Out of an act of desperation to get out of the funk I've been in for a while, I decided to set myself up with a challenge. Inspired by this amazing polyglot , I've decided to learn all of the most essential characters of Japanese in three months.
Again, please commit me to the looney bin.
Part of this challenge involves holding yourself to the goal in different ways. One of these is posting online somewhere what you're doing and how you're doing with it as you go. I didn't want to clog up my Facebook feed, so I've decided to post it here. I'll also be posting in this really supportive goal community on Reddit. Support's always good.
In addition to posting online and holding myself accountable, I've made a bet with Samuel. If I learn all of these Kanji, he's going to take me to Canlis to celebrate. If I don't, I have to take him. For those of you not in Seattle, Canlis is an expensive, fancy restaurant that I really can't afford to take myself to, let alone Sam. Talk about motivation!
I'm starting this Monday, which gives me a couple of days to prepare. This puts my learn-by date to Feburary 4, 2012. Wish me luck!
Friday, November 4, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Malmo, Sweden
On Saturday, Samuel and I planned to go to Malmo, Sweden. It is directly across the Oresund from Copenhagen. There is a very large bridge to get across, and the train also goes over to Sweden, and all the way up to possibly Helsingborg. Pretty far into Sweden, either way. We took the train. It was really easy and comfortable.
Unfortunately, we didn't actually look up anything to do in Malmo before we went. So we found ourselves not knowing what to do or where to go. I almost wish we'd looked it up, but Malmo seemed like such a small city that I don't think we would have found much. We just grabbed a tour book from a tourist shop and wandered around.
The first thing we saw to do was go to Malmohaus, which is Malmo Castle. It was pretty cool, and not very expensive- 7 dollars or so. We were confused about the exchange rate the whole time. Once we got there, we decided to share a quick snack at the cafe and ordered pickled fried herring. Oh my goodness. It was amazing! It was served cold, which was strange (to us, at least) with potatoes and salad and creme fraiche. I wish I could eat it again. We took a picture, and everytime I see it, I start drooling.
The we went through Malmo Castle. It was pretty cool, but hard to follow at times. Some exhibits were in English and Swedish, others had an English guide at the beginning you could carry around, and others were just in Swedish. Some exhibts would have some signs in both languages, and some in just Swedish. I didn't feel like I understood as much as I could have. For example, down in the dungeons, there was a cool exhibit on the Black Plague. I didn't realize it was about the Black Plague, and not about people dying in the dungeons, until the end, when the signs started being in both languages again. I liked seeing it, and the castle itself was really cool. I know I shouldn't complain either, because I'm in their country, and I wish I was able to speak the language. The disparity between languages just seemed strange. Either way, I reall enjoyed it.
Samuel wanted to buy a sweater, so after we left the castle, we headed to an area the guidebook said had flea markets, shops, and international food. Sounds like a good place to find a sweater! Unfortunately, "flea markets" turned out to mean one farmer's market- no sweaters. No stores at all, really. Disappointing. We stopped at an Indian place for dinner. I had a dish that was really interesting. It was Butter Tikka Masala, but it was bright pink and sweet. It was strange, but very good.
Still on a sweater hunt, Samuel took us on a very roundabout way of getting to another place the guidebook described as having cute shops. It was a mall. Ugh. Malmo appears to exist solely for shopping. I'm pretty sure I saw more shops than people. Anyway, the mall wasn't bad. Sam found a really nice sweater, and I found a great thick wool scarf for really cheap. By this point, our feet started to hurt and we headed back to the train. They'd had a problem with the electric, and the people had been waiting for the train for almost an hour. We had good timing, though, because we only had to wait about 15 minutes. :)
Back and A and E's, we grabbed a pizza and settled in for the night. It was a good pizza. Felt just like home. :)
Unfortunately, we didn't actually look up anything to do in Malmo before we went. So we found ourselves not knowing what to do or where to go. I almost wish we'd looked it up, but Malmo seemed like such a small city that I don't think we would have found much. We just grabbed a tour book from a tourist shop and wandered around.
The first thing we saw to do was go to Malmohaus, which is Malmo Castle. It was pretty cool, and not very expensive- 7 dollars or so. We were confused about the exchange rate the whole time. Once we got there, we decided to share a quick snack at the cafe and ordered pickled fried herring. Oh my goodness. It was amazing! It was served cold, which was strange (to us, at least) with potatoes and salad and creme fraiche. I wish I could eat it again. We took a picture, and everytime I see it, I start drooling.
The we went through Malmo Castle. It was pretty cool, but hard to follow at times. Some exhibits were in English and Swedish, others had an English guide at the beginning you could carry around, and others were just in Swedish. Some exhibts would have some signs in both languages, and some in just Swedish. I didn't feel like I understood as much as I could have. For example, down in the dungeons, there was a cool exhibit on the Black Plague. I didn't realize it was about the Black Plague, and not about people dying in the dungeons, until the end, when the signs started being in both languages again. I liked seeing it, and the castle itself was really cool. I know I shouldn't complain either, because I'm in their country, and I wish I was able to speak the language. The disparity between languages just seemed strange. Either way, I reall enjoyed it.
Samuel wanted to buy a sweater, so after we left the castle, we headed to an area the guidebook said had flea markets, shops, and international food. Sounds like a good place to find a sweater! Unfortunately, "flea markets" turned out to mean one farmer's market- no sweaters. No stores at all, really. Disappointing. We stopped at an Indian place for dinner. I had a dish that was really interesting. It was Butter Tikka Masala, but it was bright pink and sweet. It was strange, but very good.
Still on a sweater hunt, Samuel took us on a very roundabout way of getting to another place the guidebook described as having cute shops. It was a mall. Ugh. Malmo appears to exist solely for shopping. I'm pretty sure I saw more shops than people. Anyway, the mall wasn't bad. Sam found a really nice sweater, and I found a great thick wool scarf for really cheap. By this point, our feet started to hurt and we headed back to the train. They'd had a problem with the electric, and the people had been waiting for the train for almost an hour. We had good timing, though, because we only had to wait about 15 minutes. :)
Back and A and E's, we grabbed a pizza and settled in for the night. It was a good pizza. Felt just like home. :)
Friday, September 9, 2011
Biking through Copenhagen
The plan for the next day in Copenhagen was to get some bikes from A's work and ride them through the city to see some of the more popular sites. A and E already have bikes, as they don't have a car. We just needed to borrow some for Samuel and me.
A note about owning a car in Denmark: when you buy a car, you are charged a 200% tax. So if you buy a $15,000 car, you pay another $30,000 in taxes, making your car $45,000. That being sad, Copenhagen has a really nice public transportation system, with several rail lines and what seemed to be a pretty good bus system. They also have really nice bike lanes. Instead of being some puny little afterthought of a lane like in the US, they actually have their own lane, with a curb seperating it from the road, and another curb seperating the bikes from the sidewalk. Besides the obvious, another great benefit is that cars do not drive through the bike lane to park on the side of the road, so there is no danger to bicyclists! I was really impressed.
A has a regular bike, but E has this awesome contraption called a Christiana.
That was the end of our sight-seeing for the day. It was really nice to just have the evenings to hang out with E and A and get to know them. Copenhagen was really nice because I feel like I got a really good feel of the city, but I also got to relax a lot. Plus, A and E were so welcoming. I felt like I was hanging out with old friends.
A note about owning a car in Denmark: when you buy a car, you are charged a 200% tax. So if you buy a $15,000 car, you pay another $30,000 in taxes, making your car $45,000. That being sad, Copenhagen has a really nice public transportation system, with several rail lines and what seemed to be a pretty good bus system. They also have really nice bike lanes. Instead of being some puny little afterthought of a lane like in the US, they actually have their own lane, with a curb seperating it from the road, and another curb seperating the bikes from the sidewalk. Besides the obvious, another great benefit is that cars do not drive through the bike lane to park on the side of the road, so there is no danger to bicyclists! I was really impressed.
A has a regular bike, but E has this awesome contraption called a Christiana.
Theirs looks a little different than this one, but the same general idea is applied. The back looks like a bike, but the front has a big box and two big wheels. The box is big enough that two kids could sit side by side. These are so great for a place where one mostly has to rely on public transportation. While looking for this picture, I saw pictures of people moving and even set up for the wheelchair!
We stopped for some quick drinks at a cafe by the canal, then headed out to Christiana, the place A and E most wanted to show us. Christiana (the cool bikes started here, hence the shared names) declared itself free from the state in 1971. Naturally, it became a haven for drugs of all kinds. Recently, they've cleaned up, and all I saw (and smelled) was pot. I wish I had pictures, because it was really cool. Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed (drugs, remember?) and if they catch you taking pictures, they'll destroy your camera.
Christiana was pretty much what one would expect from a lot of pot heads living in a commune. The neighborhood didn't seem that big. The funny part (I thought) was that it is in the city. When E and A told us about this, I was expecting it to be far out of the city in the middle of a field or something. Nope! The houses were really cute and interesting, and there were people selling the types of things one might expect along Pusher Street. In addition to all the stoners and hippies were a bunch of people who just looked out of places- people in Abercrombie sweatshirts, and a huge group of old businessmen in suits lazily meandering around the paths. Strange place.
After this, it was getting late, so we made a quick stop at the Little Mermaid staute before heading off. Apparently, this statue is what inspired Hans Christian Andersen to write the story of the Little Mermaid. It was okay- kind of small and nondescript. It is a little strange that it is such a big landmark in such an interesting city.
To get to the school to get the bikes, Samuel and I had gone on the bus, and met E and A, who rode their bikes. Going home, E was tired from peddling the Christiana (I don't blame her whatsoever!) and we needed to start dinner, so E, Baby, and I rode the bus back while Samuel and A rode the bikes back to the house. On the way home, we stopped at the grocery.
I feel like grocery stores in foreign countries are a great way to get a sense of the culture, or at least the food culture. IN Denmark, grocery stores are small. In this neighborhood, there is a wine shop, a cheese shop, and a vegetable stand all seperate from the grocery store. I think it is nice that a company just pays attention to one thing and does it very well. E says every single time she goes to the grocery, there is at least one thing that she just can't find or they don't carry. That's the downfall of the cute little stores, I guess- no selection. The produce section was a small corner- a far cry from the sprawl of produce in the US. One really cool thing- herbs are sold in plant form. I love this idea! There is no sense in chopping off a huge amount of a plant to have half of it go to waste anyway. This way, it just stays alive until you can use it again!
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Copenhagen, Denmark- Day 1
Day six of Glorious Europe Extravaganza began tiredly. There's no better word. After 2 hours and 45 minutes of sleep, navigating the public transit of a foreign city in a foreign language was nothing short of daunting. Fortunately, as we were staying with Sam's cousin, A, he had written us amazingly detailed directions on Copenhagen's public transportation system. Despite getting on the wrong train, we managed to make it to A's house with the help of some very nice locals. We also walked past his street several times. But it all became worth it when we were welcomed with open arms and given breakfast burritos and cappucinos. Sam's family are the most wonderful group of people on Earth. Never have I met a family where every member loves the others and there is no drama, no annoying family shit, just love and get-togethers. A, and his wife, E are no exception. After staying with strangers in Iceland, it was really nice to stay with family strangers. :)
Our sleep space was to be in the living room, so in an effort not to take that over, plus with desire to stay awake and stay on a normal schedule, we decided to go out on the town. Plus, A and E have a two-year old, E-Bear and a four-month old, so sleeping probably wouldn't have been too much of an option! Sam, A, E-bear and I packed up a stroller and set off. We saw some really old houses still around from the (possible) 1500s. The architecture is gorgeous. A later showed us a video from the 1930s, and Copenhagen looks exactly the same. The only difference was the clothes and the cars! This city is so pretty. It looks exactly how I thought it would, with brightly colored little houses in rows and intricately designed buildings.
We stopped by Nyhavn, which is a gorgeous harbor with lots of little shops. Sam bought some apples from a local apple grower. They were so good we ate them all up almost right away and raved about them for the next couple of days. Apparently they're grown on a little island in South Denmark.
We also walked down Stroget, a pedestrian street full of shopping. None of us really wanted to shop, but it was one of those "must-sees". It was okay- about what you'd expect from a street of stores. Clothes (and everything else!) are expensive in Denmark. Apparently Copenhagen is in the top 5 most expensive cities to live in the world.
We stopped at a big square, where E-bear ran around and chased pigeons (and stepped on a sleeping one, whoops!), then headed off to Rosenburg Castle in the King's Garden. It was gorgeous and ridiculous- a huge castle in a huge park in the middle of the city. Room after room of fancy stuff, including this incredible clock E-bear couldn't get enough of. This clock would have sold for millions of dollars, easily. It was the most intricate clock I've ever seen in my life. In the basement are the Crown Jewels, which are about as ridiculous, extravagant, and over-the-top as you might expect. Two armed guards were outside, with two more in the basement.
After all that, we needed some food, so A took us to a great smorrebrod place. Smorrebrod is a Danish food that is really just meats and cheeses on top of food bread. As you can imagine, that can be done a plethora of different ways. This place was fancy- Sam had one with eel and one with gorgonzola, A had one with chicken salad and one with gorgonzola, and I had one with beef tartar. They were all delicious. E-bear had a hot dog. Europe is in love with hotdogs- kinda weird.
Came back to the house, E had made us delicious dinner, and we crashed pretty quickly.
