“Just toss a coin”

Alison and I took a charter bus from Paris to London.  At this point early on in the trip, we had not planned anything after London because we were a little exhausted and just wanted some down time at Alison’s brother’s flat.

At passport control everybody went through, and we were last in line.  We filled out the customs form—with no sure date that we were leaving.  That was the first thing that caught the inspectors’ eyes.  The next was that we were staying at Alison’s brother’s.  I guess they thought we could have been trying to live off his benefits or something.

The inspector then asked me, “Are you fleeing from Trump?”  A “HAHhahah… No!” came out of my mouth because I could see this was becoming an issue with these inspectors.  I mean, Alison and I both quit our jobs and left the country.  There was some whispering going on behind the counters.

The next thing I heard one of them say was, “I don’t know. Just toss a coin.”  My eyes went wide, and inside I was shaking my head yelling, “NO NO PLZ DON’T DO THAT!”  We would have had to turn around and somehow make our way back to Paris or some city nearby and beg for a place to crash or who knows what!

Luckily for us, they let us pass.  They said, “Just for future reference, always have a leaving date.  We want you to come visit, but we don’t want you to stay.” Lesson learned.

Corners of The Earth

We have been backpacking for almost five and a half months—tomorrow when we return will mark 160 days.  It is bizzare thinking only half a year ago, I was wondering what kind of disast–adventures we would be getting ourselves into and if I was going to change as much as the first time I was abroad for a long period of time.  If you don’t remember or met me recently, I studied in Paris for a year in 2010-2011.  Long story short, that was probably the experience that changed me the most so far (okay, other than the whole kidney surgeries thing), as cheesy and cliche it seemed.

This time around, you may or may not have noticed that I haven’t really been posting updates so frequently.  Maybe I would let you know through Instagram that I’ve reached a destination to let you know I’m safe, but I’ve been leaving out so many details.  It’s not that I’m getting my nose dirty, as my aunt likes to call it.  Rather, I’ve been trying to tell myself to focus on the present and the people who are currently around me.  It surely helped not having mobile internet all the time, ha!

But really, isn’t it nice when the people or person you’re with direct all their attention toward you and aren’t constantly thinking about how to make themselves look good on social media?!  Okay, I may be being harsh a bit, but real talk—the best things to happen are sometimes the things you cannot capture, and sometimes trying hard to show the world how awesome something is could make you miss it!  Besides, let’s be even more real now, we know that traveling is already awesome and a complete privilege.  I’m not going to boast that in your face every day.  We are all already guilty of showing the highlights of our lives and sweeping the dirt under the rug anyway.  Okay, rant over.  You’ve heard this shit already.

To why I’m really writing now… I’ve written and talked about this before.  I even made it the main focus of my architecture thesis.  Exposure, unfamiliarity, and being comfortable with the uncomfortable.

In my thesis my intention was to propose a structure to build bonds between differing people and create positive first impressions instead of judging people for their differences. I still deeply stand by that, and I somehow was able to bring out the extrovert in me again and I fell in love with the action of talking to everyone I could talk to—from the elderly couple from former Yugoslavia that I sat next to on the train to the compassionate and humanitarian French doctor Alison and I met while eating breakfast in a Paris hostel.  I know I have been a bit of a hermit recently, but seriously, now if you hang out with me one on one, you’ll make me love humanity even more.  Okay, climb with me and we’ll be best fraaands.  Woo hoo!

After about halfway through traveling, I wanted to mostly visit places where I knew somebody.  I utilized my new and old connections to do this.  It’s one thing to visit a beautiful place and experience a different culture, but it’s so much better when you get to experience it with the locals and live like they do.  I guess what I’m trying to say is when we place ourselves into the lives of others—see how their daily lives are, where they like to get coffee or beer—we break down the wall that separates us from each other and realize we’re so much more similar than we think, even when our cultures are so different.  Exposing ourselves to people who are not like us deconstructs the judgmental impulses we may have learned from… everything around us.

When we go back to our homes and what’s comfortable to us, we realize that you don’t even have to leave your own city to see that there are so many unique characters to get to know better.  Not only strangers, but our own friends and family members.  I can’t explain why, but at least for me, meeting so many fascinating people in the world is making me appreciate the already awesome people I already have in my life. 

