Hyde Park Ramblings in the Sun

London, sun, Jess and her parents, dinner at the Earl of Camden

Filled out later.

Iceland!

Hœ!

That's Icelandic for Hi!

Well, I have finally made it to Iceland even with the Volcano being all crazy.

May 15, 2010

This morning started out very early and has been very hectic from the start. I wound up taking the Underground all the way to Hammersmith to only find the way to Heathrow was closed, ontop of the fact that I was already running behind schedule. Somehow, I managed to figure out about taking the express train to Heathrow from Paddington, which wound up costing £18 for a one way ticket!! After arriving at Heathrow, I managed to make it to the check in desk to find out that the flight was delayed until 2pm, so at this rate, I was allowed to take a leisurely lunch and get on the plane. Icelandair was exceptionally nice, even though I wound up being stuck with a window seat. Meh. The plane had some funny sayings in Icelandic and was an enjoyable trip. I wound up arriving in Iceland around 5pm, taking the FlyBus for 2300Krona return into Reykjavik. I managed to get into the city in under an hour and have just been meandering and managed to find my way relatively quickly. Although it was relatively nice out during the day, it has gotten exceptionally chilly and yet is still excessively bright out even though its almost 10pm. I also managed to find the hostel, Reykjavik Backpackers quickly but well just have to wait and see how this turns out.

May 16, 2010

I guess you can say today was another epically awesome day in Iceland. Today started out bright and early, by heading down to the Pier to meet up with the Reykjavik Bike Club who do bike rides around the city and the surrounding area. After meeting up with the group, in total there were four of us, we set off away from the Pier and cruised along the coastline while our guide Matthias pointed out lots of interesting points of what it means to be Icelandic, although he is German. After a short ride around the harbor, we pushed on over the hills and headed towards the outside of the center of town. We passed by the University of Iceland and a couple of the various concrete churches they have in town, although we did not visit the most distinguished one of them all. After about a good two hours of biking, we finally were on the way back into town to complete our ride. After parting from the harbor, I mainly just perused the side of town that I hadn't been through yet and ultimately wound up infront of the Bonús store, who's mascot is a flying pink pig with glasses. Even with the ridiculous mascot, the prices were significantly better than the ones at the 10/11 store. Grabbing lunch and few other supplies, I headed back to the hostel to drop them off, only to head back out towards the BSI bus station to head off towards the Blue Lagoon. I just barely made the 2:00pm bus towards the Lagoon after paying 6400Krona for the return bus and the entrance to the lagoon, while arriving at the Blue Lagoon around 2:45pm.

Once inside, I was given this magnetic wristband that acted as your key card and sorts. After making it to the changing rooms, I ran into my first problem - the stupid lockers. I literally spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out how to open the locker, then how to lock it, and then how to reopen it. The instructions were beyond rubbish, which only actually confused me more and actually hindered the process. Go figure. After that little situation and the laughs from the Icelandic man next to me, who eventually helped me after a couple of good chuckles, I though I was finally ready to enter the lagoon. However, I was wrong, again. Since the lagoon is a natural hot spring, the lagoon is not chlorinated and thus without proper care turn into a cess pool. To avoid that, you have to shower without your suit on and lather yourself with this chemical like soap prior to entry and there were officials who inspected you. No lie. After that little ordeal, I was finally by the spring. The first big challenge was heading outside from the warmth, as it was 4ºC out, while I was only dressed in boardshorts. I sucked it up and ran like most of the people out to the lagoons entrance and was greeted by the exceptionally warm water. The water and the warmth are just so alien looking, especially when they are set in the old lava flows and surrounded by lava rock. I paddled my way over to the silica mask station and did myself up right like all the other Scandinavians. With mask in tact, I swam over the geyser in the pool and greedily enjoyed the exceptionally hot water that it put out. I ultimately went around to the all the different alcoves and places to swim plus venturing into a geysers cave vent, which was like an exceptionally moist sauna that was 100x better. After realizing the time, I headed back in to change and catch the 7:00pm bus back to Reykjavik. Although the silica dried my hands and hair out a lot, it was still exceptionally wonderful on my face and everywhere else it went. I definitely wish I could have spent more time there, but that will just have to wait for the next time I come to Iceland.

