TravelStream™ news feed for member skylab on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/skylab en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:04:06 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/1/1236257400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/1/1236257400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/1/1236257400/tpod.html Thu, 05 Mar 2009 08:04:06 -0500 Entire blog at djskylab.com

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Hackensack, New Jersey, United States

I LOVE TravelPod. It was my jump off for bigger things. The forums are VERY informative and the people are just awesome. I know I haven't been around as often. Been pretty busy and here is why...I've had my domain djskylab.com for years now. It was used for all my music mixes. I had the urge to try new things on the domain for some reason. I installed WordPress and suddenly my eyes opened to a whole new world. Unlimited possibilities. So I've decided to use www.djskylab.com as my official blog from now on. TravelPod blogs will no longer be updated. My love for TravelPod will continue and all my blog posts will still be kept here of course! To all the hard working people at TravelPod, thank you for providing such a great service!See you in the forums!Mike
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/1/1231638900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/1/1231638900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/1/1231638900/tpod.html Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:55:34 -0500 Entire blog at djskylab.com

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Hackensack, New Jersey, United States

Today I bought my first ticket! Beijing, China on May 12th! It was arush purchasing my first ticket. Next will be getting visas for thenext few countries as well. Aerosvit AirlinesFlight VV132 overnight flightDepart 12-May-09 (Tue) 06:25p New York J F Kennedy International Apt, US (JFK)Arrive 13-May-09 (Wed) 11:10a Kiev Borispol Apt, UA (KBP)Flight Time 09hr 45min | EconomyAircraft Boeing 767-300/300ERStops nonstopAerosvit AirlinesFlight VV181 overnight flightDepart 13-May-09 (Wed) 01:55p Kiev Borispol Apt, UA (KBP)Arrive 14-May-09 (Thu) 04:30a Beijing Capital Apt, CN (PEK)Flight Time 08hr 35min | EconomyAircraft Boeing 767-300/300ERStops nonstop
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/1/1231465980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/1/1231465980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/1/1231465980/tpod.html Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:53:55 -0500 Entire blog at djskylab.com

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Hackensack, New Jersey, United States

A lot has happened in the last few weeks. I'll try to summarize it and not bore you to death.The apartment is as empty as it was when we moved in. Threw awaybasically all my junk and now settling for a lot less. Originally wewere going to move out by February 1st and I was to move to a onebedroom for $600. Thankfully I didn't hand them a deposit for February1st because the current apartment needs to be leased out first before Iam able to move since I'm breaking the lease. The new tenants will bemoving in March 1st instead of February 1st. This gives me extra timeto decide where I'll be living for before I leave. I'm moving out tosave money.March 12th, 2009 in Beijing, China. That's the plan. Starting inChina (Even with that ridiculous $130 visa fee). From China things arepretty open but I did map out a general idea on where I am going so Idon't back track. China > Nepal > India > Thailand > Laos> Cambodia > Singapore > Australia > New Zealand >Argentina > Peru > Miami, Florida > San Francisco, California> NYC back home to rest > Europe (list of another dozencountries)... I know it seems like a lot but I'll be traveling for a verylong time. I know it will change but I had to get a general idea on mydirection. I do plan to get work visa's perhaps in Australia and NewZealand to earn some extra cash to continue traveling. We'll see wherethe road takes me.I just purchased an Asus EEE 1000 for traveling which I am VERYhappy with. I'll have to get use to the small screen. It'll be used forblogging, photo storage, video storage, and anything else related to mytwo websites (www.djskylab.com and www.artofbackpacking.com). Teresabought me a Sanyo Xacti DMX-CA8 which is a waterproof video camera.Perfect! One item left to get is a digital camera (might take an oldone I have laying around).I want to leave right now but I know I just need to be patient. I hope everyone had a good new year!- from www.djskylab.com
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/4/1227965580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/4/1227965580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/4/1227965580/tpod.html Mon, 08 Dec 2008 13:07:25 -0500 First Mini-Backpacking Trip

