Tuesday Talk with Suzy Guese from Suzy Guese

Today I’m talking with Suzy Guese from the Suzy Guese Travel Blog. Suzy is originally from Denver, and travels around the world, injecting her red-headed personality into all her writings and stories, making for quite an entertaining read. Want to know more about Suzy, then continue reading…

 

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and what kind of travel you do.

I’m a freelance travel writer/blogger, born and raised in Denver, Colorado. You could say I do a little bit of every kind of traveling. As I write for a living about travel, I am constantly on the road. Sometimes I go alone as I did throughout a month of travel in Ireland. Sometimes I meet up with friends and convince them to see the “world’s largest easel” or the “tallest chest of drawers” on a road trip across the U.S. I am forever in search of the wacky, historical, beautiful and compelling.

 

How long have you been travelling solo?

I don’t travel solo all the time, but I have been traveling on my own around the globe since I was 18. I set off for Sorrento, Italy to study Italian all while living in an Italian household of three generations of women. I went back to Italy by myself for a year in college, learning the ways of the Italian world through Sicily and Florence. Since graduating from college, I have been traveling across Europe and the United States, penning my stories for anyone who will listen.

 

Do you have a favourite place in the world to visit?

While I certainly haven’t been everywhere to say, Sicily will always be near and dear to my heart. There is something about the complex mix of civilizations that have conquered the island that make it unlike any place in the world. Of course, the food isn’t bad either.

What have you learnt about yourself because of travel?

Where to begin! Travel has given me a confidence that I don’t know I would have without it. When you are able to navigate around a foreign country on your own or climb on a rooftop in Stockholm, you can’t help but realize that you are unstoppable.  I have also learned that no matter how far away from home I might be, people are people. Traveling connects me to conversations with strangers or exchanges with café owners I would never have in my own little world. In the end, we are really not so different and travel helps me recognize that fact.

You have a segment on your blog, Suzy stumbles over Travel, where you give exposure to other travel bloggers. What gave you the inspiration/idea to do this?

I grew a bit frustrated starting out in the travel blogging world. There seemed to be this clique of sorts with the established travel bloggers. While I know they worked hard to reach the levels they were at, I grew tired of seeing the same main articles tweeted on Twitter and shared across Facebook and Stumbleupon. I wanted to help travel bloggers that might feel like no one was reading or commenting by lending an extra boost. I never get tired of reading about travel and hearing from so many people provides a great conversation of voices to the travel industry.

 

I love your tagline ‘traveling with a redheaded temperament’. I have redheaded sisters, so I know exactly what you mean, but how would you explain that to those who don’t have redheads in their life?

Bless your heart to deal with redheaded sisters! We can be a handful. To me, traveling with a redhead temperament means I throw my whole personality into my travels. I’m not afraid to speak up when I’m treated poorly or receive terrible service. We are such a rare breed that I almost never blend in no matter where I go. I think successful travels are those where you put yourself in the destination. Your presence changes the place and it changes you as a result. I may get fired up, sarcastic or passionate about something, someone or someplace when I travel which in turn makes it an extremely emotional process. When I was little, I used to pinch my brothers and sisters on family road trips, acquiring the nickname “the red ant”. I would then proceed to count, never letting go of my pinch. My brothers and sisters would scream, but I like to think, I made those road trips a little bit more interesting.

 

Thank you very much Suzy for taking the time out of your busy schedule to answer a bunch of questions for me, a much appreciated interview. You can follow Suzy’s travels over at her travel blog Suzy Guese, or follow Suzy on Twitter for all her latest tweets and updates.

 

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