Icelanding

You get off an airplane and then what do you do? Most of us go use the restroom. So, that is what we did when we arrived at the airport in Iceland. And that, is how Iceland immediately impresses you. It's by far the most posh restroom I have ever been to. Each bathroom stall is literally the same size of the bathroom in my previous apartment (sans tub). It's clean, it's roomy, it has a Dyson Air Blade hand dryer built into the faucet! It's clearly impressed me so much that I am blogging about it. Henceforth I will think, it's nice, but not Dyson Air Blade-built-into-the-faucet-nice. Okay, really, now I can move on.

The amazing Dyson Air Blade Faucet 

The bathroom stalls

It was a bit of a shock to the system to go from 95 degrees and humidity to 52 and chilly (yeah, I know I am a weather-wuss and a native Californian); like “wintertime in San Francisco”. We stayed in Reykjavik, the capital, for 3 nights, walking all over and sight-seeing. 

Naturally, we stopped by the Icelandic Phallological Museum, or as Joel likes to call it, the Dick Museum. 

We took a cool walking tour where I learned that there are 300,000 Icelanders and last year they received 1 million visitors; this explains a lot to me. You see, I had heard Icelanders were friendly but that was not the impression I got, I got a lot of grimaces. It makes sense though, the country does not have the infrastructure to deal with the massive boom of tourism and so an Icelander probably has to deal with a lot of tourism issues: bad driving, over-crowding, litter, urination and defecation (it's a serious issue), etc. Interestingly, the Icelandic crash is what allowed the world to be able to afford visiting and at the same time tourism has helped the economy out.

So, I spent too much time in Iceland being hangry (angry due to hunger) because although Iceland is less expensive than 7 years ago, it is still the most expensive place I've ever been. It's the first destination on our trip and I was worried about overspending. We paid $3 for a mediocre orange, but fruit was half the price once you got out of the capital. We didn't try any of the well-known Icelandic foods that appear in travel magazines/shows like fermented shark, puffin, whale, etc. But, we did go to a famous hot-dog place that the locals love...it was good, different, a bit sweet. We didn't eat anything amazing, which makes sense, we weren't willing to pay for anything amazing.

One of the highlights of Reykjavik for me was going to Hallgrimskirkja. It's epic looking while being very simple and lacking in ornamentation. 

While we were there the organist was practicing and it was so unlike anything I've ever heard being played in a church, it was awesome! I don't even know how to describe it except as experimental and whimsical.

Outside of Reykjavik we only had the chance to visit the southwest of the island, and the pictures do it now justice. Iceland is beautiful, can't say it any better than that. In other news, Joel can pass for an Icelander. Really, he walks up to a counter and they start speaking to him in Icelandic sometimes. This will come as a shock to you, but this never happened to me. Instead lots of people just openly stared at me, which makes sense, being the only dark-skinned Asian around so I tend to stick out. Bottom line, I hope we come back soon to see the rest of the island.

Observations:

• People outside of city center just leave their apartments unlocked. Trust, imagine that.
• Icelanders loooove KFC. It's so busy there that they have a ticket number system. (We ate there because it was cheap, and no, I don't feel guilty about it. On the downside, they don't serve biscuits.)
• City bus drivers play music or talk radio while driving.
• It's “take away” not “take out”
• Icelanders are very proud of their viking roots
• Iceland, in general, smells sulfuric (a bit like rotten eggs).   

To view the hundreds of photos we took, go here:

https://flic.kr/s/aHskfoqnG2

Classic JJ moment

Flying from Boston to Iceland on a super cheap airline, with a carry on weight limit of 11 lbs. JJ's bag is slightly over, so she puts a few things from the bag into her pockets, takes out her shoes and puts them on the ground in front of the counter where the lady couldn't see them there. Bag is now under the limit. Puts shoes back into bag before walking off to gate. Classic!

Red Eye #1 & Boston day #1

8 hours before our direct flight to Boston JetBlue called and told us that our flight had been cancelled and that we had been rebooked on separate flights. We called and eventually got on a flight together, but one that involved a layover in Long Beach (travel advice: always sign up for free frequent flyer programs and when something goes wrong write and complain and you'll probably get a travel credit, like we eventually did). I lucked out on this 2nd Long Beach-to-Boston leg because the very Bostonian man sitting next to me a sleeping pill (this guy was 100% masshole, and would make these loud wise cracks, my favorite one being when he stood up and said "dang there's a lot of good looking people on this flight, and by good looking people I mean me") but despite his massholeness he was kind to offer me that sleeping pill that saved my ass and ensured a few hours of decent sleep. JJ, a few rows up, wasn't so lucky. So when we landed and our hotel room wasn't yet ready (thanks again for the room Mom and Dad!) JJ was barely hanging on. We walked around a few miles and eventually ended up at Boston Common where JJ passed out in mid-sentence. I thought it was very funny and captured the moment:

I eventually woke her up and we walked around for a while longer and saw a few more things, such as:

• this monument celebrating the world's first use of ether. "To commemorate that the inhaling of ether causes insensibility to pain. First proved to the world at the Mass. General Hospital in Boston, October A.D. MDCCCXLVI."
  