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Montreal, Quebec, Canada

I'm extremely tired but that's alright. Plenty of sleep when I get back home. Met up with Louise from TravelPod at Cafeo who also introduced me to Owen who previously worked at Digg.com and now for TravelPod. Louise couldn't have picked a better spot for breakfast! Delicious food.  Then Louise says to me "Hey, I got something for you." and pulls out a "limited edition" TravelPod water bottle! She's the best. :)Next we went to Musee des Beaux Arts. We been looking for this museum for days and I'm glad we saved it for today. They had a special exhibit for Andy Warhol. I always liked his art work but didn't think he created THAT much. Looking at his gallery, he really was revolutionary. He's work was really out of the norm creating thousands of album covers, videos, pictures, ideas, and more. Although he never created music itself, his work is looked up to by all musicians. His involvement to the legendary club Studio54 was pretty interesting. After browsing around the museum some more seeing random furniture and paintings, we head out to eat.For lunch we went to "Mister Steer". It was basically a New Jersey dinner with the usual crazy old lady serving you. Apparently I ordered a very Canadian meal which was a chicken sandwich covered in gravy and peas on the top of the sandwich. I always thought of sandwich's as being able to grab it with your hands but it wasn't in this case. Nevertheless, it tasted great. Also had a beer called literary "Old Montreal". Crazy lady looked at us as if we were from space for never hearing about it and put much enthusiasm about the beer. The beer didn't make me explode though as it tasted just like any other beer.The only reason we are leaving tonight is because we have a wedding to go to tomorrow that we RSV before we decided to come here. We couldn't take it back since it was a family wedding. We been putting this off the whole week that Teresa needed a dress for the wedding. From some friends at the Hostel, we were told to check out Simons. It was basically a nicer AND cheaper version of Macys. She got a beautiful dress that was very affordable. Glad that's over with.We then said our goodbyes to Owen as he had to head out. Teresa, Louise and I walked around montreal with no real plan besides heading down to Dieu du Ciel at about 8. It was still early so we just walked and walked and walked. Just talking about random subjects and walking around. We had some good conversations on our journey to nowhere so it was fun. Eventually we get to Dieu de Ciel. This instantly became my new favorite bar. We ordered Absinthe beer which was about 8.5%. We did receive a warning that it would be bitter from the waitress but we just HAD to try it. It was much more bitter then we expected. Got another two different kinds of beers and we had to get out unfortunately. Teresa and I really didn't want to leave but we didn't want to miss our bus either.We got a cab and headed to our hostel to get our bags. Louise tagged along. Cab ended up being pricier then we expected. We had checked out in the early morning and just left our bags there locked up so we didn't have to carry it around all day. Teresa and I said our final good byes to everyone in the hostel that we became friend with. We then went to the subway and said our goodbyes to Louise. She's awesome and defiantly knows how to have fun!We raced over to the bus station and waited for the bus to arrive. Overall, Montreal is amazing. I really can't wait to come back. Next time I'll be coming back during the summer for the Jazz Festival. The whole experience definitely confirmed that I need to travel around the world.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/4/1227879120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/4/1227879120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/4/1227879120/tpod.html Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:36:29 -0500 First Mini-Backpacking Trip

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Montreal, Quebec, Canada

We woke up a little later today due to last nights party. Today was a bit more relaxing. Our legs have been killing us from all the walking these past few days. We decided to take it easy, go out to eat, and hang out with our new friends at the hostel. For dinner we had this great pasta meal that we got to create and add all types of sauces. At night all the people we met gathered up at the hostel lounge area again and most of them started drinking already. I wasn't planning on drinking much today after last night. There was this one guy Jeff though, I can honestly say I have never ever seen someone so completely out there. He was drinking himself to death. He ended up getting pretty violent and created a bit of a mess. It was strange though because yesterday he was pretty funny but tonight he took it a bit too far. Eventually he passed out and cops came. He was too passed out to hear them and so they left him alone. Then a few of us played some cards and headed down to a bar. A few pitchers of beer, food, shots and we were good. Really fun and we end up even more people from the hostel that were checking in that day. Another eventful day and the night was over. Sucks that this is our last night sleeping here, we need to wake up early to check out and meet up with Louis for breakfast.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/4/1227792600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/4/1227792600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/4/1227792600/tpod.html Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:35:39 -0500 First Mini-Backpacking Trip