One phrase that I’ve been hearing myself say over and over again is, “eh, plans change.”  The best example is how Alison and I were supposed to travel for three months in Europe and then three months in Asia.  We didn’t even get to Asia!  And you know what?  That’s okay.  Shit happens.  We can’t live our lives being anxious, nervous, and upset over things we can’t control.  In some cases it’s because of money or missing your train.  In other cases it’s about a show running out of tickets, having an accident, or maybe having your heart broken a little.  When things don’t go your way, know that it’s just a little obstacle to get around, and things will be fine in the end.  I still have to remind myself of this very often.  I mean, it’s not like I don’t get stressed at all—I let myself go through the anxiety a little bit, but I accept this completely normal feeling and then move on.  Always learn to let go.

There is still so much on my mind, but everything is really jumbled as it is my last night on this extended vacation.  I am overwhelmed by gratitude of how lucky I am to be asked by Alison to join her on this trip.  Who the hell has a friend that gets you to leave everything behind to get into a whole bunch of little adventures with them?!  I’m not trying to make anyone jealous, and I’m not trying to force people to go travel and find themselves and shit.  I accept my privilege, and I know that so many people will never experience even a fraction of what I’ve seen.  I just hope that I can somehow get one person to not wait for their life to fly by before regretting not doing what they’ve always wanted to do.  And I hope that no matter what we decide to do in life, we try to do it with open minds, acceptance, tolerance, and understanding of others’ choices in their own lives.  Since the person you spend the most time with is yourself, you might as well give yourself good reason to live it well and to the max.  I might be motivating myself at this point, but I know I want to do everything with intensity and meaning.

I apologize for the unorganized stream of consciousness.  But I’m excited for my future.  The bittersweet feeling of ending this short chapter of falling in love with the world again makes me awestruck.

I take things like astrology signs, personality types, and fortune telling with a grain of salt.  But I’ll leave with my Turkish coffee story from Serbia:

After Lovefest, I ended up in Kraljevo so I could catch a bus to another bus out of the country.  I had the chance to get my fortune read via Turkish coffee by my friend’s friend.  The process was interesting: I drank the coffee until I hit the sludge at the bottom, I then put the small plate that served the coffee on top of the cup, flipped it upside down outward, and waited for it to cool.  A lot of the things she said were interesting, maybe a little generic here and there, but not far off.  She told me things about relationships, family, and good news because she saw a bird!  There was even an image of a little foot, which could possibly mean travel *wink wink* :).  Then she seemed to go out of character.  She shifted her gaze and looked a little deeper into my eyes saying, “you’re really lucky—did you know that?”  I was in concurrence.  I had been thinking that for quite a while already.  I told her I knew, and she went back into character and continued reading my fortune.

So many things have happened in the past few months that exemplify how lucky I am.  It really could be a matter of perspective, though, but I choose to see a lot of these things as luck.  Alison says it depends on how you see the world, and I completely agree.  The more I love the world, humanity, blah blah, the better it seems to treat me back.

Goodnight, and I’ll see a lot of you when I get home.  For the friends on this side of the world, you’ll see me sooner than later.  I’m still trying to figure out how I can move back to France 🙂 I can’t wait another six years until I come back, that’s for sure.

Thanks for getting through this long post.  The following posts are going to be short stories.

Au revoir, duder pooters.

Rain Dance, Hail Dance

Fontainebleau is a huge reason why I would live in Paris again. It’s only a 45 minute train ride away from the city, and you could spend a lifetime climbing the boulders here. I am definitely coming back.

The first day I arrived in Fontainebleau, I got picked up by the hostel owner, who was super nice and accommodating. His hostel (and just the Fontainebleau area) is in a really small town where everyone probably knows each other.

When I got to the hostel, there were maybe a total of four of us staying there. I asked my new roommate, Joe, if he wanted to come along with me to check out a climbing area nearby. We walked about 45 minutes through town, past a large field, and into the forest.

We were warming up in the main bouldering area when it started to sprinkle. We thought it was weird since just earlier as we were walking there, it was sunny and beautiful. Because you can’t really climb on wet rock, we decided to start walking back.

As we were leaving the forest area the rain was pouring down harder every minute. Our things were getting wet, and the layer of water coming down from the slope we were walking on was getting my shoes wet. But that was nothing…

The walk through the fields felt like an eternity. The wind picked up. The rain was going sideways. It started hailing sideways. It was unbelievable. Now, not only was I soaked from head to toe, I had to protect my camera in my bag, and the food I was carrying with me was just destroyed because everything fell apart.

