There are probably close to 1000 sites that list "things to do", but most of them list the same boring stuff (OK, so I admit that I made that number up).

Thankfully, every now and then someone has a neat idea, and puts it into reality by building a web site around it.

"I Feel" is a "things to do" site that currently covers 3 big cities (New York, Toronto and London) and lets you find stuff to do when you are feeling naughty, energetic, hungover or one of 6 other moods.

Want to find somewhere to go in London when you are feeling broke? How about a nice discount shoe shop, or a cheap trip on the London Clipper!

The site is currently in "beta mode", but invites are being sent out which should allow you to add your own submissions to the maps. No invite or account is needed to search through the tips. I browsed London for some of the ideas and have to say that there are some real gems listed. The results include anything from food to nightclubs.

All the locations are overlaid upon a Google map, so you'll be able to do all the cool things their maps can do, as well as print or email your results, plus you can link to other reviews of the locations using Google local.

Sites: I Feel London, I Feel Toronto and I Feel New York

Happy New Year, and welcome to 2009, travel friends. We had a fabulous 2008 at Gadling and we're planning an even bigger year for you coming up. We'll have guest posts from famous and delicious guest writers, mind-blowing giveaways, crazier stories, insider access and thousands of travel ideas to get you on the road this year.

Speaking of which, have you started planning your 09 vacay yet? From the outrageous to the frugal we'll be populating your brain with all sorts of destination fodder this year, starting TODAY with a new budget series kickoff. And blogger Alison Brick will be clueing us in to the latest travel deals out there on the market.

So don't trade your passport for a staycation guide yet; there's plenty to learn about, explore, absorb and love this year. Gear up for an amazing 365 days on the road and get excited -- we'll be right next to you the entire way.

Love, Gadling

First off, Happy 2009!

As we marked the passage of time, Heather graced us with a look at the New Year from her angle in the sky. I loved looking through the gallery of her last trip of 2008, particularly her details about the passenger who made origami birds for her to pass out to kids. Sweet.

Here are five more posts that offer a mixed bag from humorous to helpful to downright deep.

• Anything free gives me a sense of well-being. Alison pointed out that on January 10, Winter Trails Day, there are several opportunities to snowshoe or cross-country ski for free.
• Planning ahead can give the feeling of having some semblance of control. To help you out with that, Scott offers 10 travel resolutions geared for getting your 2009 travel on the right track.
• Kraig offered a story about how an iPod saved a skier and a snowboarder from freezing to death in the Swiss Alps which, as he stated, is as good a commercial as any for getting one.
• If SkyMall Monday doesn't warm your heart with a belly laugh or two, I don't know what will. Reading Mike's top 10 list of SkyMall Mondays is a great way to pass some time. I still like the Flair Hair Visor the best.
• Cemeteries might not seem cheery to some, but I love them. As my husband said the other day as we were driving by a small, intriguing cemetery in northern Ohio, they are filled with stories. The stories remind us that time is fleeting so don't waste it. Jeffery's look at New York City's famous cemeteries presents a glimpse into the past and how New York preserves the resting places of those who came before us. If there's any indication that life has value, here is proof.

Cuba has a lot to mull over as it rushes in the new year. That's because it's no longer up to Fidel to make decisions about the nation's state -- particularly with regard to its relations with the world's most powerful nations (Russia, China, and the United States to name a few...). It's up to Fidel's brother, Raúl, who officially took the reigns from an ailing Fidel back in February.

Fifty years ago today, Fidel Castro marched his revolutionary troops down to Havana and freed his nation from dictator Fulgencio Batista. It only seems fitting, then that this photo is Cuban propaganda that says, "Fight and conquer the impossible." Let no one argue Fidel's power and influence in Cuba. He entered the picture fifty years ago. The rest, they say, is history. Soon after Castro's rising, the U.S. government banned exports and broke diplomatic relations with Cuba. The Bay of Pigs, the Cold War, Guantanamo are all marked in his nation's history, indicating moments of victory, defeat, and uncertainty.

I chose this picture as today's Photo of the Day for a few reasons. One is because Jeremy Baumgartner took it at Fisherman's Wharf at Monterey Harbor in California on New Year's Eve, January 1, 2008. Featuring it today seems symmetrical. In a year that has had so many ups and downs, symmetry feels fitting and the photo exudes a stillness and calm.

With the hoopla around New Year's Eve and the upset 2008 has brought, there's a need for calm and the time to consider the stars. If you look above the warm, friendly glow of the sailboats, you'll see Orion's Belt. It's one of the largest constellations and the one that everyone around the world can see. Part of the belt is the three close together vertical stars.

To have your photos considered for Photo of the Day, post them at Gadling's Flickr Photo Pool.

Jeffery wrote about weird New Year's traditions around the world. There are also weird items that drop at midnight New Year's Eve.

Sure you can watch the ball drop at Time's Square in New York City on New Year's Eve, either in person or on television, or you can watch a walleye drop. A walleye is a fish caught in Lake Erie. Every year a 20-foot, 600 pound fiberglass walleye is dropped in Port Clinton, Ohio to ring in the New Year.

Port Clinton isn't the only town to drop unusual items to mark a new beginning. I've known about Walleye Madness for year's but came across this Reuters article with nine other unusual New Year's drop items. As you will notice, most items are food related. The links lead to articles and references with information about each of these quirky events.

