Top o’ the morning to ya! Exciting things are happening around these parts. First and foremost, I’m up for a Bloggie at the 2010 South by Southwest conference in Austin in March. Hot diggity! I won this esteemed title last year—which is little more than “fame” and glory, truth be told—but it sure feels nice to be nominated again. If you like what you see, do go and vote Camels & Chocolate for Best Travel Blog by clicking here. If you don’t like what you see…well, I’ll try to do better! I’m up against some hefty competition, other travel bloggers whom I’ve long followed and respected, so I have no expectations!
If you’re new here, may I direct you to some featured posts from the past year so you can get acquainted with me, my writing style and what I do (or you could simply click here for the CliffsNotes version):
-Camel trekking in Israel’s Negev Desert
-Hiking New Zealand’s Tongariro Crossing
-Getting mowed down by a cab in Helsinki
-Snowless dog-sledding in Longyearbyen
-Venturing off the beaten path in Estonia
-Mountain climbing in the Swiss Alps
-Taking a dip–sans wetsuit–in the Arctic Ocean (some call me insane)
-Celebrating Germany’s 20 years of reunification in Berlin
-Flinging myself off a 700-foot sky tower in Macau
Lastly, the fiance and I are blowing this popsicle stand and finally moving back into the city (that would be San Francisco to you newbies). Huzzah! Since we’re currently in a three-bedroom, three-bathroom house with a garage and must condense all our belongings to an 1,100-square-foot apartment, I’m selling a lot of belongings that don’t get any use. This ranges from vintage jewelry to designer purses to skirts and coats that no longer fit (thanks to running + Bikram = massive tone-up). If you’d like to check out the merchandise, please visit Kristin’s Closet, a quick Tumblr site I threw together for the occasion.
And how are you today? If you’re here via the Bloggies site (even if you’re not), I’d love if you sat down, pulled up a chair, kicked up your feet and told me a little about yourself. Do you take your coffee with cream and sugar?
Cream and sugar, yes please
I think I found your site last year via the bloggies nominations. Good call putting up some of your best posts for them to look through! To those voting: Kristin is awesome!
I’ve been reading your blog for the last year or so and i love all your posts! You make me want to travel to places I have never heard of, so thank you!
No coffee for me
But I do take honey in my tea.
I stumbled upon C&C last year via the bloggies. I was busy researching our Thailand trip and trying to find a blog that would point us in some sort of direction
And I’ve never left!
Congrat on your nomination!!
Aaaaah, you’re famous! You realize that you’re competing for an award right along side of Post Secret and People of Walmart? You’re big time, lady!
Congrats on the nominations and I happily and enthusiastically voted for you!
I drink iced coffee (black) because I rarely make it thru a hot cup o’ joe, so I skip the lukewarm stage and go right to iced.
Congrats on the nom.
I am a Bay Area girl currently living in NM and missing it. I spend a lot of my free time trying to talk JB into San Francisco. So please-oh-please post pictures of your new 1100 sq ft (!!!) apartment. Do you think that is small, asks the girl who lived in ~250 sq ft in Manhattan for 5 years?
I take it black
i’m hoping to go to SXSW this year and cheers to the bloggie, that’s awesome!
I voted for you! Good luck, I have faith in you!
Hey Kristin,
Congrats on the nomination! We’ve been reading your blog since your nomination last year.
We’re heading to SF on a road trip to the Olympics in a couple weeks. Got any ideas for cool stuff to see that non-locals like us wouldn’t know about?
I actually started reading your blog just a few weeks ago; clicked over from Nothing But Bonfires. If I were to relax with a cup of coffee, it’d be with lots of cream and sugar, but in spite of living in Germany for a year, I still don’t really like coffee. I think the last time I tried coffee was in Vienna in June (because how can you not drink coffee along with some Sachertorte in Vienna?)
I’m jealous of all your traveling, especially Norway and Scandinavia in general…and lots of other places. Scandinavia was a region I definitely wanted to visit but didn’t make it to during my study abroad year (turns out, you sometimes have to go to class, even in Germany) and I don’t know when I’ll get back to Europe.
Congrats on the nomination, I’ll be sure to vote for you!
Hi Kristen, I’ve only been coming to your site for a couple of weeks but I’m intrigued by the amount of traveling you pack into a year – what’s the secret?
I’m a newcomer to the travel blogging community and it’s basically a second job at this point. I’m creating a forte (is that possible) in experiential travel and will be kicking off some trips later this year.
I’m enjoying your posts. Congratulations on your nomination.
I think I already congratulated you on your nomination, but, in my old age, I keep forgetting things. So, if I haven’t congratulated you before – congratulations again! And, no coffee for me, but I am always open to a nice glass of wine (or two . . . or three).
Congrats on your nomination, I voted for you! Been reading for most of a year and am always so excited to hear about where you are going next. My husband and I moved to Vienna last March and we are trying to check out all the interesting places we can – one weekend at a time. I really appreciated your comments about Berlin, and am jealous of the accomodations you had in Switzerland!
Hey Kristin, congrats on the nomination. I’ve been reading your site now for probably the last six months or so. I have an addiction to travel blogs, and travel in general, so I love looking at your pictures and hearing about your travels, both here in the US and abroad.
I kept saying I was going to get out and travel for awhile, so I quit my job and I’m currently in Australia. I’ll be sure to keep up with all your blog whenever I have internet access.
Best of luck in the Bloggies! And yes, I do take my coffee with cream and sugar.
I’ve already voted for you! I saw the nomination last week so I hopped over there to get my vote counted.
I don’t drink coffee at all, but I take my tea with milk :0)
Good luck with the move!
I’m with Jilian – tea drinker to the core – but I’ll take mine with milk and sugar, please. Good luck with the Bloggie, Kristin – hope you win this year, too! Couldn’t imagine it going to a funnier gal.
Absolutely cannot wait for you to move to the city. Yes yes yes yes!
I’m in for coffee, but only if its at the Bluebottle Cafe in the city – closest thing to good Aussie cafe society.
Milk and sweet & low for me…
I found you thru the Bloggies and love your site! I have lots of reading to do now…
I was so psyched to see your site in that category. Totally pulling for you!
Voted!
congratulations once again. good luck with move and bloggie.
Congrats, and fingers crossed for you.
Just voted for ya! Give Austin my love for me!
I just came across your site because of the Bloggies and I’m looking forward to reading more on here as I just subscribed to it on my Google Reader. I am also going to have a link to the Bloggies voting site on a post of mine this Friday. Congrats!
Hi Kristin, thought it was about time to leave a comment. I first came across your blog when it was featured on travelblogs.com, took a quick look but didn’t really start reading as I was only interested in long-term travel/RTW type of blogs. Later, however, I returned to your blog for some reason, realised it was excellent, and read every single post you’d ever written. I’ll be sure to vote you for the award – Camels and Chocolate is my favourite travel blog without a doubt. Congrats on the nomination!
I hope you’ll write more about your trip to Israel. It’s one of those places that only recently have started to interest me, and it’s on my list of places to go next… I keep hearing mixed opinions about the country and some people claim it’s still unsafe. I would love to read about your experience.