Getting to Know Kristin Luna

Getting to Know You: An Interview with Kristin Luna

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Since we’re all about getting to know one another around the Internet this week, I decided to participate in the ME Interview, as well—your burning questions answered as asked by my fellow bloggers.

1. Does your boyfriend love traveling the way you do? Have you ever taken an amazing trip together?

I don’t think I could ever be with someone who had no desire to stray outside of the States on a regular basis, so to answer your question, Hell yeah! SVV was in the U.S. Navy and stationed in Sicily for three years before we met. He saw much of the continent during that time, as the military gave them 30 paid days off a year. As many of you know, we later crossed paths in Holland and, from there, moved to Denmark, where we cohabited for the first time (don’t tell my conservative, Southern grandfather; I don’t want to become the black sheep of the family!).

Scott in the Algarve, 2006

Living in Europe made it extremely easy to travel, and on our meager budgets at that. Just months after meeting, we flew to Budapest, explored beautiful Hungary a few days, then rented a car and drove all through Romania (in feet of snow!), and ended our trip back in Austria, where my cousin was living. We also took car and train trips all over Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium, while living in Utrecht and Aarhus, but our best memories to date came from Portugal. Scott had been in Azerbaijan on an assignment for an oil trade publication, while I was completing my first guidebook in Spain. He flew to meet me in Bilbao, where I was bedridden from a nasty flu, and once I recovered, we took a sleeper train down to the Algarve in Portugal and through a series of hitchhiking, buses and trains, made our way back up the coast. We both want to someday have a summer home in Portugal…once one of us has a bestseller, that is!

Us in Brasov, Romania, 2005

In more recent years, we have been to Hawaii, Alaska, Tennessee, New York and all over California together, and to Guatemala and Honduras last fall. Unfortunately, my job does not often allow him to come on international assignments often (plus, he has a “real” job where he has to, you know, actually be here to work and get paid); however, he will be going with me to the Cook Islands and New Zealand next month as my photographer, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. The single most disappointing trip I’ve taken was to the Maldives, and not because I didn’t fall in love with it (I definitely did!) but because he wasn’t there to enjoy it with me (and I had the entire island to myself!).

Us in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, 2008

2. If someone sponsored you to choose three countries to visit and write about, which ones would you choose and why?

I haven’t done much South America travel, and having studied Spanish for years, I am quite taken by the culture (and the dancing—love me some salsa and tango!). I would love to start in Peru, see Lake Titicaca, Machu Picchu, the Andes, the Amazon Basin, and of course, pet some llamas (watch out, they spit!). From there, I’d travel to the salt flats in Bolivia, and on down into Chile, hopping over to the Easter Islands and back to the mainland to traverse Patagonia and find myself at the End of the World in Punta Arenas, holding a Magellanic penguin in my lap, of course. Because I’m a walking cliche in that way.

Oh but then I’d HAVE to go to Argentina while in the area … so can we make it four? 🙂

NOT Antarctica, as I’ve never been there, but kind of how I imagine it to be; Glacier Bay, Alaska, 2008

At one point, I would have said Antarctica with no hesitation—and I still would love to go there—but a fellow travel writer friend took a trip down there that I was supposed to go on last year but had to bail due to my move out West, and the waters were so rough, the entire boat spent two days in their cabins with severe nausea. I get seasick just riding in a canoe, so I’m not sure I’d handle that so well!

3. How did you get your start in travel writing?

Ah, the eternal question. I would say through a lot of hard work, persistence and self marketing. From the time I was 14, I interned (unpaid) at any newspaper, radio station or TV network that would have me, and eventually parlayed that into bigger assignments, columns and national magazine jobs. Through meeting so many people and writing for various publications, I carved out my own niche and, in a way, created a job that worked for me. I get asked all the time how I would suggest others get into the field, and I honestly have no clue. It’s not like I just saw a Mediabistro ad, applied for a job and got it; it was more years of networking my ass off and taking free work that finally paid off. A more in-depth account (and some tips) can be read here if you really want to know.

4. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Living in California still with SVV, though I hope by then we’ll own a house (and that second home in Portugal, of course). I’ve always been a complete beach junkie, so even though it’s generally too cold to be on the San Francisco coast in a bathing suit, I still love being five minutes from the ocean. I don’t think I could ever be landlocked again!

Scott and I on the beach in Pacifica right near our house, on one of the rare 95-degree days where it was actually so hot, we had to jump in the 50-degree Pacific Ocean!

And we’ll have a little posse of white dogs (a mix of Malteses and Westies) and someone to take care of them while we’re on the road. I want to still be doing exactly what I’m doing now, only on a grander scale (i.e. lengthier assignments for bigger publications). And it would be nice to not have to be so aggressive for assignments (especially in a rapidly shrinking market); I’d love for editors to come to me  with ideas instead (one can dream, right?). I would like to do more cultural pieces and stories about what’s actually going on in many countries, where the public turns a blind eye (e.g. human trafficking in the Balkans). Also, SVV and I both want to write novels…his would be darker, historical fiction works, while I see mine being a combination of chick lit (sorry, but I dig it) and Bill Bryson-style travel accounts.

5. Which destination knocked you off your feet, either because you didn’t know what to expect, or expected something else entirely?

The Maldives for the color of the water and the complete remoteness. Romania for culture and the people. Morocco for visual purposes. The Great Barrier Reef because, flying above it, it just doesn’t seem real. Greece for pure beauty and ruggedness.

Kos, Greece, 2006

Iceland for the nature. Switzerland because it’s like a painting. And Western Canada because I expected it to be very similar to America, but it’s not really, at all. I know most people would like me to say Cuba, simply as it’s somewhere not a whole lot of Americans have been, but as much as I tried, I just didn’t love it (same goes for Guatemala, sadly).