Joe and I shared one umbrella, but it basically was doing nothing. The wind against the umbrella was slowing us down. We tried running, but the hail hitting our faces hurt and we had to go back to the umbrella method.

We thought the buildings in town would block the wind, but it barely helped. Even worse now, the rain was coming down so hard that it was like a flash flood in the streets. When crossing roads, there was no way in getting around stepping through maybe at least three inches of water.

Because of the water in the streets, we of course were getting splashed by the cars passing by. There was no avoiding this either with the narrow sidewalks.

We finally got back to the driveway to the hostel, where we ran into Mads and Bevan, who Joe was climbing with the previous couple of days. They ran back as well but from another direction. No matter–everyone was drenched.

Maybe it was because of this hilarious beginning, but we all bonded quite well during the few days together. I kept on thinking, “Wow… This is the kind of shit that only happens in movies,” but nope, now it’s definitely something that happens in real life. 

We could have been upset about the unpredictable weather, but it really was mostly hilarious.

Snøhetta

Thanks to my third year architecture studio professor, Thomas Fowler, I was able to visit Snøhetta’s firm in New York among a few others. I remember being rather impressed with their scale models and unique representations. 

The first Snøhetta building I visited was the replacement of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which takes place of the late design originally by Mario Botta. When I first heard about it, I looked up renderings and was pleased to see a building skin that was not boring, more or less. Curiously, all I could find were renderings from bird’s eye view.

Copyright Archdaily

Therefore, when I came upon the building it made sense that from the ground floor I could not see the famous rippling exterior. I figured, okay, I’m sure with Snøhetta’s merit I am bound to come upon a space that will strike me with awe. Unfortunately, that moment never arrived.

I entered the museum through a pretty standard double height foyer up its new wooden main staircase. I ambled through mostly plain white rooms filled with modern art, and there were some installations that were awesome. There just were no spaces that made me feel much emotion about where I was. 

We finally came to a sign pointing us toward the terrace. I thought that maybe this would be where I was going to be wowed and where there would be a breathtaking panoramic view of the city!

Nope. The terrace was only a few feet wide with no place to wander. It wasn’t exactly anything other than a small lookout point. Panoramic, sure, a bit. Most unimpressive was finally seeing the rippling concrete exterior layer. It was simply that–it had no meaning to the surrounding context other than maybe… the small waves you see in the bay–nothing remotely profound.

Disappointed and unimpressed, I shifted my focus back to the pieces of art within the building and tried not to think too much about how little play and adventure there was within the structure itself. It did not represent San Francisco, Mario Botta, or art to me either–just a wave-like exterior meant to display a variety in textural options… I guess.

Luckily, a few months later I had the chance of visiting another Snøhettan building, Oslo’s Opera House. This was completed about a decade ago and has received a number of architectural awards.

Being a Norwegian architectural firm, one would think the capital’s opera would have some depth and dynamic tendencies built into it. Thankfully, it did!

But not too much. It may have had to do with the fact that there was construction surrounding the Opera House on just about every adjacent side but not the waterfront.

From a distance, the structure has an inclining surface starting from ground level creating a walkable surface to its roof. This was the dynamic part. I thoroughly enjoyed the mini hike to the top. I like finding the highest thing and going to it. Additionally, even though the weather was nice enough to us and was not pouring rain down, I could tell that the inclined surface could have possibly resembled a small glacier when wet, more so than the smaller glass art installation floating not far off from the Opera’s waterfront.

I was pleased with the little bit of play embedded in the exterior of the Opera and how it represented Norwegian’s love of hiking mountains. Going inside fell short of impressive, though. 

It did not have to do with not being able to take a sneak peek into the theater itself. In Reykjavik’s Opera House, Harpa, we were not permitted inside, but I still explored to my heart’s content within the envelope of the building. It was merely that there was nowhere to really go or anything to do if you were not seeing a show or eating at the restaurant.

Sure, the secondary layer housing the main performance room consisted of many vertical wooden slats that was a nice warm contrast to the surrounding white marble and stone. I guess the more public focus of this opera house was its exterior rather than creating a protective place to be inside. There had to be a little give and take, I suppose. Maybe I just wanted to hang out somewhere that was not super cold outside!

