Armful of Countries

Just in case my last post didn't fully convey the wanderlust saturating my very DNA, I offer you one final bit of proof.  My dad criss-crossed the world during his Navy days (and after) and he loved to share his travels by bringing back amazing souvenirs.  

Below is a picture of the charm bracelet he created and brought back to his baby sister, our awesome Aunt Bonnie, who very graciously gifted this to my sister and I.  He even wrote a list of the countries that each charm represented, all of which he visited.  (The UN flag charm from NYC in between France and Italy didn't make the list though)  

Italy?  Check!  Greece? Check!  Spain?  Check!  

Guess I'll have to add the others to my bucket list!  ;)  

(And from that list, Erica's been to France, Greece, and Spain)  

And this is his list of currency exchange rates (mid 1960's rates) so that 

he'd be ready for shore leave in whatever port they hit. 

Fistful of Passports

I was blessed to be born into a traveling family - and to marry into one.  

Although I didn't get my first passport until I was eighteen, in anticipation of a college archaeological trip to Honduras, I was no novice when it came to traveling.  Thanks to my Mom's love of exotic beach locales and my Dad's family and old Navy buddies scattered around the country, my sister and I racked up some serious mileage early on.  We became Zen masters of airport gate transfers and entertaining ourselves on long road trips.  

Erica quickly surpassed my measly little summer trips to Honduras and Greece by embarking on back-to-back multi-country tours of Europe when she was 13 and 14, with a few college study-abroad programs thrown in for good measure.  But before she was the travel savant that she is now, she was a little jealous of my Zen-like travel calmness and used to liven things up by stomping me in the face on roadtrips - but that only lasted through puberty.  ;)  Also, I remember when she thought that the mirror in the AAA office was a "hidden" passport camera and stood there for ages stock-still and smiling waiting for the picture to be taken!  And the most important life lesson she learned from her month in the UK during middle school?  Bring your own ketchup! 

Mark's family is even more well-travelled, having lived abroad in Spain and wherever else the Navy sent them.  Although I think they were slightly more infamous than us... That deadly viral outbreak* in Europe during the '70's?  Yeah, that was all Mark.  He had the distinction of having the worst case of Chicken Pox ever seen in modern Spain and may even be featured in one their medical texts!  Mark's dad also had a habit of getting the nearby livestock intoxicated and may have been known to bring home a marine iguana larger than his son as the new "family pet."  

I can't wait until we can have these kind of international travel experiences with our own kids - you know, when they're old enough to buy their own airplane tickets! 

It's hard to tell in this picture but the passport on top has a permant butt curve 

thanks to spending an entire Grecian summer in my back pocket!  

The green ones are old passports from Mark's family's Navy days.

*I'm kidding about the viral outbreak in Europe.  But Mark's Chicken Pox?  Totally true! 

Packing Wars

Is there such a thing as packing too early? 

No, of course not!  As long as by "early" you mean no more than an hour before you slam your suitcase shut, throw it in the car, and peel out of the driveway, desperately hoping that you won't miss your plane.  And if it's a road trip, you can shift your "early" packing all the way down to thirty minutes before your departure time.  

Honestly, I've "packed" in the middle of a road trip.  It's super easy.  You just swing by whatever Walmart you happen to be driving by - there's one every 2 miles after all - and buy your eight year old a new wardrobe and toothbrush for $48.95 and it's all good.  

I've really never understood this "early" packing that people talk about anyway.  How do you do without a week or two's worth of clothing until your departure date?  You don't, that's how.  You start taking things out of your "packed" suitcase and before you know it, you're missing half your stuff only you don't realize it because you "packed early" and then you take off on your trip with most of your stuff missing.  Insidious!  

I'm telling you, it's much better to pack immediately (i.e. 30 minutes to an hour) before your trip so that you have your whole wardrobe and all of your accessories available at once.  It also helps with the decision-making process:  "Should I pack the heels or the hiking boots?  Screw it!  I'll take both!"  That feeling that seems to be a cross between panic that you won't finish in time and paranoia that you've forgotten something (e.g. your eight year old's suitcase), is really just normal vacation excitement hormones and nothing to be concerned about.  Seriously, I've got this down to a science.

And then this happens...

Erica's attempt at "early packing"

What the heck does my sister think she's doing by starting to pack THREE AND A HALF WEEKS before the trip?  It's like we don't even share the same DNA.  :P

The Arrival of Stuff

Who doesn't love getting stuff in the mail!?  Especially when it's from other countries and/or the US Department of State.  (Ok, not all stuff from the US Department of State may be loveable but when you're anxiously waiting for a passport, that thick yellow envelope is a welcoming sight.)

