Nomadic by Nature

Culture, History, and Hot Dogs, AND waffles

By Noosha

Today was more cerebral than picturesque. Indeed! So we do apologize for the lack of scenery photos.

We visited a couple museums. The first was an archaelogical dig of an early Viking settlement circa 870ish AD. The foundational remnant of an old mudbrick wall wasn't as interesting as the design and use of visual technology in the museum. The wall was covered in early grassland imagery of Reykjavik with digital screens that displayed moving ghosts of Vikings doing what Vikings did to survive (killing sheep, shoveling dirt, etc.). You could also see maps and images that tracked the ethnic and linguistic roots of early settlers (in short, Norwegians and Irish slaves/wives). We would recommend the Early Settlement museum for the experience and not so much the dig, unless you're quite the buff.

The second museum was the Cultural House where they display Icelandic sagas written centuries ago. VERY interesting. With pure dumb luck we caught the only tour that's offered during the week. Our guide described the manuscripts, including how they were made, their contents and how they have influenced more recent history. (Thor from Marvel comics, anyone?) The sagas not only told the story of early Icelanders, but also recorded key historical periods of Eurasia such as the rule of Alexander the Great. We felt incredibly privileged to look at these dozen or so manuscripts. It seems like something that would be hidden in a deep vault of some unknown European library, speculated about centuries later by the likes of Dan Brown.

The rest of the day we window-shopped (Reykjavik is city of style), and ate street food.

I (Noosha) don't normally care for hot dogs or pylsur as the Icelanders call them, but these were admittedly delicious.

 

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As we were walking home we stumbled across the waffle truck we had been searching for since day one. You can see how excited we are. (pics coming soon. maybe. never.)

That's it! Today we went to Vestmannayjaer. We'll definitely have some pics to share from there.

Vestmannaeyjar

By Brian

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Vestmannaeyjar Islands are off the southwest coast of Iceland. We visited the largest and only inhabited island - Heimaey. The island is famous for the 1973 volcano which erupted just outside of town, covering nearly 1/3 of the village in lava, expanding the island's landmass by nearly 1/3, and almost cutting off one of Iceland's largest harbors.

We took a 30 minute flight from Reykjavik's small domestic airport. Upon arrival we had no idea exactly how we were going to get from the airport to the harbor to schedule the boat tour we wanted to take. We asked what appeard to be a tour guide if there are taxis we could take. She said yes but if we wanted she could take us in her tour bus. Got to love Icelandic hospitality!

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Cool street signs in Heimaey

The boat tour took us around the entire island of Heimaey, stopping in a few sea caves. We even had a saxiphone playing sea captain.

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View looking back at the Heimaey Harbor

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Boat captain playing in an acoustic cave

After the boat tour we had lunch and took a taxi in our search of Puffins. The rather expensive taxi ride took us from one end of the island to the other - maybe 3km and $20. We found a little shelter set up for Puffin viewing but only saw a few Puffins rather far away. Being smallish birds we really didn't get any good photos this time. On the steep grassy cliffs where the Puffins live, in ground nests, were a small flock of sheep grazzing.

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After Puffin viewing we walked around the lava flows from the volcanos and wrapped up our trip with a stroll through the Iceland Independance Day (or National Day) festival. Iceland gained its independance from Denmark on June 17, 1944.

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We have seen this plant blooming all over Iceland

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The sign behind Noosha signifies the former location of a home covered by lava

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Abstract polar bear (we think) statue in a park where the Independence Day festivities were held.

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We claim this playground Viking ship in the name of Iceland!

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The best Icelandic beer Brian has tasted.

The Blue Lagoon

By Brian

We took it pretty easy.  We spend five hours relaxing at the Blue Lagoon.  That's about it...

 

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P.S. The Blue Lagoon is a spa/pool just outside a major geothermal electric generation plant about 40 minute outside Reykjavik.  A bus picked us up in front of our apartment and delivered us to this little oasis amongst lichen covered lava rock. The spa is famous for the geothermal heated ice blue colored water.  The facilities are modern Nordic design and excellent. 

