Holiday Travel Deal

Hostels for Beginners

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:47:03 +0000

How about staying in a boat/hostel for a few nights? Try the Eastern Comfort hostel in Berlin.

If you’re headed abroad for a short-term stay, say two weeks or less, a hostel is an ideal place to crash. There are plenty of other travelers to socialize with, generally clean restrooms, a kitchen for preparing your own cheap meals, and sometimes they offer perks like television, free Internet access, laundry or sightseeing discounts.

In a large city you’ll likely have a dozen or more hostels to choose from, ranging from huge hotel-like structures with their own bars and restaurants, to the smaller, mom-and-pop places that may not offer as many amenities, or even hot water. In smaller locations, say deep in the Australian outback or in out-of-the-way South American villages, your choices will be more limited, but not necessarily less comfortable. One of the nicest hostels I’ve come across is the Prarie Hotel in Parachilna, South Australia; population: 7.

Your best bet for finding a good hostel is to ask other backpackers for recommendations. If you don’t have time though, go through Hostelling International, as they only give their seal of approval to places that meet their standards. (Although those standards do seem to vary here and there.)

You need to have a HI card to get a discounted price, but if you’re going to be traveling for more than three weeks during a year, it will pay for itself in discounts. You can pick one up at any Travel CUTS shop, or online. The HI website has a list of hostels by city, so you can get addresses and plan ahead. There are other discount cards for other chains, like VIP Backpackers, so you do have options.

When packing for your hostel stay, there are a few essentials:

Plastic bags, both big and small, are perfect for packing any shower items that might drip or leak, as well as dirty clothes, muddy shoes or snacks.
Flip flops make great shower shoes (as in going to and from, or during if the floor’s too creepy).
Most hostels give you bed linens, or let you rent them for a few dollars, but it can’t hurt to bring along a simple sheet. Check your local thrift store and get something you won’t mind throwing out before you return home. You can sew the sides of the sheet together to make a sleeping bag out of it, or leave it in tact to use at the beach, out camping, or on a bus or train ride.
A small flashlight is ideal for late-night trips to the bathroom. Try to find one of those small things that attaches to a keychain.
Finally, a clothesline is compact and can be hung just about anywhere so that you can handwash and dry clothes.

When choosing a place to stay, also remember that you have the right to look a hostel over and see a room before you hand over any money. If you walk into a place that feels sketchy or makes you uncomfortable, walk back out and look for something else.

The hostel culture is perfect for travelers who can eat, sleep, and shower anywhere. But even if you’re not sure that sounds like you, give it a try for a few nights. It’s laid-back, friendly, and you’ll meet people and have experiences that you’ll remember forever. You’ll probably get some great stories out of it too, so share the best, and worst, of what you find.

JetBlue: All-You-Can-Jet Pass

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:46:59 +0000

Just saw this offer from JetBlue:

Enjoy unlimited travel with our All-You-Can-Jet Pass! For just $599* you can take JetBlue anywhere you like, as often as you like, from September 8 to October 8, 2009. Use your All-You-Can-Jet Pass for business, for pleasure, to visit your favorite cities or to meet with a client. You might as well just do it all! With more than 50 cities to choose from, and for just $599, it’s a deal you can’t pass up.

There’s a lot of fine print, but if you’ve got some time in September, you could get more than your money’s worth from this deal. Visit Jetblue.com for more details.

Start With a Shoe, End With an Adventure

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:46:53 +0000

I wrote about TOMS last year, but lately I’ve seen a bunch of AT&T commercials featuring their good work, so I figure they’re worth writing about again.

Let’s say you want to help people, and you want to travel, and you want to buy cute shoes. All are valid ambitions to have in life. And now, you may be able to do all three.

TOMS is a Santa Monica-based company that kicked into gear when its founder, Blake Mycoskie, visited Argentina and saw that many of the children there had no shoes. He decided to sell shoes in the US and then donate a pair of shoes for each pair he sold. His designs, and his big-hearted idea, took off and they plan to give out up to 300,000 pairs of shoes by the end of 2009

Well now TOMS offers a paid intership program at their Santa Monica headquarters that includes housing, Real World-style. (10 strangers, picked to live in a house…)

Even if a shoe internship doesn’t sound perfect to you, maybe it will get you thinking about something that does. Do you want to tour Vietnam handing out school supplies? Maybe pass out soccer balls in Chile? There are lots of needs out there, and many ways you can find to fill them.