Yep, that's right...  Erica received our Icelandic Camping Card so I am happy to report that we will not be sleeping in our tiny rental car or under a hill with the elves.  And the Historic Scotland passes just arrived in the post for Mark and I so we'll actually get to go inside the cool monuments instead of hanging around the entrances, looking pathetic and hoping to get a peek of what's inside.  Not that that's ever happened to me before *cough Colosseum cough Westminster Abbey cough*   Oh, yeah, and Mark has a valid passport once more. It's almost as if this trip is really going to happen!  :D

Itineraries Are for Suckers

And I'm the biggest sucker of them all.

My sister is a little more free-wheeling than I am so the need for a detailed itinerary of our Iceland trip isn't high on her list of priorities.  (For more about Erica's priorities, see this post about her Icelandic playlist)  I can't help my desperate need to control things though.  After more than a decade of juggling husband, kids, dogs, mortgage, extended family, full-time job, part-time school, ex-baby-mama, car payments, etc., I LIVE for my calendars, schedules, and spreadsheets.  And if I can cross-reference and link my email calendars with my spreadsheets, it just feels so good!

With that being said, when Erica and I decided to buy the Icelandic campground pass, I told her - and myself - that I was OK with winging it.  "If the campground is full," I said, "we'll just drive to the next one.  It's summertime so it won't get dark.  No worries.  Just being in Iceland will be amazing so if we don't get to see it all, whatever we do see will be awesome."  "We don't need no stinkin' reservations," I thought - despite the guidebooks' claim to the contrary.  Making the decision to go itinerary-free was very, well, freeing, in the same way that doing 80mph down a road with a "BRIDGE OUT" sign is freeing.  

"But what if we don't get to see the really cool things we want to see," a part of my brain kept whispering.  We'd already decided that we were going to do some day trips out of Reykjavík and then head back so we could be in the city Friday for the Elf School.  After that, we'd truly head out to see the rest of Iceland.  I told Erica - and myself - I was cool with seeing anything, open to anything, no particular agenda... Well, except Heimaey where that big eruption in the 1970's was.  And while I'm checking out the tour book for the region, wasn't there a national park nearby?  Something about a North American/Eurasian tectonic plate meeting?  OK, so that's on the list too but otherwise, I'm fine with whatever...

OMG, there's a naturopathic clinic in Hveragerði!  I bet that Erica will want to add that to the itinerary now!  I mean, not that there is one.  But if there was an itinerary, I'm sure we would add Hveragerði to it.  But there's not one.  Hmm, maybe Erica would want to start an itinerary so she doesn't miss that awesome place with the mud baths and relaxing massages which was only recently opened to non-prescription patients.  That thought led to the following phone call:

Me:  "Um, hey, Erica!  How are you?"

Erica:  "Fine..."

Mark in the background:  "Run, Erica!  She's trying to take over the trip!  Just say NO!"  

Me to Mark:  "Be quiet!  You're ruining my pitch!"

OK, so my end of the conversation didn't go as planned but my sister, ever the accomodating and willing participant in big sister's schemes, said she was fine with the places I'd proposed we hit.  Our non-itinerary itineary is shaping up nicely... BWAHAHAHAHA!  ;)

Who'd want to skip THIS!?

UPDATE:  Blogging under the influence can lead to posts ending up the wrong blog.  Oops. :/

Cooked Food is a Luxury

One that we can't afford apparently!  Today's blog post poses the question:
How important is camping equipment? I mean really!? 

Once Erica and I decided that we'd be camping in Iceland instead of hoteling or hosteling it, and purchased a campground pass, we relaxed, secure in the knowledge that we'd be saving tons of krona; krona that could be used to buy awesome souvenirs like rotten shark meat or Icelandic booze.  We had the tent and the sleeping bags covered.  What more did we need?  Oh, yes, a method of ensuring that we had warm, non-raw food to eat for our week of camping in the just-above freezing temperatures.  Sadly, my trusty camp stove from my college days seemed to have given up the ghost last summer, as evidenced by it bursting into flames not once but twice inside a seedy Delaware motel.  (Yes, I said inside; don't judge me!)  And even if it hadn't self-immolated, there was no way to transport its fuel on the plane or guarantee that that type of stove fuel was sold in Iceland.

Camp stove rental seemed to be the way to go.  My Lonely Planet Iceland assured me that I could rent camping equipment at goiceland.com.  What it did not tell me was that goiceland.com is run by some krona-pinching krona-grubbers!  Who knew that a 4 person tent would be less expensive to rent than a 2 burner stove!?  Apparently these people at goiceland.com have deduced that most humans like to ingest non-cold food stuffs and that they will pay dearly for the privilege.  Damn them and their powers of deductive reasoning!  Luckily for us, reykjavikbackpackers.is seems to be run by philanthropists who do not begrudge poor weary travelers a hot meal and only charge 1/3 of the price for camp stove rental.  Huzzah!  It looks like Erica and I will be able to sterilize our rotten shark meat after all!