May 17, 2010

So another adventure filled day in Iceland is done, only three more days to go after this. Today I was originally supposed to go to Silfra to go snorkeling in the supposedly amazing, crystal clear water. However, on Sunday, I was informed that I was still the only person signed up for the tour meaning in essence that they needed a second person. Begrudgingly, I got the refund and was forced to look into something else to do. I had originally thought about doing a horseback riding excursion and the combined whale watching tour, but in the end I had to choose between a couple of things for monetary reasons and time constraints. However with my newfound free time, I booked a tour with Elding and Ishestor. In the morning, I made my way to the bus station to get picked up by the Ishestar people, who took me to the riding paths located outside the city limits of Reykjavik, a good 20 minutes by van. After arriving at the stables and filling out the paperwork, I was finally transported to the equipment room to be suited, all equestrian style, hat and whip in tow. I was then met with my horse for the day, named Strákur which is Icelandic for boy. The horses though are a bit special as they have been bred pure for almost a 1000 years. They are also one of the few remaining remnants of what he original Vikings brought over. The name Ishestar in Icelandic means ice horse, which is relatively appropriate, however, they are no where near as big as the normal horses back home but are much hardier to the rugged landscape. The horse was relatively friendly, but he had a very strong set will which was kinda hard considering it has been years since the last time I was on a horse. However, I was mounted and ready to go. After a brief introduction, more like a crash course of where we just wing it, we were off into the volcanic land surrounding Reykjavik. Naturally, the first leg of the trek was considerably hard since my horse decided he was not to fond of me being on his back and taking my commands, so he did his damnedest to do everything but listen to what I thought. However somewhere along the way, we came to a compromise and we worked together. At the halfway mark, we came to a stop around a stream area and allowed the horses to rest for a bit. About 15 minutes later, we were saddling back up and heading back to the stables. For this leg of the trek, we sped things up a bit and did some galloping and running back, which was exhilarating and mildly painful for me with the bouncing. However, we returned after being gone for some 3.5hrs and dismounted whilst also performing the necessary end steps of horse maintenance. Overall, I had a fantastic time and for a period of time considered how I could steal a horse and take him back to London with me in my carryon.

After the riding adventure, I was taken back into Reykjavik for the whale watching tour. Although mainland Iceland has been relatively nice with a jacket and the like, once aboard the boat, the bay and the whipping winds made the cold almost unbearable. So to combat this, the Elding people gave us these jumpsuit like things which were basically insulated neoprene dry suits that you put over your clothes. Essentially it made me feel and look like the Michelline man, but whatever, I was warm and actually comfortable so I ventured to the upper decks to start my tour. After about an hour on board, we had finally left the harbor and had entered the whale territory. Although in the end we only saw a couple of whales, we wound up seeing a huge amount of dolphins who were playfully jumping and frolicking in the summer waters. Also in attendance were the newly migrated Puffins, who were practically everywhere. Lucky for me, they arrived on the 15th and have pretty much taken over the small islands outside of the harbor. The puffins are actually relatively funny when they try to fly, since usually when they are in the water they gorge themselves so much they are unable to lift off very far. So, they basically look like they are running on the top of the water, in which, they ultimately give up and then dive down in the water. After cruising around for a couple of hours, we pulled back into port, in which, I walked back to the hostel and stopped by the Bonus store to get some more food items. All in all, Iceland has been amazing and the people are hilarious. The only thing that is driving me crazy is the daylight. It literally is daylight until about 1am and then the sun rises around 4:30am. Even the hours between are not say like usual darkness but more like a dusk, so it's a complete brain flip and my mind just cannot get past it yet. However, exhaustion usually takes over and I pass out.

