know that you & The Little One is a travel-team. But I’m guessing it isn’t easy travelling with a young child all the time. Describe some common struggles you face about travelling with a child?
Christa: LOL, I’m going to sound like be biggest asshole here, but the biggest challenge is getting peace and quiet. When you’re alone on the road with just one child… they talk, and talk, and talk and talk and ask questions that make no sense and find the MOST inopportune times to do so like when you’re looking for your lost train tickets, trying to catch a bus or following a tour guide. LOL. At the end of the day you are REALLY tired and it’s hard to get any work done. But I wouldn’t change it for the world. Everything I do I do for him. (And hence, we call her ‘SuperMom’!)
SuperMom & The Little, busy doing one of those things that they do.
Dusky: Name your favorite beer and the languages you can order a beer in.
Christa: I’m more of a margarita girl… (well…OK then!)
Dusky: Narrate an incident about one thing you’ve done on the road that you probably wouldn’t dare do if you were still holed up in your home-town.
Christa: Rode on a scooter in Mexico with my kid when he was 5… Also let him hang out in an Irish Pub when he was 5 but who’s keeping track.
Dusky: The one artist/musician/band that tends to dominate your playlists on the road?
Christa: Taylor Swift… shut up she’s flawless. (LOL! If you say so)
Dusky: Do you remember the first trip you took as a ‘travel blogger’? Can you describe it for us? From the moment you started dreaming about it till the moment you stepped back on home soil?
Christa: St. Augustine, Florida. It was unseasonably hot but I was so enchanted by the only medieval city in the United States that I didn’t even care. We explored the Pirate Museum and the Fountain of Youth. It was killer. It really made me want to just keep exploring more historic places.
Dusky: Describe one place you stumbled upon that is relatively off the tourist map and you deliberately didn’t speak about on your blog. You don’t have to name it, just describe the moment and the place!
Christa: There’s a beautiful village in the highlands of Scotland where you can go see the woodlands light up during the fall to the sound of symphony. Only locals really attend and it’s a very small town type thing. I drove here from Edinburgh on my first ever opposite side of the road adventure. I was all alone but hell bent on seeing these woods…. Truly magical. (wow! I’m in wonderment just at the sound of it)
Dusky: Your scariest moment on the road?!
Christa: Driving for the first time from EDI to the Highlands in Scotland… all alone in a rental car in the evening. Terrifying.
Dusky: This may not necessarily be an either/or question, but in my limited experience it has been thus. When you travel, are you a ‘places’ person or a ‘people’ person.
Christa: I’m more about the story behind the destination but I do love meeting the locals along the way. For Ireland it’s equal parts both… I love Irish people.
Dusky: Name the person you’d want to deliver an eulogy for you. Give a short version of what you’d like to hear in it!
Christa: This is just creepy… I don’t want that kind of bad ju ju out there so I’ll let this one ride LOL.
Annndddddddd that’s a wrap! Thank’s a bunch for taking out the time for this C. I hope you know you’re pretty darn awesome! Cheers 🙂
Note: All pictures from this post belong to The Fairytale Traveler, and you should seek their permission before borrowing them, like I did.
You can stalk the adventures of Christa & The Little by following them on Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram. Oh! And BTW, it’s Christa’s birthday today – so you might as well send some love her way!
Also Read:
Why La Digue Is Truly ‘Paradise On Earth’