The water color is like a whitish blue and one can only see about 3 inches below the surface.  Most of the pool is warm without being jacuzzi hot. The sides are lined with lava and the bottom is mostly sandy.  The calcium like minerals in the water coats everything and everyone where the water evaporates.

As we migrated our way around the pool area we began to notice these people with white stuff all over their faces.  We thought it strange that so many people would have zinc sunscreen on when there are plenty of waterproof sunscreens on the market.  Then! We realized there were buckets of white mud around that people were slathering on their face.  The mud exfoliates and smoothes your skin.  It was fun to cake the stuff on our skin and let it dry. 

OK, we are off to get Icelandic hot dogs for dinner and maybe a few drinks.

Reykjavik - Day 1 in Iceland

By Brian

And the journey begins. We departed LAX at 8:25 AM on Saturday, June 13th. Five or so hours later we landed in Boston's Logan Airport for a 4 hour layover before a four and half our flight to Iceland. We decided to stay up the entire time, which we would later regret.

Upon arrival in Keflavik International Airport we met someone from the tour company, Icelandic Farm Holidays, which we will be using after our time in Reykjavik. She took us to our rented apartment in Reykjavik, which is about 45 minutes from the airport. The weather was typical Iceland, permanent intermittent rain. After a few panicked moments trying to reach the apartment owners we discovered that our unit was occupied until 11:00 AM and we would not be able to check in until 12:00 PM, some four hours later. This is when the regret kicked in for not sleeping on the plane.

We set off on foot to explore downtown Reykjavik at 8:00 AM on Sunday morning tired from flying with no sleep and way before anyone was awake. Luckily Reykjavik is a beautiful city. We walked along the streets in the main shopping district looking for a cafe to get some coffee and food. Broken glass on many sidewalks was evidence of much partying the night before. We managed to find a little bakery opening up were we had cups of coffee and some small Euro breakfast nibbles (i.e. small roll with cheese, butter, and ham).

Having only killed an hour or so we kept exploring the city. We quickly found ourselves at the Hallgrímskirkja Church. The church is the most prominent building on the Reykjavik skyline and one of the best places to take photographs of Reykjavik. Unfortunately the building is covered in scaffolding all the way from base to top. One can still take the elevator to the top and see out small pot holes with scaffolding obstructing some of the view and limiting photography options.

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Views from the Hallgrímskirkja Church. The highest building on the Reykjavik skyline.

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Statue of Leif Ericsson in front of Hallgrímskirkja Church

Hallgrímskirkja is famous for its pipe organ. It is one massive structure. We were lucky to be there when the organ conductor was warming up for the 11:00 AM service. You could feel the bass notes in your gut it was so powerful. Quite a treat.

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Around 12:00 PM we headed back to the apartment to get a much needed four hour nap. Feeling fresh after some sleep, a shower, and a change of clothes we headed out for some more exploring and dinner. This being Iceland and the 65th latitude we had hours of day light left at 4:00 PM (almost eight hours of daylight left to be exact).

The Reykjavik City Hall is an interesting modern structure on the banks of the Tjörnin.

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The Tjörnin is a pond in central Reykjavik and was quite beautiful with plenty of wildlife and nice homes flanking the shores.

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The Icelandic Parliament (AlÞing, pronounced Althing) buildings are an interesting mix of historic and modern. The historic building was built in the 1880's and the modern or is well...modern. I personally like the building quite a lot. It is primarily glass with beautiful wooden shades running from top to bottom.

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As we mentioned earlier, Reykjavik really is a beautiful city. There are many colorful buildings and rooftops in red, blue, yellow, etc. Most of the windows are covered with lace curtains. They are almost doll house like in design. Most houses in the photos below are clad in corrugated metal. The bright colors and decorative window and edge treatments provide some needed style to an otherwise drab utilitarian building material.

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Iceland has a strong maritime history so we ventured down to the docks.

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So far Iceland has been wonderful. Great people, striking scenery, and excellent food. We ate dinner at the Fish Market. We both started out with the Lobster Soup featuring Langoustine, I had the Atlantic Salted Cod and Noosha had the Grilled Char from Klaustri (see menu here). The restaurant specializes in fresh seafood prepared with a fusion of traditional Icelandic and Asian-influenced cuisine. Think high end West LA with ridiculously fresh sea food.

