No, I don’t mean wishes like health, world peace or the absence of world peace (for the weapons manufacturers among my readers). Nor petit-bourgeois wishes like a rise in salary, a new car or that the children won’t become jihadists.
What I am rather interested in: What do you expect from my blog in 2015?
This blog recently broke the threshold of one million views, but it is far less often that I receive comments or feedback. Therefore I don’t really know if you actually read parts of my blog, what you like, what you don’t like, what disturbs you.
I posted the same question on my Facebook page and have received the following answers thus far:
- More practical advice. Of most interest seems to be the question how I finance my vagabond life, how to organize it, whether it isn’t dangerous or lonely, et cetera. – Except for an article on financing my travels, I haven’t written too much about this, because I didn’t really want to force my ideas about life upon anyone else. But I realize that there are a great many number of people toying with the idea to take a break for a couple of years, to scale down financially and to explore the world. Therefore I will offer more practical tips on travel and on my kind of lifestyle in the future.
- My FAQ on legal issues continue to be the most popular posts. Of course, where else can you find understandable explanations of German law, by a professional, in English, for free? Who wouldn’t jump at that? – I will publish several more of these FAQ over the next couple of months.
- Some people want to see/read more about food or even personal things about myself. That won’t happen of course.
It was rather disappointing for me that no one expressed a desire to read more of the articles of which I am really proud:
- the longer and linguistically more ambitious travel stories (for example: Santa Claus in Bari, Grutas Park Museum, Half Marathon in Montenegro),
- commentary on current affairs (for example: Crimea, gay rights),
- and attempts at creative writing (for example: Christmas, spy thriller, romance).
These are the articles that take me at least half a day to write. These are the articles, due to which I don’t get enough fresh air, the food burns on the stove and neglect my friends. If I don’t receive any feedback after their publication, I sometimes ask myself why I am doing this. Yes, I don’t want to be too critical because I don’t like to read longer articles online either. When I have time to read something longer, I buy National Geographic or of course books. But without your feedback on my articles and without you passing them on, mailing them to your colleagues, sharing them on Facebook and Twitter, neither National Geographic nor publishing houses will ever contact me.
I am curious to learn from you:
- Do you even read the longer articles on my blog?
- Or do you want more photos instead?
- Do you want more on politics and current affairs?
- Why aren’t my daring videos the biggest hit on the internet?
- What annoys you?
- What do you like most?
- What bores you?
- What do you think of the series, like “Easily Confused”?
- Does anyone read book reviews?
- What are you missing?
- Why/to what purpose do you follow my blog?
- Why don’t my posts get shared on Facebook or Twitter too often?
Writing is a lonely job. I’d like to learn a bit about those who are receiving and reading some of my writings. Some feedback would be nice, preferably in the comment section below. Thank you very much!
And don’t worry, I will definitely keep my personal style. I will continue to combine seriousness with humor in a way that it will sometimes take a while to find out which is which. And there will still be silly posts. After all, this is a blog and not a book. The book will be written later, when this blog will have enough readers who convince me to withdraw to a remote cabin in the Carpathian Mountains to find the necessary peace.
I wish you a great 2015!
The Happy Hermit 
Pingback: Was erwartet Ihr von 2015? | Der reisende Reporter
Ich finde Deinen Blog sehr erfrischend. Am liebsten mag ich die Reisebeschreibungen. Ich verstehe, daß es ätzend ist, wenn keine Reaktionen auf die Postings kommen. Ich nehme mir vor, mehr zu kommentieren. Mach weiter so!
Gruß
Annegret
Danke! Das freut mich, dass jemand meine Reisereportagen liest. Denn davon sind meine Notizbücher voll. Ich muss nur endlich mal Zeit finden, sie zu transkribieren.
What about answering my question since I already sent you the book?
Fabio Werlang.
Thank you! I will do that as soon as possible.
Your FAQ has helped many and is a rarity. No one else does this around the world.
Nomad lifestyle with all the details allows others to prepare for the great cubicle escape.
Photos or stories are not my cup but your hard facts on immigration and rights fascinate me. Let’s face it. Many want to live the life you do but lack the big balls :)
Thanks a lot!
I will put up a bit more on legal issues this year. The problem from a blogger’s point of view is only that each new article on legal issues leads to dozens to hundreds of more questions and e-mails and thus to more work, while I try to reduce the workload.
