Interview with Fanni Gáspár (@15tickets): About Blogging, Traveling with Diabetes and Wrong Stereotypes

08:00:00

Fanni is an experienced travel blogger from Hungary, who has already visited around 40 (!) countries. She shares her traveling experience in her blog, called “15 tickets” and in her amazing Instagram account (check all the links below). We couldn’t miss an opportunity to talk with her and ask a few questions.

What inspired you to start your blog? I know, your idea was to give some travel tips and recommendations to users from Hungary. But was there something that inspired you?

I've started my travel blog with the intention of sharing my travel experiences with other people and documenting my journey for myself as well, so I don't forget about things that happened along the way - but I've been familiar with the "blogosphere" long before actually starting 15 Tickets. Writing has always been my way of expressing myself, at the age of 11 I've started writing a diary and when I was about 16 or 17, I've started my first blog, in which I have documented my everyday life and everything that I found interesting at that age. I've also had a blog dedicated to my experiences in London when I moved there at the age of 23. With 15 Tickets, I'm trying to create content that could be of interest to people that don't directly know me as well.

You started with blogging on Hungarian but now there are more and more articles in English. I know that nowadays a lot of bloggers (including me) struggle with the problem of choosing the right language. How do you choose which articles you will write in English and which ones in Hungarian?

I often struggle with choosing the language as well! I enjoy writing in Hungarian more, so I originally started my blog in Hungarian, and then I switched to English for a few months, because I wanted to reach more people with my posts. Hungarian is such a small language and it kinda limits you like that. But now I'm back to writing in Hungarian as well, as I realized that I really need to do this for the love and I just enjoy writing in my mother tongue so much more. I don't have a concept, it's a bit random right now to be honest. I can't translate or write the exact same post in 2 languages. I could write something in English like "omg this is a supercheap flight to Bangkok, only 300 euros", because 300 euros would be a supercheap flight from Europe to Bangkok in international standards. However, in Hungary, that's a lot of money and you don't necessarily have hundreds of euros to spend on your average holiday. So if I wrote that was supercheap, it wouldn't sound "right" in Hungarian, people couldn't relate to it. It's not just about financial matters, but there are so many differences in attitude and mentality as well, that I can't just translate the exact same posts or write them in 2 languages. So I'm still figuring things out regarding the language, I don't have a perfect answer just yet!

Not a long time ago you were in Russia. You said that there are a lot of wrong stereotypes about this country. Could you please comment on it?

Regarding Russia, I guess the country just gets a really bad wrap nowadays, with stereotypes as unfriendly, "cold" or "rough" people, unhealthy, carb-heavy food and horrible weather. However, we found that the food scene was absolutely amazing and the people were really nice as well. They are not that kissing-hugging types like people in the Mediterranean region and they don't do the kind of small talk like the Brits do, but they were always helpful and we didn't have any negative experience with them at all. Even though we felt like English is not very widely spoken (we've even met people that work at the international airport and didn't speak any English at all!), it was never too frustrating or too difficult to communicate. We really loved it there (I visited Moscow and St Petersburg with my boyfriend).

In your blog you recommend not only good traveling spots, but also cafes and restaurants with healthy food. How do you manage to eat healthy while traveling?

Healthy eating for me is not just something I like or prefer to do just because it's "trendy" or "cool". I'm not the one going raw vegan because it's fashionable or something. As someone with type 1 diabetes, it is absolutely crucial, in fact it's probably the most important thing for me to stay on my healthy diet every day, even when traveling. It can get difficult sometimes, especially in places where I struggle with the language barrier, places where English is not widely spoken. On travel days, I usually prepare my own food at home so I don't have to eat the terrible quality airplane food and I always drink plenty of water. I never drink sugary drinks and in case I get really hungry, I keep nuts like walnuts and cashew on me all the time. They are way better for your body than crisps and chocolate bars. I never eat in fast food restaurants and I prefer to stay in air bnbs and apartments where I can possibly cook or prepare my own food instead of buying any processed food. Even though I like coffee and wine, I don't drink any of them on flight days.

Nowadays a lot of people say that in some time blogging and Instagram will die. What do you think about it? Would you like to try something else then?

I'm not sure where these people come from when saying stuff like blogging and Instagram will "die", it sounds a bit too dramatic to me and I don't see the reasons behind these bold statements. Whatever happens though, I'm sure I will always feel the need of writing though.

What did you learn while process of blogging?

I've learned a lot of things while blogging, even things that are not directly related to the writing/traveling part. I actually find the CSS coding quite interesting for example! Even though I bought a theme for my website, I pretty much re-designed the whole thing according to my personal taste and I'm happy with the way it looks now but I'm always trying to make it better and work on it.

A book, blog and podcast recommendation?

A book that I really liked recently is "Reasons to stay alive" by Matt Haig. It's not travel-related but great for your inner journey. A blog that I really like is Polkadot Passport, which is great for travel inspiration :)

About Fanni