Why Iceland?

By Noosha

That is just about the only question we receive about our trip. The tone is more accurately WHY...Iceland? Isn't it cold there?

Even the representative of Icelandic universities who I met at an international education conference looked baffled when I told her about our trip.

So why Iceland?

It begins with family history. Both of Brian's grandfathers were stationed at the Keflavik military base for a few overlapping years. Both Brian's mother and father attended a portion of their high school career at the base, and his father received his diploma there. In 1995, Brian's parents returned for a visit to Iceland and took their son along. Iceland clearly made a strong impression on Brian because ever since I've known him, he has talked about returning. The plan was to go for a mid-life crisis trip that involved riding motorcycles around the island. Well, we're not mid-life just yet, and we haven't taken that motorcycle licence exam yet. So? Iceland is a bit more affordable now. Due to an unfortunate banking collapse there (sound familiar?), the króna is no longer terribly frightening against the dollar.

Beyond this connection, Iceland will be a fascinating place. Dramatic landscapes. Thermal spas. Descendants of vikings. Let's not forget puffins. A hip city. Midnight suns and more...

So, we hope you join us on our trip, and enjoy our verbose ways. Next time we'll include pictures!

Ciao!

Ahem...

Well, we didn't quite blog about our entire South Africa trip as expected. We blame three weeks of travel with less internet access than expected, and not our own neglect or anything. :)

To summarize the remaining destinations:

From St. Lucia we drove back south along the coast to Durban, this time in daylight, and took a flight to Port Elizabeth to meet with Timo's cousins who live in the area. They kindly hosted us for several days, and took us on an epic off-road trip through the local mountains. Wow! We also attended a local Afrikaaners festival, where signs were actually in Afrikaans and people spoke to us in Afrikaans unlike other parts of South Africa. We can't thank our hosts enough for their hospitality, time, and providing us a peek into the lives of locals.

At Port Elizabeth, we rented another car for a long drive, and we truly mean loooong drive through the Western Cape back to Cape Town. Again, locals thought we were not so sane to drive that route in two days, but we did it.

The first day we drove to Storm's River Mouth, a relatively unvisited beach area this time of year and absolutely gorgeous! We stopped at several such destinations along the way, saw dolphins surfing in the waves, beautiful ocean views with rugged coastlines, and baboons hanging out in the street. It was a truly scenic drive. That night we stayed at Knysna - one of the more touristy destinations. Next day, we drove westward onto George, then went north by climbing over a mountain pass (wow!) to Oudtshoorn (say that 10 times fast!). We had what the town is famous for...ostriches. I actually had a salad with avocadoes that were to die for. Brian had the meat. I tasted it. Tastes like a lighter more tender filet mignon. Mmmm. Anyway! From there, we drove many many hours through the high dessert. The most exciting scenery was the occasional ostrich that popped up every...who knows...50 miles or so.

With great thanks to Lonely Planet for the best guidebook recommendation of the trip, we stopped in a town that is nothing more than a blip in a motonous landscape. Boplaas. There we had the BEST award winning port wine, and the price? Very reasonable. Sorry fans, not available for import to the U.S. :( But it should be!

We drove onward. More ostriches, then headed back south towards the coast via another mountain pass. Again. Wow! What a beautiful and environmentally diverse country. Our next destinations were the wine country towns of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek.

We stayed in Stellenbosh for two nights. Traveling in South Africa during their winter afforded us some luxuries like staying at a 4 star B&B at Jacanda Farms. Highly recommeded for everything, especially the passion fruit at breakfast! Napa Valley has NOTHING on Stellenbosch when it comes to scenery. Many of the buildings date back to the 17th and 18th centuries. Beyond that, the mountain backdrop is dramatic and stunning. As for the wines? Well...we didn't have much luck, but that could have been the places we visited.

Franschhoek was formerly a French settlement, and as with all things French you can expect great cuisine in this area - which was our main activity the second day in wine country.