May 18, 2010

Wound up getting up insanely early again, to get on another tour to go visit the South Coast of Iceland and more specifically, the Jokulsarlon lagoon. The tour in total wound up taking the most of the day starting from 7am until 9pm that night. The tour was actually really cool though, although exceptionally long, since we wound up driving for super long periods and actually drove right next to the now lava producing volcano Eyjafjallajokull. We went through tons of roads covered in ash and actually drove through the ash plume on the way south. We drove through the villages of Selfoss, Vik, and Kirkjubaejarklaustur as well as visiting the Skogafoss waterfall, which was super awesome due to all the glacial run off from the melting glacier. We also stopped at the Skaftafell National Park, which had an interesting memorial to the Skeidararsandur flood plains which wound up killing a several people and took out this huge metal bridge, leaving just an extremely twisted pylon. Many of the biggest glacial rivers in Iceland go through this region which empties in the Atlantic Ocean. Before the lagoon, we went through the gorge of the Oraefajokull glacier, which has the highest peak in Iceland from Hvannadalshnjukur at 2100 meters. After a couple more kilometers, we finally arrived at the lagoon where we took a duck boat tour into the lagoon. We saw a couple of sealions in the lagoon which is filled with huge chunks of ice from the near by glacier Vatnajokull. After the boat tour in the afternoon, we made a couple of stops to just take in the surroundings and the newly formed waterfalls from the volcanic eruption on the way back to Rykjavik, arriving around 9:15pm with the sun still shinning.

May 19, 2010

We went to the Nesjavellir power station, which is a high temperature geothermal area situated in a picturesque landscape near Lake Þingvallavatn. Then we enter Þingvellir, a special place in the hearts of Icelanders where many historically important events have taken place. The Icelandic parliament Alþingi was founded at Þingvellir in 930., the oldest parliament in the world. Icelanders adopted Christianity at Þingvellir in the year 1000 and it now a National Park. Geologically it is unique and here the American and the Eurasian tectonics plates meet and slowly drift apart. We continue to the majestic waterfall Gullfoss and from there to the geothermal area of Geysir and Strokkur.
We proceeded to the church at Skálholt, the ancient seat of the Icelandic bishops where the first translation of the Old Testament was printed. On our way back we will make a stop at the explosion crater, Kerið.
From Kerið we travel through agricultural areas to Hveragerði, a small horticultural town, where you will see how geothermal energy has been harnessed to grow flowers, fruit and vegetables in greenhouses. Due to weather and road conditions we cannot guarantee a visit to Nesjavellir during the winter.

May 20, 2010

After an amazing time in Iceland, I headed to the airport around 2pm after doing some last minute shopping and was able to be lucky and get out of Iceland before the ash closed the airports again. Luckily, the norse gods were smiling upon me as I was able to get back to London on time and actually had the entire row on the IcelandAir flight back to Heathrow.

Phantom of the Opera

On Wednesday, I took the plunge and got a ticket to go see the Phantom of the Opera, in the place where it all began. I ultimately purchased one of the grand circle tickets, essentially the second level seats and had a decent view of the stage. The show started approximately on time and wrapped about 2.5hrs later. At the end, I actually felt kinda underwhelmed, per say. I have seen the Phantom twice before and have seen the movie, but this just didn't live up to my expectations. It was still very good, but it just doesn't hold a flicker to my other theater experiences in London, or against any of the other times I have seen it. The Phantom in the play was beyond terrific, but Christine and Raoul were just meh. Hopefully, it was just an off night, but I definitely felt let down a bit.

Austria, Hungary, and France, oh my!

Hiyo!

Well, as from the title, you thought that I was supposed to be going to Greece, well on May 4th, EasyJet announced that the Greek airlines went on strike for the week, so therefore our first flight to Mykonos was cancelled. Well after sorting some things out, EasyJet gave us the opportunity to change some of flights around and we were able to rearrange it for Vienna, Austria!

May 5th, 2010

So, Jess and I wound up leaving from Colindale early, more like 1:30 in the morning to head to Gatwick to catch our flight. After taking the never ending National Express, which actually wound up getting into an accident on the trip to Gatwick, arrived on time at around 5am, to check into our flight at 7am to Austria. We checked in and made it through security, arriving at the furtherest freaking terminal and waited for the flight. Granted at this point, the two of us had been up for literally around 48hrs, so during the flight, exhaustion took over and we both passed out in our seats. About three hours later, we were in Austria!!

With barely any plan, we managed to navigate our way on the railway into central Vienna and along the way decided the best place to stay. We meandered and somehow managed to get onto the S-Bahn (the underground) and headed toward Westbahnhof. Westbahnhof is one of the major train stations, so naturally, there was a decent selection of hostels to choose from. Not taking too much of a chance, we settled on Hostel Ruthensteiner, which Lonely Planet reccomended. We managed to locate the hostel and secured our hostelling after a bit of back and forth. In the end, we decided to say 'screw it' and went and got the two bed private room with kitchen attached, which turned into being a complete apartment in another building next to the hostel complete with terrace. For the 5 nights we were in Vienna, this place was amazing, minus the annoying bath without shower curtain. After all of this, it was around 12pm so we went outside to find some groceries and some food items to get replenished. After our meandering, we came back to the room, ate, and then entered food comas, more or less ending our first day in Austria.