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Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Woke up pretty early again and walked around Old Montreal. It's very old fashioned European style area. Cobblestone narrow roads, many café's, and you just get a good vibe in that area. I noticed the area was filled with touristy shops as well all trying to represent the Canadian feeling. We went to this desert place that sold everything maple syrup. They had all kinds of flavors that I had no idea existed. I decided to try out the Apple Pie Maple Syrup desert. Heavenly good. We buy a few things and were on our way. After walking around town a bit more, we head out to Little Italy. They had this HUGE Farmers Market with the freshest fruit I have ever seen. Many shops were giving examples and I'd have to say their Kiwi's and Tomatoes were out of this world. It just gave this juicy and sweet feeling in your mouth. I wish I could take some home with me. Next was this Italian supermarket. When I walked in there, I really thought I was in Italy. The entire place had everything you could imagine from Italy. Panettone's(Italian bread) were everywhere. Ok so I walk out and I'm suddenly back in Canada (or France because I'm in Montreal? Oh god I'm getting confused what country I'm in). Next was this famous Italian café. Again- I was in Italy. Think of the cliché Italian mafia looking guys talking in a café table. Ok well that's basically what it was throughout the entire café. It didn't seem very touristy and more of the locals went there which was great. Across the street was this AWESOME soccer store devoted entirely to soccer. Everything from jerseys, shoes, pants, balls, key-chains, scarfs, flags, whatever. Pretty pricey place so I walked out empty handed unfortunately. $100 jersey? No thanks. And for dinner, we got pizza at yet another Italian place. So far today was in Italy. Night time now. Walked around The Village. The area is very "open-minded" if you know what I mean. Fun to walk around and many bars to hang out in. We stumble upon this bar that I remembered our LP book mentioned. Name of the place is Kilo and I can't recommend it enough. Food was great and they had an amazing deal on beer. Just so happens our server at the bar was going to NYC this coming weekend. We talked for awhile and gave him advice on what to do in NYC. He also gave us some inside tips on what to do in Montreal. I looked around the room and quickly realized that there was maybe two straight couples in the whole place. Teresa and I laughed about it as we didn't notice and I remembered that we were in The Village so this is pretty common here.  So were back at our hostel now. We decide to hang out in the lounge area of the hostel. As other people were there as well, we end up talking to everyone. One of the guys brought back beer for me and bought WAY too much beer (24 pack) just for me. I don't know what he was thinking. I shared the beer with some of the folks. Made tons of friends. This guy from Jersey (the country) who was pretty funny and had some great stories from traveling around the world. Nick, a guy from the UK who had jokes left and right about everything. He had a joke about everything you'd say, good guy. These two sisters, Sara and I forget the other girl's name. Also this group from NY State that came to Montréal to basically party. I forget most of their names but they were fun to hang out with. They were all still in High School 15, 16, and 17's. Really fun group though. And Jeff, extremely drunk making a crazy amount of noise but was funny for the most part. The night was amazing. I got pretty drunk as did everyone else. A fun group of people and it's a shame that I most likely will never see them again. It's close to 4am and need to finally sleep. What a day!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/4/1227706200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/4/1227706200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/4/1227706200/tpod.html Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:32:48 -0500 First Mini-Backpacking Trip

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Montreal, Quebec, Canada

We start off our day at another café. Breakfast was yet again amazing. I've learned quite a bit of French lately too. I noticed that if you say "Bonjour- Hi" then they will know you speak English although sometimes I do say "Parlez-vous anglais?" which means "Do you speak English?". We decide to go to The Mountain which is a huge mountain in the middle of the city of Montreal. The guide book is telling us to take a bus or take the stairs up. Well I couldn't find either so I decided to just walk up. What an adventure! Really took the off road in between trees and paths just to get on top of the mountain as quickly as possible. This led to me climbing a bit. Animals were really friendly around us as well. Eventually we get to the top and the reward was great although we were insanely tired. Sat back, enjoyed the view, and plenty of pictures. You could see all of Montréal. There was a bus stop in the corner and we noticed the times that there was one coming up to head back down- perfect! No way had I wanted to walk back down. Next was the underground city. It's HUGE. I really under estimated it. Hotels, subways, and shopping malls were all connected to this city underground. You could basically never see daylight ever if you didn't want to. After a few hours of being indoors, we decided it was time to start freezing again outside since the nightlife was starting up. McGill College area is beautiful! Apparently it's an English college. I wish I knew of this college when I was looking for schools. The Christmas lights really added to the atmosphere. These kids got it good with their malls, clubs, bars, and parties. After some more pictures, churches, eating, coffee, and walking around - we decided to check out the Montreal Casino (Literally just called Casino and that's it). From what I've heard, it's one of the biggest casinos in the world. At first you walk in and it doesn't seem that big but after going up 5 floors, it defiantly huge. Since were on a tight budget on this trip, I decided not to play cards or slots. Instead we went to this horse racing machine was we must have spent over an hour easily playing this game. It was such a rush cheering these stupid little horses on the machine. We end up breaking even which was perfect. Within the Casino we had some Smoked Meat, Canadian beer, and fries with gravy. The Smoked Meat and beer was amazing but the fries not so much. Because the subway system stops at midnight, we had to make sure to get back to the Hostel or at least be near it. I'm dead tired. One of these days I'll carry a pedometer and see how many steps I've taken in a day. I'm sure it'll go off the scale.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/6/1228308540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/6/1228308540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/6/1228308540/tpod.html Thu, 04 Dec 2008 07:54:45 -0500 Local Travel

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New York City, New York, United States

Not worth it! A total disaster. You need to go hours before the event if you want to get anywhere near the tree. Crowds were everywhere, no information given to the people, noone knew what was going on, and many streets closed off. It really was crazy. Best time to go is AFTER the lighting, maybe a few days later. Crowds are not that bad, people are much happier, and you get to actually enjoy yourself.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/4/1227662820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/4/1227662820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/4/1227662820/tpod.html Tue, 02 Dec 2008 08:29:01 -0500 First Mini-Backpacking Trip

