Introducing Gadling’s newest blogger, Heather Poole. Stay tuned for an upcoming series about her life as a flight attendant for a major U.S. airline.
Where was your photo taken? In Carmel, California – one of my favorite places to go for a quick weekend getaway.
Where do you live now? Los Angeles, California. Near the beach.
Scariest airline flown: Sunjet International Airlines (No longer operating). I was actually working on the scariest airline I’ve ever flown. It was my first work trip for Sunjet and I kind of had a feeling something bad might be happening when the airplane started rocking side to side while the cabin lights flickered on and off and the passengers started screaming and crying, while lighting up on a nonsmoking flight, as the computer in the cockpit sounded off with, “Pull up Pull up!” Needless to say, I sent my resume off to another airline shortly after that. But I have more crazy stories working three months at Sunjet than I do working thirteen years for a major US carrier.
Favorite city, country, place: Wherever I can call home, because, as most of you I’m sure already know, there’s no place like home. Especially when you travel for a living. However, I did just return from Positano, Italy, and that, I have to say, was heaven. I’m ready to go back!
Most remote corner of the world visited: Tokyo Japan. Though lying on a hammock watching a herd of skinny cows walking on the beach in Playa Blanca near Zihautanejo felt pretty darn remote.
Favorite guidebook series: I buy them all whenever planning a trip, but I always make sure to get a copy of Frommer’s.
The most unusual food I’ve ever eaten: Turtle on a stick at a gay street fair in San Francisco a bzillion YEARS ago. And I still get sick thinking about it. In fact, I feel sick right now.
On your next trip, you are forced to schedule a 24 hour layover, you have $200 to spend: Where do you spend the layover and why: Las Vegas of course! Because I’ll take that $200 straight to Harrah’s and spend it on the slots, turning $200 into at least $500, and then I’ll take a couple hundred and throw that on the roulette table where I’ll win even more money. I’m lucky like that. And to the crew who tried to have an intervention for me at the casino at the layover hotel in Puerto Rico right before I won a ton of money, you’re welcome for the dinner I bought you.
Favorite travel book: The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas, by Paul Theroux.
First culture shock experience: Moving from Texas to New York in the middle of a winter storm and having only three days and $2,000 to find a place to live.