May 6, 2010

Today was the first real day actually walking around Vienna. Vienna is by far one of the most beautiful and also cleanest places I have ever been. We more or less didn’t have any sort of plan per say, but we generally just meandered around the city center just taking in the beauty of the city. We took the S-Bahn into the center and just hit up the local parks to enjoy the sunshine and attempt to blend in with the locals who were taking advantage of the sun. After the first stop at Stephenplatz, we headed into the cathedral and just took in the size of the church. We weren’t allowed very far in because of a ceremony that was taking place within the church, so we just went outside to look around for west tower, which you were able to climb to the top. The tower really wasn’t anything persay special but it was cool to see the sky views of Vienna. I wasn’t necessarily mad about paying 3 euros to get to the top but at the top there was a gift shop which was sadly kinda lame. After the uneventful tower climb, we meandered around the square and just took in the various streets and shops. After a couple of hours of visiting the outsides of many of the locale attractions, we went to the amusement park on the outside of town and ultimately took part on this sky swing, which was exciting and terrifying at the same time. This thing literally swings you around in a circle but steadily climbs all the way to the top, probably about 100meters or so. Needless to say, it was an incredible adrenaline rush. After that fun, we headed back into town to more or less find something to eat, finally eating at this Italian restaurant, which had amazing four cheese ravioli, but had these weird holly-like berries mixed in. After dinner, we headed back to our apartment and crashed for the night.

May 7, 2010

Today, we decided on traveling to some of the surrounding countries, ultimately choosing Budapest, Hungary to visit. We left on the 7:05am train from Westbahnhof and arrived in Budapest around 10:45. I knew Hungary was in the Eastern Europe and I know I have my prejudices about Eastern Europe, but the area around the train station was the most stereotypical outlook on what an old Soviet country would be like. After about 15 minutes of trying to figure out where we were, we finally headed into the center to see what Hungary is all about. After taking out 50,000 Forinths (~35US), we grabbed lunch at Burger King and just meandered. Budapest was by the far the hottest country I have been to since leaving Florida, I was practically drenched in sweat by noon. We walked across the main bridge and just meandered through the city park and then took the Funicular up into the castle district to look at the city government buildings. We more or less just meandered and just experienced what it was like to be a Budapestian for the day. We ate this weird chocolate funnel cake-like thing, which was gross at first, but after consuming more of it, it actually started to grow on us. After that little impromptu snack, we traversed down the mountain and just went through a bunch of the beautiful back streets. Ultimately, we came across the main big park where all the locals were hanging out, which encompasses the Hungarian palace. The center of Budapest was beyond gorgeous, had the classic old world architecture and everything was completely amazing. After being in Budapest for about 9 hours, we headed back to the train station to make it on the last train back to Vienna.

May 8, 2010

Today was a completely uneventful day. We tried and ultimately failed at going to Bratislava, Slovakia. We sat around at Westbahnhof, only to be told that the trains leave from Ostbahnhof. So we traveled down to Ostbanhof, only to wait around for three hours for two trains that never showed up. We then just got on one train that was going to somewhere in Slovakia, but turned around since it was almost 4pm, we would maybe only be there for like two hours before we had to go back to Vienna. In the end, we just decided not to risk it and went back to hang out in the apartment.

May 9, 2010

We decided today was the day to go and get to hiking the Austrian Alps. We decided to not go to Salzburg where the Sound of Music was filmed, but to a smaller and closer area that was only ten euros return. We got our tickets and headed down to Puchberg am Schneeburg, where we took the Salamander train to the top of the mountain, which took about 75 minutes to get to the top. Once up at the top, we had amazing views the entire way up. Once we got to the top of the mountains, we discovered to our horror that it was about 2ºC and we were in jeans and windbreakers. So, after a couple of pictures, we left base camp to trek up the mountains and just bounce around to get some blood pumping. We basically stayed to the single path that went the most direct way, just because we didn’t know how much time we would have. We ultimately made it up the top of the mountain in 90 minutes, however, there was fresh snow covered several of the points of the path meaning that we had to traverse it in our converse, whilst soaking our jeans too. All in all, we made it to the top with a couple of slips and wet butts. After returning to base camp, we went to the restaurant on the mountain to get out of the cold to grab some dinner. I would up ordering the weinersnitzel, which was not sausage covered in Bavarian like goodies, but pan fried veal steak severed with French fries, completely not what I expected. After grabbing lunch, we took the train back down to the base of the mountain and just went about our way back to Vienna.