• a 6-foot conch shell in Key West, Florida
• a 25-foot illuminated marshmallow Peep in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
• a 3-foot tall glowing pickle in Mt. Olive, North Carolina
• an 18-foot sausage in Elmore, Ohio
• a 7 1/2 foot,120 pound edible bologna in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.
• a paper-mâché gumbo pot in New Orleans, Louisiana
• a giant crab in Easton, Maryland
• a hunk of cheese in Plymouth, Wisconsin
• a 1,250 pound acorn in Raleigh, North Carolina

Unlike many holidays, where celebrants are bound by tradition or religion, New Year's is a holiday that allows each individual to choose his own method of celebration. Some revelers will soak themselves in alcohol, boozing it up with copious bottles of champagne. Others choose to make the evening a quieter affair, settling in for a movie and an early night in bed.

However you personally choose to celebrate New Year's 2009, people around the world certainly have some wacky ways that they choose to bring in their new year. MSNBC is reporting on some of the more interesting customs. Here's a look at a few of the more curious:

• South America - in countries like Brazil and Bolivia, it's what's inside that counts. Residents in cities such as Sao Paulo and La Paz ring in the New Year by donning brightly colored underpants. Those who choose red are hoping for an amorous year ahead, those with yellow wish for money. I guess this begs the question of how you tell who is wearing what color underwear. Perhaps that is best left unanswered...
• Denmark - as if the effects of plentiful New Year's alcohol were not disorienting enough, many Danish revelers leap off chairs at the stroke of midnight, hoping to banish bad spirits in the year ahead.
  
• Philippines - New Year's celebrations in places like Manila tend to be circular; Filipinos focus on all things round, consuming "round" fruits such as grapes and wearing clothing with round shapes like polka dots. The spherical theme is meant to remind celebrants of the "round" shape of coins and prosperity.
• Spain - at the stroke of 12, Spaniards begin to consume 12 grapes, attempting to eat the whole bunch by the time the clock stops chiming.
• Belarus - the new year in Belarus is all about getting hitched. Unmarried women compete at games of skill and chance to determine who will tie the knot in the coming months. One game involves setting piles of corn and a rooster before the potential brides-to-be - whichever pile the bird chooses apparently picks the lucky lady.

You can check out the full list of weird New Year's traditions here.

I never knew there could be a book so thoughtful and inspiring for women as this one. Stephanie Elizondo Griest's second travel book, which lists far more than just 100 Places Every Woman Should Go, is truly an encyclopedia for women travelers. It's the kind of book that could never have existed fifty years ago, but is so refreshing that free-spirited, female travelers should feel grateful that it exists now, and fully prepared for that next trip into the wide, wonderful world.

Griest's great book is packed with helpful historical information, inspiring stories, and travel tips. It's broken up into nine sections -- my favorite being the first: "Powerful Women and Their Places in History." There's so much worth digesting in each locale described. For instance, I had no idea that the word "lesbian" came from the birthplace of Sappho (Lesbos, Greece). Griest fills each description with great travel tips that often include specific street addresses for particularly noteworthy sights.

Certainly any kid who imagined him or herself a singer pictured what it would be like to be dressed in a play-suit made of curtains leaping about Salzburg, Austria with the von Trapp children as they sang "doe a deer." I certainly did.

When the von Trapps escaped from Nazi-ruled Austria during World War II, they eventually landed in Stowe, Vermont as the Trapp Family Singers who made money by performing and opening a ski resort lodge. After the movie "The Sound of Music" came out in 1965, the real family and their ski resort and lodge gained even more notoriety.

I read in this New York Times article that Sam von Trapp, the grandson of Maria and the captain, immortalized by Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, is the newest von Trapp to take over the business. He's happy to do it since, from what I understand, no one asks him who he was in the movie. A generation of distance from tinseltown fame helps.

Recognizing that "The Sound of Music "connection is one that brings business, Sam is running commercials advertising the Trapp Family Lodge on tonight's showing of the movie on ABC. He also plans to bring back holiday singalongs like the good old days.

The one song I can sing reasonably on key is "Edelweiss." If you're ever at the singalong, see if that's on the list of options. If you want to sing the song along with the movie von Trapp's, click here.

You want to witness the dawning of the age of "hope" and "change" first-hand. You want to be their in person when President-Elect Barack Obama drops the second half of his current title. But, there's a problem. You're not alone. In fact, as many as two million people are expected to attend the inauguration, and hotel rooms are disappearing as far away as Pennsylvania, according to the latest from the Wall Street Journal. Airlines are adding flights. To make sure your trip to Washington goes smoothly, however, you'll need to do more than grab a room and arrange travel to our nation's capital. Heed the WSJ's tips, and you'll start this new era without a hitch.

Whether you get a great spot close to the Capitol for the ceremony or a street-side view along the parade route, bring a sandwich – and nothing else. Umbrellas and strollers, it seems, are particularly prohibited. Metal detectors will be in abundance, and I suspect that patience will be in short supply. So, be prepared for some degree of inconvenience. I'm not talking the mild irritation of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (to draw an example from my neighborhood). This is serious, much-worse-than-holiday-flying aggravation.

A lot of people are excited to attend the inauguration and related events. After the jump, you'll find a video that shows the level of excitement involved, as well as a few tips on finding a hotel room (yes, it is possible).