Our sleep space was to be in the living room, so in an effort not to take that over, plus with desire to stay awake and stay on a normal schedule, we decided to go out on the town. Plus, A and E have a two-year old, E-Bear and a four-month old, so sleeping probably wouldn't have been too much of an option! Sam, A, E-bear and I packed up a stroller and set off. We saw some really old houses still around from the (possible) 1500s. The architecture is gorgeous. A later showed us a video from the 1930s, and Copenhagen looks exactly the same. The only difference was the clothes and the cars! This city is so pretty. It looks exactly how I thought it would, with brightly colored little houses in rows and intricately designed buildings.
We stopped by Nyhavn, which is a gorgeous harbor with lots of little shops. Sam bought some apples from a local apple grower. They were so good we ate them all up almost right away and raved about them for the next couple of days. Apparently they're grown on a little island in South Denmark.
We also walked down Stroget, a pedestrian street full of shopping. None of us really wanted to shop, but it was one of those "must-sees". It was okay- about what you'd expect from a street of stores. Clothes (and everything else!) are expensive in Denmark. Apparently Copenhagen is in the top 5 most expensive cities to live in the world.
We stopped at a big square, where E-bear ran around and chased pigeons (and stepped on a sleeping one, whoops!), then headed off to Rosenburg Castle in the King's Garden. It was gorgeous and ridiculous- a huge castle in a huge park in the middle of the city. Room after room of fancy stuff, including this incredible clock E-bear couldn't get enough of. This clock would have sold for millions of dollars, easily. It was the most intricate clock I've ever seen in my life. In the basement are the Crown Jewels, which are about as ridiculous, extravagant, and over-the-top as you might expect. Two armed guards were outside, with two more in the basement.
After all that, we needed some food, so A took us to a great smorrebrod place. Smorrebrod is a Danish food that is really just meats and cheeses on top of food bread. As you can imagine, that can be done a plethora of different ways. This place was fancy- Sam had one with eel and one with gorgonzola, A had one with chicken salad and one with gorgonzola, and I had one with beef tartar. They were all delicious. E-bear had a hot dog. Europe is in love with hotdogs- kinda weird.
Came back to the house, E had made us delicious dinner, and we crashed pretty quickly.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Iceland, Day Five- The Final Day.
Our fifth day in Iceland was kind of a mixed bag. On one hand, we'd been in Iceland for five days, the country was awesome, we'd loved every minute and every thing we'd done, and it had been a completely unique and interesting vacation. Not only those things, but now we were getting to drive around the rest of the country, a goal we didn't think we'd be able to achieve!
On the other hand, we had to leave.
Though neither of us wanted to leave (expect so maybe we could stop hemorrhaging money) we did make our last day there as long as possible. We had left Husavik by 8 AM to make sure we had plenty of time. Since the weather on the ocean was so bad that we couldn't go whale watching, the weather on land was pretty terrible too. Cold, arctic rain was pouring down, and the temperature outside was maybe 38. Coupled with the rain, it was damn cold and we were both glad we were in the car and not on a boat in the Arctic Ocean.
The first place we stopped was Detifoss, the largest waterfall in Europe. Did I mention earlier it was almost freezing and raining buckets? Yeah, that didn't stop at Detifoss. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was worse due to the mist coming off the waterfall. It was really pretty, but I'm not much of a waterfall person. I can't swim, so water is just kind of a deadly asshole to me. I'm not normally awestruck, just annoyed that if I get too close, it'll kill me. By the time we got to the waterfall, we were quite literally dripping wet and freezing cold.The path, made of rocks, was more of a creek, and I slipped on the rocks a couple of times. Detifoss is probably really pretty, and maybe I'll see pictures and realize what I missed, but that experience was downright terrible!
Our second stop was a town called Egilssadir. We mailed some postcards and grabbed some food and coffee. One of our hosts in Husavik told Sam about a great shortcut that was not only incredibly gorgeous, but would save us 90 kilometers! Unfortunately, we had some issuses finding it, but it still saved us plenty of time and was really incredible. The road is called 939, and while it isn't the nicest road you'll ever drive on, it is too pretty for words to explain.
We didn't stop again until we got to Southern Iceland. That sounds like a long time, but Iceland is so small that it didn't take that long. We stopped in Hofn to grab some lunch. The Guidebook recommended Kaffi Hornid, saying it had "great character" and good food. Eh. I wouldn't say it was bad, but it certainly wasn't the glowing recommendation the guidebook bestowed upon it. We walked in to some French girls arguing with the waitress about being overcharged. I don't know what character the guidebook was talking about. It was an okay restaurant, but nothing that stands out. I had tomato soup and bread- the bread was great, the tomato soup was unlimited, and I had my fill. Sam had an $18 cheeseburger- pretty common price for Iceland- and said it was really good.
Our next problem was the car. A clause in our rental agreement said that we couldn't take the car off-roading, or on any "F" roads, which are the roads in Iceland that mean you need a four-wheel drive to go on them. While we definitely didn't, the car looked like we'd been driving it through every mud puddle in Iceland- and the handle had fallen off one of the doors. Uh oh. We figured if we returned it clean, it might look better, and we also really needed to wash the windows. Iceland doesn't have windshield wiper fluid and squeegees at every gas pump like the US does, so we were at a bit of a loss. Then we looked across the parking lot and saw the coolest invention for hand-washing a car ever invented. I'm probably way behind the times on this, but I'm going to ghetto-rig this for the next time I wash my car. This thing was pretty much a deck brush with the soap and water coming out of the handle in between the bristles. I know this is a really lame thing to talk about on a travel blog, and these things are probably everywhere, but I have never seen them and I am completely amazed. Okay, enough about car brushes.
Besides the cool factor of saying that I drove all the way around Iceland, Jokulsarlon, the next place we stopped, was the reason I am really glad we got to see the southern part of the country. Jokulsarlon is this place where pieces of a glacier are breaking off, slowly melting, and moving out to the ocean. The glacier pieces/icebergs are either this gorgeous blue color or striped with sediment from when the glacier froze. The wind was incredible- it almost knocked me over a couple of times. My one regret is that we didn't take a boat ride among the glaciers. It is supposed to be great, although freezing, and not very expensive. Unfortunately, we just didn't have time. That can also go on the list of things to do next time- or the list of reasons to return to Iceland!
Sadly, our next stop was Keplavik, the airport. What looked like a barren, empty landscape at touchdown now looked like a bustling metropolis compared to the rest of Iceland. Our plane left at 1 AM and took 2 hours and 45 minutes. With the time change, we arrived in Copenhagen a little after 6 AM, completely exhausted.
On the other hand, we had to leave.
Though neither of us wanted to leave (expect so maybe we could stop hemorrhaging money) we did make our last day there as long as possible. We had left Husavik by 8 AM to make sure we had plenty of time. Since the weather on the ocean was so bad that we couldn't go whale watching, the weather on land was pretty terrible too. Cold, arctic rain was pouring down, and the temperature outside was maybe 38. Coupled with the rain, it was damn cold and we were both glad we were in the car and not on a boat in the Arctic Ocean.
The first place we stopped was Detifoss, the largest waterfall in Europe. Did I mention earlier it was almost freezing and raining buckets? Yeah, that didn't stop at Detifoss. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was worse due to the mist coming off the waterfall. It was really pretty, but I'm not much of a waterfall person. I can't swim, so water is just kind of a deadly asshole to me. I'm not normally awestruck, just annoyed that if I get too close, it'll kill me. By the time we got to the waterfall, we were quite literally dripping wet and freezing cold.The path, made of rocks, was more of a creek, and I slipped on the rocks a couple of times. Detifoss is probably really pretty, and maybe I'll see pictures and realize what I missed, but that experience was downright terrible!
Our second stop was a town called Egilssadir. We mailed some postcards and grabbed some food and coffee. One of our hosts in Husavik told Sam about a great shortcut that was not only incredibly gorgeous, but would save us 90 kilometers! Unfortunately, we had some issuses finding it, but it still saved us plenty of time and was really incredible. The road is called 939, and while it isn't the nicest road you'll ever drive on, it is too pretty for words to explain.
We didn't stop again until we got to Southern Iceland. That sounds like a long time, but Iceland is so small that it didn't take that long. We stopped in Hofn to grab some lunch. The Guidebook recommended Kaffi Hornid, saying it had "great character" and good food. Eh. I wouldn't say it was bad, but it certainly wasn't the glowing recommendation the guidebook bestowed upon it. We walked in to some French girls arguing with the waitress about being overcharged. I don't know what character the guidebook was talking about. It was an okay restaurant, but nothing that stands out. I had tomato soup and bread- the bread was great, the tomato soup was unlimited, and I had my fill. Sam had an $18 cheeseburger- pretty common price for Iceland- and said it was really good.
Our next problem was the car. A clause in our rental agreement said that we couldn't take the car off-roading, or on any "F" roads, which are the roads in Iceland that mean you need a four-wheel drive to go on them. While we definitely didn't, the car looked like we'd been driving it through every mud puddle in Iceland- and the handle had fallen off one of the doors. Uh oh. We figured if we returned it clean, it might look better, and we also really needed to wash the windows. Iceland doesn't have windshield wiper fluid and squeegees at every gas pump like the US does, so we were at a bit of a loss. Then we looked across the parking lot and saw the coolest invention for hand-washing a car ever invented. I'm probably way behind the times on this, but I'm going to ghetto-rig this for the next time I wash my car. This thing was pretty much a deck brush with the soap and water coming out of the handle in between the bristles. I know this is a really lame thing to talk about on a travel blog, and these things are probably everywhere, but I have never seen them and I am completely amazed. Okay, enough about car brushes.
Besides the cool factor of saying that I drove all the way around Iceland, Jokulsarlon, the next place we stopped, was the reason I am really glad we got to see the southern part of the country. Jokulsarlon is this place where pieces of a glacier are breaking off, slowly melting, and moving out to the ocean. The glacier pieces/icebergs are either this gorgeous blue color or striped with sediment from when the glacier froze. The wind was incredible- it almost knocked me over a couple of times. My one regret is that we didn't take a boat ride among the glaciers. It is supposed to be great, although freezing, and not very expensive. Unfortunately, we just didn't have time. That can also go on the list of things to do next time- or the list of reasons to return to Iceland!
Sadly, our next stop was Keplavik, the airport. What looked like a barren, empty landscape at touchdown now looked like a bustling metropolis compared to the rest of Iceland. Our plane left at 1 AM and took 2 hours and 45 minutes. With the time change, we arrived in Copenhagen a little after 6 AM, completely exhausted.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Iceland, Day Four- Myvatn and Husavik
Our fourth day in Iceland was one of the coolest days by far. I'd thought the landscape was pretty cool, neat museums and things to see, and nice people. Our fourth day was mind-blowing.
Close to Husavik is a lake called Lake Myvatn. Besid'es the Golden Circle (Gulfoss, Geysir, and Thingvellir), this is what people come to Iceland to see. If you ever go to Iceland, make it happen that you go see this area, and I promise you won't regret it. It isn't very easy to get there- if we'd driven straight there, it would have taken at least six hours. There aren't trains and I'm pretty sure there's not a bus. There is an airport. No matter how you get here, it was totally worth it.
Our guidebook took us in a circle around Myvatn, starting in Reykjahlid, and I feel like this was a really good way to see it. Each sight was awesome, but they seemed to get more and more fantastic as the circle went on.
The first thing we saw was Hverfell. Some of the signs we saw also said Hverfjall, and I think the story behind this is too funny not to share. 'Fell' in Icelandic means "small hill", whereas "fjall" means "mountain". It used to be called Hverfjall, but an Icelandic citizen went to court over the name. Apparently, it is more of a small hill than a mountain. I don't know why it upset him so much, but he won the case, and now the name is Hverfell. Mountain or small hill, the thing is pretty impressive. It looms up, black and ominous, in the background of Lake Myvatn. It was a volcano that erupted a couple of thousand years ago, but it doesn't resemble erupted volcanoes one might think of. Instead, it looks like a gigantic pile of black rocks. It is almost surreal. There is a path up to the top, and once there, we saw the gigantic crater in the middle. It was crazy! In the middle of the crater, there was a raised circle. I have no idea how it happened, but it was really cool to see.
Our next stop in the circle was Dimmuborgir. Apparently the terrible band actually got their name from somewhere. If I was Iceland, I would have sued for taking the name of someplace amazing and applying it to something shitty. I mean, the name "Shitty Band" was still available. They could have called themselves that. :)
I kid, I kid. But really, Dimmuborgir was really cool. The name means "dark castles" in Icelandic. I wouldn't want to be here at night; this place would be way too creepy. As it was in the middle of the day, well, it was over run with the same old people on buses that flocked to Thingvellir. I understand everyone wanting to see it, but part of our reason for going to Europe in September is that it is the off season, and we didn't want to be surrounded by people. I really would have enjoyed Dimmuborgir a lot more had I not been surrounded by old people talking about how bad the flies were (they weren't that bad, but what do you expect from a place essentially called Fly Lake?), how cold it was (it wasn't that cold, and I'm always cold), and walking really slowly in every possible spot to walk. We broke away for a bit, but by that time, we were frustrated and left. I recommend if you go to go really early in the morning, or maybe later in the day. It would be positively creepy at dusk or later, so maybe not then, but definitely try to avoid the crowds!