May 10, 2010

Monday was the last day in Austria and I was definitely sad to see the time go by, but Jess and I were on our next stop, heading to Paris! We cleaned and tidied up the apartment and returned the key to the hostel before taking our last ride on the S-bahn to the Wein Mein station, where you catch the trains out of the city and to the airport. Of course because we were running late, the train needed to get to the airport left about 30 minutes after arriving at the station, so naturally, we both started to freak out. However, we wound up making it to the airport with enough time to get some lunch and something to eat before embarking on the nicest/sketchiest airplane ever, FlyNiki (a subsidary of Air Berlin). They literally have the easyjet plane, but their mascot is a poop fly. However, on board the plane was nice and the service was good, but the landing was actually really scary. The plane actually, more or less, bounced. Anywho, we arrived in Paris in tact and figured our way down to the train station. After taking the right train into the city and getting off at Gare du Nord, we had a hell of a time finding the metro ticket windows and then ultimately making it onto said metro line. After about an hour searching and with tickets in hand, we were on the metro headed for the apartment that Jess' aunt has. After about 45minutes on the metro, we were at the stop Passy and met up with her family and her aunt's friends. We went out and strolled around the neighborhood taking in the sites and growing ever hungrier. Ultimately, we wound up eating at this really expensive Italian restaurant, which was actually exceptionally very good, plus I finally had my first french crepe. After satisfying our hunger, we headed back to the apartment and managed to catch some of the eiffel tower sparkling, and then headed back around 11:30pm to crash, waiting for the next day to arrive.

May 11, 2010

This was officially my first morning in Paris and it was a dreary one. The rain was coming down and the temperature was freezing, but it did not stop us from heading to the Museum d'Orsay and waiting in line for about 1.5hrs. We meandered along and finally made it in, with me getting in for free due to my UK student status. We stayed at the Orsay museum for about 5 hrs and then decided to head back in to the apartment to cook some food and have some laughs for the rest of the night.

May 12, 2010

Today was my final day in Paris, as I was flying back to London that night from Charles du Galle, so it was a whirlwind day. We ultimately walked around most of Paris and met up with some Canadians who were also waiting in line at the underground graves. After walking under Paris for the hour, we headed above ground and were given some good advice on where to go from there. We headed down to Saint Sulpice where we stopped for lunch at this little bistro who had a set menu. I wound up getting this House soup, which tasted more of leeks and potatoes, but was still very good. The main entree though was more of something that I was told to try, the Boudin Noir (aka the Blood Sausage). Surprising, it was actually very good and was even better when combined with these amazing mashed potatoes. After lunch we visited Saint Camille's chapel, which has the most amazing stained glass windows, only to venture onto the islands where Notre Dame is. Whilst inside Notre Dame, I ran into Rene Snachez, our adbroad advisor, and exchanged greetings. After the trip inside, it was time for me to start my trek back to the apartment and then onwards to airport.

Edinburgh, Scotland

Hi again!

Well, I just got back from Edinburgh, Scotland, which really has been the most magical place I have been this far on this trip. Everything and everywhere I went in Edinburgh, albeit Scotland too, was just like something out of a picture book. There literally are sheep just about everywhere, which little 'ums next to them.

