Home away from home: Travel Photo Roulette #115

I was a winner this week!

Well, the coffee maker pictured below, who I spotted at the Chatuchak Markets in Bangkok recently, was really the winner – I entered this photo in the travel bloggers’ “Photo Roulette” contest for the topic of “thirst quenching” and was declared the winner.

The key responsibility of the winner is to host the next round of Photo Roulette, so here goes:

The theme for Photo Roulette #115 is: Home away from home

When I went to Bangkok recently for a conference, I stayed in a good business hotel. It was lovely, but it could have been anywhere in the world – it didn’t give me the feeling of having a home away from home, but rather a cookie-cutter reproduction of a nice hotel (which is definitely different to how my home looks – plus nobody comes to make my bed every day here!).

But whatever your version of home away from home is – that’s what you can enter in this round of Photo Roulette. There are so many possibilities – your home away from home might be a relative or friend’s house in another country, a holiday shack in the country side or a timeshare somewhere warm (hopefully not like a friend who ended up having to make a timeshare exit though) – anything is OK!

My contribution is one of my favourite homes away from home this year – an Icelandic Airbnb cabin we stayed in half way up “Iceland’s most beautiful mountain”, Kirkjufell on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. I loved its location, the comfort of the cabin and, well, did I mention the location? I’ve been dreaming ever since of returning to Iceland and I guess that’s a true sign of a place being a home away from home.

And the winner is …

I got my husband to be the judge, and he has chosen:

Emily of Nibble, Sip, Wander:

Where do I begin? Can my home be my home away from home? That’s a mouthful. Being an expat living in Italy, my family home feels like my home away from home. But that’s too literal. In Italy, my husband and I have a favorite restaurant in the small Tuscan town of Monticchiello called La Porta. My husband has been going there for over ten years, and it’s become a tradition for us to go once every couple of months (even though it is a three hour drive from our current home). I feel so at peace sitting on the terrace, looking over at the rolling hills of the Val D’Orcia. So at home.

Entries for Home away from home Photo Roulette

As entries are submitted, I’ll post them here … as per the details below …

Anne of Let Me Be Free has submitted a photo of a totally cute cabin in Vermont where she lived while working at a summer camp in the United States.

Anne of Music and Markets:

Sometimes you pull up to your lodging for the night and at first glance think, “oh I’d love to live here!”. And isn’t it great when the feeling continues…through the inviting common areas of the hotel, up the stairs to your spacious and elegant bedroom. The marvelous Lords of the Manor in Upper Slaughter, the Cotswolds, would be my choice for the best Home Away from Home!

Josie of House Sitting Travel:

On Conrad’s and my first house sit in Naerum, an upscale suburb of Copenhagen, I spent a good portion of my mornings working. The lovely back garden was a nice spot, private enough for me to still be in my PJs, writing on my laptop. We made it a very lovely place to have our home away from home for six weeks, and the two dogs Erin and Georgia seemed quite happy with the arrangement, too.

Red Nomad Oz:

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of micro-nations and even bought the Lonely Planet Guide to see how they’d been set up. Then I realised I’ve actually got my OWN micro-nation! Our 1983 Jayco Dove Camper trailer accompanies us on most of our travels in OZ – it’s a cocoon, retreat and home away from home all rolled into one neat, portable package!

Amy of Two Drifters:

It might seem silly, but my home away from home is anywhere I go with this guy right here. As a traveling couple, Nathan and I are always on the go, discovering new places and spaces, as we make new little homes everywhere we go. But no place would feel like home without him.

Jean of Traveling Honeybird:

Of her horse-riding trip through Mongolia:

Home is where the horse is … I’ve never felt more at home away from home than when I stepped into a ger. Fresh brewed tea, happy faces and complete acceptance despite the enormous language barrier.

Tash of Jouljet:

Staying in a ger tent in the middle of Mongolia has been one of the most “home” experiences for me. No electricity, none of the mod-cons that we find we really don’t need in such instances – just a bed, a pot bellied stove to keep us warm at night, and good company! Such a real experience!

Oh, snap Jean! This experience is what come to mind instantly when I read about Amanda’s theme!