6. You’ve told us about the Camels, know tell us about the Chocolate!

When I was coming up with a title (again, it was very spur of the moment with no thought put in it at all), I wanted to put together two seemingly unconnected things that sort of define me. Anyone who knows me  personally can vouch that I am beyond obsessed with chocolate and NEVER pass up on dessert (that’s why I run so much, so I can justify all the calories!). In fact, on many of the group trips I’ve taken for my job, the other journalists have picked up on this immediately, made fun of me and ask me where all the chocolate goes (um, to my ass, isn’t it obvious?). I’ve never been much into candy, or salty stuff like chips and fries for that matter, but I’ve also never met a dessert I didn’t like—unless it has raisins in it, which is just plain wrong. Why would you go and spoil a perfectly good dessert with a dried grape??

COMMENTS
  • February 9, 2009

    Aw, see, I had hoped you would in fact be able to just tell us That One Trick to get us all into travel writing. 😉 But I really have to get to work since you started at 14, and I’m 20, and don’t appear to have done anything yet that would get me into that same direction. Ugh.

    As usual the pictures are gorgeous. I love your list of reasons why you loved each country.

    Oh, and of course I voted for your friends; that song Sundown Girl just totally made me happy. It’s all gray and rainy outside today, it was just what I needed! 🙂

  • February 9, 2009

    Aww, first of all you are too sweet. My “coolness” factor often translates to others as my “weird vagabond hippie” nature, and my choice of languages is as far far practical as possible.

    Anyway, LOVED reading about you and your and SW’s story sounds divine. And it’s important to have a good one. I totally agree. For peeps like us who need to travel, finding a mate that shares that is necessary. Sounds like you guys match well. I could only imagine how depressing it would be in to be in the Maldives alone!

  • February 9, 2009

    Wow, it was great to find out a bit more about your travel stories and why you became a writer and of course to see some new photos. I, like most people I think, tend to think of travel writing as an extremely glamourous and exciting career, but I also forget about the other side of it and the long hours you spend by yourself. It sounds like you and SVV have got a great balance and your trip to New Zealand sounds awesome, I am super jealous!!

    Alright, as it’s a quiet Monday morning here in the office, I’m going to jump right in and say ‘Interview Me!’ :0 )

  • February 9, 2009

    Yay, fun stuff! I’ll never live landlocked! (Or snowy for that matter!) Interview Moi!

  • February 9, 2009
    Kristin

    Thanks for the plug for my brother! I hope it helps his numbers! I love reading your blog about all the places you have been because I know I will never go to a fourth of these places in my life (mainly because I don’t enjoy flying that much but will do it if I have to). Maybe once I take a trip to Europe I will be more inclined to want to travel over oceans, but right now I’m happy where I am. Although, I have been to Hawaii, and yes I would fly over the ocean to go there again.

  • February 9, 2009

    i HATE raisins!!!
    🙂

    oooh. you can totally interview me!

  • February 9, 2009

    This was great!!! I love the pictures and I cannot wait until we get together one day and eat a sh(tload of dessert…precisely the reason I work out so much, so I can EAT so much. and you cna interview me!!

  • February 9, 2009

    Thanks for sharing! I’d like to move toward travel writing myself, so I really appreciate your story!

  • February 9, 2009

    I have loved getting to know you through the past couple of posts! so fun, we need to get together in real life again. Maybe for some puppy snuggling?

  • February 9, 2009

    I believe you mean the Mal-DYE-vvvess, my dear.

    Cutest couple ever.

  • February 9, 2009

    I LOVED this.

    I had Whoorl Interview me a couple of years ago, and it was fun. Sign me up!

  • February 9, 2009
    Sarah

    Cool song – catchy and happy. Love his voice – it’s the perfect “guy” voice – he sounds nice. The kind of guy who’s sweatshirt you might “accidentally” keep and wear, long after you knew him and moved on, just because.

    Worth my vote, for sure.

  • February 9, 2009

    I love, love, love your travel photos! And the obsession with deserts? I have that too; nice to know I’m not the only one! Also, I don’t like raisins either. Finally, I’ll bite. Interview me.

  • February 9, 2009

    I’ll interview. I’m my own favorite topic!

  • February 9, 2009

    Raisin haters, UNITE!

    That was a great interview; I’ve always wondered how you got into the travel writing. And your pictures are, as always, gorgeous. 🙂

  • February 10, 2009

    Yeah, interview me, cos it will be a nice way to get me posting again!

  • February 10, 2009

    I loved all of your pictures! I especially like the matching nautical outfits…hee hee!

  • February 10, 2009

    Hi, this is my first visit to your blog. What a wonderful and exciting life you have! I love traveling too but right now, I am stucked in Dubai! I’ll come back again and read more of your adventures!

    Great blog!

    BTW, I am up for the interview! Throw me five questions and I’ll gladly answer them! 🙂

  • February 10, 2009

    All I know about Antartica is what I learned from Whale Wars on Animal Planet. And they had some nasty sea sickness for a few days.

  • February 10, 2009

    I completely agree on not being able to be landlocked.

    Oh, and I really do think it’s time we went to those salt flats!

  • February 11, 2009

    OK my interview is now posted! Thanks for the great questions Kristin!

  • February 11, 2009

    Sounds like fun! Pick me. 🙂

  • February 11, 2009

    Also, I voted. 🙂

  • February 12, 2009

    Aha – I guess don’t have to ask you question #3 now when we finally meet 🙂

    Interview me, please!

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