Comic Con 2009: Nathan Fillion and the Firefly Browncoats

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:46:51 +0000

Nathan Fillion says "hey".

One last Comic-Con post and then I’ll move on with my life (until next year’s Comic-Con).

On Sunday afternoon I was already giddy from my David Tennant / Doctor Who excitement. I grabbed a quick lunch with my cousin then we headed to the California Browncoats meeting. The Browncoats, if you don’t know, are a fan group for the show “Firefly” and the movie “Serenity” that followed it. Actually, the Browncoats are probably the reason the movie ever got made because they made sure the studio knew that “Firefly” fans wanted more closure to the TV show, so these are good people to know.

We got to the room about 15 minutes after the meeting started, which of course meant the room was full. We decided to hang outside and see if we could get in as people left. There were about a dozen other people doing the same.

I'm the drowsy-looking one on the right, having woken up at 5 a.m. to see David Tennant.

Maybe 15 mintues after we got there, I heard a man’s voice, turned, and Nathan Fillion was standing maybe four feet away from me. He asked why were were outside and someone told him the room was full. He chatted a bit then headed in to the meeting.

At this point, I figured it was worth waiting a while longer to see Caleb/Malcolm Reynolds/Captain Hammer/Castle come back out of the room again. This man has been in a lot of my favorite shows, and while I wasn’t a fangirl about him the same way I was about David Tennant or Adam Baldwin, I was still really impressed to see him up close.

More impressive is that he didn’t even have to be there. The studio wasn’t forcing him to show up and promote a new blockbuster, he was just talking to a handful of fans of a show that was canceled years ago. What a swell guy.

About 20 minutes later Nathan Fillion did come back out of the room, and he didn’t just smile and wave and pass us by. Oh no. He told people to put someone in charge of cameras and then he came over, put his arm around me and told everyone else to gather around, which they quickly did.

I shoved my camera at my cousin, threw my arm around Captain Tightpants, and smiled one of the huge smiles I’d had on my face a lot that weekend. A minute later he told us all to switch places and I took some shots for my cousin, which was only fair.

Nathan Fillion signs autographs for charity, because he's swell.

After that, Nathan left and we got into the meeting, which a lot of people left when he did. We got a ticket to go to the front of Nathan’s autograph line downstairs, which I was only too happy to do. Making this swell guy even sweller, he wasn’t charging for his autograph, just asking for donations to the Waterkeeper Alliance, a charity the Browncoats are supporting.

The only thing left on my agenda after this was the Buffy Sing-along (“Once More With Feeling!”), which was an appropriately Whedonesque way to end Comic-Con.

Comic Con 2009 – David Tennant and Doctor Who!

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:46:48 +0000

This is all out of order now, but since David Tennant was the most exciting part of Comic-Con for me, I have to share this.

Saturday night was the “Doctor Who” and “Torchwood” screening. I missed out on the “Dr. Horrible” sing-along the night before and I didn’t want to get shut out of this, so I went really early and sat through a panel on the Fables comic books (which I’d never heard of) and then Adult Swim/Venture Bros panel.

The Venture Bros panel

I’d never heard of the Venture Bros either, but I’m going to make a point of looking them up now because they were hysterical. When Doc Hammer first came out I thought he was kind of skeezy looking – I don’t really dig guys covered in tattoos – but by the end, I thought he was super hot. It’s all about attitude. And maybe the fact that he kept asking people, “Do you want to sleep with me? Or arm wrestle me?”

Finally, the Swimmers left and the Whovians came in. By this time I’d moved up to the fourth row, center (the first two rows were reserved for VIPs who never showed up) and had a great view of the stage. This wasn’t in the massive ballroom, it was a much smaller room, so nobody was too far away.

First, Russel T. Davies came out, and he introduced John Barrowman, which wasn’t a huge surprise since he’d been on the exhibition floor signing autographs that afternoon. John Barrowman looks like one of the most incredibly fun people you could ever know. He smiled constantly and looked as thrilled to be there as we were to see him.