Either way, even though I feel that Oslo’s Opera House could have created a more engaging space in its interior, it was definitely still more impressive than the SF MoMA. I know it could be seen as pretentious when a B.Arch with no license critiques such a prestigious firm, but this is mere observation and opinion. It is a good thing to have them and to question forms and functions even if it is from someone merited.

On a last note, I have realized I am a pretty big fan of Olafur Eliasson’s work. Thanks to the envelope of Reykjavik’s Harpa and a small portion of interior wall in Oslo’s Opera House, which were both designed by Eliasson, continuity and repetition can have its turn in creating a somewhat blissful feeling with its vastness.

Inside Reykjavik’s Harpa

Close up on an interior wall of Oslo’s Opera House

The best photos of Month 1

Iceland

Black sand beach’s basalt formations.

Black sand beach’s close-breaking waves with human for scale.

Alison at Glacier Bay.

Hvítserkur, a molten lava formation.

Alison peeking into a crevice that led deep into the cliff.

Thingvellir.

Harpa Opera House.

Inside harpa.

Norway

Bergen.

Mini cruise from Gudvangen to Flam.

Beer and dinner at Flam.

Train ride from Flam to Oslo.

Oslo’s opera by Snøhetta. I have a bone to pick about this. I will explain in another post.

Walking on the opera’s roof, simulating mountain climbing, apparently.

Inside the opera hall.

Denmark

Copenhagen. Københavns Hovedbanegård (The Central Station). The world’s largest wooden vaults.

People taking pictures with the infamously small Little Mermaid.

A beautiful pot + stand in the Design Museum.

I like it here!

After climbing at København’s Klatrecenter, I walked through the free town of Christiania back to the hostel. This is after the town because they don’t like when people take pictures in there.

I love the colors of sunsets. With black.

Sweden

Malmö. Broen.

A mobile. I ate Swedish swedish fish from this store. It was better than American swedish fish. Sweden also has really good chocolate that has only pure ingredients!

Turning Torso.

The view of the bridge connecting Copenhagen to Malmo from atop Empoium’s roof garden.

Holland/The Netherlands 

Keukenhof Garden. Tribute to De Stijl throughout the park.

Six years later and I had to do another peeking picture 🙂

This may be one of the best composed and timed pictures I’ve ever taken?

This is not.

Zaandam. There are many old windmills in a condense area here.

Back in Amsterdam, playing with long exposures, large f-stops, and changing the focus.

Similar style as above but changing zoom.

Belgium

Brussels was mostly fun because of the awesome people at the hostel. Yal rock.

Atomium.

The statue of the boy peeing is more famous, but this is way cooler.

Þings

Þ sounds like “th” in Icelandic. Þingvellir/Thingvellir is an area in the famous Golden Circle where they held their parliament in… a long time ago. Alison and I were curious as to what the Icelandic word for “thing” is and have henceforth been trying to call all things, a “hlutur.”

Now that we’ve set up the awkward ambience of this post, as you can tell I will be talking about things. Having things, bringing things, losing things–how they may affect our state of minds while traveling. I’ll also be throwing in a few travel tips here and there. And be tempted to replace every single “th” with “Þ” but shall not for your sake.

If you’ve been keeping up with me this trip, you remember that I lost my phone within the first week of our several-month-long adventure. Afterward, I have lost several other items, Alison lost things, and we made friends that have lost things.

Travel Tip #1: Don’t be too prepared for a trip.

You’re going to lose shit. Shut up–yes you are! And if you don’t, that most likely means you’re worrying so much about not losing something that you’re not enjoying the present. I know that’s not always the case, but it definitely can hold one back from so much. Not just a landmark or people around you–I’m talking about the textures, the contrast, the sounds, the vibrancy of your surroundings.

Look UP. What kind of walker are you? Are you one to take small or long strides; do you observe where you’re stepping or push against humans’ evolution toward forward tilting necks? It doesn’t really matter how you physically move as long as you are aware. Be woke! I think that’s what the cool kids say, right? RIGHT? Important as it is to soak in your environment while traveling, it would greatly benefit you even when you’re back in your normal grind. Take some time to look at something around you that has always been there. A flower bush you walk past everyday. Your lamp, your collections, your pet’s eyes, your eyes, your family’s eyes. There is a vibrancy that emanates from it all if we look for it. Otherwise, everything just becomes desaturated and loses contrast. You don’t have to be blind to not see.