The next cool thing to see around Myvatn are the pseudocraters. These look like the craters that are formed from lava explosions, but lava come out there. They are made when hot lava flows over a wet place, like a lake or swamp, and the steam explodes. The pseudocraters are all found in a place called Skutustadagigar, on the southern part of the lake. They're not super cool to look at up close- they just look like grassy bowls- but they're neat to see from the road. Our guidebook recommended walking around on a path, but it took about an hour and we were on a bit of a time crunch, so it is on our list of things to do next time we go! Oh, and the other place pseudocraters are found is Mars. After this visit, I am convinced Iceland is a portal to Mars, so that doesn't surprise me whatsoever!
The western part of the lake is very pretty, but there isn't much to see landmark-wise. There are some mountains, and probably some goregous views from on top of them.
The next place we stopped is no longer on the lake, but off to the east. These next two places are why /u am convinced Iceland is Mars. At least, I now feel like I have a good idea what Mars is like. :)
Hverir. This place was mind-blowing, awesome, and made me want to barf. No, really. Hverir is made up of sulfur vents. The ground is red and there are white deposits everywhere, and steam is literally pouring out of the ground. It smells so awful that I could only stay for a couple of minutes. I don't know if we went on an exceptionally bad day, because the guidebook said nothing about the smell. Perhaps I am just sensitive, because there were other people out among the steam vents, taking pictures and looking around. I really wanted to see it closer, but I just couldn't handle it. We snapped a couple of pictures, including one of Sam pretending to barf, and jumped back in the car. I was really disappointed. Maybe those other people were Icelandic, and used to the smell. Since all the water in Iceland is geothermal, it all smells like sulfur. People wash their dishes and take showers in sulfur smelling water. Maybe due to that, they were able to handle it more than my sensitive nose. Maybe the wind was acting up. Or maybe I am just a wimp! Either way, it was really gorgeous in a creepy, out-of-this-world way, but foul.
Our last stop around Myvatn was Leirhjukur, which really looked like Mars. Leirhjukur is part of the Krafla volcano system, which is still active. As I don't really see the world changing so much, I forget what the Earth is really capable of. This really shook that impression. Iceland reminded me that the Earth is changing and very powerful. This sounds like such a cliche, I know, but it is really awe inspiring to be next to volcanic lava fields, with sulfur steam streaming out of the Earth.
That pretty much ended the most important things to see around Myvatn, so we headed back to Husavik to get lunch and hit some museums we were interested in.
We found Salka, which our guidebook mentioned as having smoked puffin. Fortunately, this restaurant was open, so we finally got to try! It was really good! The restaurant was a little expensive, but then again, most food in Iceland was astronomical. The service wasn't that great- the 5-top who came in after us got their food before we did- but I'd recommend it for the puffin. Cute and delicious; what more could you want from a bird?
Next was the thing I had been looking forward to the most for the entire trip- the Iceland Phallological Museum. Yeah, that's right. A penis museum. This museum was started by this one guy thanks to a pratical joke. When he was a school teacher, one of his students brought him a penis or a whale or seal or some other Icelandic animal. The teacher thought it was interesting, rather than repulsive, and preserved it. Word got around, and people started bringing this guy more and more samples of penises from different animals that would get caught. This museum now has over 270 penises from 46 different species. It is incredible! There's even a human penis from this guy who pledged to donate him when he died. They just got it in July. There are several other men who have pledged their penises as well. It was really really interesting. They didn't go into much more detail than the species, year caught, and sometimes how they got it/ life of the animal. Nothing about different functions or anything like that. I almost felt like I was looking at some guy's penis collection, and, essentially, I was. There were even several stuffed whale penises on plaques on the walls. Absolutely fascinating! Hands down my most favorite museum I've ever been to.
After the penis museum, we headed over to the Whale Museum, which was just down the street. Husavik is tiny- around 3,000 people live there- but they have a good selection of museums. The great thing about Iceland is that although their cities are tiny, they manage to make them feel quite big, with lots of attractions and entertainment. There was no point in Iceland where I felt bored or like there was nothing to do that interested me.
The Whale Museum was pretty interesting, and very comprehensive. They had this really interesting exhibit on display about whaling in Alaska. This photographer followed this group of whalers and showed the whole process. I like it because he did a great job of presenting the thing so that it was objective- one could really take their own opinion if they agreed with it or not. That's really hard to do with such a controversial subject.
While waiting for our hosts to get off work, we went up to a little lake called Botnsvatn behind Husavik. It was really small and cute- a really cute place to take a picnic lunch in the summer.
Our delightful host works for a whale watching company, and she offered to take us on a tour. We were planning that for our last morning in Husavik before driving back down to Reykjavik. Unfortunately, when we arrived back at their house, they had watched the news and found that the weather was probably going to be awful the next morning, and whale watching wouldn't be possible. As we watched the news throughout the night, it was confirmed- no whale watching for Kristen and Sam. We were really disappointed and kind of at a loss for what to do now with our last day in Iceland. We wanted to do something awesome, and really use the best of our day, but what?
Sam has been talking about driving around Iceland since I've met him. I'm pretty sure he mentioned it one of the first times we hung out. I don't know how long he's wanted to do this, but it is a long time, and probably his number one travel goal. Unfortunately, we figured that with only four days and seeing the West Fjords, we wouldn't be able to make the loop- until our whale watching plans we canceled. Sam, never being the person to give up on a dream, quickly jumped on Google Maps and figured that driving the rest of the way around Iceland would only take about 10 hours. Factoring in time to stop for gas, lunch, and a couple crucial sites, we would have more than enough time to drive all the way around and make it back in Reykjavik in time for our 1 AM flight to Copenhagen! Needless to say we were stoked, especially Sam.
Close to Husavik is a lake called Lake Myvatn. Besid'es the Golden Circle (Gulfoss, Geysir, and Thingvellir), this is what people come to Iceland to see. If you ever go to Iceland, make it happen that you go see this area, and I promise you won't regret it. It isn't very easy to get there- if we'd driven straight there, it would have taken at least six hours. There aren't trains and I'm pretty sure there's not a bus. There is an airport. No matter how you get here, it was totally worth it.
Our guidebook took us in a circle around Myvatn, starting in Reykjahlid, and I feel like this was a really good way to see it. Each sight was awesome, but they seemed to get more and more fantastic as the circle went on.
The first thing we saw was Hverfell. Some of the signs we saw also said Hverfjall, and I think the story behind this is too funny not to share. 'Fell' in Icelandic means "small hill", whereas "fjall" means "mountain". It used to be called Hverfjall, but an Icelandic citizen went to court over the name. Apparently, it is more of a small hill than a mountain. I don't know why it upset him so much, but he won the case, and now the name is Hverfell. Mountain or small hill, the thing is pretty impressive. It looms up, black and ominous, in the background of Lake Myvatn. It was a volcano that erupted a couple of thousand years ago, but it doesn't resemble erupted volcanoes one might think of. Instead, it looks like a gigantic pile of black rocks. It is almost surreal. There is a path up to the top, and once there, we saw the gigantic crater in the middle. It was crazy! In the middle of the crater, there was a raised circle. I have no idea how it happened, but it was really cool to see.
Our next stop in the circle was Dimmuborgir. Apparently the terrible band actually got their name from somewhere. If I was Iceland, I would have sued for taking the name of someplace amazing and applying it to something shitty. I mean, the name "Shitty Band" was still available. They could have called themselves that. :)
I kid, I kid. But really, Dimmuborgir was really cool. The name means "dark castles" in Icelandic. I wouldn't want to be here at night; this place would be way too creepy. As it was in the middle of the day, well, it was over run with the same old people on buses that flocked to Thingvellir. I understand everyone wanting to see it, but part of our reason for going to Europe in September is that it is the off season, and we didn't want to be surrounded by people. I really would have enjoyed Dimmuborgir a lot more had I not been surrounded by old people talking about how bad the flies were (they weren't that bad, but what do you expect from a place essentially called Fly Lake?), how cold it was (it wasn't that cold, and I'm always cold), and walking really slowly in every possible spot to walk. We broke away for a bit, but by that time, we were frustrated and left. I recommend if you go to go really early in the morning, or maybe later in the day. It would be positively creepy at dusk or later, so maybe not then, but definitely try to avoid the crowds!
The next cool thing to see around Myvatn are the pseudocraters. These look like the craters that are formed from lava explosions, but lava come out there. They are made when hot lava flows over a wet place, like a lake or swamp, and the steam explodes. The pseudocraters are all found in a place called Skutustadagigar, on the southern part of the lake. They're not super cool to look at up close- they just look like grassy bowls- but they're neat to see from the road. Our guidebook recommended walking around on a path, but it took about an hour and we were on a bit of a time crunch, so it is on our list of things to do next time we go! Oh, and the other place pseudocraters are found is Mars. After this visit, I am convinced Iceland is a portal to Mars, so that doesn't surprise me whatsoever!
The western part of the lake is very pretty, but there isn't much to see landmark-wise. There are some mountains, and probably some goregous views from on top of them.
The next place we stopped is no longer on the lake, but off to the east. These next two places are why /u am convinced Iceland is Mars. At least, I now feel like I have a good idea what Mars is like. :)
Hverir. This place was mind-blowing, awesome, and made me want to barf. No, really. Hverir is made up of sulfur vents. The ground is red and there are white deposits everywhere, and steam is literally pouring out of the ground. It smells so awful that I could only stay for a couple of minutes. I don't know if we went on an exceptionally bad day, because the guidebook said nothing about the smell. Perhaps I am just sensitive, because there were other people out among the steam vents, taking pictures and looking around. I really wanted to see it closer, but I just couldn't handle it. We snapped a couple of pictures, including one of Sam pretending to barf, and jumped back in the car. I was really disappointed. Maybe those other people were Icelandic, and used to the smell. Since all the water in Iceland is geothermal, it all smells like sulfur. People wash their dishes and take showers in sulfur smelling water. Maybe due to that, they were able to handle it more than my sensitive nose. Maybe the wind was acting up. Or maybe I am just a wimp! Either way, it was really gorgeous in a creepy, out-of-this-world way, but foul.
Our last stop around Myvatn was Leirhjukur, which really looked like Mars. Leirhjukur is part of the Krafla volcano system, which is still active. As I don't really see the world changing so much, I forget what the Earth is really capable of. This really shook that impression. Iceland reminded me that the Earth is changing and very powerful. This sounds like such a cliche, I know, but it is really awe inspiring to be next to volcanic lava fields, with sulfur steam streaming out of the Earth.
That pretty much ended the most important things to see around Myvatn, so we headed back to Husavik to get lunch and hit some museums we were interested in.
We found Salka, which our guidebook mentioned as having smoked puffin. Fortunately, this restaurant was open, so we finally got to try! It was really good! The restaurant was a little expensive, but then again, most food in Iceland was astronomical. The service wasn't that great- the 5-top who came in after us got their food before we did- but I'd recommend it for the puffin. Cute and delicious; what more could you want from a bird?
Next was the thing I had been looking forward to the most for the entire trip- the Iceland Phallological Museum. Yeah, that's right. A penis museum. This museum was started by this one guy thanks to a pratical joke. When he was a school teacher, one of his students brought him a penis or a whale or seal or some other Icelandic animal. The teacher thought it was interesting, rather than repulsive, and preserved it. Word got around, and people started bringing this guy more and more samples of penises from different animals that would get caught. This museum now has over 270 penises from 46 different species. It is incredible! There's even a human penis from this guy who pledged to donate him when he died. They just got it in July. There are several other men who have pledged their penises as well. It was really really interesting. They didn't go into much more detail than the species, year caught, and sometimes how they got it/ life of the animal. Nothing about different functions or anything like that. I almost felt like I was looking at some guy's penis collection, and, essentially, I was. There were even several stuffed whale penises on plaques on the walls. Absolutely fascinating! Hands down my most favorite museum I've ever been to.
After the penis museum, we headed over to the Whale Museum, which was just down the street. Husavik is tiny- around 3,000 people live there- but they have a good selection of museums. The great thing about Iceland is that although their cities are tiny, they manage to make them feel quite big, with lots of attractions and entertainment. There was no point in Iceland where I felt bored or like there was nothing to do that interested me.
The Whale Museum was pretty interesting, and very comprehensive. They had this really interesting exhibit on display about whaling in Alaska. This photographer followed this group of whalers and showed the whole process. I like it because he did a great job of presenting the thing so that it was objective- one could really take their own opinion if they agreed with it or not. That's really hard to do with such a controversial subject.
While waiting for our hosts to get off work, we went up to a little lake called Botnsvatn behind Husavik. It was really small and cute- a really cute place to take a picnic lunch in the summer.
Our delightful host works for a whale watching company, and she offered to take us on a tour. We were planning that for our last morning in Husavik before driving back down to Reykjavik. Unfortunately, when we arrived back at their house, they had watched the news and found that the weather was probably going to be awful the next morning, and whale watching wouldn't be possible. As we watched the news throughout the night, it was confirmed- no whale watching for Kristen and Sam. We were really disappointed and kind of at a loss for what to do now with our last day in Iceland. We wanted to do something awesome, and really use the best of our day, but what?
Sam has been talking about driving around Iceland since I've met him. I'm pretty sure he mentioned it one of the first times we hung out. I don't know how long he's wanted to do this, but it is a long time, and probably his number one travel goal. Unfortunately, we figured that with only four days and seeing the West Fjords, we wouldn't be able to make the loop- until our whale watching plans we canceled. Sam, never being the person to give up on a dream, quickly jumped on Google Maps and figured that driving the rest of the way around Iceland would only take about 10 hours. Factoring in time to stop for gas, lunch, and a couple crucial sites, we would have more than enough time to drive all the way around and make it back in Reykjavik in time for our 1 AM flight to Copenhagen! Needless to say we were stoked, especially Sam.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Iceland, Days Two and Three- Djupavik and Husavik
Day two started off really early, thanks to sleeping half the day away the day before. I woke up about 6 AM and could not go back to sleep. Our car was dropped off around 8. As we had a full day planned, we set off not long after. The car was really nice- a cute Hyundai that was pretty much brand new- it had 800 kilometers on it when we got it.It even had seat warmers and an iPod hookup, so I was pretty content to ride around in it for ages.