Just say no!  

Unless it's from reykjavikbackpackers.is

And the Winner Is...

Geysir! 

I looked at a lot of Icleandic car-hire (i.e. car rental) websites and the clear winner was geysir.is.  Where else could you get this kind of warm, personable self-endorsement?!

Let's face it; Iceland isn't cheap and if you're not totally loaded you may want to prioritize your spendings, but yet be able to get around safely and efficiently. 

So when we took the Jeep out the Cheap Jeep all we had left is Cheap; it's an economy sized car that does the job of getting you around the island. Perhaps not luxorious, but all in all the type of car most people drive to work every day all over the world. 

Cheap AND not luxorious!?  Sold!  My favorite part was when I clicked on the "terms & conditions" link and it didn't work.  It's Iceland, who needs terms & conditions!?  Not this gal!  Let's just hope that I chose wisely when I picked the gravel protection over the tow rope.  Decisions, decisions!  :)

I may yet regret my decision... ;) 

European Traffic Stats

Click below to see where Iceland compares with other European countries on traffic mortality.  

Note:  if you are related to me, just ignore this post altogether and trust me when I say that Iceland is the safest place on the face of the earth, filled with nothing but fluffy clouds and playful kittens.  Seriously, would I lie?  :) 

Sticky Business

May 18, 2014

Now that we've worked out our lodging in Icleand, reserving a rental car is our next big challenge.  That's been left up to Erica thus far as I've been afraid to look at the prices.  She tells me that renting a stick shift seems to be the cheaper option, which is problematic for her because she only knows how to drive automatics.  "No problem," I told her.  "I'm ok with doing all of the driving if that means we pay less!  And then you can be my navigator."  Problem solved.  I thought.  And then I got this reply in my email:  "Or I could learn how to drive a stick in Iceland."

Yes, because learning to drive a car with a manual transmission in a foreign country, in which we have limited time and don't understand the language or road signs, would be less stressful than any of the times I've offered to teach her over the past fifteen years.  And did I mention that Iceland has one of the highest traffic mortality rates of Western Europe?  Yes, that's where I want an inexperienced stick shift driver to practice their new skills, while I sit helplessly in the passenger seat clutching the arm rest and praying that the elves who will drag our limp bodies from the wreckage will know CPR.  *deep breath*  Did I mention that I'm a tiny bit of a control freak when it comes to driving?   :)

Um, I'm sorry but this chick should not be smiling.  

Learning to drive stick should involve a lot of screaming, grinding metal, and tears, just as God intended! ;) 

99 Problems

May 13, 2014

I got 99 problems but a campground ain't one...

Ok, OKAY!  I admit, that was lame.  But with Jay Z in the news lately and my sister finding this amazing ninety-nine Euro campground solution to our Icelandic lodging issues, how could I resist!?

So it looks like we'll be able to avoid the $50 per night per person hostel rates in Iceland since Erica discovered the ah-mazingness that is the Icelandic Camping Card 2014!  Forty-four campsites, 28 days, 99 Euros.  What's not to love!?  (Other than the barely above-freezing night-time temperatures.)  Whatever.  At least the cold temps should keep the wildlife at bay, right?  RIGHT?!  So now all we have to do is decide which of the 44 campgrounds we can fit into our 7 day trip.

Piece of cake... ;)  

Passports Are Overrated

May 11, 2014

Just one month from today and Mark and I will be winging our way to sunny downtown Glasgow!  Assuming that his passport arrives by then.  Not that I'm worried.  At all.  Really.  Oh-please-oh-please-oh-please-oh-please-oh-please-arrive-before-it's-time-to-go!

And in slightly related news, apparently Iceland is damn expensive in the summer.  Who knew!  I guess us if we would have read a travel guide before booking the tickets.  Erica found out today that four nights at a hostel in Reykjavik, sleeping in a  room with 6 other people, would cost $400.  Camping is looking better and better.  How cold do the nights get there in the summer if the sun doesn't really go down?

So Many Castles, So Little Time!

May 2014

Who knew Scotland had so many castles?!  Thanks to my cousin Rhonda I recently was made aware of Historic Scotland, from which you can buy a pass to visit most of them on the super cheap.  (Although I think they may cheat a little by including some sites that don't require admission - Glasgow Cathedral anyone?  Shame, shame!)  However, in just the small portion of Scotland we're going to be visiting, there are sixteen - SIXTEEN! - historic sites I'd like to visit.  How in the heck am I going to fit that into less than eight days?!  Hmm, maybe if I cut Mark down to 5 or 6 hours of sleep per night and tell him it's part of his race training... ;)