I fear I have succumbed to assimilation. When I first arrived in Germany it was suppose to be short term, just a trial run so to say, in order to see if me and the German would work out. Plus I was thinking that it was in the center of Europe, and therefore how bad could it be? After living there however for 3 months and making less pretax and deductions than I had previously made after tax and deductions I concluded that it could be very bad indeed. And when one of my middle aged students threw a pen across the room while screaming that in his "40 years of learning English I have never heard of a phrasal verb" and therefore, obviously, I must be making it up in an effort to upset him, all of a sudden I was awash with nostalgia for Asia and a plane ride out was sounding mighty fine.
Mittwoch, 25. August 2010
Freitag, 20. August 2010
Scratch The Hype, You Are NEVER Alone In Iceland
Even without the scary tourist information man's speech of the impending doom that awaits all those who dare venture into the badlands of Iceland's interior, the place had already been hyped to us by guidebooks as an isolated, only for the hardcore and the brave, zone. Although not entirely untrue, (I am in fact very glad our trip was canceled last year, as I think the roads of the interior would have had me hauling off my helmet, slamming it into Patrick's face, and then sitting down and crying at the futility of it all), neither is it quite Thunderdome's "2 man enter, 1 man leaves." And isolated it is not! Although it is very true that Icelanders tend to leave the place alone, Germans in particular are drawn to it, as are the French.
Seriously, on the one hand you are told to be prepared to die alone should you venture in there, on the other hand just TRY to pee without someone seeing you. The place is a desert, but as soon as you pee, someone is driving around the one bend you managed to find. (Or cruising through a river, jumping out and rubbing his hands together, and exclaiming in a thick German accent "It always AMAZES ME where these mopeds of yours end up. You know you took a wrong turn somewhere to be on THIS road, correct?") Wargle.
Even when we took the "are you mentally unbalanced" path by accident on the way to Kverkfoll, I was still unable to pee! And then there was the incident of the nail....
Welcome To Iceland! Too Bad I Hate It Here....
The road to Kverkfjoll
Picture this: Us, bright eyed, enamored with Iceland, so much so that our first day we never made it out of our first fjord because we could not comprehend that Iceland was not just all we thought it would be, but in fact much much more. (And we were not even in Lonely Planet land yet, just a slight recommended detour for those with too much time on their hands). We were in 7th heaven. We had 4 weeks stretching in front of us, and we wanted to make the most of them.
So we venture into the local Tourist info to get "the local know how" on what roads would be the best option for us, especially for Sherrie as she is not an experienced off roader. (Try, actually, not one at all, she had a 1 day course and declared she hated it). But we thought that this was perhaps not the best info to share, but rather of the sort to keep to ourselves in case they try to discourage us.
Perhaps one of our brighter ideas, as when we told the guide we wished to venture forth to Kverkfjoll, which had a road rumored to be sent from the devil himself, well let us just say we met one of his minions at the tourist info. When we asked about the road he puffed himself up, sneered at us in disdain and declared that "I, MYSELF, have never been there, I for ONE, am not into this Hemingway crap, but that road will eat you up and SPIT you out. I am much more a London or Paris person myself."
And then he rolled his eyes at us.
Freitag, 13. August 2010
Because You Can Find Us Everywhere...
.... and not just around the world but also all over the web. We also blog over at Journizer, the same people who did (and are still doing, the episodes continue to come out!) our Journizing Turkey podcasts (I know technically vodcasts, but I just can't bring myself to say vodcasts, I am a creature of habit and the habit says podcast!). Either way, we write a logbook over there, and when we have time our pictures go there as well (I double post to Flickr, Patrick posts only to Journizer). A logbook means a general summary of our day rather than the type of post we write here. But if you are actually interested in the details, then there is where you want to go! It has a rather neat map (yes I wrote neat, herrrrr) and when we have the time we retype our daily notes there and back date them. So far there are only a couple of entires for this trip, but more will go there. But we have one laptop and 2 computer geeks, and it makes it hard to get everything done. Especially since we are here to ride Iceland and not to spend it on the internet! That is for when we get back! (This was an autopost written on Friday!)
In Iceland & Already The Camping Card Has Paid For Itslef!!!
We made it! 2 days and 2 nights on a ferry (we arrived here the morning of the thrid day!) and finally yesterday morning we arrived! We took our bikes off the boat, and decided to check out Skalanes, a 20 km ride on a 4 wheel drive trek (we thought we might as well jump in feet first) and then we would decide from there what we wanted to do. 10 hours later we had covered all of 40 kms (20 in and 20 out), we were back in the ferry port, and we were grinning from ear to ear. Gone were the memories of the ferry ride when we debated pucking off the others limbs just to hear the other scream in an effort to alievieate the boredom. THIS is what we came for, this is pure bliss, and whatever the costs, it would be worth every penny! For the reason we took so long was not the difficulty of the riding, but rather how spectacular the scenary was!
And financial wise we made a smart decsion on the ferry. We bought the 2010 camping card that lets us stay at selected sites for free. We worked it out, and after 5 stays on a site it had paid for itslef. We plan on staying in a tent as much as possible, so even with wild camping and the use of the hot springs, we figured we would still require 5 showers. And then we discovered how much internet costs (try 2 Euros per half hour). And then our campsite has free internet. And just from being able to access the internet the card has paid for itself. If you are coming to Iceland to camp buy one of these!!!!
Dienstag, 10. August 2010
Samstag, 7. August 2010
"Iceland Bound", Or "Better Late Than Never", Or "Does This Seem Familiar To You?"
2 days late is better than never! (3 if you want to really argue it, but Thursday evening was never really a plan, just a “what if”, so we are 2 days late and that is my story and I am sticking to it. Plus I worked Thursday evening, it cant be considered a real departure date). I would love to say that the stress of the past 2 days was unusual and new, but lets be honest, we never leave on time. We always leave at least one day later, and 3 seems to be the norm. It's a combination of the fact that I am always way too optimistic on how much time we actually need, and the fact that since we ride our bikes we do not normally have a time pressure of taking off at a set date and time. But now the bikes are packed, everything is strapped, and the only cost is that we wont get to be tourists in Hamburg. I can accept that for 4 weeks in Island with our motorcycles! And so I leave you with the third episode of Journizing The Throne of The Gods, where we were also 2 or 3 days late before we actually left. :-P