Your blog is a huge source of inspiration for me, I added it to my feed list, so please keep posting! :)
Here are some comments about it:
– I love when you show us peculiar places, facts and traditions you find around the world, my favourite one of this category is the post about the “civil war” in Palermo, which I have shown to a number of friends (especially from Palermo!) who have appreciated it a lot
– I am not very fond of politics-related and law-related posts, but I liked the “10 FAQ on Freedom of Movement in the EU” post
– I found the travel stories posts very interesting, but I suggest shortening them or dividing them in shorter parts, and the series are funny and at the same time give something to think about
– Big thumb up for the videos, they really add something to a written post!
and you know what more I really like? the smiley at the end of the page! ;)
Grazie per il tuo feedback!
To answer your question as to why I read/follow your blog, the answer is simple. In the U.S., I don’t get exposure to countries that we’re not at war with. Reading your blog has offered me a window for my curious mind, yearning heart, and itchy feet to focus on. Traveling is life to me. soaking up experiences, having adventures, and having fun, small in places that I didn’t know existed until college, I can’t wait! I’m able to live a bit vicariously through you, but not to the point that I never want to explore any of these places on my own, but rather that I have more places to put on my list!
I’m currently working full-time and saving up to go to Germany. From there, I plan to explore Europe and India. I don’t know why I want to go to these places, I just know that I want to. There’s no particular tourist-y things I want to do, in fact, I don’t want to seem like a tourist at all. That may be a bit difficult because of my skin color (at least being in the U.S. I always feel that I stand out), but I don’t care. I just want to go. Everywhere.
Please, don’t ever feel lonely. There are those of us who really appreciate what you do!
Thank you very much!
I also prefer to travel in a way that I don’t stand out as a tourist, although I usually do very soon due to my lacking language skills. But staying in one place for a bit longer and taking part in everyday life in other countries helps a lot.
I wish you good luck with your move to Germany! If you have any questions about my home country, please feel free to ask anytime (although I haven’t lived there since 2009, but it’s not a country in which things change quickly ;-) ).
I’ve just read the first of the two longer articles that you listed and really enjoyed them. Especially Grutas Park Museum you handle the topic with a critical skill that’s quite impressive, and you show a real knowledge of history which you incorporate brilliantly. Personally, I’d love to read more like those. I can’t really comment on the others since I’ve only just stumbled onto your blog, but I’m certain I’ll enjoy have a look around the rest of your posts.
Thank you very much indeed! I am glad to have found one reader who appreciates these kind of articles, because that’s exactly the kind of writing I would like to do more of. But it does take some time for research of course. It’s not like I immediately had all of the history at the top of my had when I wandered through that freezing outdoor museum in Lithuania.
Of course. I’ve just handed in my first essay of the year for my history degree and I picked a question on Kim Philby because I had no idea who he was. There is still a mass of information out there that links in that I barely touched upon because of time constraints. History is far more complex than many assume, often one argument has six other variations to oppose it and historians determined to argue them all.
I remember reading a book on Kim Philby a few decades ago. Probably a lot of the information from back then would require updating.
I always get angry when people ask “what do you still want to research about World War II/the Holocaust/the Colonial Empire?” or other past eras. There is still so much to research, to interpret, to learn and to understand. And it’snot current historians’ fault that immediately after such events there was often no public interest in proper research, losing years of possibilities.
Indeed.
Can you remember which book it was because there area couple which are written by ex British Secret Service personnel, one by his fourth wife and a heavily KGB edited autobiography by Philby himself among the mix.
It was the one by Phillip Knigthley, published in 1988 (or to be totally accurate: the German translation which was published in 1989). I had to look at the photos of the covers to remember. But I read it back then and of course forgot almost everything during that long time and the tumultuous events that have happened since.
Ah Phillip Knightley, I have a copy on my kindle, English translation of course in my case. He’s considered one of the leading experts. He featured in a BBC documentary ‘The Spy Who Went Into The Cold:” not too long ago. I think the main argument around Philby these days was how much impact his work actually had on the Cold War and if he did really have that much access to American secrets.
I am going to make some comments…but right now I’m trying to do the Blogging U 101, (what’s a widget?) plus my sister is coming to Oaxaca to visit for a week so I’ll be the tour guide! So it may be a bit, but keep up the good work.
I had to look up Oaxaca and now I want to come to Mexico again!
I do love your spy thriller and read long posts on your blog..so keekeep them coming.
Thank you very much! I am glad someone takes the time to read long posts.