Blogger Heather Poole

by Heather Poole on

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.

Blogger Jeremy Kressmann

by Jeremy Kressmann on
Introducing Gadling’s newest blogger, Jeremy Kressmann…

Where was your photo taken? After a long, bumpy camel ride in Morocco. The camel looks just as relieved as I was to be done with the whole thing.

Where do you live now? New York City

Scariest airline flown? TAP Portugal. My short flight from Madrid to Lisbon was uneventful until the landing, when the plane literally made a 90 degree turn and nose-dived straight onto the runway. It was an unorthodox way to land a plane, I’ll give them that. It took me a few minutes to get my heart out of my mouth once we got to our gate.

Favorite city? Barcelona. My favorite city in my favorite country. Barcelona positively explodes with creative energy. They can’t just have a “bench” in Barcelona. It has to be a bench covered in brightly colored mosaic tiles and inlays of stone lizards. Throw in a world class culinary scene, thriving art galleries and party-till-dawn nightlife and you’ve got a one-of-a-kind city and my favorite place.

Most remote corner of the globe visited? Montevideo, Uruguay. I can’t really claim to have been to the “ends of the earth,” but Montevideo felt a long way from home.

Favorite guidebook series? TimeOut. I find it has a nice blend of the more touristy stuff you need alongside well-researched reviews of good places to eat, drink and soak up the local culture.

How did you get started traveling? As a teenager, I spent a few weeks living with a family in Costa Rica. It opened my eyes to the possibility of strange far-away places. After that I was pretty much hooked.

Favorite foreign dish? The taco stands in Mexico City. They shave the meat off one of those huge metal skewers and serve it to you sizzling-hot on a plate, with fresh tortillas on the side. Add in your chosen mix of cheese, freshly sliced avocados, limes, and one of several kinds of mouth-burning salsa. Top it off with the pungent scent of diesel fumes from taxis whizzing by your face as you eat it alfresco. Delicious.

Next trip? I’m headed to Japan for the first time in May. It’s the first of what I hope will be many more trips to Asia.

Favorite foreign film? Cidade de Deus (City of God). A highly-stylized drama about the citizens in Rio de Janeiro’s poorest neighborhoods during the 1960’s. It really gave me a renewed appreciation for the culture and history of Brazil.

Blogger Jeff White

by Jeffrey White on

Introducing Gadling’s newest blogger, Jeff White.

1. Where was this photo taken: Budva, Montenegro, on the Adriatic Sea – though admittedly you cannot see the sea here.

2. Where do you live now: Berlin, Germany

3. Scariest airline flown: The puddle-hopper between Denver and Steamboat Springs. Back in the day when you couldn’t fly direct to Steamboat, you connected through Denver. The short flight heads directly up and over the Rockies and the Continental Divide. The turbulence would throw the plane around like a rag doll, and the sheer size of the surrounding mountains left you not feeling confident on your chances for an emergency landing.

4. Favorite city/country/place: San Francisco

5. Most remote corner of the globe visited: A day into the Overland Track in Tasmania – square in the middle of a blizzard, and completely alone.

6. Favorite guidebook series: I dislike guidebooks and seldom use them, save for occasional, preliminary pre-trip research. Rarely are they up-to-date (though Let’s Go makes a noble effort to be) and they usually traffic in the worst kinds of generalizations and cliches.

7. Hotel, hostel or other? Anything except a hostel. I’m sorry, but no one can honestly like a hostel. Seldom are they comfortable, and they are an excellent way to make sure you never meet a local. Anything else is better: Hotels off the beaten path (which can be nearly as cheap); pensions; student dorms; grandmothers lurking at train stations with a room to let. You’re much more likely to meet local people and a lot less likely to be getting drunk with Australian backpackers and cursing whoever insists, at 5 a.m., on leaving and entering the room 5-10 times before sitting down to repack his or her gear in plastic shopping bags.

8. Favorite travel book: William Least Heat Moon’s Blue Highways. Great dialogue, beautifully written and observed, sad, hopeful, introspective. Everything a travel book should be. Who can’t get behind a journey that begins with such a simple premise: When you can’t make things go right, why not just go?

9. Next trip: A buddy and I hatched the idea to do a significant trek through the republics of Central Asia, maybe as early as this fall. Of course, this was on a night of considerable drinking, but it sure did look sweet as we traced the route on a map.

10. How did you start traveling? The easy answer would be to say, “By walking out the door.” But in my case, it started before: As little kids, my brother Greg and I would cram ourselves under a bathroom sink and pretend it was a car. I was the driver. He sat behind me. The drain pipe divided us. After some spirited vroom vroom vrooms we’d climb out and pretend we’d arrived somewhere new.

Blogger Kelsey Mulyk

by Kelsey Mulyk on

1. Where was your photo taken: On a road trip to Tofino, BC.

2. Where do you live now: Currently out of a 1991 red VW Golf named Marlin. My husband and I are driving from Canada to South America over the next year or so.

