Our first blogiversary

Today is a milestone for A Hole in my Shoe because it was one year ago that we launched our blog and began this exciting journey. So for our first Blogiversary instead of celebrating with cake and candles, we would like to reflect and thank everyone who has helped us along the way.

The journey began with our first post, appropriately about my first trip overseas, to Bali. As one of the 10 places in South East Asia we have visited, Bali is an ideal first time travel experience for many people from Perth. In my usual style I researched and prepared for the trip. My thirst for Bali began in school so I decided a good grounding would be to learn the language. Little did I know due to all the curves in the road ahead it would take me another twenty or so years until I finally boarded the plane and arrive on the tarmac in Denpasar. But it was love at first sight and I returned again, taking three trips in three years. Over the years, although my life changed, my passion for Bali didn’t diminish. Finally after 17 years I returned and had some wonderful experiences revisiting Kamandalu Ubud and the many experiences of bartering, catching taxis and eating in Bali. Bali is in our 5 top destinations and has such beautiful scenery. When we got beyond the beer and beaches of Kuta we witnessed a very special ceremony.

Another regular feature on our blog is food and we shared some of the best high teas in Perth, a quaint restaurant with colonial charm, a very uniquely brewed coffee in Bali, a cake for music lovers, some Australian cuisine and my all time favourite icon, Vegemite. Probably our favourite food experience to write about was our morning in Montmarte where we had the pleasure of baking with a true artisan. I will never forget the aroma and flavour of freshly baked baguettes.

As many of you know Steve and I enjoy cruising and we have shared a few cruising experiences with you. From our first cruising experience on our honeymoon, to the trip of a lifetime, a Grand Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona to Venice. We shared our excitement of the inaugural season on the brand new Royal Princess and some tips on what to expect once you book a cruise and how to see the sights and save money.

From a Singapore Sling to a walk through the Gardens by the Bay, Singapore is another of our favourite places that has made a few mentions. Without a doubt, the place that holds the most special memories is Europe. From a morning on the Cote d‘Azur, the cliché of Paris, the landmarks under repair, getting lost in Prague to the quaintness of Bratislava. Vienna was a very beautiful and cultural city and we enjoyed a special concert at the Musikverein. One of the most unique experiences in Europe was the Changing of the Guards in Athens, watching the statuesque Evzones and their highly stylized march was impressive.

To help boost our audience we have also had some awesome contributions from some inspirational guest bloggers. Scott Archer kindly wrote our first guest post on something passionate to him, Top 5 Turkish cuisine. Then the lovely Janine Marsh from The Good Life France wrote about the wonderful little French town, Sancerre. Anda Galffy from Travel Notes and Beyond presented a beautiful translation of her photography and the explosion of the colours of Connecticut. Jess Signut from Tripelio combined her passion for travel and creative thinking with How to Survive an Airport Layover. Wished we had read this before had a 10 hour layover in Doha a few years back. Finally we featured Mark Bunce from ParcelHero who could have saved us a fortune in excess baggage fees and the cost of sending a case from Vienna to Perth having read his How to avoid excess baggage.

As bloggers we have also contributed to fellow bloggers collaborations and guest posts. Our guest posts have included Singapore Sling on Flycruisestay, 10 Steps to Lighter Luggage on The Travel Accessory Store, How we saved money on travel on Frugal First Class Travel and Behind the Scenes in Montmartre and A Day on the Cote d’Azure Franc on The Good Life France. Our first interview was This V’s That Thursday by Monica and Jon from We Travel Together, Bucketlist Wednesday by Wandering Wanderluster and interviewed by Anda from Travel Notes & Beyond.

Next collaborations, Monument Monday and our submission, the Statue of Emperor Francis of Austria, on Country Hopping Couple’s travel blog. Crazzzy Travel hosted a collaboration, Romantic Budget Getaways Part III where we wrote about one of our favourite getaways, Margaret River. We were lucky enough to participate twice on Travelling Buzz with Delicious Food from Around the World submitting our favourite, a roast dinner and 25 Perfect Weekend Getaways in Europe with our submission Barcelona. Keep your eye out for our latest contribution to a collaboration, this time Europe from above, a collaboration yet to be published, hosted by The Trusted Traveller.