Our first stop was a bakery that, in retrospect, probably wasn't open yet. Stores in Iceland close early and open late, especially on weekends. Most stores won't open until noon on Sunday, if they're open at all, even in Reykjavik. Gotta love a country that appreciates sleeping in!
Our original plans for this day included Gulfoss and Geysir, but thanks to our wonderful hosts, we crossed those off our lists already. They only thing we had left to do was Thingvellir. Instead of a Th, in Icelandic, that word begins with a letter that looks like a lowercase p and b over top of each other. Unfortunately, I can't do it on this computer.
Thingvellir is an UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is fancy. Iceland started their parliament here in 930 and continues until the late 1700s. The site is gorgeous, though this is one place where I feel I would have benefited from a tour. The place was crammed full of old tourists on tour buses. As much as I didn't want to be on one of those tours, I feel like I might have gotten a better understanding of the historical significance of the place.
Quick pizza for lunch and a stop at an outlet store because I forgot my sweater- talk about all the stupid things to forget to grab- and then we headed north to Djupavik. Reykjavik is less than 200 miles from Djupavik, but it takes over 6 hours to get there! Djupavik is a tiny town up in the West Fjords. Two people live there full time, and they are the owners of Hotel Djupavik, which is where we stayed.
The trip north was pretty nice. We went in a tunnel under the water for a good five minutes, which was kind of surreal when I really thought about it. I mostly just wondered what would happen if it sprung a leak!
Our plan was to stop in a town called Holmavik and get smoked puffin. Unfortunately, the restaurant decided to close that day. Pretty annoying, as the hours in our guidebook were listed for everyday. There was no note or posted hours. This type of thing happens to Sam ridiculously often, so we were very disappointed. The only other place in town to buy food was a gas station/convenience store with burgers, so that is what we ate.
The road to Djupavik from Holmavik is the real reason why the trip takes so long. For 2 1/2 hours, we drove on a dirt road, winding around fjords. I think it is something like 30 miles in distance, but takes ages. It is completely worth it, dirt roads and all, because the scenery is among the most gorgeous I've ever seen in my life. We'd be driving around these fjords, ocean to our right, high cliffs to our left, thinking we were in the middle of nowhere, and all of a sudden, there'd be a house. No matter how many there were, there'd always be a cute little sign designating the name of the "town". Iceland only has about 300,000 people, but they're more spread out than one might think!
Finally, we rounded a fjord and there was a tiny, picturesque town next to a huge waterfall- Djupavik! This town used to be one of the main hubs for herring fishing in Iceland until herring populations declined dramatically and fishing became no longer viable. The town and factory were abandoned. All that is left are the abandoned factory, about 10 small houses, and the hotel, which was formerly a boarding house for the young women who worked at the factory.
Sam is part mountain goat, and he decided to climb the fjord off of which the waterfall comes. He's crazy, as it was steep, cold and very windy, but he got some good pictures. The hotel's dog accompanied him. After that, we had an amazing, albeit very expensive dinner at the hotel's lobby. I had really good pork and Sam had lamb. They were each 40 dollars, but there was also nowhere else to eat anywhere close. Though we had lots of snacks, we both decided that a full meal would be much better! We retired (okay, passed out) in our adorable little room about 10.
Day Three
Sam and I both woke up at 4 AM. Yay for time change and going to bed really early, right? As we were in twin beds across the room from each other, we didn't realize the other was awake for a good half hour or so. Once we both knew the other was awake, we were both ready to go- which was annoying, as it was 5 AM, still dark, and we wanted to eat breakfast before leaving. Breakfast didn't start until 7:30, which is an awfully long time to sit in a room and wait. Our original plan was to go to a geothermal pool after breakfast, but since we were awake so early, we decided to just head out then. Once the sun started to come up, we set off to the end of the road.
Krosness, which is the end of the road Strandevir (that might be misspelled) is another Icelandic town that really probably shouldn't be called a town. It lies about 12 miles from Djupavik, but due to the condition of the road, it took us about an hour to get there. I think I might have seen two houses, but they do have a really cool geothermal pool. Built in the 50s, it is still in really good shape. The sun wasn't quite up when we arrived, and it was about 37 degrees Fahrenheit outside. The pool, however, was easily 80-90 degrees, heated by water from a geothermal spring underneath. There is nothing like being in a 90 degree pool next to the ocean and fjords, completely in the middle of nowhere. The only other living creatures we saw were some sheep. They weren't very big fans of us making noise in the pool, and scampered off to another side of the hill.
Breakfast was our first exposure to Icelandic breakfast. Lots of sliced meats and cheeses, like a typical European breakfast, but they added an Icelandic twist. There were two kinds of pickled herring, one of which was in a mustard sauce. They also had assorted flavored butters, like a mushroom butter that paired very well with the herring.
After breakfast, it was time to hit the dirt road back to civilization. Needless to say, we both got pretty sick of another 2 1/2 hours of dodging potholes. We both breathed a sigh of relief when we made it back to the smooth glory of a paved road. I will say this- if roads in Iceland are paved, they are in great shape. One might think the elements would have a greater impact, but if this is the case, Iceland is great at combating it. Even the dirt roads weren't in terrible condition- I've been on much worse. Still, I can't imagine driving for so long on those dirt roads just to get to the next town!
Sam heard great things about a town called Siglufordur, and it was more or less on the way to our next destination. This town, the site of another old herring factory, used to be a three hour drive from the closest town, but Iceland built a one road tunnel on the side of the mountain that reduced the drive to a little over 30 minutes. One way tunnels on the sides of mountains sound about as dangerous than they are, and we had a couple close calls with trucks barreling through the tunnel at crazy speeds. Fortunately, we made it to Siglufordur in one piece just in time for lunch.
Our first try was closed (seems to be a trend), but fortunately, the place across the street was open. I can't remember the name, but it was in a bright yellow building. Inside looked like a hunting lodge, with big tables made of trees. The feel of the place was great, and their crepes were pretty good too!
After lunch, we stopped by the herring museum they'd made out of their own herring factory. It was really cool to see, but I feel like a lot was lost in translation, especially in the case of a David Lynch-esque movie featuring factory workers, a guy sitting in an office, and someone driving a truck down tiny roads. Either way, it was interesting to see how the herring industry influenced the town so much.
Though pretty, most of the other activities in Siglufordur were outdoor- long hikes, horseback riding, etc- and we didn't really have the time for that, as we were heading off to Husavik to meet our hosts. We arrived there about 7. It was a long day in the car, and our hosts greeted us with lasagna and comfort. Yay! They were very sweet- a young couple with two rambunctious children. The kids and I made friends despite not being able to understand a damn word the other said! I crashed pretty early once again (I guess that's the effect of getting up at 4 in the morning)
Our first stop was a bakery that, in retrospect, probably wasn't open yet. Stores in Iceland close early and open late, especially on weekends. Most stores won't open until noon on Sunday, if they're open at all, even in Reykjavik. Gotta love a country that appreciates sleeping in!
Our original plans for this day included Gulfoss and Geysir, but thanks to our wonderful hosts, we crossed those off our lists already. They only thing we had left to do was Thingvellir. Instead of a Th, in Icelandic, that word begins with a letter that looks like a lowercase p and b over top of each other. Unfortunately, I can't do it on this computer.
Thingvellir is an UNESCO World Heritage Site, which is fancy. Iceland started their parliament here in 930 and continues until the late 1700s. The site is gorgeous, though this is one place where I feel I would have benefited from a tour. The place was crammed full of old tourists on tour buses. As much as I didn't want to be on one of those tours, I feel like I might have gotten a better understanding of the historical significance of the place.
Quick pizza for lunch and a stop at an outlet store because I forgot my sweater- talk about all the stupid things to forget to grab- and then we headed north to Djupavik. Reykjavik is less than 200 miles from Djupavik, but it takes over 6 hours to get there! Djupavik is a tiny town up in the West Fjords. Two people live there full time, and they are the owners of Hotel Djupavik, which is where we stayed.
The trip north was pretty nice. We went in a tunnel under the water for a good five minutes, which was kind of surreal when I really thought about it. I mostly just wondered what would happen if it sprung a leak!
Our plan was to stop in a town called Holmavik and get smoked puffin. Unfortunately, the restaurant decided to close that day. Pretty annoying, as the hours in our guidebook were listed for everyday. There was no note or posted hours. This type of thing happens to Sam ridiculously often, so we were very disappointed. The only other place in town to buy food was a gas station/convenience store with burgers, so that is what we ate.
The road to Djupavik from Holmavik is the real reason why the trip takes so long. For 2 1/2 hours, we drove on a dirt road, winding around fjords. I think it is something like 30 miles in distance, but takes ages. It is completely worth it, dirt roads and all, because the scenery is among the most gorgeous I've ever seen in my life. We'd be driving around these fjords, ocean to our right, high cliffs to our left, thinking we were in the middle of nowhere, and all of a sudden, there'd be a house. No matter how many there were, there'd always be a cute little sign designating the name of the "town". Iceland only has about 300,000 people, but they're more spread out than one might think!
Finally, we rounded a fjord and there was a tiny, picturesque town next to a huge waterfall- Djupavik! This town used to be one of the main hubs for herring fishing in Iceland until herring populations declined dramatically and fishing became no longer viable. The town and factory were abandoned. All that is left are the abandoned factory, about 10 small houses, and the hotel, which was formerly a boarding house for the young women who worked at the factory.
Sam is part mountain goat, and he decided to climb the fjord off of which the waterfall comes. He's crazy, as it was steep, cold and very windy, but he got some good pictures. The hotel's dog accompanied him. After that, we had an amazing, albeit very expensive dinner at the hotel's lobby. I had really good pork and Sam had lamb. They were each 40 dollars, but there was also nowhere else to eat anywhere close. Though we had lots of snacks, we both decided that a full meal would be much better! We retired (okay, passed out) in our adorable little room about 10.
Day Three
Sam and I both woke up at 4 AM. Yay for time change and going to bed really early, right? As we were in twin beds across the room from each other, we didn't realize the other was awake for a good half hour or so. Once we both knew the other was awake, we were both ready to go- which was annoying, as it was 5 AM, still dark, and we wanted to eat breakfast before leaving. Breakfast didn't start until 7:30, which is an awfully long time to sit in a room and wait. Our original plan was to go to a geothermal pool after breakfast, but since we were awake so early, we decided to just head out then. Once the sun started to come up, we set off to the end of the road.
Krosness, which is the end of the road Strandevir (that might be misspelled) is another Icelandic town that really probably shouldn't be called a town. It lies about 12 miles from Djupavik, but due to the condition of the road, it took us about an hour to get there. I think I might have seen two houses, but they do have a really cool geothermal pool. Built in the 50s, it is still in really good shape. The sun wasn't quite up when we arrived, and it was about 37 degrees Fahrenheit outside. The pool, however, was easily 80-90 degrees, heated by water from a geothermal spring underneath. There is nothing like being in a 90 degree pool next to the ocean and fjords, completely in the middle of nowhere. The only other living creatures we saw were some sheep. They weren't very big fans of us making noise in the pool, and scampered off to another side of the hill.
Breakfast was our first exposure to Icelandic breakfast. Lots of sliced meats and cheeses, like a typical European breakfast, but they added an Icelandic twist. There were two kinds of pickled herring, one of which was in a mustard sauce. They also had assorted flavored butters, like a mushroom butter that paired very well with the herring.
After breakfast, it was time to hit the dirt road back to civilization. Needless to say, we both got pretty sick of another 2 1/2 hours of dodging potholes. We both breathed a sigh of relief when we made it back to the smooth glory of a paved road. I will say this- if roads in Iceland are paved, they are in great shape. One might think the elements would have a greater impact, but if this is the case, Iceland is great at combating it. Even the dirt roads weren't in terrible condition- I've been on much worse. Still, I can't imagine driving for so long on those dirt roads just to get to the next town!
Sam heard great things about a town called Siglufordur, and it was more or less on the way to our next destination. This town, the site of another old herring factory, used to be a three hour drive from the closest town, but Iceland built a one road tunnel on the side of the mountain that reduced the drive to a little over 30 minutes. One way tunnels on the sides of mountains sound about as dangerous than they are, and we had a couple close calls with trucks barreling through the tunnel at crazy speeds. Fortunately, we made it to Siglufordur in one piece just in time for lunch.
Our first try was closed (seems to be a trend), but fortunately, the place across the street was open. I can't remember the name, but it was in a bright yellow building. Inside looked like a hunting lodge, with big tables made of trees. The feel of the place was great, and their crepes were pretty good too!
After lunch, we stopped by the herring museum they'd made out of their own herring factory. It was really cool to see, but I feel like a lot was lost in translation, especially in the case of a David Lynch-esque movie featuring factory workers, a guy sitting in an office, and someone driving a truck down tiny roads. Either way, it was interesting to see how the herring industry influenced the town so much.
