Let me tell you my story from my most recent Arctic cruise. It sounded wonderful, National Geographic's trip thru the Arctic Ice with Polar bears. There was to be ice where eyes can see the snow and ice that was all around. Machines made by humans would have to fight the elements to get through the frozen north. It sounded like an epic task, an epic combat with the north weather, the north pole.

I was instructed to carry all technology that could be carried inside my bag. I was able to fit my laptop, as well as a big screen to expand my working space. The electricity was no problem. It would be a challenging task, but I didn't know what I could expect. I didn’t know that just two days into my 14-day journey I would find that my Internet connection would go down and I would be without internet access for the next 10 consecutive days. When it happened I was completely shocked. Every travel, however far or difficult is going to cause me to disconnect from the internet. I wasn't planning for the downtime, in addition to having unfinished business I had to take care of in the week ahead as well as additional things to accomplish.


Nowadays, nobody cares that they have to be offline. Internet is all around. If your internet connection is slow at times it is possible to find a McDonalds close to you and join their free WiFi. You can also take your laptop to lounge at Starbucks all day. In the north, there's no restaurant or cafe which can help you. There are many hours away from the closest electricity source. There's no free Internet. There are two escape routes from these situations. You can either be offline, or get a satellite internet connection.

I can't afford a satellite phone. It's just too expensive, especially to use for Internet access. mp3 youtube converter The next time I'll have an extensive collection of audio and videos before I set out into the world of unknown. In the past, I had two tracks. They were both downloaded in a sly way at the time, and I only had three jazz tracks and one famous song that I didn't know its title. This is it. 4 tunes for two weeks of no music. If I knew that this was likely to be the situation, I would be prepared. I would have loaded my laptop with TV shows, films, music videos, and audio files with music and podcasts. I would spend hours listening to my favourite podcasts. It is easy to download podcasts, convert them to mp3 and save them to my computer. After that, I can lay down in my room and listen to whatever I want to hear at home but don't have time for. It was my"golden hour, two weeks full of gold. It ended up being 2 weeks filled with staring at ceilings and rushing passengers to catch them each when they made a sound.

The trip was empty both literally and metaphorically. I have never been so bored. The ice was way too thick. In the knowledge that it might cause issues, the boat had the oftowed back to civilization. While this isn't a surprise this meant that a lot of hours could have been spent listening to and watching videos from podcasts, DIY tutorials about home fixes or simply listening to music. Next time, I will convert Youtube videos from mp4 into MP3 format on my laptop. Bring them along and you can listen to your favourite songs from your laptop. Music is never going to make you feel depressed. Also remember Hulu and Netflix apps are able to download movies and shows to stream offline. These are also able to be downloaded for the long trip across the Arctic. Be sure to stay away from the boredom. Enjoy yourself!