Then, I think most people just expected Russell to introduce the episodes, but he continued with the introductions and you could seriously feel the room getting hotter and more excited.

He wasn’t supposed to be there, and I don’t think a lot of people expected him to show up, but in walked David Tennant.

(Insert screaming, hopping up and down and swooning here.)

The crowd was thrilled to see David, and by the grin on his face I think he was just as thrilled to finally be in front of an American audience. This was his first Comic-Con, and I believe his first big American public appearance.

John Barrowman was also happy to see David Tennant.

To be honest, I don’t really remember what anyone said after that. I was too excited for my memory to record speech. I know David thanked everyone profusely for their support over the last few years and talked a little about his final episodes.

Update: I just found this whole thing on YouTube.

Then he left just as quick as he appeared and we got to see Day 5 of “Torchwood: Children of Earth” and “Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead”.

I left the convention center buzzing with adrenaline and even more excited about the “Doctor Who” panel the next morning. Just to be sure I would get a decent seat, I woke up at 5:00 in the frakking morning (the panel started at 10) and was in line by 5:45. There were a couple of hundred people ahead of me, but when we got into the ballroom around 9:30, I was still able to get pretty close to the stage.

The wait for the panel was also pretty entertaining. Check out these photos:

You’re thinking, “Wow! David Tennant got into costume and hung out with people in line!” Um, no.

I don’t know who this guy is, but I wish I could rent him by the hour. (Just for a chat and a cup of coffee, of course.) Imagine being him, an ordinary, skinny white guy with great hair, and then one day he realizes that he looks exactly like one of the sexiest men in the world. That’s got to feel pretty good.

When I went up to get a photo with him I said, “I’ll bet you got very lucky this weekend,” and he cracked up and turned a little red. I didn’t notice his girlfriend was standing nearby. Oops!

After sitting in line for hours – and having spent the last four days in other lines and crowds – I was exhausted, but when David came on stage for the “Doctor Who” panel I felt completely awake and alert. I’m pretty sure you can find this panel on YouTube, so you can watch David being charming and goofy on your own, but I’ll add that he really seems like an incredibly gracious, kind and joyful man.

Best audience question and answer:

Audience member: “I read that John Barrowman stole some things from the set when he was there. Have you taken anything?”

Julie Gardner (Producer): “If John stole things it was because he was hoping we’d strip-search him on the way out.”

That gave everyone a good laugh:

We also learned that David is a fan of “Firefly”, but that’s not why he wears a long, brown coat in the show. He just wanted a long coat. He’s also not playing the Hobbit, which apparently is a rumor that was floating around.

All this was more than enough to make my weekend fan-TAS-tic (I really wish Christopher Eccleston had been around too), but there was more in store for me on Sunday. That post is coming up next.

Comic Con 2009: Chuck

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:46:47 +0000

I mostly wanted to see the Chuck panel because of Adam Baldwin. Since I got to meet him yesterday, I wasn’t as desparate to get in, which was good because the line to get was ridiculously long. I thought my chances were slim to none, but luckily Ballroom 20 holds more than 4,000 people and I scored a seat in the back.

Wow, am I glad I did. One word: Jeffster.

Watch this on YouTube.

It was the best opening of any panel I’ve seen and the crowd ate it up. The rest of the cast was excellent, Zachary Levi is adorable, even with a beard, and personally, I think Adam Baldwin stole the show.

My favorite bit (from what I remember):

Audience member: Are there going to be any Chuck action figures?

Zachary Levi: That would be cool.

Adam Baldwin: Ha. I need another one. *Laughs*

*Loud cheers*

Zachary Levi: Oh, I’m Adam Baldwin, I was on Firefly, everyone loves me.

*More cheers*

Zachary: I hope I get an action figure just so I can throw it in this guy’s face. Grrr, take that Jayne! Not so shiny now! (Pretends to have his action figure kick Adam’s action figure’s ass.)

*Crowd goes crazy and Adam Baldwin has a good laugh.*

I love Adam Baldwin.

Update: Found this clip on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfcOGPf1Umk

Watch more Chuck:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY3cXpPqGss

Comic Con 2009: Joss Whedon & Dollhouse

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:46:45 +0000

Joss Whedon rocks my world. I’ll admit, I am not a huge Dollhouse fan. Of everything he’s done, this is probably at the bottom of the list of my favorites.