Though pretty, most of the other activities in Siglufordur were outdoor- long hikes, horseback riding, etc- and we didn't really have the time for that, as we were heading off to Husavik to meet our hosts. We arrived there about 7. It was a long day in the car, and our hosts greeted us with lasagna and comfort. Yay! They were very sweet- a young couple with two rambunctious children. The kids and I made friends despite not being able to understand a damn word the other said! I crashed pretty early once again (I guess that's the effect of getting up at 4 in the morning)
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Reykjavik, Iceland!
Landing in Iceland is a mindfuck. Keflavik, the airport, is seemingly in the middle of nowhere. After flying all night over the ocean, Iceland comes out of nowhere and greets you with two tiny buildings. I should have taken this as a warning. International flights are greeted warmly by customs ("How long are you staying? Okay, go through.") and then taking the passengers by bus to baggage claim. Unfortunately, our flight arrived a little after 6, and the next bus to the Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland's "must sees" wasn't until 9:45. We decided to just go straight to Reykjavik and find our couch surfing hosts for the night. And so began our first day of no sleep.
Our hosts were really sweet. They lived a little bit out of the city, but the bus went pretty close and the bus driver helped us find our way. He is a native Icelander, and she is from Bulgaria. They were really nice- neither had to work that day, so they took us sight seeing.
First, we went downtown. They took us to a gigantic flea market that operates during the weekend only. One part was clothes, the other part was food. We tried dried salted herring that resembled jerky. It was pretty good. Icelanders like to eat it with butter on it.
Given that Iceland is an island and their main export used to be fish, one might expect the most popular restaurant there to be seafood. Nope! It is a hot dog stand. Naturally, we had to try one. They put two kinds of onions- raw and fried, and three different sauces on their hot dogs. One of these is simply called hot dog sauce. They were pretty good, but I still prefer Seattle's cream cheese and onions over Icelandic dogs!
The last thing we saw downtown was this huge topographic map of Iceland. It was done with layers of cardboard all on top of each other, and took four men over four years to complete- 17 man-years! It was easily ten feet by eight feet long, if not bigger. It was awesome to see all the places we were going to be going.
Our wonderful hosts then decided to take us out to see some of the cool sites close to Reykjavik to save us time the next day. I wish I could comment about the scenery on the way there, but almost as soon as we got in the car, I fell asleep. The waterfall they took us to, Gullfoss, was gorgeous. I'm not much of a waterfall person, but this one was pretty neat. The river does a couple of sharp bends right before crashing into a deep trench. Mist rises from the trench, so it looks like the water is just disappearing straight into the earth!
Next we went to see Geysir, the geyser for which all others are named- at least, according to the sign! It was raining and cold, but seeing hot water gush into the air is pretty awesome. We got a treat too- the geyser shot off twice in less than five minutes time. Apparently that doesn't happen very often.
I just couldn't keep my eyes open, and barely woke up for dinner. Our host had made us an incredible Bulgarian dish- great cabbage and potatoes. Unfortunately, I forgot to write down the recipe. I'd love to make it myself. Even after all my naps, I still fell asleep on the couch almost right after dinner. Our hosts were very sweet and understanding, and showed us to our room. I slept like a rock until 6 AM, when I awoke with a start. I cannot tell you the last time I woke up that early on my own, but it was quite a shock. I guess there's only so much sleeping my body can take.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Westport, Humptulips, and Lake Quinault
In keeping tradition with the day trips on days off together, Samuel and I decided to head out to the coast. I haven't actually seen the Pacific Ocean itself from Washington yet. We were going to go to Victoria, but we decided we wanted to give it a little more time than just a day, and I had a meeting in the middle of our second day off. Plus, getting to Victoria is kind of a pain. It is just far enough away and costs just enough to get there that staying for only a day seems a bit like ripping yourself off.
Anyway, we decided to go to Westport, WA, which is on Grey's Harbor's South Bay. It was highly recommended by a TripAdvisor submitter as a great day trip from Seattle. I'll be honest- I'm not really sure why it was so highly recommended. I had fun, but there wasn't a lot to do. And it isn't like a day at the beach in Florida or California. Instead of sand, we have rocks. Instead of sun and warm weather, we had 65 degrees with a good steady breeze. Pretty, yes, but too cold to enjoy the beach.
Anyway, we had fun. We went to the Maritime Museum first. It wasn't that interesting to me, but would probably be really interesting to someone with connections to the Coast Guard. The coolest parts were the skeletons of sea creatures they had in little buildings outside and the replica of the gigantic light in the lighthouse. This thing was seven feet high and stunning. It is a french design that magnifies all the light into a little beam, and that is what the lighthouse shoots out. The light from it can be seen 25 miles away. All in all, the Maritime Museum was interesting and only 5 dollars.
From there, we went out to the lighthouse. This lighthouse is the tallest in Washington State, and the 3rd tallest on the West Coast. It was really pretty. For some reason I didn't quite understand (something about whirlpools and jettys), the coast line is expanding. When the lighthouse was built, it was something like 480 feet from the coast. Now, it is more than a mile. And some little old ladies planted trees like 50 years ago, so now there is a forest between the lighthouse and the water. Kind of funny.
We climbed to the top, which was fun. That was 5 dollars too. We got to see the light at the top and ask a lot of questions. It was pretty cool. I'd recommend going to Westport for that, if you're close.
As that was all we'd had planned in Westport and we'd only been there 2 hours, we were at a loss for what to do until our bellies started rumbling and we started smelling fish in the air. We had to eat seafood while we were by the coast, right? Right.
We found a place called The One-Eyed Crab right across from the marina. We shared some bacon wrapped oysters and a big bowl of prawns, crab legs, and clams in garlic broth. Way too expensive, but delicious! With full bellies and now at a complete loss of what to do (our GPS couldn't even help us!), we decided to head to a town we'd only seen on a map the day before.
Humptulips, Washington.
Wikipedia tells me this might be Native American for "hard to pole" which doesn't really help this place's cause for being well-named. The town is tiny- like 216 people. We saw two of them. Besides the sign, where we stopped and took pictures, there was a gas station and 3 houses. The rest of the town of Humptulips must have been in hiding that day. And with a name like Humptulips, who wouldn't hide? :)
We continued farther north to Lake Quinault. It is right on the Quinault Rain Forest border and it is super pretty. I thought I read somewhere that it is Washington's largest lake, but I can't find a source now to back that up. We saw the World's Lagest Spruce Tree, which is right next to the lake, and even dipped our feet in! It wasn't quite as cold as the Pacific, but still way too cold to go swimming in.
After sitting by the lake for a while, we decided to head home. Washington is so damn pretty! I learned today that it is the only state with all 5 temperate zones- from rain forest to desert. I can't wait to explore them all!
Next week, we're going to explore the shit out of the Olympic Peninsula and Victoria over 4 days. I'm pretty stoked!
Anyway, we decided to go to Westport, WA, which is on Grey's Harbor's South Bay. It was highly recommended by a TripAdvisor submitter as a great day trip from Seattle. I'll be honest- I'm not really sure why it was so highly recommended. I had fun, but there wasn't a lot to do. And it isn't like a day at the beach in Florida or California. Instead of sand, we have rocks. Instead of sun and warm weather, we had 65 degrees with a good steady breeze. Pretty, yes, but too cold to enjoy the beach.
Anyway, we had fun. We went to the Maritime Museum first. It wasn't that interesting to me, but would probably be really interesting to someone with connections to the Coast Guard. The coolest parts were the skeletons of sea creatures they had in little buildings outside and the replica of the gigantic light in the lighthouse. This thing was seven feet high and stunning. It is a french design that magnifies all the light into a little beam, and that is what the lighthouse shoots out. The light from it can be seen 25 miles away. All in all, the Maritime Museum was interesting and only 5 dollars.
From there, we went out to the lighthouse. This lighthouse is the tallest in Washington State, and the 3rd tallest on the West Coast. It was really pretty. For some reason I didn't quite understand (something about whirlpools and jettys), the coast line is expanding. When the lighthouse was built, it was something like 480 feet from the coast. Now, it is more than a mile. And some little old ladies planted trees like 50 years ago, so now there is a forest between the lighthouse and the water. Kind of funny.
We climbed to the top, which was fun. That was 5 dollars too. We got to see the light at the top and ask a lot of questions. It was pretty cool. I'd recommend going to Westport for that, if you're close.
As that was all we'd had planned in Westport and we'd only been there 2 hours, we were at a loss for what to do until our bellies started rumbling and we started smelling fish in the air. We had to eat seafood while we were by the coast, right? Right.
We found a place called The One-Eyed Crab right across from the marina. We shared some bacon wrapped oysters and a big bowl of prawns, crab legs, and clams in garlic broth. Way too expensive, but delicious! With full bellies and now at a complete loss of what to do (our GPS couldn't even help us!), we decided to head to a town we'd only seen on a map the day before.
Humptulips, Washington.
Wikipedia tells me this might be Native American for "hard to pole" which doesn't really help this place's cause for being well-named. The town is tiny- like 216 people. We saw two of them. Besides the sign, where we stopped and took pictures, there was a gas station and 3 houses. The rest of the town of Humptulips must have been in hiding that day. And with a name like Humptulips, who wouldn't hide? :)
We continued farther north to Lake Quinault. It is right on the Quinault Rain Forest border and it is super pretty. I thought I read somewhere that it is Washington's largest lake, but I can't find a source now to back that up. We saw the World's Lagest Spruce Tree, which is right next to the lake, and even dipped our feet in! It wasn't quite as cold as the Pacific, but still way too cold to go swimming in.
After sitting by the lake for a while, we decided to head home. Washington is so damn pretty! I learned today that it is the only state with all 5 temperate zones- from rain forest to desert. I can't wait to explore them all!
Next week, we're going to explore the shit out of the Olympic Peninsula and Victoria over 4 days. I'm pretty stoked!
Leavenworth
For the last three weeks, without any prodding or begging on our parts, Sam and I have managed to have our days off together. And not just one, either. BOTH days for three weeks straight! This is so unheard of! I feel almost like a regular couple, with days off together. Of course, we then are hardly seeing each other during the week, so it evens out, but it is nice to have the time with him. To celebrate, we've been taking road trips! I'm so anxious to explore more of Washington, and these little day trips are a lot of fun.
So on our first week off together, we went to Leavenworth. I'd never been, but heard it was a huge Bavarian tourist trap. Sounds perfect for a cheesy day trip, right? Right. So off we went.
I was right! It is a Bavarian tourist trap in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. It was really cute and full of fat people. There are lots of fat people in Kentucky, and no fat people in Seattle, so when I see fat people agin, I'm always weirded out that I'm still in Washington. There were also tastings like crazy, so I could see why all the fat people flock there. Apparently there are some wineries around Leavenworth with tasting rooms in the town. There were sausage tastings and cheese shops and all kinds of delicious things.
We found ourselves a little tired and thirsty at the end of the road- and coincidentally, right next to Icicle Brewing! How perfect was that? We tried some of their beers and had a meat and cheese plate. Both things were okay. Not bad, but nothing special.
Crowds get to us pretty quickly, so we ducked into one last shop (called Made in Russia). The shop keeper was a very talkative and friendly fellow who suggested everything from good cheese to a moonshine place in Cashmere, about 6 miles away. What? A delicious excuse to leave the crowds? Away we went!
The moonshine was pretty tasty, albeit really difficult to find. Small little tasting room. We were there for probably a total of 15 minutes, which included buying a bottle of moonshine. I looked at my receipt later- the bottle itself was a little over $12. The taxes, on the other hand, were $13! The taxes were more expensive than the liquor itself! Isn't that crazy? The place was called It's Five o'Clock Somewhere, and even though they have a dumb name (that's not how time zones work, dammit!), they have some pretty tasty moonshine. If you're ever by way of Cashmere, WA, stop and check them out.
I wish I could somehow add a map of the route that we took on our trips. I think that would be a good addition.
So on our first week off together, we went to Leavenworth. I'd never been, but heard it was a huge Bavarian tourist trap. Sounds perfect for a cheesy day trip, right? Right. So off we went.
I was right! It is a Bavarian tourist trap in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. It was really cute and full of fat people. There are lots of fat people in Kentucky, and no fat people in Seattle, so when I see fat people agin, I'm always weirded out that I'm still in Washington. There were also tastings like crazy, so I could see why all the fat people flock there. Apparently there are some wineries around Leavenworth with tasting rooms in the town. There were sausage tastings and cheese shops and all kinds of delicious things.
We found ourselves a little tired and thirsty at the end of the road- and coincidentally, right next to Icicle Brewing! How perfect was that? We tried some of their beers and had a meat and cheese plate. Both things were okay. Not bad, but nothing special.
Crowds get to us pretty quickly, so we ducked into one last shop (called Made in Russia). The shop keeper was a very talkative and friendly fellow who suggested everything from good cheese to a moonshine place in Cashmere, about 6 miles away. What? A delicious excuse to leave the crowds? Away we went!
The moonshine was pretty tasty, albeit really difficult to find. Small little tasting room. We were there for probably a total of 15 minutes, which included buying a bottle of moonshine. I looked at my receipt later- the bottle itself was a little over $12. The taxes, on the other hand, were $13! The taxes were more expensive than the liquor itself! Isn't that crazy? The place was called It's Five o'Clock Somewhere, and even though they have a dumb name (that's not how time zones work, dammit!), they have some pretty tasty moonshine. If you're ever by way of Cashmere, WA, stop and check them out.
I wish I could somehow add a map of the route that we took on our trips. I think that would be a good addition.