Whoah, okay. I think the coffee is really kicking in now. I didn’t think I’d jump straight into the pool of feels. No dipping your toes in the water here, ey?

The details–observe them on and within things. To fret over them? Nah, don’t do it. Alison keeps on saying to remind her, “You can always make more money.” I always think about my dad saying how you can buy something later and how sometimes it’s pointless for a lot of things to just take up space–if you really need something you can just buy it later.

If we checked in luggage (which is totally fine, just inconvenient for an ATW trip [ATW=around the world]), I totally would have brought all the things Uncle Kirby gave me to use (btw, those little containers for vitamins and toothpicks are super coming in handy), and I could have been living much more comfortably. Although, that kind of traveling is not what we’re aiming for right now. We still have all our limbs, our muscles can adapt and grow to the constant lifting of our backpacks, and we don’t want to focus on keeping track of how many socks and underwear we’re losing!

There are pharmacies, department stores, and supermarkets everywhere. “Supermarket” is one of the first words you probably learn when you’re taking a language in high school. So don’t worry about all the floss, toothpaste, tampons, and bandaids. Everyone uses these things.

Now, it’s not to say just grab some pants, shirts, underwear, your passport and GTFO. You definitely DO need to do some preparation. Everyone is different, so the amount of preparation you would want to do will differ from someone else.

Travel Tip #2: CALL YOUR CREDIT CARD COMPANY and let them know you’re leaving the country. Bring a backup card. Bring backup cash.

Charles Schwab has a card that has no fees when you buy in another currency. My Amazon Prime credit card doesn’t, either. One of Chase’s credit cards is basically meant for people who fly and travel often. It takes maybe a month to get a new credit card, so make sure you’re on top of that and have time to transfer money from your existing bank.

Visa is accepted nearly everywhere, but it would be a good idea to carry some cash around as well. I have already run into a supermarket in Amsterdam that didn’t accept Visa, but fortunately my debit card doesn’t charge me for using another bank’s ATM machine.

Travel Tip #3: zippers, wallet considerations

Make sure some of your clothes have them. So many items you don’t want dropping out of your pocket or easily picked by a theif or drunk fool (damn you, women’s clothing small pocket crap) will be kept with you. Wallets and phones are the biggies we’re focusing on here.

Six years ago when Kaitlyn and I landed in Porto, Portugal, we found out it was the night of the biggest party of the year throughout the city. It may have been because we had just arrived from a crazy few days in Marrakech or the staying up until way too early in the morning. Surprise, I lost my wallet that night! I don’t know if I was pick pocketed or if I just dropped it, but I think it was the latter because there were no strange transactions from my bank. It may or may not have helped that I made my wallet out of paper and packaging tape. It may or may not have looked like trash.

Whether or not you want to trust people returning your wallet or would rather have people mistake it as trash and for sure have it trashed–that’s your choice of what kind/color wallet you want. If you have faith in people, maybe put a piece of paper with your email in a visible spot. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to do the same with your phone. Android users have an option to add text to your lock screen. iPhone users can have Siri tell someone to whom the phone belongs. Disclaimer! It could show your home address and other personal information as well–just in case you’re paranoid about that. iPhone users could also simply add text to whatever image they choose for their background.

Speaking of background, do some research before heading somewhere! I know, horrible transition. I tried. A little. Very little.

Travel Tip #4: learn important phrases in the main language for the country you are visiting, keep an eye out for things that could be offensive or unacceptable to people, and look up tipping etiquette.

I have the most experience in France, so this may mostly apply to Paris. But people are very similar everywhere. You wouldn’t like it if someone came up to you demanding something in a foreign language, so please don’t do it to someone else! Excuse me, do you speak English/your preferred language, I need help, please, and thank you are some of the most important words in any language, in addition to where is the bathroom.

No, it’s not just because I’m female–people will be more willing to help if your face really shows it. I like to think that my ability to alter my facial muscles sometimes can exaggerate how… much confusion and stress I may be in. Did I just insult or compliment myself? Just don’t expect everyone you give the worried puppy eyes to will help you out. People could be occupied with something, late to a meeting, or worried about someone else. If someone ignores you, brush it off! Don’t hold onto that anger/disappointment when you approach the next person for help.

