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? At a cafe in Rome.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I've been blogging with Neil for about a year now wondering how the heck is he managing to crank out such bounty with his sly wit and traveler's know-how. Since the number of posts Gading manages to put out in a day are sometimes hard to keep up with, I thought I'd give you a sampling of my favorites of Neil's.

Of course, like he wrote when he signed off today from Gadling on his last post--his 2,000th, I'm sure we haven't read the last of Neil. However, I thought that someone who has 2,000 posts in two years certainly could have a post dedicated to him. It's not exactly the same as the trophy-like statue of the Greek god Hermes pictured here, but hopefully it will suffice. Hermes is linked to travel among other things.

(Neil, to turn this into a real statue, you can print out a copy of the picture, carefully cut around the outline of the statue like a paper doll, glue it onto a piece of tag board, cut around that, affix it to a toothpick with tape, stick one end of the toothpick in a bit of playdough or something and perhaps you can get it to stand up.)

Statues aside, this is what 1% of 2,000 looks like--20 posts. But, first, here's my all time favorite written for our April Fool's Day bonanza in 2007. Bush Lifts Mark Cuban Travel Ban

Introducing Gadling's newest blogger.... Anna Brones:

1. Where was your photo taken: Karlskrona, Sweden. It's a statue of a man that once used to ask for money in front of the church and today you can raise his hat and drop in a coin.

2. Where do you live now: Portland, Oregon.

3. Scariest airline flown: It wasn't the airline itself, but my flight from Puerto Rico to Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe with American Eagle, which was a tiny plane that took a lot of quick dips.

4. Favorite city/country/place: Sweden in the summertime.

5. Most remote corner of the globe visited: The middle of the Atlantic Ocean; I was on a CMA-CGM cargo ship.

6. Favorite guidebook series: When travel planning, I tend to go to a good used book store, grab a few, take a seat on the floor and start scratching notes in my travel journal. Then after some good time with each of them I pick out the one I like best.

7. First culture shock experience: It was actually reverse culture shock. I had been living in Sweden for a year, and two days after coming home my parents and I went shopping at Costco. I got so overwhelmed by everything "American" that I broke down crying and had to go and sit in the car while my parents checked out.

8. Languages spoken: English, French and Swedish. Hopefully I will cram in a fourth someday soon.

9. Most recent trip: Six weeks in and Vietnam and Cambodia.

10. Favorite music to listen to while traveling: French groups Air and St. Germain.

Introducing Erik McLaughlin, Gadling's newest blogger.

Where was your Photo taken: Athens, Greece at the Acropoly. This was my first trip to Greece and was an amazing trip! Any trip to Greece is amazing. I had the privilege of being shown Athens by a very nice local girl I met in England...We got married a few years (and continents) later.

Where do you live now: Chicago, Illinois but Tucson, Arizona is home.

Scariest Airline Flown: A good overall airline, but on a United Flight from Paris, we had some trouble. Just leaving the gate, to taxi the runway, there was a strong smell of smoke in the cabin. We headed back to the terminal and waited a few hours, in the plane. Finally we began to back out, again. This time the cabin filled with black smoke and some people got a little nervous. A little rapid exit and some firefighters later...We ended up staying the night in the Paris airport and taking another plane, the next day. Since then, I have always been kind of a "knuckler" when I fly.

Favorite City/Place/Country: Greek Islands for relaxing and Vegas for excitement

Most Remote Corner of the Globe Visited: I really like hiking/trail running/biking so I seem to find myself pretty far from the main roads, some times. Probably the furthest I have been, into the wilderness, was about 3-4 days of hiking. It seemed the most remote in British Columbia.

Favorite Guidebook Series: Not really a series, but it is on volume number five: Robert Young Pelton's World's Most Dangerous Places. Of course, Lonely Planet, too.

Have you ever had an Unexpected Layover and what did you Do: A self-induced lay-over occurred when we missed our train from Edinburgh, Scotland back to Cambridge, England. The train was on time, we were not. There was some great Scottish Whiskey involved and we missed the train. Fortunately, it gave us another evening to spend exploring Edinburgh!

Favorite Music while Traveling: Sublime, Bob Marley, Green Day, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Sade, Bad Religion and Sheryl Crow seem to get the most playtime.

Favorite Foreign Dish or Food? Souvlakis in Greece! Also, anything Mexican. Although it is not too foreign, anymore.

1. Where was your photo taken: In Casablanca, Morocco. It was right before the US presidential election, and the barber, while holding his straight razor up to my throat, jokingly asked, "Are you voting for George Bush?" I suddenly became the world's biggest John Kerry fan.

2. Where do you live now: Columbia, Missouri, USA.

3. Scariest airline flown: Probably a flight from Quito to Loja, Ecuador. The guy sitting next to me said the airport in Loja had one of the most difficult runways on which to land, which was a little unsettling. But I got through the flight just fine-- thanks, Dramamine!

4. Favorite city/country/place: Krakow, Poland. It's got a huge, scenic town square, friendly (and beautiful) people, and some of the tastiest food and drink in the world.

5. Most remote corner of the globe visited: The Amazonian jungle in Ecuador-- one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, although the experience was ruined because it didn't have WiFi.

6. Favorite guidebook series: An upstart new publication called Lonely Planet, mainly for the map on the first two pages.

7. Person you'd most like to interview for Gadling: Noted travel expert Scarlett Johansson.

8. The most unusual food you've ever eaten: Piranha from a jungle fishing trip. Mmmm.

9. Where do you hide your emergency cash: I used to play poker occasionally when I lived in Prague, and I'd always hide any winnings in my shoes.

10. Dream travel destination: I have big travel crushes on Russia and Mongolia. I'm always looking at pictures of them, and trying to find out more about them, but I don't think they even know I exist.

Got a question? Comment? Job offer? Marriage proposal? E-mail me at aaronhotfelder (at) gmail (dot) com.

Introducing another new blogger at Gadling, Jerry Guo ...

Where was your photo taken? a bench at Wolong Panda Reserve in China, of course

Where do you live now? New Haven, CT

Scariest airline flown? I could call US Airways a lot of things; scariest isn't one of the more colorful words I would use. One time I was stuck at the Philadelphia airport for three straight days, thanks to US Airways.

Favorite city/country/place? Galapagos Islands. If you can, try flying there without booking a cruise and go island hopping yourself.

Most remote corner of the globe visited? Wanglang Panda Reserve, which is like Wolong, but even more remote. To get there, you need to fly into Chengdu, drive five hours on a sometime one lane dirt road, and then hike into the bamboo forests. The reward is pure serenity, and if you're lucky, some panda doo doo.

Favorite guidebook series? Rough Guides (in theory), but Lonely Planet inevitably for the logistics.

The ideal vacation is? Horsebacking across some sort of plain

Where do you hide your emergency cash? I used to wear swimming trunks, put my wallet in one of its pockets, and then wear jeans over the whole thing. Awkward ...

Next trip? Hopefully North Korea.