But.

We got to see the never-aired 13th episode of Dollhouse, and then entire world has changed. Felicia Day is in it, and Zack Ward (“Scut Farkus staring out at us with his yellow eyes. He had yellow eyes! So, help me, God! Yellow eyes! ” – I love “A Christmas Story”) and depending on how season two starts, it could be like a whole new show, so I’m excited.

After the screening, Joss and Eliza Dushku talked and answered questions, and Eliza came off much better this time than she did the day before on the Wonder Women panel.

Joss said that yes, he very much wants to continue with another Dr. Horrible (yay!), and that Firefly lives through the comics, including a series on Shepherd Book, so maybe we’ll finally find out what his story was.

Best line of the night:

Audience member asks some question about time paradoxes and whether playing with time on Dollhouse could be too confusing for audiences.

Joss: “I think as long as we don’t send anyone to feudal Japan, we’ll be ok.”

And the great thing was, the whole big geeky crowd got it and went crazy with laughter and applause.

Did I mention that Joss Whedon is incredibly funny? YouTube this one if you can find it.

Comic Con 2009: Bones

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:46:43 +0000

David Boreanaz wasn’t here for this one because his wife is about to have their second child, but he did record a long, rambling message. He seems like a nice, goofy guy.

So it was just Emily Deschanel, a writer and a moderator, but they were good. At one point Emily was afraid she was ignoring part of the room so the three of them spread out, leaving big gaps in this huge table, but then that was weird, so they sat together again.

I mostly wanted to hear if there were any good Sweets stories coming up, but they didn’t talk about him, so I guess I’ll just have to watch and see.

Comic Con 2009: 24 with Kiefer Sutherland

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:46:41 +0000

Starbuck and Mr. SMG are joining 24.

I only saw this panel because I wanted to have a seat for Bones and Dollhouse, but I’m glad I was there to catch this bit:

Freddie Prinze Jr: “I’ve always been a big fan of 24. I remember watching the show with my wife…”

*Huge cheers*

FPJ: “Ha. Oh yeah. I forget, she’s big here.” *Big grin*

*More big cheers*

(Freddie is married to Sarah Michelle Gellar – Buffy – if you didn’t know. And yes, Buffy is big here, especially in a crowd full of people waiting to see Joss Whedon.)

Another good line came from BSG alum Katee Sackhoff: “I’m going through the script, and it’s good, but I went to the writers and said, “At some point, I’m going to need a gun. Because I’m starting to feel naked without one.”

Comic Con 2009: John Barrowman and Adam Baldwin

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 07:46:40 +0000

John Barrowman/Captain Jack!

Had an excellent morning yesterday. I got two awesome autographs – the only two that I really, really wanted to get.

John Barrowman (Doctor Who/Torchwood, also The Producers where he played a hot Nazi in Springtime for Hitler) is stunning, just completely gorgeous in person, and incredibly nice and funny. He was joking with one of the actresses from Torchwood (I’m blanking on her name now – but not Eve Myles) about whose photos were more airbrushed.

The hero of Canton, the man they call Jayne.

After that, I went on a hunt for Adam Baldwin (Chuck, Firefly, Angel, pretty much every show I’ve ever loved). I’d heard he was signing autographs the day before so I started asking around and was told to try the booth behind all the LucasArts stuff. Sure enough, there he was, just hanging out, no line or anything. As I was picking out my photo to have signed, a guy came up and said, “Who are you? What do you do?”

My jaw dropped.

Adam (Mr. Baldwin?) didn’t miss a beat though. He very kindly said, “I’m Adam Baldwin, I’m on the show Chuck.” Then I said, “I can’t believe you had to ask that. This is Adam Baldwin. He did Firefly and Angel…” and then another guy chimed in, “And My Bodyguard!”

And Adam smiled and said, “Thanks for that” and then he signed my photo and I got a picture with him. He was awesome. And super tall.

Other celebs I spotted: Michael Hogan and James Callis from Battlestar Galactica (also with no lines – I don’t think people knew they were there), and Leonard Nimoy. These are people who, anywhere else, would probably cause a big stir, but here there’s so much to see that you barely notice them, unless you’re looking for them.