As for things that could be offensive, maybe a quick Google search may help. If you don’t find anything within a few minutes, there’s probably not much to worry about. I know before we visit Japan, though, I will have to look things up again (doint point with one finger, don’t walk and eat in public).

Most people travel to big cities when traveling. Keep in mind that there are a lot of people living their routine lives there also. I try to stay out of people’s way as much as possible. It sucks to be yelled at by a local :x. When driving or walking, we look at directions. I know you’ve seen this while in your own city and see someone driving ridiculously slow! People are constantly searching for entrances, exits, signs, etc. We’re always going to be on both sides of this situation, but we can control how much we’re in someone else’s way. Pay attention to where bicyclists are, the direction/flow of pedestrians, and don’t be the giant group of people that makes everyone else have to circumvent you on the sidewalk!

Lastly, the whole tipping thing. Once again, easy to look up. Just do it. You may or may not have mobile data/wifi at a restaurant, and you don’t want to worry about it then.

At the end of the day, I can try to think of a bajillion travel tips to write about, but how you prepare yourself really depends on what kind of experience you want. In my opinion, you get the most out of traveling when you get used to adapting. Plans don’t always go accordingly, and knowing or learning what to do in troublesome circumstances is a vital skill that we all can never get enough of. Besides, why put yourself out in the world when you are expecting nothing unexpected?

Look up. Take in the sounds, scents, and colors. Don’t just read street signs and historic plaques. Read people’s faces and expressions. Read the laughter of your new friends. We are human beans that adapt. Accept it and take advantage of being alive now, in a time where chocolate is fucking amazing and we have offline Google maps to show us where we are on a map. You can appreciate the beauty of the ephemeral when you let yourself, so please don’t close your eyes and your mind.

The mailman just came by and dropped off my phone that an Austrian girl living in Iceland found! YOU WILL SEE PICTURES IN MY NEXT POST! Are you excited as I am?!?!

Denmark, Sweden

Denmark

Overall, the people of Scandinavia are really nice and hospitable. The Danish guy that owned the apartment we stayed in the first few days in Copenhagen was telling us how the Danish don’t like to overwork. The owner of A Slice of San Francisco (pretty much center of the city, AMAZING cheesecake) right next door to our hostel told us about Denmark’s health care system. We also learned about the stipend you get to go to college from “Danish Daniel” who was our walking tour guide. I guess if you get taken care of well, you treat others well ;D!

One thing I can’t get over are… Danishes. The baked goods. The cost of food in Denmark and Sweden are pretty similar to the Bay Area, so it’s not really frugal to eat at bakeries everyday… We tried buying “bulk” apples and carrots from the grocery store for better deals, but they turned bad quickly. From now on, the only bulk we’ll buy will not be fresh produce!

Copenhagen itself was exciting, though. After the first day’s walking tour (where it was so cold some of my fingers went numb!), we also visited The Little Mermaid sculpture, saw Amilienborg’s changing of the guards, visited the botanical gardens, the New Opera House, the New Playhouse, a cool library, and Christiania. I also finally went climbing and walked an hour and a half back to the hostel (my feet were hurting). I ended up walking through the rest of Christiania on my way back, and it was pretty calm compared to the entrance/touristy area of it.

Sweden

I got sick! It was bound to happen since Alison was sick in Oslo. The first day in Malmo, we walked to Folkets Park, which is supposed to be the oldest public park in the world?… It was small and unimpressive. And mainly a park for small children. A few days later we discovered King’s Park, which seemed to separate the more… mundane part of Malmo from the more exciting areas. EXCEPT FOR the chocolate factory. Malmo Chokladfabrik had some reaaaally good chocolate. We would not have found out about it if it wasn’t for our roommate for two nights, Laurie (thank you!!), who we plan on visiting in Lyon, France!

I climbed again, the day before we left Malmo. This was a bouldering gym only 30 minutes walking distance from the hostel. I went with our new roommate, Melissa, and hopefully got her addicted! This was pretty much the first time I tried climbing a little harder since I rolled my ankle in February. This was mainly a bouldering gym unlike the one in Copenhagen, so it was easier to make small talk with other climbers. A few of us were working on an overhanging problem at the front center of the gym. It was super fun, and my new friends who I’ll probably never see again were really nice and helpful.

