Travel Talk is a new Sosauce blog series in which we chat with our favorite travel experts about celebrating the saucy side of travel. With such successful experiences in travel media, we want to highlight their journeys from turning a passion for wanderlust into a profession, their travel plans for 2010, and how they document and share their own travel experiences.

You can read our previous traveler spotlight interviews on Sosauce here.

This week we chatted with Travel Pod Community Manager, Louise Brown. Louise is a fierce traveler, having visited 18 countries and shared more than 2,700 travel photos, plus 345 entries on more than 50 travel blogs. If that doesn’t qualify you as a Travel Geek, then I don’t know what does. Read our interview with Louise below to find out what motivates her to keep on traveling, what it’s like to be a community manager for a top travel blog, and how she keeps her travels saucy.

Louise and dog in Iqaluit

How is 2010 treating you so far? What upcoming travel plans do you have in store this year?
Well! This year I want to go on an epic train journey. I’m competing in Off Track Planet’s Eurail contest, so I’m crossing my fingers and hoping to head to Europe for a train journey with my dad. Whether or not that works out, my dad and I are going to hop on Amtrak and do a big “upside down L” – west across the northern states to Seattle and south to California.

When did you begin sharing your travel experiences online?
I started my blog in November 2007, but I have entries from as far back as 1996, when I went to Mexico with Girl Guides. I tend to write my blogs on paper when I’m traveling, and then when I get back, just type them up. If you carry around a notebook, it’s amazing how much time you will find during the day. When you are traveling you’re always waiting around for something, whether you’re meeting a friend, catching  a bus, or ordering a meal. I always find time to write what I am thinking.

Recreate and share your travels with Sosauce! Create your own travel journals, upload hi-res photos, write destination reviews, and connect with other Travel Geeks. Join us at Sosauce.com

Any tips for aspiring travel bloggers?
Read lots and write lots. Use all five senses when you are doing it. Talk to people, take their pictures, tell them what you are doing. Make sure you give them your blog URL before you part ways, the people you write about in your blog will be your most dedicated readers in the future.

Looking to expand your travel writing portfolio? Become a guest Travel Geek blogger on Sosauce. More info can be found here.

“I try to impact the planet with the smallest footprint possible.”

You’re a big fan of being environmentally friendly and eating healthy. How are you able to keep these practices up when you’re traveling? Any tips for other like-minded travelers?

Ahhhhh, my vegetarianism usually goes right out the door when I travel. I have had some incredible veggie dishes all over the world, but I just can’t pass up the opportunity to try local and traditional meals just because there is meat in it. On top of this, I couchsurf a lot. When you are couchsurfing and/or accepting a meal at someone’s house, it’s a lot easier to graciously eat what they provide and steer the conversation away from militant vegetarian discussion. It might not be PC to operate that way, but I believe it facilitates a better relationship with your host.

To cut down on carbon emissions and pollution, I also use rideshare a lot and travel and local, land-based transportation. Two years ago, I broke down and bought a motorcycle because there were a lot of smaller towns nearby that I wanted to visit. I believe it was a compromise, because a motorcycle is A LOT more efficient than a car is. So, I’m trying to strike a balance between exploring the countryside and environmental friendliness. In addition to this, the dollars that I spend in the small towns I visit really need it, and I would not have ever gotten there had I not bought my bike.

“Types of people I enjoy: people who appreciate the journey more than the destination.”

What interested you in joining Travel Pod? How did you become Community Manager?

Couchsurfing! I was really active in our local group, in Ottawa Canada, and my boss posted the position in our group. I applied and that was that.

Your home base is currently Ottawa, Canada. Are there any other places you would like to live in?
Believe it or not, I’ve lived in Ottawa for 10 years! I’ve always wanted to live somewhere where transportation is a lot cheaper. A place like Toronto or Montreal would be ideal. On my last trip to Boston, I saved $100 on the Greyhound just because I left from Montreal rather than Ottawa. Amazing.