Following are the awards we are very thankful to have received to date. Two months after starting the blog we were surprised to find we had been nominated by Simon and Gina from Our Global Adventure for our first award, a Liebster Award. We have since received two further nominations from Travelling Buzz and Wanderlustem. In June we received our second nomination for an award, this time from Penny from Travelling Penster, The Versatile Blogger Award and another three nominations from Travel Notes & Beyond, Lubink and I’m Our of the Office. 2015 started well with a nomination from Vasudha from Travel Defined for A Very Inspiring Blogger Award and a nomination from Samiya from Selims Raasta for a Premio Dardos an award for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary and person values in the form of creative and original writing. But the one that was the biggest surprise was Blog of the Week in August when Andrew Moore from Sydney radio 2GB interviewed me on the “Wake Up Australia” morning show.

Here are our top 5 blogs based on page views;

[one_half padding=”0 0 0 200px”]Barcelona – I’m not that into you[/one_half][one_half_last padding=”0 50px 0 100px”]508 [/one_half_last]

[one_half padding=”0 0 0 200px”]Morning in Montmartre[/one_half] [one_half_last padding=”0 50px 0 100px”]494[/one_half_last]

[one_half padding=”0 0 0 200px”]A Tale of Two Cities, Budapest Tourist Guide[/one_half] [one_half_last padding=”0 50px 0 100px”]472[/one_half_last]

[one_half padding=”0 0 0 200px”]Behind the Scenes on Dawn Princess[/one_half] [one_half_last padding=”0 50px 0 100px”]364[/one_half_last]

[one_half padding=”0 0 0 200px”]Cutting Costs and on a Cruise[/one_half] [one_half_last padding=”0 50px 0 100px”]328[/one_half_last]

Our top 5 blog posts based on interaction from comments posted are Bali, Beyond Beer & Beaches, Morning in Montmartre, A Tale of Two Cities, Budapest Tourist Guide, Oh Vienna and So you’ve booked a cruise, now what?

Sorry if this was a longer than usual post but we wanted to express our sincere thanks to each and every person for their support, assistance, inspiration and guidance. Thank you to our friends and family for listening to our stories and giving us moral support, for being our sounding board and allowing us to photograph their meal before allowing them to take the first bite. Thanks to the supportive blogging community for your inspiration, assistance and feedback  and to everyone who has read, commented, liked and shared our posts, whether it be week after week or just once.  We are now regularly getting visits by over 2,000 people per month and with your support that number will continue to grow. Please continue to give us your feedback, ask us questions, comment on our posts and share our pages within your circle of friends and family. If you haven’t already please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Trover, Google+, StumbleUpon, Klout, Bloglovin and subscribe to our page for updates.

So where to next? Well in two weeks we are off for a little rejuvenation, a short 4 day cruise along the coast of Western Australia, so stay tuned for some photos from down under. Our next big adventure is Europe at the end of the year. This is still work in progress, but we have confirmed another 4 day cruise, this time a journey along the Rhine River from Frankfurt to Basel, Switzerland. If anyone has any suggestions on places we should experience in late November, December and early January, please leave us a message in the comments below.

We’d like to celebrate our milestone with the announcement of an exciting opportunity commencing next week. Thanks to an invitation Anda from Travel Notes & Beyond, we have been invited to join her and three other inspiring bloggers to co-host a weekly blog link-up #TheWeeklyPostcard.

Update: This was an interesting journey, we learnt a lot about people and blogging. Within the first year 3 hosts left and we found ourselves bringing 3 new hosts into the group and soon after my association with the linkup also came to an end. We ventured into linkups not knowing what to expect or where this would take us, interacting with people and learning a lot.

Our blog has evolved from an idea sparked when listening to an interview from Travel with Bender on Perth’s current affairs show Today Tonight. Our blog has provided us great satisfaction and hopefully some inspiration to others to travel, enjoy the world we live in and realise it is never too late change direction.