Mt. Rainier National Park
My mom and sister came to visit me (yay!) which gave me almost a week to play tourist in my own city. This is one of my favorite things to do! The cool thing about living somewhere is that there is plenty of time to go places. The bad thing is that you're so busy with life that you don't get a chance.
Most of the places we went were places I had been before. Mom really wanted to do the Underground Tour, see Pike Place Market and visit either Mt. Rainier or Mt. St. Helens. Little Sister didn't really care- she was just disappointed that the American Girl Place wasn't opening until the Saturday after they left. (Fair enough. At 12, I would been really disappointed too.)
Mt. Rainer was one of the first places we went. I was really excited to go because I really like the mountain. I know that sounds silly. When I first moved to Seattle and I didn't know anyone or have any friends, I'd be driving to work all bummed and shit. I'd come around this corner on I-5 and if Rainier felt like it, BAM, there it would be. Put a smile on my face every damn time. So pretty and big and just a real reminder that I wasn't in Kentucky anymore.
The park was only about 2 hours away. From how big Mt. Rainier looks from Seattle, you'd think it was closer, but naturally, we had to go on back roads. That's okay with me because I love seeing little towns. It was 15 dollars to take a car full of people into the park, which wasn't bad. From there, we just drove around. I know, how lame. Why go to a National Park and not go hiking? Well, I can't really say I'm a hiking person. Not that I have anything against it, but I just don't do it. Not even like I wouldn't do it, because I think it would be fun. I just dont. Due to that, I have no hiking...gear or whatever. Mom and Lauryn certainly didn't either. So we just drove up as high as we could go and ate lunch outside. There was snow up there! In July!
We tried to see Mt. St. Helens, but when we stopped at a (not very good) viewpoint, some nice couple told us they'd just tried the road and it was closed. :( Sad.
The last stop of the day was to Morton, Washington. Sam had to get pictures in front of the signs, just for novelty's sake.
Back in Seattle, we went to Las Margaritas on 145th and Aurora (yum yum yum) and then collapsed pretty quickly into bed. Rainier was a really good day trip from Seattle. I'd love to go back and do some hiking and explore a bit more.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Calgary, part 2
I managed to post about half of my trip to Calgary and then completely forget to do the rest. Humph.
We only had two days in Calgary, which was kind of sad. There were a lot of things I would have liked to have done or seen that we didn't get to do. Kind of a bummer, really, since it is a 13 hour drive away and I don't know when, if ever, I'll go back.
So after the ziplining adventure, we went back to the hotel and caught up with my old GM from Cincinnati, which was awesome. He's a really nice guy. I never really got to know him too well (GMs are busy people!) but it was nice to have that chance.
The next day was dinosaur day. Alberta is home to the Royal Tyrrell Museum, which I THINK is the largest collection of dinosaur fossils. Definitely the largest in Canada. Pretty sure the largest in North America. Maybe the world, but don't quote me on that. 10 seconds on their website isn't answering the question for me. Anyway, this place is awesome. It doesn't even matter if it is the biggest, because it rocks!
It is in Drumheller, which is about 2 hours from Calgary. Gorgeous drive! Hardly any of it is on the freeway, so we got to go on all these little roads and see farms and pretty scenery and things. The museum is in Alberta's Badlands, which was super exciting. I've always wanted to see the Badlands in the Dakotas and never have, so this was pretty awesome. Some of the weirdest landscape I have ever seen!
There's not a lot to say about the museum except dinosaurs, dinosaurs, dinosaurs! It wasn't expensive. I think it was $22 for the both of us. There were way too many people there. We found out later you're supposed to go in the afternoon, right before they close. I wish I would have known that, because it would have made the experience a lot more enjoyable. As it was, we were followed around by one little girl and her oblivious mother. Every time I pulled out my camera, this girl would pose. Wow.
Anyway, super cool. Drumheller is really cute. There are dinosaur statues and dinosaur themed places everywhere.
So the drunk lady at the pub the day before told us that we needed to go to Wayne, which was super close to Drumheller and has something like 13 bridges in 5 miles. We drove over all of them and passed through Wayne, which is an old mining town. There used to be 2,500 people who lived there, but now there's only around 30. That is so crazy to me! I can't imagine living in a town of 30 people with the closest big city being 2 hours away!
Sam found this really cool coal mine called the Atlas Coal Mine so we headed over there to check it out. The drive there was gorgeous too. We got out of the Badlands and were in what looked more like a prairie. Actually, it looked a lot like that gorgeous picture that is the main background on Windows recently with the green hill and blue sky. Beautiful!
The coal mine was really cool. We did two different tours. Unfortunately, we couldn't go into the actual mine, but we did get to look at the buildings and get a good sense of how it operated. I feel like I learned a lot about how a coal mine works. I don't think I would have ever learned that otherwise.
That, sadly, was pretty much the end of our time in Calgary. Once we got back from Drumheller, we were so tired that we ended up just getting some beers and meat and cheese in the hotel bar and going to bed.
On the way home, we drove through Banff National Park and stopped to see Moraine Lake. With the exception of one other lake in Scotland, this was probably the prettiest lake I've ever seen. The water was turquoise. Apparently the lake is glacier-fed, which is where it gets the color from, and it remain turquoise year- round. This chick at the hotel bar told us about it. She said she went while it was storming once and the lake was still that gorgeous color! Again, too many people. I remembered why I travel in the off-season!
The whole time we were there, Sam and I talked about seeing more of Canada. Most of it is so easy to see because even though the country has the second-biggest landmass in the world, almost all of the cities are really close to the border. We want to do a road trip to Yukon or the Northwest Territories. We can't decide which. I really want to go to Nunavut, but there aren't roads! Shame. We also want to drive across the whole thing. We think that would be a lot of fun. Maybe next year!
We only had two days in Calgary, which was kind of sad. There were a lot of things I would have liked to have done or seen that we didn't get to do. Kind of a bummer, really, since it is a 13 hour drive away and I don't know when, if ever, I'll go back.
So after the ziplining adventure, we went back to the hotel and caught up with my old GM from Cincinnati, which was awesome. He's a really nice guy. I never really got to know him too well (GMs are busy people!) but it was nice to have that chance.
The next day was dinosaur day. Alberta is home to the Royal Tyrrell Museum, which I THINK is the largest collection of dinosaur fossils. Definitely the largest in Canada. Pretty sure the largest in North America. Maybe the world, but don't quote me on that. 10 seconds on their website isn't answering the question for me. Anyway, this place is awesome. It doesn't even matter if it is the biggest, because it rocks!
It is in Drumheller, which is about 2 hours from Calgary. Gorgeous drive! Hardly any of it is on the freeway, so we got to go on all these little roads and see farms and pretty scenery and things. The museum is in Alberta's Badlands, which was super exciting. I've always wanted to see the Badlands in the Dakotas and never have, so this was pretty awesome. Some of the weirdest landscape I have ever seen!
There's not a lot to say about the museum except dinosaurs, dinosaurs, dinosaurs! It wasn't expensive. I think it was $22 for the both of us. There were way too many people there. We found out later you're supposed to go in the afternoon, right before they close. I wish I would have known that, because it would have made the experience a lot more enjoyable. As it was, we were followed around by one little girl and her oblivious mother. Every time I pulled out my camera, this girl would pose. Wow.
Anyway, super cool. Drumheller is really cute. There are dinosaur statues and dinosaur themed places everywhere.
So the drunk lady at the pub the day before told us that we needed to go to Wayne, which was super close to Drumheller and has something like 13 bridges in 5 miles. We drove over all of them and passed through Wayne, which is an old mining town. There used to be 2,500 people who lived there, but now there's only around 30. That is so crazy to me! I can't imagine living in a town of 30 people with the closest big city being 2 hours away!
Sam found this really cool coal mine called the Atlas Coal Mine so we headed over there to check it out. The drive there was gorgeous too. We got out of the Badlands and were in what looked more like a prairie. Actually, it looked a lot like that gorgeous picture that is the main background on Windows recently with the green hill and blue sky. Beautiful!
The coal mine was really cool. We did two different tours. Unfortunately, we couldn't go into the actual mine, but we did get to look at the buildings and get a good sense of how it operated. I feel like I learned a lot about how a coal mine works. I don't think I would have ever learned that otherwise.
That, sadly, was pretty much the end of our time in Calgary. Once we got back from Drumheller, we were so tired that we ended up just getting some beers and meat and cheese in the hotel bar and going to bed.
On the way home, we drove through Banff National Park and stopped to see Moraine Lake. With the exception of one other lake in Scotland, this was probably the prettiest lake I've ever seen. The water was turquoise. Apparently the lake is glacier-fed, which is where it gets the color from, and it remain turquoise year- round. This chick at the hotel bar told us about it. She said she went while it was storming once and the lake was still that gorgeous color! Again, too many people. I remembered why I travel in the off-season!
The whole time we were there, Sam and I talked about seeing more of Canada. Most of it is so easy to see because even though the country has the second-biggest landmass in the world, almost all of the cities are really close to the border. We want to do a road trip to Yukon or the Northwest Territories. We can't decide which. I really want to go to Nunavut, but there aren't roads! Shame. We also want to drive across the whole thing. We think that would be a lot of fun. Maybe next year!
Friday, July 8, 2011
Calgary
Anyway, after a long, gorgeous drive, we make it to Calgary and check in. Hotel is GORGEOUS! There is a boat in the ceiling of the lobby, and everything is this gorgeous dark wood and really nice everything. Rooms are typical, but that's what you get for staying at a chain! Typical rooms certainly aren't anything to complain about anyway!
We head up the street to this place called Paul's Pizza and Steak House. Went for dinner, got a free show. What's better than that? Calgarians (is that what you call it?) are hilarious, and this was our first exposure. I have never been in a city full of so many welcoming and friendly people! I love to talk to people, so this was pretty awesome. At this place, there were these two guys sitting at the bar cracking jokes at everything- each other, people outside, the waitress, etc. The pizza was really good. We ordered a medium and each ate the perfect amount and it was gone. Perfect!
Walked back a meandering way to the hotel to get a feel for the city. We finished dinner about 10, but it was just starting to get dark. Gotta love the north for that! Now that I think about it, I don't think I saw it being dark outside much, if at all. The city has a strange feel to it. We kept trying to place it, but it was difficult. It is spread out. There are tall building here and there, but then there will be a block of two or three story buildings, which is kind of rare. Comparatively, we are packed in like sardines in Seattle! Even Louisville didn't have this kind of open feel. I think a lot of it had to do with being able to see the sky, and so much of it.
Day two started off way too early. We didn't have a lot of time up there, so we tried to cram in as much as possible. It didn't end up working out the way we wanted it to, but we still got a lot in!
In 1988, the Olympics were held in Calgary. As they were Winter Olympics, they built all kinds of ski jumps and bobsled courses and such. All that stuff is still there, and they've turned it into a park! They turned the tallest ski jump into a zipline. How could we resist? It was a little more than I wanted to spend ($60), but it is supposed to be the fastest in North America. We made reservations and headed out.
The park was easy enough to get to, and we checked in and got our helmets (what good will this do if you fall off a zipline, really?) and harnesses and waddle uncomfortably off to the practice zipline. While learning, a ferocious wind comes out of nowhere! I wasn't prepared for it, and I had to grab onto Sam to not fall over! They talked to some people at the top of the big line, and decided it was way too windy for us to go up. They apologized and told us we could have our money back or reschedule. Fortunately, in our effort to cram in as much as possible, we'd left room for error, so we rescheduled for the next day.
Hunger struck, and with the aid of our trusty GPS, we set off into the cruel Calgarian winds to find a bit of sustenance. Ha, right. Really, we found a place down the road called Pazzer's Saskatchewan Pub. Who could pass up a name like that? Also- Saskatchewanese food? (Saskatchewanites? Saskatchwanies? No one in Calgary knows what the name for people from Saskatchewan is!) We didn't even know there was such a thing as this food!
I still have my Kentucky plates on the car (they loved that at the border) and you should have heard the exclamations of the woman out smoking. First it was, "Great parking job!" (Sam backed in.) Then, "Kentucky! You're from Kentucky?" Then she told the whole bar- which, to be fair, seemed to be made up mostly of people she knew. And so the kindness of Calgarians continued. These people were so interested in us that I almost felt like a little bit of a celebrity. Ha! They asked all about our travel plans and gave us really awesome suggestions on places to go.
After lunch we decided to try to zipline again. We made it back right at 3 to be told it was full, but we could go at 4. Deal! So we played putt putt for an hour. Yay! Sam won, but we were really equally terrible.
Then we got to do the zipline! It almost got windy enough that they would have to cancel again, but they didn't! Yay! SO we did the practice one again, and then headed up to the big one. To get there, they piled us all up in this SUV and went up the world's steepest road. There was one point where we just drove over this pile of gravel and I was pretty sure the SUV's tires weren't actually touching the ground. My only thought was, "They really brought the Olympic performers up this road?" I'm sure it was better 23 years ago! At least, I hope so!
The tallest ski jump is really really tall. It is set on the side of a huge hill. I don't remember how tall the instructor said it was, but believe me, it is tall! From the point where we launched for the zipline, the building is the same height as the bottom of the building down the hill. Hopefully that makes sense! The bottom of the tower is in the middle of the bottom of the hill to the point from which we launch. Either way, it is huge! When I was first being strapped into my harness, there was a metal bit below my feet and I was nervous but fine. Then she pulled back the metal bit, and I was just dangling over the ground, attached only by this harness to a line! Then- whoosh!- away we went. Apparently you can go up to 140 km/h, which is about 87 miles an hour, according to Google. Holy crap! I don't think I went that fast. The wind was really strong, and I was definitely flying at an angle down the zipline! It took everything I had to not think of me flying off into the middle of nowhere. But it was so awesome! After the big one, there is another one, but it is more to get everyone the rest of the way down the hill than anything else. It was fun too, but after the big one, not that great. I'd love to do it again! It would be great to get comfortable with it and be able to do flips and such while flying down a 100 km drop!