Some signs at the hostel talked about how Sweden is known for wanting to be ordinary (I guess they care more about things like efficiency and functionality rather than showy and flashy). Another sign said not to think that Swedes are boring, though, because they like a little flair here and there, haha. It definitely seems to hold true.

Next up is Amsterdam. Another new friend from the hostel, Stephie and her grandmother, are from a town closeby. We told them about the amazing cheesecake in Copenhagen since they were heading there today, but Stephie’s grandmother assured us that she made really good cheesecake! I’m excited and anxious about Amsterdam because we’re right in the middle of all the tulips blossoming. Keukenhof Gardens and the tulip fields around it will be beautiful! Wish us luck for our next hostel. It’s right in the middle of the red light district. It was cheap. At least I’m not sick anymore!

Edit: at Copenhagen airport right now waiting. There were free alcohol tastings, and we made more friends with the people working in the candy section! Free tastings of black liquorice candies! Some are not bad.

Expectations, Foreignity, Clearing the Smoke

I did not think I would ever be seen as a local if I left my own country. I always thought if I was in an Asian country people would know that I was super Americanized, and every other country would assume I was from China or Japan (“pas Japonaise!” was a common phrase I said during my year in Paris).

Since we left at the beginning of the month, people have spoken to me in Icelandic once and Danish more than once! It’s probably not really a big deal, but it honestly does feel nice to feel like a local when you’re not.

A couple days ago, Alison and I decided to stick our heads into Rådhushaven, Copenhagen’s City Hall. They were displaying 100 stories from immigrants from the 1950s until now and asking them about how foreign they felt. We were able to go through maybe 15% of the more recent posters since it was the end of the day and were pretty exhausted. They were mostly Syrian refugees.

A really interesting thing about this exhibit was that they brought in the same refugees to tell stories at small tables. You got to understand them on a more personal level rather than reading about people’s lives on the internet.

Imagine how much more sympathetic one could be if they bothered to talk to someone they felt had nothing in common with them. Like people say, don’t judge someone until you’ve heard their story.

I have always wanted to travel to Scandinavia for the scenery and Copenhagen because I heard a bit about a good life/work balance and small pay gaps amongst careers. Alison read a study that Norway (and Iceland if I recall correctly?) was one of the happiest countries.

I had a really interesting conversation (okay, I’m usually a listener…) with a native Norwegian living in another country about her opinions and experiences with Norway, and it really seemed like it may not be as happy as we thought. It basically makes me feel like I need to take everything with a grain of salt when it comes to a lot of things. Studies about people, health, well being. 

I know I may be sounding a bit vague now, but the main point is not to trust everything we read. I also know that I’m starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist a couple days after the March for Science, but I’m not trying to make this about questioning 1+1=2. This is more about the non-science things in life.

An example is how Alison decided she wanted to live in Iceland sometime before her second visit to the country. After we went around the entirety of the island, though, she decided this was definitely not for her! Another could be how I thought I would be seeing perfectly happy people everywhere in Scandinavian countries because they were run efficiently and ethically. I’m now trying to make that decision not based off of videos and articles highlighting the reasons why a place can be good/bad.

Even though I had a slightly unpleasant first day/night in the hostel in which I’m staying, other experiences are showing me that Copenhagen is a very dope place. If I was to live here for a while, I’m sure I would achieve a deeper sense of what makes it the way it is.

Once again I have written much more than I initially thought I would. We are off to cross over to Malmo, Sweden tomorrow after getting cheesecake from Alison’s ex coworker’s aunt’s shop just around the corner.

Oh, the pastries here… I wish I could send some back home!

Post-Iceland, Norway

Currently 9 hours ahead of Pacific time.

I’m taking advantage of some down time while waiting 40 minutes at a restaurant reminiscent of a viking meeting hall. When entering, you are awed by an elongated opening to the upper floor, where the sunken gathering place’s fire pit and extends upward. This is a brewery, and I have a porter. Vocabulary and description will slowly (or quickly–as I haven’t had food yet) simplify.