3. Scariest airline flown: Definitely has to be Egypt Air, where the plane felt like it was going to explode during take-off, seatbelts were missing from some seats and they served raw fish for dinner (and no, not like sushi). To top it all off this was one of the last flights you could smoke on, making it exceptionally charming.

4. Favorite city/country/place: Too hard to say since there are so many more places I intend to visit. For now I would say Laos, the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia and Fethiye in Turkey.

5. Most remote corner of the globe visited: Dharamsala, India. I am pretty sure the bus driver who drove us here had one eye, one arm and his foot glued to the gas pedal. Though it was a seriously scary trip, it was well worth it as we got to see the Dalai Lama lecture here.

6. Favorite guidebook series: I have to say Lonely Planet because they are the only books I have ever bought but I really think someone else should take up the cause and take them down a little.

7. Traveler’s resume — where have you been? Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Turkey, London, Ireland, Costa Rica, Mexico, USA and of course around Canada.

8. Favorite travel author. Sarah MacDonald. She wrote, Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure, a hysterical tale of living in India that had me in giggles the whole time. It is a great read but be prepared for explicit accounts of stomach issues among other things.

9. The most unusual food I’ve ever eaten is…Spider. I know…sick! On an extremely long, boring and bumpy bus trip in Cambodia I took it upon myself to hassle two innocent travelers sitting in front of me after they bought a barbecued spider from a street vendor. After I asked “when are you going to eat that?” for the thirtieth time I was presented with a hairy spider’s leg. I decided that I owed it to them to eat it. Spider tastes remarkably like chicken.

10. How did you get started traveling? I think it is probably due to my parents. They always encouraged me to travel and then, when I got started, I realized how important it is to me to learn about other cultures. There is a lot to see and learn out there and I am on my way to see and learn as much as I can.

Blogger Kent Wien

by Kent Wien on

Introducing the newest member of the Gadling team… Kent Wien

Since air travel is such a significant part of most of our lives, we’re bringing on Kent to share his experiences as a commercial pilot with Gadling. Kent will be writing about each of his trips, giving you an idea of what life is like at the pointy end of an airliner. Keep an eye out for his “Cockpit Chronicles” feature, and follow along with him in the air and on the ground.

1. Where was your photo taken: 38,000 feet, on the way back from San Juan to Boston in a Boeing 757.

2. Where do you live now: Exeter, New Hampshire

3. Scariest airline flown: I was once a flight engineer (3rd pilot who sits sideways) on a 727 for a small charter/freight company that operated out of Dallas. We were contracted to fly within Alaska for a summer to haul fish and cargo throughout the state. Due to what was later blamed on improper maintenance, we landed in Kotzebue with all main tires locked up. The tires never moved while we skidded down the runway. That got my attention. I left shortly after and a few weeks after my departure the FAA shut the airline down for a month due to maintenance violations.

4. Favorite city/country/place: I suppose most people have a soft spot in their heart for their hometown. I was lucky enough to grow up in Anchorage, Alaska.

5. Most remote corner of the globe visited: A Soviet ice camp 160 miles north of Barrow, Alaska. We brought two Norwegian scientists to this huge floating complex complete with temporary buildings that had telephones between them, a cafeteria and dozens of Russians who traded with us relentlessly. I suppose I’ll have to post a feature on that experience — just in case anyone else happens to find themselves floating on a Russian ice camp.

6. Favorite guidebook series: Since I occasionally get called out at the last minute on a trip somewhere that I’ve never visited, I like to load up the Wikitravel.org page of that city on my laptop or iPhone and take it with me. I’ve found that Wikitravel cuts right to the important points of a city and it’s a good start when looking for something to do.

7. Worst hotel experience: During training in Texas I once found nearly 20 cockroaches in a florescent light fixture above my bed. I took the light apart and dumped them into the toilet. The next day there were 20 more. I did this ritual every day for the entire month I was there. We stay in some pretty nice hotels while on trips, but for some reason our training hotels rate at the bottom of the scale.

8. Leeches or mosquitoes: Mosquitoes have a new talent. They’re killing people. Even when I was living on a lake as a kid, I would’ve preferred leaches over mosquitos any day.

9. Worst place to catch a stomach bug: In the cockpit on a flight from Las Vegas to Dallas with the above mentioned charter airline. It was my one and only experience with food poisoning. I doubt it was fun for the other two pilots.

10. How did you get started traveling? I was fortunate enough to have a dad who was also an airline pilot when I was growing up. One day he got a call to deliver a 737 from Seattle to London. My sister and I convinced him to take the trip, since we knew it was our opportunity to fly in an empty jet and even get a chance to ride in the cockpit. We spent a few days in London, saw some plays and really enjoyed our first taste of international travel. I later went to France for summer exchange student program and it was these two experiences that inspired me to fly internationally for a living.