We head up the street to this place called Paul's Pizza and Steak House. Went for dinner, got a free show. What's better than that? Calgarians (is that what you call it?) are hilarious, and this was our first exposure. I have never been in a city full of so many welcoming and friendly people! I love to talk to people, so this was pretty awesome. At this place, there were these two guys sitting at the bar cracking jokes at everything- each other, people outside, the waitress, etc. The pizza was really good. We ordered a medium and each ate the perfect amount and it was gone. Perfect!
Walked back a meandering way to the hotel to get a feel for the city. We finished dinner about 10, but it was just starting to get dark. Gotta love the north for that! Now that I think about it, I don't think I saw it being dark outside much, if at all. The city has a strange feel to it. We kept trying to place it, but it was difficult. It is spread out. There are tall building here and there, but then there will be a block of two or three story buildings, which is kind of rare. Comparatively, we are packed in like sardines in Seattle! Even Louisville didn't have this kind of open feel. I think a lot of it had to do with being able to see the sky, and so much of it.
Day two started off way too early. We didn't have a lot of time up there, so we tried to cram in as much as possible. It didn't end up working out the way we wanted it to, but we still got a lot in!
In 1988, the Olympics were held in Calgary. As they were Winter Olympics, they built all kinds of ski jumps and bobsled courses and such. All that stuff is still there, and they've turned it into a park! They turned the tallest ski jump into a zipline. How could we resist? It was a little more than I wanted to spend ($60), but it is supposed to be the fastest in North America. We made reservations and headed out.
The park was easy enough to get to, and we checked in and got our helmets (what good will this do if you fall off a zipline, really?) and harnesses and waddle uncomfortably off to the practice zipline. While learning, a ferocious wind comes out of nowhere! I wasn't prepared for it, and I had to grab onto Sam to not fall over! They talked to some people at the top of the big line, and decided it was way too windy for us to go up. They apologized and told us we could have our money back or reschedule. Fortunately, in our effort to cram in as much as possible, we'd left room for error, so we rescheduled for the next day.
Hunger struck, and with the aid of our trusty GPS, we set off into the cruel Calgarian winds to find a bit of sustenance. Ha, right. Really, we found a place down the road called Pazzer's Saskatchewan Pub. Who could pass up a name like that? Also- Saskatchewanese food? (Saskatchewanites? Saskatchwanies? No one in Calgary knows what the name for people from Saskatchewan is!) We didn't even know there was such a thing as this food!
I still have my Kentucky plates on the car (they loved that at the border) and you should have heard the exclamations of the woman out smoking. First it was, "Great parking job!" (Sam backed in.) Then, "Kentucky! You're from Kentucky?" Then she told the whole bar- which, to be fair, seemed to be made up mostly of people she knew. And so the kindness of Calgarians continued. These people were so interested in us that I almost felt like a little bit of a celebrity. Ha! They asked all about our travel plans and gave us really awesome suggestions on places to go.
After lunch we decided to try to zipline again. We made it back right at 3 to be told it was full, but we could go at 4. Deal! So we played putt putt for an hour. Yay! Sam won, but we were really equally terrible.
Then we got to do the zipline! It almost got windy enough that they would have to cancel again, but they didn't! Yay! SO we did the practice one again, and then headed up to the big one. To get there, they piled us all up in this SUV and went up the world's steepest road. There was one point where we just drove over this pile of gravel and I was pretty sure the SUV's tires weren't actually touching the ground. My only thought was, "They really brought the Olympic performers up this road?" I'm sure it was better 23 years ago! At least, I hope so!
The tallest ski jump is really really tall. It is set on the side of a huge hill. I don't remember how tall the instructor said it was, but believe me, it is tall! From the point where we launched for the zipline, the building is the same height as the bottom of the building down the hill. Hopefully that makes sense! The bottom of the tower is in the middle of the bottom of the hill to the point from which we launch. Either way, it is huge! When I was first being strapped into my harness, there was a metal bit below my feet and I was nervous but fine. Then she pulled back the metal bit, and I was just dangling over the ground, attached only by this harness to a line! Then- whoosh!- away we went. Apparently you can go up to 140 km/h, which is about 87 miles an hour, according to Google. Holy crap! I don't think I went that fast. The wind was really strong, and I was definitely flying at an angle down the zipline! It took everything I had to not think of me flying off into the middle of nowhere. But it was so awesome! After the big one, there is another one, but it is more to get everyone the rest of the way down the hill than anything else. It was fun too, but after the big one, not that great. I'd love to do it again! It would be great to get comfortable with it and be able to do flips and such while flying down a 100 km drop!
Sunday, July 3, 2011
I'm on a trip and I am updating!
Coming to Calgary was an awesome decision. I honestly didn't expect it to be so interesting, but I have been having nonstop fun since I got here.
First of all, the drive from Seattle to Calgary through Idaho is incredibly beautiful. There aren't even words to describe how amazing it is. Just simply gorgeous. Anyway, a 13 hour drive felt like half that because we were too busy gawking like tourists out the windows of the car. Do yourself a favor and drive it.
Potato? We drove through the largest potato producing county in the United States- and no, it isn't in Idaho! It is in Washington, surprisingly enough!
Anyway, beautiful drive. Made it to Calgary about 8 PM and checked in and found out that my old GM from Cincinnati transferred here about 6 weeks ago!
I'm drunk and bored of typing. Will continue updating later. Maybe. If you're lucky.
First of all, the drive from Seattle to Calgary through Idaho is incredibly beautiful. There aren't even words to describe how amazing it is. Just simply gorgeous. Anyway, a 13 hour drive felt like half that because we were too busy gawking like tourists out the windows of the car. Do yourself a favor and drive it.
Potato? We drove through the largest potato producing county in the United States- and no, it isn't in Idaho! It is in Washington, surprisingly enough!
Anyway, beautiful drive. Made it to Calgary about 8 PM and checked in and found out that my old GM from Cincinnati transferred here about 6 weeks ago!
I'm drunk and bored of typing. Will continue updating later. Maybe. If you're lucky.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Hotels
I know, this is lame. Sam and I have a competition going to see who has been to the most of one hotel chain. He's winning, I think, but I need to count and also I want a log.
1. Cincinnati
2. Pk DC
3. Pk Chicago
4. Gd San Francisco
5. Gd Seattle
6. HRC
7. McCormick Place
8. Columbus
9. Crown Center (Kansas City)
10. Minneapolis R
11. Phoenix R
12. Sacramento R
13. St. Louis at the Arch R
14. St. Louis Union Station R
15. Scottsdale Resort
16. Colorado Springs Place
17. Pk Toronto
18. HR Vancouver
19. Place Boise
20. Portland Place
21. Philadelphia former Pk
22. Place Seattle
Upcoming!
23. Calgary R
24. Gd Berlin
25. Warsaw R
This has cost me $100 total. I rock. Oh, and I am winning. He has only stayed at 20. Ha!
1. Cincinnati
2. Pk DC
3. Pk Chicago
4. Gd San Francisco
5. Gd Seattle
6. HRC
7. McCormick Place
8. Columbus
9. Crown Center (Kansas City)
10. Minneapolis R
11. Phoenix R
12. Sacramento R
13. St. Louis at the Arch R
14. St. Louis Union Station R
15. Scottsdale Resort
16. Colorado Springs Place
17. Pk Toronto
18. HR Vancouver
19. Place Boise
20. Portland Place
21. Philadelphia former Pk
22. Place Seattle
Upcoming!
23. Calgary R
24. Gd Berlin
25. Warsaw R
This has cost me $100 total. I rock. Oh, and I am winning. He has only stayed at 20. Ha!
I forgot I had a blog.
Okay, I didn't quite forget. I half didn't think about it and half haven't done anything fun in the last bunch of months to update. I'm not apologizing because I don't think anyone reads this to apologize to!
Anyway, in March I went to Sacramento and San Francisco. That was awesome but I forget too many of the details to make a post. Oops.
Then I went to EMT school and I had no life. I hardly even had time to work, let alone have a social life or travel. BUT I passed! And now I get to travel again! Boy, do I have trips planned!
Next week, I'm going to Calgary, Alberta. It is just a short trip, but I'm pretty excited. We've wanted to go to Calgary for a while. The real plan was to go in Sam's station wagon with a futon mattress in the back and go all the way to Yellowknife. Then Sam's car was totaled and now we only have mine. But oh well! Calgary will do just fine.
The week after that, my mom and little sister are coming to visit! They came out in Apri and did most of the touristy stuff. This time, we're going to go see Mt. Rainer or Mt. St Helens and possibly stay a night in Portland.
A couple weeks after that, my friend David is coming to visit, and they're going to explore Seattle! Then they're going to Portland, and I might go with them. They're going to San Fran, and I don't think I'll be able to go that far, though I'd like to. I think work is getting a little sick of me asking for time off.
I don't have anything planned for August (yet). But September. Oh, September. I cannot wait for September.
Icelandair offers this great deal where if you are going anywhere they fly, you can have a layover in Iceland for free. It is been a big dream of Sam's to go to Iceland, and we've wanted to take advantage of this for a while. Sam has a cousin in Denmark, and we decided to go visit. When looking at plane tickets, we realized Icelandair flys there! Then we realized Copenhagen is across a bridge from Sweden! Then we realized we can get 1 way tickets from Copenhagen to Berlin for $30! (Oh, and there's a hotel in our chain in Berlin- score!). THEN we realized that buses from Berlin to Warsaw are like $40. And there's a hotel in our chain there! Tickets back are about $100, unfortunately, but still!
We are so excited. We've been like crazed little monkeys on our computers, shouting out information of things to do, where to go, and how to get there.
We got our plane tickets to Iceland/Copenhagen yesterday. I booked hotel rooms in Warsaw and Berlin (for free- thanks, hotel chain!) tonight. I am so excited. All of my excitement for Calgary has been thrown out the window. I can't stop thinking about how excited I am to go to Europe!!
Anyway, in March I went to Sacramento and San Francisco. That was awesome but I forget too many of the details to make a post. Oops.
Then I went to EMT school and I had no life. I hardly even had time to work, let alone have a social life or travel. BUT I passed! And now I get to travel again! Boy, do I have trips planned!
Next week, I'm going to Calgary, Alberta. It is just a short trip, but I'm pretty excited. We've wanted to go to Calgary for a while. The real plan was to go in Sam's station wagon with a futon mattress in the back and go all the way to Yellowknife. Then Sam's car was totaled and now we only have mine. But oh well! Calgary will do just fine.
The week after that, my mom and little sister are coming to visit! They came out in Apri and did most of the touristy stuff. This time, we're going to go see Mt. Rainer or Mt. St Helens and possibly stay a night in Portland.
A couple weeks after that, my friend David is coming to visit, and they're going to explore Seattle! Then they're going to Portland, and I might go with them. They're going to San Fran, and I don't think I'll be able to go that far, though I'd like to. I think work is getting a little sick of me asking for time off.
I don't have anything planned for August (yet). But September. Oh, September. I cannot wait for September.
Icelandair offers this great deal where if you are going anywhere they fly, you can have a layover in Iceland for free. It is been a big dream of Sam's to go to Iceland, and we've wanted to take advantage of this for a while. Sam has a cousin in Denmark, and we decided to go visit. When looking at plane tickets, we realized Icelandair flys there! Then we realized Copenhagen is across a bridge from Sweden! Then we realized we can get 1 way tickets from Copenhagen to Berlin for $30! (Oh, and there's a hotel in our chain in Berlin- score!). THEN we realized that buses from Berlin to Warsaw are like $40. And there's a hotel in our chain there! Tickets back are about $100, unfortunately, but still!
We are so excited. We've been like crazed little monkeys on our computers, shouting out information of things to do, where to go, and how to get there.
We got our plane tickets to Iceland/Copenhagen yesterday. I booked hotel rooms in Warsaw and Berlin (for free- thanks, hotel chain!) tonight. I am so excited. All of my excitement for Calgary has been thrown out the window. I can't stop thinking about how excited I am to go to Europe!!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Tengu Sushi
Sam and I tried a new sushi place for dinner today. Sam found a place called Tengu Sushi by Northgate Mall that had great reviews. It wasn't great.
It is a conveyor belt sushi place, which I've always thought were kind of neat. I'd never been to one before. We ordered a hot item and grabbed some stuff of the conveyor belt. The sushi was okay. I've come to expect really good sushi from Seattle, and this didn't match up. It may have been good at some point and just went around the conveyor belt a few too many times. I'm not sure. Prices were good though, but their labeling system was a little strange. Different colored plates mean different prices, and that is easy enough to understand. However, instead of 5 different colors, they have "pastel green" (which is really sky blue) and regular green, orange, dark purple, and black. Really? All the plates have gold crack-looking designs on them, and they're a little difficult to tell apart at first. Why not make 5 different colors? Silly.
Our hot food (deep fried oysters) never came, and service was a little nil. After we'd finished all our conveyor sushi and sat for a little while, we finally got the attention of a server and cancelled the order. :/ Shame. That might have raised my opinion of their food. Instead, we ordered mochi. I got green tea and Samuel got red bean. Each order came with two balls. The menu says "Choose two" and lists the flavors, but you aren't actually allowed to do that. "Choose two" apparently means "you get two of one flavor". No worries, Sam and I just split ours. The mochi was delicious.