The rest of Iceland. It is possible to camp in your vehicle at a parking lot as log as you have permission. We were only denied once. It seems like it is not a good idea to ask to camp at a hotel or hostel’s lot. Any other parking lot, when the campgrounds nearby are closed for winter, should be fine as long as you don’t pour food remnants down your drain and are off to the side. As long as you aren’t a bother, you’re probably alright. But ask first!

Instead of going to Blue Lagoon, Alison and I went to the northern version of it. Probably cheaper, most likely much fewer people, no clay. I don’t mind, I have my own clay. Speaking of! Because of rushing the first few days of arriving in Iceland, I had not had time to take care of my skin–even cleansing. Some people can get away with not washing their faces everyday. I cannot. By the second half of our trip we realized we were on track of driving the entirety of the Ring Road in 5 days (which is fast), so we started to take our time getting from place to place. I have to say, it’s nice to have some sort of routine in an… eccentric lifestyle. It’s very grounding. 

We did not see the northern lights. Your best chances of seeing them are in the middle of winter. Alison came here a couple years ago at the beginning of winter and still hasn’t seen it! We also weren’t able to visit the northwestern fjords because road conditions were not quite optimal with our vehicle. Fjords are fingers of water that reach into land.
Our last day of driving was our most touristy day outside of Reykjavik because we did the Golden Circle (Thingvellir, the original Geysir, and Gulfoss). I won’t say much about this because it’s probably easy to read about elsewhere.

Story about cheese and meat platter at a restaurant downtown Reykjavik later. All you need to know was that that happened.

…

Ok dinner has been nommed and beer has been gulped. Firstly, everything is REALLY expensive in Norway. Pretty much, add 20%. Secondly, food is good! I had a salmon dish last night and seafood soup tonight. Alison’s brother (who paid for dinner tonight–thanks again!) had lamb shank and whoahhh so much melty and flavorful fat!

Rewind! We arrived in Bergen Friday. Pictures to come… Few words needed. Today (Saturday), we took a train from Bergen to Voss, where we spent half the time at a café and half the time chillin at a bus stop because Easter really messes with all the schedules for… everything. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are pretty much all holidays.

The bus took us from Voss to Gudvangen. Their inn/souvenir shop/restaurant structure was pretty interesting and had a pretty cool  a steel handrailing. We took a boat cruise to Flam, where we’re staying the night before taking one of the most picturesque train rides in Europe? The world? Something. I’ll let myself be wowed tomorrow.

Je suis fatigué. Bonne nuit!

Iceland, Part II

I haven’t lost a phone in six years. Ask my mom how many I lost before that =_=

It’s pretty ironic how just one day prior Alison took a picture of me while I stood at the edge of a cliff on the Northern coast, contemplating about all the things I wouldn’t be able to capture in photos to show you. It was also foreshadowing when my phone’s camera stopped working the day before. Life is funny, isn’t it?

The embarrassing story is that I probably dropped my phone on the beach when I was taking pictures of a large molten rock formation. By the time I wanted to do the scramble down the hill (cliff? It was an in-between) again and cross a stream, the tide already rose, and it would have been too late anyway.

While driving to the location of this dumb cool looking rock, I was really frustrated that the gravel approach was such a long and pot hole-filled road – maybe a little too bumpy for our van. To try and make myself feel better about my hand gripping the steering wheel, I told Alison I was hoping this would be one of those situations where it’s worth it in the end. Hah.

The good thing is the last person that came up for the day offered to go back down and help me search again, which was unexpectedly nice, but it was starting to get dark. The parking area was down a steep gravel road, and the drive back to anywhere was frustrating enough, and it was COLD. I used my better judgement and declined since going down again may have meant putting our lives at risk. A phone is definitely not worth it!

I am slightly disappointed that I can’t show everyone the glaciers, landscape, and pictures from the upcoming few days. Though, I’m pretty sure that my photos were saved in the cloud, so most likey I’ll post them when I get back to my computer at my parents’.

Alison said I can use her brother’s phone (different operating system) when we meet up with him and his girlfriend on Friday. I may take that offer, but I need to think about whether it’s easier or more efficient to buy new adapters or to just replace my phone since I know I’ll be doing that anyway when I come back home (not a fangirl of any OS, just like it when my electronics sync among other reasons).

It is windy as fudge right now, and the van is rocking a bit. I’m a huge fan of camper van life, but maybe not in Iceland during winter. Good night.

Oh, the irony.