Saturday Showcase – Live. Travel. Blog

The Saturday Showcase has been on hold over the last few weeks – due to a mixture of the fact I was partying hard in Thailand, but also due to the fact I hadn’t really planned far enough ahead to cover my schedule whilst I was away! Anyhow the last blogger I interviewed was Nichole from Bitten By the Travel Bug – I finally caught up with her nomination Lynda to talk Disneyland, America and blogging…

So Lynda – introduce yourself, who are you and where are you from?!

Hiii-ya, the name’s Lynda and I blog over at Live. Travel. Blog. I’m 25 and was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia… although when I speak, some people get a little confused by the American twang that I’m currently sporting (this will make sense as you read on).

I’m Community Manager at the Australian branch of Asia-Pacific’s largest blog advertising agency, Nuffnang, which means I get to play around with blogs and social media all day long and get paid for it – #winning!

Tell us a bit more about your blog – what’s your have thing to chat about?

I started my blog back in 2008 as a means of keeping in contact with my family and friends while I was traveling. It was the easiest way to keep everyone up to date with where I was and what I was doing without having to send off hundreds of individual emails and facebook messages.

I set off on a three months Euro/US trip and found myself updating my blog sporadically. After returning home I’d come down with a severe case of the travel bug and couldn’t sit still – every six or seven months I was off on a new adventure abroad and started blogging at more frequent intervals – I found it to be a fun thing to do during my ‘me’ time and love that I can now go back and read all the crazy shit I’ve done over the years right around the world!

Time for your shameless plug – out of all your lovely blog posts what’s your fave an why?!

Ekkk I have a couple. Firstly…

a) What Have You Got to Lose? – This was the first real personal post I ever wrote on my blog. I’d been living in the US for some time and had become so comfortable with my new lifestyle that I’d fallen into a bad routine which saw me pile on the weight. I knew something had to be done about it and that’s where this post came into play.

b) Crazy Shit I’ve Done While Traveling – This is just a fun post that highlights some of mischievous antics I get up to while having the time of my life anywhere and everywhere! Needless to say, when mum found this post, she wasn’t too impressed.

You’ve travelled the US pretty extensively – what’s been your favourite state so far?

This December will mark my seventh trip back to the US since 2006 and my second this year! Without being bias, I LOVE Florida – I have so many friends there, the weather is amazing, there’s Disney World and well, they say home is where the heart is and Florida definitely has my heart!

and your least…?

Hmmmm. Probably Minnesota – bit too simple and boring for my liking.

Where are you currently calling home?

Melbourne, Australia for the time being. I’m hoping this can change in the near future though… just need to have a chat to Obama about giving me a visa

What’s with the Disney section of your blog – care to shed some light on it all?

Sure! I spent 14 months of my life from 2009 – 2010 interning at Walt Disney World in Florida. It was the happiest 14 months of my life – I was working at Cirque du Soleil at Downtown Disney which was INCREDIBLE. I was on a college program with other students from right around the globe; China, Korea, Canada, England, Spain, Italy, Costa Rica, New Zealand… you get the drift. I made the very best of friends that became almost like family to me, I experienced things people could only dream of in a lifetime and had the most fun I’ve ever had in my 25 years of life. Nothing has come close to beating the life experience that Disney gave me and there is not a single day that goes by where I don’t miss my job, the lifestyle and the friends I left behind.

Out of all your lovely travel snaps I want you to pic the one you love the most – where’s it taken and why do you like it so much?

It would have to be this one of me standing in front of a frosted Cinderella’s Castle at Magic Kingdom, Disney World during Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.

Every time I look at it I am reminded of how much I miss Florida and it makes me that little bit extra determine to try my hardest to move back there – no matter what obstacle stands in my way. One day I will get there and never come back. It may also have something to do with me being a sucker for Christmas – nothing compares to a Disney Christmas… oh, and I may have gone to that event with this one boy… lalala

Now you get to nominate the next blogger – who are you passing the torch too and why?

Ohhh, this is like one of those elementary school sports day relay races, only instead of a metal baton you’re letting me play with fire! I pick Elle from Veni Vidi Vici (elleswim.net). Elle’s an awesome bucket list blogger who is in the midst of planning her big round-the-world trip… she’s a little crazy and I love her for it – she’s also a Florida native so I’m hoping to catch up with her when I’m back in Florida over Christmas!

You can follow more of Lynda’s exploits over at her blog – www.live-travel-blog.com – via her twitter account – @lynnie11 or over on her Facebook page …and as usual I’ll be trying to get hold of the next in the chain, Elle to see what she’s been up to and get the low down on her bucket list!