The place wasn't terrible, but it wasn't a new spot or anything. I probably won't return.
It is a conveyor belt sushi place, which I've always thought were kind of neat. I'd never been to one before. We ordered a hot item and grabbed some stuff of the conveyor belt. The sushi was okay. I've come to expect really good sushi from Seattle, and this didn't match up. It may have been good at some point and just went around the conveyor belt a few too many times. I'm not sure. Prices were good though, but their labeling system was a little strange. Different colored plates mean different prices, and that is easy enough to understand. However, instead of 5 different colors, they have "pastel green" (which is really sky blue) and regular green, orange, dark purple, and black. Really? All the plates have gold crack-looking designs on them, and they're a little difficult to tell apart at first. Why not make 5 different colors? Silly.
Our hot food (deep fried oysters) never came, and service was a little nil. After we'd finished all our conveyor sushi and sat for a little while, we finally got the attention of a server and cancelled the order. :/ Shame. That might have raised my opinion of their food. Instead, we ordered mochi. I got green tea and Samuel got red bean. Each order came with two balls. The menu says "Choose two" and lists the flavors, but you aren't actually allowed to do that. "Choose two" apparently means "you get two of one flavor". No worries, Sam and I just split ours. The mochi was delicious.
The place wasn't terrible, but it wasn't a new spot or anything. I probably won't return.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Skype
Quick post to say that I got to Skype with my parents and little sister today, and it was amazing. This move would have been so much harder without technology like cell phones and free long distance and the internet. Not to mention so much more expensive! I gave them a tour of my house and introduced them to some of my roommates. Totally made my day.
Uhuru
We were going to get sushi for lunch today, but then Samuel discovered Uhuru, a Kenyan restaurant, and that plan flew to the wind. You see, Samuel went to boarding school in Kenya until he was 15. His parents lived in Uganda. He hasn't been back since.
This place is down in Kent, so it was a good drive from Shoreline. Today being Sunday, it was a good day for it. If it is light outside, Seattle traffic is generally terrible, with Sundays being the one exception.
It wasn't really easy to find. It is in a big strip mall, and it doesn't have a sign on the main sign out front. Once we turned in, Samuel spotted the Kenyan flag on the sign, so it was easy for him. It would have taken me longer.
The place is really nice. There is a small bar at the back and several booths along the walls with table seating in the middle. Off to the right, they also have a raised dance floor. As Samuel informed me, Kenyans love to dance.
Our server was very nice, but seemed a little like he hadn't served much. That was okay because there were only two other tables in the place- the benefit of going to a late lunch/ early dinner at 4 in the afternoon! Samuel tried to order a Tusker, his favorite African beer, but they hadn't been able to get it in. We've run into that in other restaurants, so it wasn't anything new. We debated getting an appetizer of chips, sausage and egg, but decided just to stick with entrees. To clear up any possible confusion, Kenya was settled by the British, so chips are really french fries. Not that it makes that dish seem any less strange to me! I got a goat entree and Sam got beef stew. He was debating goat tripe, but didn't get it. Strange, because that is right up his alley!
The food was good. It seemed like something my mom might make, oddly enough, minus the ugali. My parents aren't very adventurous eaters, so eating foreign cuisines that they might like always trips my mind a bit. Ugali they might not like!
Ugali is cornmeal that is cooked with water to make an almost dough-like consistency. I've heard Samuel's dad mention that it wasn't very good, and I can see where he is coming from. By itself, it is boring. But it is good to dip into stews and picks up flavors well because it is so bland.
Cool sidenote: It turns out our waiter went to a high school that used to play rugby with Sam's high school! Small world, huh?
Good place. We'll probably go back, even though it is so far away. I'd like to try to get Samuel there for dancing.
This place is down in Kent, so it was a good drive from Shoreline. Today being Sunday, it was a good day for it. If it is light outside, Seattle traffic is generally terrible, with Sundays being the one exception.
It wasn't really easy to find. It is in a big strip mall, and it doesn't have a sign on the main sign out front. Once we turned in, Samuel spotted the Kenyan flag on the sign, so it was easy for him. It would have taken me longer.
The place is really nice. There is a small bar at the back and several booths along the walls with table seating in the middle. Off to the right, they also have a raised dance floor. As Samuel informed me, Kenyans love to dance.
Our server was very nice, but seemed a little like he hadn't served much. That was okay because there were only two other tables in the place- the benefit of going to a late lunch/ early dinner at 4 in the afternoon! Samuel tried to order a Tusker, his favorite African beer, but they hadn't been able to get it in. We've run into that in other restaurants, so it wasn't anything new. We debated getting an appetizer of chips, sausage and egg, but decided just to stick with entrees. To clear up any possible confusion, Kenya was settled by the British, so chips are really french fries. Not that it makes that dish seem any less strange to me! I got a goat entree and Sam got beef stew. He was debating goat tripe, but didn't get it. Strange, because that is right up his alley!
The food was good. It seemed like something my mom might make, oddly enough, minus the ugali. My parents aren't very adventurous eaters, so eating foreign cuisines that they might like always trips my mind a bit. Ugali they might not like!
Ugali is cornmeal that is cooked with water to make an almost dough-like consistency. I've heard Samuel's dad mention that it wasn't very good, and I can see where he is coming from. By itself, it is boring. But it is good to dip into stews and picks up flavors well because it is so bland.
Cool sidenote: It turns out our waiter went to a high school that used to play rugby with Sam's high school! Small world, huh?
Good place. We'll probably go back, even though it is so far away. I'd like to try to get Samuel there for dancing.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Not quite ready for moguls
Yesterday, I went skiing for the first time. To put it lightly, I am terrible.
But who expects to go skiing and be amazing, right? Sam, apparently.
Before I talk about all that other travel crap, let me touch on this man. Sam and I aren't the most active people in the world. We like to do things, yes, but we don't normally seek them out so much. That being said, anytime we do go do physical activities, I'm pretty terrible, and Sam's performance is of one who has done it a hundred times before. This was the same with ice skating (his second time, he started skating backwards) as well as skiing. For comparison's sake, I still skate very close to the wall while ice skating, and every time I tried to turn on skis, I fell over. Sigh.
Anyway, Snoqualmie Summit is just beautiful, and it was only something like 45 minutes away from Seattle- that is, if you don't leave and return during rush hour. Which we did. Anyway, it is right off interstate 90, which is a beautiful drive anyway.
Let me get something straight right now. I hate snow. I hate hate hate it. It snows every winter in Kentucky and it is awful and cold and sticks around way too long and turns gray and is ugly. Winter in Kentucky is bad enough anyway, since all the leaves fell off the trees in autumn and nothing has any color. Add a bunch of gray snow, and I'm ready to get the fuck out of there. The fact that it rarely snows in Seattle was a major part of me wanting to move here. Of course, I move here on the worst winter in 50 years (or best, according to all the winter sports fanatics), and it has snowed several times. Sigh again!
Now that I've clarified my hatred for snow, I feel free to declare how absolutely gorgeous snow on evergreen trees and mountains is. Holy shit. Especially since I got got ride by it in comfort and heat from the safety of Sam's car, I completely enjoyed seeing that sight.
We picked Snoqualmie mostly because my friend knew a really good deal. For $115 a person (including taxes and everything), we got three days of group lessons including lift tickets and rentals. I'm sure there are people who learn to ski without taking lessons, but like I said before, I am terrible at every sport. Lessons couldn't hurt, and this was a great deal. Plus, after taking the lessons, you can get a cheap season pass including rentals for a good deal.
We were going to try to take the 10 o'clock lesson, but due to leaving at rush hour (duh) we missed it, and arrived around 10:30. The next lesson didn't start until 1, so we had some time to fall over ourselves first. We played around on a "magic carpet" or a very slight hill with a people conveyor belt at the end to take you back up. (Think airports) Then Christie, the co-worker who started this whole thing in the first place, decided we needed to go down an actual slope. In retrospect, I think she was trying to kill me. But really, there's no point in trying to learn a skill if you're going to baby yourself through it the whole time, so off to the chair life we went. Slowly. Lesson 5 of the day: It is really hard to move across flat land on skis without ski poles. (Why didn't we have ski poles, you may wonder. Lesson 3: Beginners don't get ski poles because they stab themselves.)
I think it would be safe to say that I fell about 25 times on the way down that hill. Lesson 11: Getting back upright on skis on a hill is really difficult. I am now awesome at it. So we practiced and then it came time for the lesson. There were 4 people in the group, which was really nice. Everyone else had also never been skiing before, but they were awesome. I fell every time I tried to do anything. The entire lesson consisted of the instructor giving everyone else something to do, and then telling me what I was doing wrong so I could fix it. Sorry, everyone else in the lesson. :( Eventually, I got the hang of it, though my that point my upper body was so sore from picking myself back up that I just couldn't do it anymore.
Sam went and grabbed some poles so he could go faster down the mountain (UPRIGHT! How does he do that??) while I worked on not falling. Eventually, I gave up- or the muscles in my chest gave up for me- and I went to hang out with another friend in the ski lounge. Sam skiied on. I wish I had his abilities!
My arms and chest muscles are so sore today that it hurts to lift my arms up. I really hurts to push myself. Humph. They better be better by tomorrow, because we are going for round two!
But who expects to go skiing and be amazing, right? Sam, apparently.
Before I talk about all that other travel crap, let me touch on this man. Sam and I aren't the most active people in the world. We like to do things, yes, but we don't normally seek them out so much. That being said, anytime we do go do physical activities, I'm pretty terrible, and Sam's performance is of one who has done it a hundred times before. This was the same with ice skating (his second time, he started skating backwards) as well as skiing. For comparison's sake, I still skate very close to the wall while ice skating, and every time I tried to turn on skis, I fell over. Sigh.
Anyway, Snoqualmie Summit is just beautiful, and it was only something like 45 minutes away from Seattle- that is, if you don't leave and return during rush hour. Which we did. Anyway, it is right off interstate 90, which is a beautiful drive anyway.
Let me get something straight right now. I hate snow. I hate hate hate it. It snows every winter in Kentucky and it is awful and cold and sticks around way too long and turns gray and is ugly. Winter in Kentucky is bad enough anyway, since all the leaves fell off the trees in autumn and nothing has any color. Add a bunch of gray snow, and I'm ready to get the fuck out of there. The fact that it rarely snows in Seattle was a major part of me wanting to move here. Of course, I move here on the worst winter in 50 years (or best, according to all the winter sports fanatics), and it has snowed several times. Sigh again!
Now that I've clarified my hatred for snow, I feel free to declare how absolutely gorgeous snow on evergreen trees and mountains is. Holy shit. Especially since I got got ride by it in comfort and heat from the safety of Sam's car, I completely enjoyed seeing that sight.
We picked Snoqualmie mostly because my friend knew a really good deal. For $115 a person (including taxes and everything), we got three days of group lessons including lift tickets and rentals. I'm sure there are people who learn to ski without taking lessons, but like I said before, I am terrible at every sport. Lessons couldn't hurt, and this was a great deal. Plus, after taking the lessons, you can get a cheap season pass including rentals for a good deal.
We were going to try to take the 10 o'clock lesson, but due to leaving at rush hour (duh) we missed it, and arrived around 10:30. The next lesson didn't start until 1, so we had some time to fall over ourselves first. We played around on a "magic carpet" or a very slight hill with a people conveyor belt at the end to take you back up. (Think airports) Then Christie, the co-worker who started this whole thing in the first place, decided we needed to go down an actual slope. In retrospect, I think she was trying to kill me. But really, there's no point in trying to learn a skill if you're going to baby yourself through it the whole time, so off to the chair life we went. Slowly. Lesson 5 of the day: It is really hard to move across flat land on skis without ski poles. (Why didn't we have ski poles, you may wonder. Lesson 3: Beginners don't get ski poles because they stab themselves.)
I think it would be safe to say that I fell about 25 times on the way down that hill. Lesson 11: Getting back upright on skis on a hill is really difficult. I am now awesome at it. So we practiced and then it came time for the lesson. There were 4 people in the group, which was really nice. Everyone else had also never been skiing before, but they were awesome. I fell every time I tried to do anything. The entire lesson consisted of the instructor giving everyone else something to do, and then telling me what I was doing wrong so I could fix it. Sorry, everyone else in the lesson. :( Eventually, I got the hang of it, though my that point my upper body was so sore from picking myself back up that I just couldn't do it anymore.
Sam went and grabbed some poles so he could go faster down the mountain (UPRIGHT! How does he do that??) while I worked on not falling. Eventually, I gave up- or the muscles in my chest gave up for me- and I went to hang out with another friend in the ski lounge. Sam skiied on. I wish I had his abilities!
My arms and chest muscles are so sore today that it hurts to lift my arms up. I really hurts to push myself. Humph. They better be better by tomorrow, because we are going for round two!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Ferries
On Sunday, I headed over to Poulsbo to go shoot guns with a friend of mine. I was on the ferry on the way there, and the thought struck me that I absolutely love living in a place where, sometimes, you just have to take a ferry. I love that I live next to Puget Sound and there are a bunch of little islands to go explore. These islands make me feel like I am going on an adventure while remaining really close to home.
Additionally, everyone who works on a ferry should dress like a fairy.
Additionally, everyone who works on a ferry should dress like a fairy.
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