After the wine country, we were relaxed, rested and ready to return to our favorite city in South Africa - Cape Town. Not much else to report here. It unfortunately rained our final days so we didn't have a chance to go up to Table Mountain for city views. However, we did drive up the moutain as far as we could and felt satisfied by what we saw. We also visited the University of Cape Town and bought t-shirts there. The comedy of our time in the university's bookstore is that the number of Americans buying stuff outnumbered the South Africans in there. Typical consumers. ;) We met a couple of students from UC Riverside.

Lastly, we visited the Cecil Rhodes memorial cuz despite his colonialist history, USC did win a Rhodes Scholarship in 2008 so naturally I (Noosha) had to pose by his statue. Besiiides, these days the Rhodes Foundation is open and equal. To segway this philosophy into a conclusion... Equality and stability is something we hope for all South Africans. Truly. :) We heard too many negative comments about the state of their country while we there. There are too many marvelous things in this country for anything tragic to happen.

Left two pics: Stellenbosch ~ ~ Right three: Storm's River Mouth and Western Cape coastal stops

St. Lucia: Into the darkness and beyond!

We hopped into a tiny propeller plane at Nelspruit for a one hour ride south to Durban. There we picked up our rental car ready to plot through Durban rush hour traffic and scoff at the people who thought we were mildly insane to drive 3 hours to St. Lucia in the dark. Turns out we were mildly insane. Our 3 hour trip took 5 hours with a couple of detours. One detour to get burgers from a fast food joint (Steers) which is ridiculously good. The second detour was to get unlost. We missed the final turn sign into St. Lucia because we were distracted by the bright lights of KFC and missed the poorly lit road sign. By the way, KFCs are abundant here! We've seen maybe one McDonald's in the entire country. Sorry, tangent.

We finally arrived to the Santa Lucia B&B to the sweetest host Rika and a palatial, well stocked room (meaning they provided excellent sherry wine!). Rika and her husband Francois van der Mewre were a highlight of our time in St. Lucia. They pampered us the way grandparents do, and never let us leave without home baked muffins, allowed us to pack a lunch from their kitchen goodies, provided a cooler with ice, chairs, and towels and so on.

Our first full day in St. Lucia, we took a self drive trip through an ecological reserve and spotted more animals (we're pros now!). Highlights were the Vervet monkeys and their playful babies. These monkeys must be like squirrels to the locals, because nobody stops to look at them except for us Americans.  Unfortunately there appeared to be considerable commercial logging in the area.  As well as historic remnants of logging in the reserve as evident by many stumps amidst the grasses.

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We had a picnic at Cape Vidal's beach and wore swimwear in the middle of South Africa's winter. Before the tide came in, we dipped our feet in the Indian Ocean (first time ever!) and checked out the tidepools.

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The next day we stretched our legs and took a morning walk to another beach where we saw hippos and crocs in the lagoon. In the afternoon, we went on a boat ride - a must do activity in the area. We got very close to the hipppos in the water, and crocodiles lounging nearby. Brian got a few awesome pictures of hippos "yawning"-they're actually posturing. Yikes on those teeth! Best lesson we learned on the boat ride is that St. Lucia Estuary is a World Heritage site because it is the only place in the world that encompasses 5 eco systems.

And that's about it. It was a warm and relaxing couple of days.

N&B

Hungry Hungry Hippos and more...

Walking Safari: The Dung Chronicles

(We forgot to allow comments on the previous safari posts. If you have been burning to leave us a comment, and we must admit, we do love the comments :), you may do so now. Cheers!  N&B)

For our third act we offer you a walking safari.  Noosha was not feeling up to walking around the bush so early in the morning (out the door at 5:30 AM again) so I went solo.  Ludovic drove me into the park before dawn to meet the guides and the rest of the walking safari guests.  Turns out there were no other guests so I got my own private walking safari with two armed guides. 

Chester and Isaac lead the safari.  Shortly after sunrise we began our meander into the bush after a short discussion of the rules.  The guides were to travel in front and in back of me.  We were not to talk if there there animals around, only communicate with hand gestures or gain another's attention with animal sounds or clicks.  If an animal were to charge we must stand our ground until directed by the guide as the animals 9 times 10 will mock charge (sounds reassuring ya?). 

