More Travel Trivia here.

Flickr user Adal-Honduras took this shot of El Salvador's Lake Suchitlan, a popular weekend getaway for many Salvadorans. Located near the beautiful, colonial town of Suchitoto, Lake Suchitlan is one of the most gorgeous spots in perhaps the Western Hemisphere's most underrated country.

Got some photos you want us to consider for Gadling's Photo of the Day? Submit your best shots here.

Welcome to another edition of Gadlinks, your go-to source for the most interesting links in the world of travel. Here's what's captured our interest today...

• Cute ten-year-old girl schools Anthony Bourdain. Very funny.
• Photos of Afghanistan's national sport, buzkashi, in which the "ball" is a headless goat carcass.
• Christopher Hitchens calls North Korea's government "even weirder and more despicable than you thought."
• Some more amazing photos from Haiti, courtesy of the excellent Big Picture blog.
• Finally, the Rick Steves Drinking Game.

More Gadlinks here.

More Travel Trivia here.

There's no better way to start the weekend than by checking out our favorite travel-related blog posts from today. Here they are in no particular order...

• This might be the coolest Flickr gallery I've ever seen.
• "I went to J.D. Salinger's house." Writes Mike Riggs: "Every sentence [in our 'Salinger Hypothetical' game] began with, 'What if Salinger' and ended in an absurd theory: What if Salinger hasn't cut his fingernails in 50 years? What if Salinger's home is staffed by Southeast Asian slave labor? What if Salinger answers the door in a dress?"
• World Hum's Spud Hilton stands up for fact-challenged tour guides.
• Which is the world's friendliest country? The answer might surprise you.
• It's still faster than taking in taxi.

More Gadlinks here.

The hysteria over the Apple Tablet and the State of the Union has reached a fever pitch. Calm yourself and your loved ones with Gadlinks, your daily look at what's going on in the travel blogosphere...

• Over at Budget Travel, our own Mike Barish offers some vacation suggestions for Conan O'Brien.
• Want to own the "Miracle on the Hudson" plane? Here's your chance.
• U.S. may lift its 21-year ban on haggis, Scotland's national dish.
• 30 funny travel quotes courtesy of Brave New Traveler. My favorite is a Mark Twain classic: "Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company."
• Nomadic Matt provides some tips for how to backpack Fiji's stunning Yasawa Islands.

More Gadlinks here.

Independent travel is largely about exploring the world on your own terms, but few of us can be on the road forever. The time comes when we are forced to settle in to our lives back home, and it can often be a difficult adjustment. Sometimes we might even feel like two different people– the free-spirited traveler and the conformist worker drone.

But the thrill of travel doesn't have to end when we step off the plane and are greeted by friends and family at the airport. If the goal of travel is self-improvement, that is the perfect time to put all you've learned into action.

To me, anyway, indie travel is about attitude, not location. Therefore, we should try to incorporate what travel has taught us into our daily lives, no matter where we are. Here are a couple suggestions for doing just that:

• Spend plenty of time by yourself. Visit bookstores, cafes, restaurants alone. Go for a walk by yourself. Anything to free up some time for reflection and clear thinking about how you want your life to go.

Today's Photo of the Day comes to us courtesy of Morrissey (no, not that Morrissey), who took this magnificent shot at dusk in Parque Chacabuco in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The church standing in front of the gorgeous amber sky is the Iglesia Nuestra Señora de la Medalla Milagrosa, or the Church of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal.

Want your pics considered for Gadling's Photo of the Day? Upload your best shots here.

It's the weekend-- time to pour yourself a martini and kick back with some Gadlinks. Check out our favorite stories from today...

• Full-body scanners at airports: "They're not just a dumb idea, they don't actually work." [via Boing Boing]
• Nomadic Matt goes scuba diving for the first time. (I wrote about a similar experience with the Discover Scuba Diving program here.)
• Must. Go. Here.
• Over at Vagabondish, Amanda Kendle writes about how cooking at home can help you remember life on the road.
• Wait, cell phones are still working in Haiti? How? Elsewhere, a survivor of the Haitian earthquake says an iPhone app saved his life.

More Gadlinks here.

Every time I re-read that dog-eared journal I kept during my first trip abroad, I know that it's not as good a memento of my travels as it could be.

Tell me if this sounds familiar: Every day I'd write the date at the top of the page followed by nothing more than a chronological recounting of that day's events. The journal was, as Tolstoy wrote of Ivan Ilych, "most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible."

Over the years, I've come to rethink everything I thought I knew about how to keep a travel journal. Here are a few tips, applicable to old-fashioned Moleskines and travel blogs alike, that will help you write better than I did my first time around...

1. Don't write every day.

Who says you have to have an entry for every day? If writing in your journal begins to feel too much like a chore, if you're not enjoying or learning anything from putting your thoughts and observations down on paper, then take some time off. I had always thought that if I neglected to write a journal entry one day, the record of my trip would somehow be incomplete. It's not.

Especially on long trips, some days may not truly merit an entry. Think to yourself: Five years from now, am I going to be glad I wrote this down? If not, leave it out. Really, it's okay.