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Montreal, Quebec, Canada

We arrived in Montreal at around 6am after an 8 hour bus ride on Greyhound sleeping the whole way here. We really had no itinerary and only knew of a few places we wanted to go to. We wanted to be as random as possible. Were depending on locals and the LP book to guide us. Some of the things we have:- Lonely Planet City Guide book- One large backpack, medium size, and small day pack.- Winter clothing. This filled our packs because of jackets, sweatshirts, pants, etc.- And all the other little things like a toothbrush.Were exiting the bus terminal and it's raining a bit. We decide to head toward the hostel we booked in advance. So I pull out the map since I had the address trying to understand where we were. It was obvious we were tourist. A man passes us and starts speaking to us in French. I have no idea what he said and I just say "English?" He switches to English and asked if we needed help. He had a difficult time giving directions in English but he was really helpful and pointed out the way. On our way to the hostel, we decided to stop by a Cafe to grab some breakfast. I was a bit nervous walking into my first French speaking store hoping they speak English. Lucky enough, they spoke perfect English and I ordered the best coffee I've ever had. Teresa ordered a muffin which was delicious as well. So we finally get to the hostel and it's about 8-9am. Were there way too early and was told to come back by 12. 4 hours to kill with this backpack and it's dragging me down because of its weight. We decide to just walk around town exploring. After walking around aimlessly for a few hours, we check in to our hostel. Since neither of us has stayed at a hostel before, we decided to get our own room instead of a shared room. It was this little cabin outside that had a bed, chair, a small table, garbage bin, heater, and a lamp. Perfect, didn't need anything more. The Hostel itself was perfect too. I'm dead tired at this point and took a nap for a little while before we start our day.We start our day by walking down Notre Dame in Old Montreal. Just taking in the scenery, we end up at Notre-Dame Basilica. The most beautiful church I have ever seen. The amount of detail they put into this building was amazing. With its multiple rooms, I felt like I could get lost in there. We continue to wonder around and end up at China Town. Very small area but has a great vibe for the Chinese culture. I'm not sure why but I found it strange and amazing hearing the Chinese speaking French. This would mean everyone there spoke French, English, and Chinese. I was in the mood for bubble tea so we walk into this lounge that had couches, TVs, computers, food, and drinks. Very laid back and one of those places you really need to explore to find. Bubble Tea was the size of my head and I could not finish it although it tasted great. We keep walking around going into random shops, malls, and just getting to know the area. We head back to the hostel pretty early because our legs were killing us and to get an early start for the next day. For our first day, it was perfect.Full album can be found here http://picasaweb.google.com/vskylabv/200811Montreal#
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/6/1225661160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/6/1225661160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/skylab/6/1225661160/tpod.html Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:46:31 -0500 Local Travel

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New York City, New York, United States

New York City - What a city! I had been living in New Jersey my whole life with New York City right next door. Every time I go, it feels as if I'm somewhere totally new. Today was The ING New York City Marathon. The world's largest marathon race with five bridges, five boroughs, 38,300 runners, and more than two million spectators make the ING New York City Marathon a race like no other. I decided to volunteer not really knowing what to expect. As a volunteer, I helped runners bring their personal belongings from the starting line to the finish line so they can run without worrying about all their things. Waking up at 4am was a killer but the worst part was the weather. I was pretty prepared for the cold in the morning but there is only so much you can cover up. I arrived at the starting line around 5am. Ok so it was freezing but I felt like I couldn't really complain since nearly all the runners were wearing shorts, short sleeve, and all tight clothing so seeing them made me feel stronger about the weather. Since The ING New York City Marathon is internationally the world's largest marathon race - I met people from all over the world. I might have only met about 20 people from the USA. Everyone else couldn't speak English at all so communicating with them was pretty fun. I had about 1,000 runner's personal belongs to take with me 26.2 miles to the finish line. There was this one lady though that I will never forget, as she was shaking my hand she said to me "You're doing something really good today. Thank you so much for helping. I really appreciate it." That put the biggest smile of my face and what was more surprising was she wasn't the only one that said something like that! To me what I was doing seemed so simple so I didn't find it a big deal at all but it meant so much to them since they were running for different causes. At the finish line I was preparing for everyone to come in and gather all their things. As everyone came to my booth, it seemed like we were in a zombie movie. "Ahh - ggivee mmee" They were going through a lot of pain from the running. Some were just too cold and had to go to the medical tent. You really need a strong body and mind to go through that kind of a race. Some were crying, crawling, shivering, happy it was over with, but one thing I could sense from everyone was accomplishment with happiness. It was a great event and a great way to show what NYC is all about to the rest of the world. All the volunteers were in good spirit. I have to give a lot of credit to all the medical tents helping and making sure every single person was OK. Congratulations to all the runners!
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