• Janet falling asleep again:

• An Edgar Allen Poe statue at the location where he was born (now a burrito shop)

• And the main branch of Boston Public Library. Really more of a museum than a library. The "tourist" sections, like the entrance, courtyard or areas displaying exhibitions were super nice, but the actually library sections hidden in the back (the stacks and anywhere with computers and desks) were in terrible condition. This is the courtyard:

• And this is from a nice exhibition on marionettes that they had on display:

Then we slept for a long while.

After we got up, and realized it was still day, we headed out to Cambridge to see MIT and Harvard. We walked across the Harvard Bridge, which has a great story of a fraternity hazing that I actually kind of a like. In 1958 a MIT frat measured the length of the bridge in the height of its shortest pledge, a 5 foot 7 inch guy named Oliver Smoot. So to do this they had Smoot laydown and would paint a mark for every 10 "smoots". The total distance of the bridge came out to be "364.4 smoots plus one ear":

 

And here's a picture of Smoot and company doing the measurements back in 1958:

 

The "smoot" has even become a semi-recognized distance and has been added into at least one dictionary and you can even convert distances into smoots with google. 
Anyways, enough on smoots. The rest of Cambridge was pretty impressive as you would imagine. Beautiful old buildings and squares and cemeteries, etc.
On our way back to the room we stopped in at the jazz club Wally's Cafe that a lot of the Berklee College of Music students play at (my friend Joel's excellent recommendation). The place was great and we got there right at the end of the really cool Jam Session hour. It was just two guys, one on drums and the other on keyboard and it was completely out there and we loved it. In the hour and a half break between sets we met three really cool people who were also traveling, two from Israel and the other from Argentina. They were super inspiring and have traveled all over and gave us some good traveling tips and recommendations. But then it was blues hour, which neither of us were really digging. I was worried when I saw that Blues was coming up next and that the musicians were not young students but older dudes in khaki shorts (this is unfair, I know). I mean I love old gospel or country blues but have a hard time with most of the rest of the blues that people still play. So we stayed for a bit to give it a fair chance and then went back to sleep even more.

Carpe diem

Janet says: So, it’s happening. Joel and I are quitting our jobs and traveling until we are out of money. I think it all started when I started my Master’s Degree. We knew that when I finished my courses we wanted to take an extended trip, over 2 weeks. Three years later it’s time and things have evolved, 2 weeks turned into a month, a month turned into just a little bit longer, and now we’re thinking we’ll be gone for 6 months. Of course, optimistic Joel says why not 9 months…we’ll see how it all plays out. I'm definitely scared because the practical in me is screaming to pay student loans instead of this epic trip, but that's stupid, right? Plus, I'm taking a year off from work, whoa. Still, I know that we will never regret this trip, I'm nervous but I can't wait, especially to eat the food.

There is this stupid idea that Unitedstatians(Americans) have that traveling extensively is for the wealthy. And, I say Unitedstatians because whenever I go to a hostel there are people from all over the world, and Unitedstatians are in the minority. The reality that my wonderful husband has taught me is this: if you can afford a low-priced new car, you can afford to travel for at least 6 months. That’s right, for the low price of $15,000 you may travel the world for 6-9 months depending on how you choose to travel. And the cool part, I got a thousand dollars for FREE from credit card rewards.

Now, the question is: Wanna meet up somewhere? Let us know if you are interested in meeting up somewhere. We are leaving the US on August 16th and we’re heading to Iceland first. From Iceland we head to Copenhagen and everything after that isn’t set in stone, we’re just going to see what happens with one carry-on backpack a piece, which kinda freaks me out.

Here is the timeline in case you would like to meet up somewhere: Mid-August to November: Iceland, Denmark, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Southern Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary(Budapest), Slovenia, Croatia, Greece and Turkey

December to March-ish: Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia

This is just a list of the places we would like to visit but we have no set plans except Iceland so far. We just want to see how it goes and stay as long as we want/can if we like a place. We'll be posting pictures and updates here every now and then.Our blog stands for j=Joel, jj= Janet, rtw= round the world. We are not crazy about this name so suggestions are very welcome.