I was also informed that one typically does not see many animals on a walking safari.  The animals in Kruger have grown up seeing vehicles.  They see the vehicle as just another animal, one in which they have never been shot by.  As soon as you step out of the vehicle, stand up in, or lean out of the vehicle you change the shape of vehicle/animal they will run.  If one is walking they see you has a human and something that has killed them in the past.  For instance you can drive within a foot or two of an Impala and they will hardly stop eating, walk within 50 yards of an Impala and they will dart off.  Knowing all this I was under no expectation to see any large animal on the walking safari.  This tour was to be about the more subtle things one see in the bush and how to read the environment, the dung, the plants, the footprints, etc.

On with the safari...  Our first stop was at a dry sandy river bed where we looked at the difference between White and Black Rhino prints, Hippos, Elephant prints (both adult and youth and determine the direction of travel), and determine the difference between cat (plus cheetah and versus other cats) and dog. 

Cat Versus Dog:
Within the main pad of both animals lies the difference.  The cat has what appears to be three lobes where as a dog has two.  So a Leopard will have three and a Hyena two.

Cheetah Versus other Cat:
Most cats have retractable claws while the Cheetah does not.  This allows the Cheetah to maintain better traction while running and turning at high rates of speed.  One can see the difference between the two by the presence of little holes/circles/dot around the outer front edge of the print.

White Versus Black Rhino:
Along the trailing edge of the print, a White Rhino will have a notch of sorts pointing towards the front of the print, which looks like a W, whereas the Black Rhino has a more oval pad.  Each has three toes.

After moving on from the lesson on tracks Chester discussed dung, yes dung.  One could spend hours discussing  the finer points of dung.  I must say it was very fascinating.  We first stopped at a Black Rhino dung.  The Black Rhino is a browser, meaning they eat leaves and branches as opposed to grasses.  As such their dung is filled with undisturbed, undigested branches due to their poor digestive system.  Additionally the branches are 0.5" - 1" in length and cut at a 45 degree angle.  Next to the Black Rhino dung was an older Elephant dung.  One can tell the difference between the two by the color (or colour for some), the Rhino is darker.  The Elephant is also a browser and the dung is filled with undigested branches.  Unlike the Black Rhino, the Elephant dung has longer branches which have been smashed by chewing.   Up next we had an even longer discussion on the White Rhino's dung pile.   The White Rhino pile is a large toilette used to mark the territory of a male individual.  They will come back to this pile over and over again to mark their territory.  The dung will get trapped in cracks within their feet and be deposited throughout their area, informing others who is boss.  Female Rhinos will also deposit dung at the pile but around the edge of the pile.  The White Rhino is a grazer, meaning it eats grasses and ground plants.  It will have a wider mouth to help in this effort.  And their dung will be filled with grasses.  Within the dung we found a Dung Beetle (pronounced by Chester as Beet lee).  The story of the Dung Beetle is a fascinating component of the ecosystem, which I will not go into but is worth researching.

White Rhino dung pile:

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Black Rhino dung (note the small undigested and undisturbed branches):

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About now Isaac comes back quietly, softly says something in their native tung, and we move towards some bushes.  Ahead of us, maybe 25 yards away, is a White Rhino grazing.  They position me in direct line of sight behind Chester and Isaac behind me.  The Rhino looks up to determine what is going on.  Luckily for us the Rhino has terrible sight and likely cannot make out what we are.  This was an amazingly exhilaratingly moment.  The two guides have guns but this thing is around 6,000 pounds.  The stare down lasts for about 20 seconds but seems like minutes.  He/she decides to move along slowly.  My heart slowly climbs out of my mouth and I am allowed to take a few photos.

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A while later we had a similar encounter with another Rhino.  After this stare down the Rhino ran off this time.  For such a large animal they actually run with grace. 