You’ve traveled quite a bit to attend music festivals and concerts. Who are some of your favorite musicians and what’s the sauciest experienced you’ve had at a concert?
My absolute favourite band is Smashing Pumpkins, and I saw them two years ago at Virgin Fest on Toronto Island when they were doing a double headline weekend with Bjork, The Killers, Interpol, M.I.A., K-Os, Kid Koala and tons more amazing bands. I guess I would call this a pretty saucy experience because I met my ex-boyfriend there. We’re both insane Smashing Pumpkins fans and even though we’ve since parted ways, I think meeting him really enhanced my life.

My absolute sauciest experience was crashing the artist after party at NXNE in Toronto two years ago. I found what I thought was a random flyer on the ground in a hotel for an after party. So I went bar hopping until the festival was over and when 2 a.m. rolled around, I checked out the after party that I had a flyer for in my pocket. What could it hurt, right? I walked by the venue twice, assuming the sign on the door saying “private party” was not meant for me. When I double checked the address, I noticed I was in the right place. I sat down beside the editor of Now Magazine, chatted him up and ordered a beer. When I didn’t have to pay for said beer, I realized where I was. I spent the rest of the night partying like a rockstar with up and coming indie bands like Hollerado and such. I didn’t get back to my friend’s place until well after the sun came up. It was stupidly crazy.

You feature top travel blogs daily on Travel Blog Sites. What is the purpose behind Travel Blog Sites and who have been some of your favorite bloggers to interview?
At TravelBlogSites.com, we want to showcase the best and the brightest of the web’s independent travel bloggers. There are a lot of great collaborative bloggers out there, but we want to shine a light on the DIY-ers, people doing it themselves. It’s a tough slog, and they deserve all the recognition they get, so we’re trying to give them what we can. So, we created a weekly top 100 list that breaks it down in what we think is a fair and accurate way, using Alexa and Compete.com information.

My favourite blogger to interview is a toughie! Everyone has such neat stories, but I’m gonna have to go with Corbin Fraser of ibackpackcanada.com. He has an incredible passion for my favourite country, and he just jumped right into the roadtrip lifestyle. Anyone who’s sold everything and driven across the Saskatchewan prairie gets tons of respect from me.

Read Travel Blog Sites’ feature on the Sosauce Travel Geek blog and learn to travel with a purpose.

Based on your travel experiences thus far, you’re a certified Travel Geek. What do you think makes you stand out as a Travel Geek?

I’m always looking at new ways to hack my travel. I recently used my Aeroplan points for a virtually free trip to Iqaluit, Nunavut. I had to spend about an hour calling back and forth between Aeroplan and the airline, but I finally managed a flight. They normally cost anywhere from $2,000-$3,000, but with a little bit of legwork, I got it free.

I’m also constantly checking airfarewatchdog.com and the rideshare section of Craigslist and Kijiji to find myself new and exciting cheapo weekend trips and destinations.

What is your dream destination and why?
It WAS Nunavut. As of last year, this was the only Canadian province/territory that I hadn’t visited yet. When I went there in September, it was literally a dream come true. I’m a patriotic Canadian so I feel very blessed to be able to traverse this giant country on my own. One hundred years ago, nothing like that would’ve been possible in such a short period of time, and with such ease. The diversity and harshness of the land is simply amazing. I’m constantly in awe of this place.

My new dream destination is California and Seattle, but also Portugal and Spain. Can you believe I’ve never been to California? I’m hopefully going to all four of them this summer with my dad on our giant train trip.

*All photos provided by Louise Brown.

Thanks to Louise for loving the Sosauce Travel Geeks and chatting with us about her saucy travel experiences. To get involved with Travel Pod or Travel Blog Sites, be sure to connect with their communities at TravelPod.com.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 1:34 PM and is filed under Spotlight, Traveler. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.