Day 1: April 27th, 2010

I left, yet again, on the 4am EasyBus to Luton airport to catch my 7am flight to Edinburgh aboard Easyjet. It was a relatively smooth flight, approximately an hour from here to there, but this time around, it was a perfectly cloudless sky, which gave me some incredible views. After arriving at Edinburgh international and not sadly not going through customs, since I left from London, I was out to the bus terminal to catch the bus into town. I wound up catching a bus leaving that minute so I saved myself 20minutes waiting for the next one to arrive. After about half an hour, I was in the middle of town on Princes street. I decided to go find the hostel and see if I could check in, or at the very least, leave my pack there for the day. I had booked three nights at the Castle Rock Hostel, which was literally the most bohemian place I have ever seen. It was just such a hodgepodge of just about everything together, but it was quaint and kinda neat, plus the view of Edinburg Castle was beyond fantastic. The castle happened to be next door, albeit it is about 30 meters above everything. I almost forgot, Edinburgh is situated on the top of an extinct volcano and therefore the entire city undulates up and down. By the end of the first day, my quads were killing me from going up and down so many flights of stairs. Anywho, after leaving my pack and checking in to the 8bed dorm, I headed around town to make a gameplan and get the feel of the town. Edinburgh is really compact, in a way, and is completely walkable, took approximately 30 minutes to walk from Holyrood park to the castle. After consulting my free maps and grabbing something quick from Boots, I decided to just go ahead and tackle climbing the volcano in Holyrood Park. After entering the park, it took approximately 45 minutes to climb to the top, called Arthur's Chair, but the views along the way were fantastic and was also such an endorphin rush making it all the way to the top. I wound up having lunch on the top with some food I packed and just hung out taking photos and whatnot for about half an hour. After lunch, the weather started to look like it was getting ready to rain, so I began my trek back down to the base. After making it down, I began my trudge back to the castle area of town, ultimately deciding to go to Edinburgh Castle. For some reason, all of these castles are ungodly expensive and yet they are all really disappointing. Minus the cool views and seeing the crown jewels, the castle was a letdown. By this time, it was about 5pm and took to the stairs to find a Sainsburys cook some dinner, shower, and then bed.

Arthur's Chair

In front of downtown Edinburgh

Day 2: April 28th, 2010

After a good nights rest at the Castle Rock, I woke up early to go on the day tour of the Scottish Highlands I booked through Timberbrush. I got picked up just south of the castle meaning it was a super quick walk up the stairs from the hostel. At around 8am, the tour guide Fred decked out in complete Scottish attire, kilt and all, introduced himself to the 15 of us and told us of the itinerary of the day, ultimately coming back to Edinburgh around 8pm. We proceeded to head outside of town into the highlands, which is more or less the entire country. After a quick stop for breakfast around 11am, in which I bonded with this Highlands cow named Hammish, we were back out into the highlands to experience Scotland first hand. We headed down the roads for a couple of hours, until around two we stopped at Uhrquart Castle to take a quick tour and then get on a boat to traverse the infamous Lock Ness. Unfortunately, there were no Nessie sightings in the water, but offland, thats a complete other story. After the jaunt at the castle and boat tour, there was a dinner stop and then then ride back to Edinburgh.

Uhrquart Castle

In front of Lock Ness

Hammish, a Highlands cow

Day 3: April 29th, 2010

This was the end of the quick three day journey and it was completely not long enough to completely finish everything I wanted to do and see in Edinburgh. I definitely intend to come back to Scotland some day just to soak up the Scottish flavor. After learning about the New Europe tours in Dublin, I just had to do the tour that morning. After arriving outside of the Starbucks on the Royal Mile, I met with the tour guide Mark and the group. The tour left around 11am and ultimately finished around 2:30pm, down in the park underneath the castle. The tour was possibly better than the Dublin counterpart, but they are definitely the most fantastic tours ever, the best part is that they are free, which is still mindbogling. After the tour, Mark asked if any of us wanted to go to the pub to grab lunch, with a couple of us taking him up on his offer. He wound up taking us to this little pub, near the place that the bus from the airport stopped, and got us a deal on lunch. I ultimately decided to try the Haggis, Turnip and Mash dinner, which was only £3. I'm not going to say that Haggis is delicious, but it was not by any means as disgusting as people make it out to be. I would get it again, that says something within itself. By this time, its approaching 5pm and I still have to go get my bag and get on the Airlink bus back to the airport. I wound up making time at the airport and had time to grab dinner at E.A.T. (more or less our style Panera) before my EasyJet flight left around 7:45pm.

Edinburgh Castle

The Elephant Tea House, the window above the R is where J.K. Rowling penned Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets

The official beverage of Scotland: Illegal in many western countries, including the US