Carole of Travels with Carole:

The Crescent Hotel in London is my home away from home when I am in London. I’ve stayed there five or six times. It is an inexpensive homey B&B located in a quiet part of Bloomsbury and fronting a sweet mini-park with tennis courts and a playground. Several times I have spent a few days in a nicer, more expensive London hotel, then, to balance the budget, moved here for the rest of my stay. One time my husband helped the front desk fix a problem with their computer and they kindly erased our bill–or at least we were never charged!

Brent of Travel & Landscape Photography:

I love visiting churches on vacation. I find it is often the best place to mingle with real locals and feel like you are at home. I made it to this church just as mass was starting. (San Jose del Cabo, Mexico).

Suzanne of Boomeresque:

My home away from our home in Philadelphia is a poorly constructed townhouse that we overpaid for in Brigantine, New Jersey, a fairly nondescript New Jersey beach town on the first barrier island north of Atlantic City. The house itself is not lovely, but the ever changing views of the small lagoon behind our house nourish my soul. (How trite is that?) My photo is of one of the frequently mesmerizing sunsets.

Travel Photo Roulette guidelines

• One submission per blog, so sites that have 2+ authors only get one entry.
• Post processing is permitted, but photo altering (i.e. using Photoshop to remove elements) is not.
• Abstract submissions welcomed as long as it fits within the interpretation of the chosen phrase – and the connection is comprehensible!
• Keep your images medium-sized and web-optimized (800 pixels wide is good)
• If you win, you will host the next round (runs for 7 days) and so choose the next theme: Keep phrases general so that all bloggers can participate. Specific items like “Eiffel Tower” should be avoided but rather made open-ended like “monuments” or with a dash of focus such as “monuments at night”, which most of us have pictures of. Phrases can be generic ‘signs’, or abstract ‘religion’, but keep it within the realm that all readers will understand. No “Kafka-esque,” or “Overlooking Creation.”
• Themes can be reused after 1 year, however new photos must be submitted.
• No obscene pictures or phrases allowed. Suggestive phrases and photography can be accepted, but please keep it within reason.
• Keep the ideas and photos fresh!
• Pictures from your entire portfolio are fair to submit. You do not have to take the photo within the week of the contest period to submit it.
• Most importantly, all photographs must be your own. One last rule, since this is a competition for travel and photography bloggers, you must have a travel/photography blog to enter. Sorry!

How to submit your entry

To enter the Travel Photo Roulette competition simply leave a comment below with:

• a link to the image (whether Flickr, 500px, Trover, Smugmug, etc. or your own site) and
• a short description/background/caption as to where/why/how this image quenches your thirst.

I’ll be uploading *your* photos into the post during the week so check back to watch the competition grow.

Submissions will close on Saturday November 7th 2015 at midnight GMT.
I’ll select and announce (plus notify by email) the winner on Sunday 8th November 2015.
The winner will then host the next round of Travel Photo Roulette #116.

Don’t forget to share on your social media channels with the hashtag #photoroulette and remember, the more participants, the better the array of images and the more fun for viewing.

The winners and themes in 2015. Click the link to go directly to that entry to see some fab photographs.

93. 93. Jan 2015 Adventures of a GoodMan: WOW!
    94. Jan 2015 ZigZag On Earth: Roads and Tracks
    95. Feb 2015 Where’s The Gos?: Street Art
    96. Mar 2015 Ice Cream and Perma Frost: Frozen
    97. Mar 2015 Journey Jottings: Detail
    98. April 2015 House Sitting Travel: What’s your Angle?
    99. April 2015 JetWayz: Spiritual Beauty
    100. April 2015 The Trading Travelers: Celebrate
    101. May 2015 Street Food World Tour: Epic
    102. May 2015 Next Stop Who Knows: Landscape
    103. May 2015 We Travel Together: Wildlife
    104. May 2015 Vagabond Way: Festival
    105. June 2015 Travel Addicts: Landmarks
    106. June 2015 TravelnLass: Wrinkles
    107. July 2015 Anita’s Feast: Food Markets
    108. July 2015 Dare2Go: Dry
    109. August 2015 Travel Past 50: Home
    110. August 2015 Barefoot Nomad: Door
    111. September 2015 House Sitting Travel: Shapes
    112. September 2015 Berkeley and Beyond: Cemeteries
    113. October 2015 Dare2Go: Reflections
    114. October 2015 Journey Jottings: Thirst Quenching
    115. November 2015 Not A Ballerina: Home Away From Home

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