The walking safari was an amazing experience.  While the diversity of sightings was extremely limited to two Rhinos, the feeling of being untethered in the bush and unprotected in such close proximity to massive beasts is a once in a life time experience.  I will tell my grandchildren about these moments.  Thank you for reading through my David Attenboroughesque post.

Almost Swaziland

On our final morning in Kruger our hosts suggested we use the best of our time and take up another activity. We opted to stop by the touristy Swazi cultural center on our drive to the airport. The center's entrance is located just outside the Swaziland border, but the road on the inside curves past the Swazi border. SO we didn't need to get a Swaziland stamp on our passports (how convenient!), but technically we were on Swazi soil...so we're totally counting that as a country we visited.

The center's main attraction is the traditional village area set up behind the shops and restaurants. Our guide Mapompo took us on a tour of the dome shaped straw huts, talked about a few traditions including clothing and such, and reminded us that men are considered superior in Swazi culture. This meant I (Noosha) had to enter the huts behind the men and on the other side of the door. Bah! Additionally, men have multiple wives (but in reality the chief's mom runs the show). Anyway, the real treat of the whole thing was the music and dancing. The organization recruits talented youth from the local rural villages to be part of the performance group. The group consisted of single male dancers, married female dancers, ready for marriage female dancers, and adolescents with their tatas revealed. Powerful percussions were coupled with high kick and foot stomping dances. It was really enjoyable to watch! They made me (Noosha) get up and dance, and mom might be shocked, but I was a good sport. I danced and had fun! :) Here are some pictures.

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For those of you who love dung filled facts, the floors are somehow made using earth, dung, and animal fat.

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Full Day Safari - Day 3

(Day 2 was spent lounging around the lodge, chillin' with curious wart hogs, and taking a sunset river ride. Don't forget to read the Day 1 post below!)

We woke up dark and early for a dusk to dawn safari of Kruger with Bushwise's guide Ludovic (yes, how delightful is his name!).  We jumped into our safari vehiclele, bundled ourselves in hoodies, beanies, down jackets and woolly blankets for a crisp and windy hour drive to Kruger National Park's southern entrance. Even Ludovic who described himself as "not a sissy man" bundled up.

Safari Vehicle:

 

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Don't worry moms! It was only cold in the morning. The rest of the day was perfectly sunny.

We watched the sunrise and listened to Ludovic passionately point out every winged, hooved, predatory (and non) creature he knew of. He included tidbits about dung, insects and other things that I (Noosha) probably missed (meaning forgot ;))

Having been schooled that game viewing is part knowledge and part luck we seemed to have a fortuitous morning. Big five citings included elphant, buffalo, the rare black rhino, and even lions!! It was amazing!!! The lion strutted right next to our open window vehicle. It was closer than you could get at a zoo! If we lacked sense, we could have reached out to touch him!! SO exciting! After a while the lion wandered away from the road when inconsiderate drivers were cutting him off for pictures. Nothing attracts a massive group of cars in the vast Kruger Park (think size of Portugal) like a feline sighting.

 

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Ludovic cooked us a hearty, traditional, and yummy South African breakfast of eggs, bacon, fried tomatoes, onions and toast which we ate overlooking Kruger from a Lebombo mountain viewpoint. Its worth noting that we also had the most delicious aromatic papaya. A clever but misguided Vervet monkey tried to steal food from the picnic-ers (word?) We know it shouldn't have been there, but it was so small, jumpy, and cute!

Other animals we saw:

 

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Elephant (Big 5)

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White Rhino

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Hippo (Big 5)

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Cape Buffulo (Big 5)

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All kinds of amazing birds.  This is one of the Big 6 birds (but don't ask me the name; I can't remember.)

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wart hogs are Noosha's favorite for the it's so ugly it's cute factor

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and the ubiquitous but essential Impala

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Tangent: Why did Chevy name their car after a common and ordinary antelope? Bad call Chevy. Bad call.
Tangent 2: Did you know that the antlers of antelopes are actually called horns for African antelopes.

After a very long, but seriously awesome day we watched the sunset around 5pm and made our way out of the park which closes at 5:30pm. 

I forgot to mention the many birds we saw. Let's try and remember their names! There was the kingfisher, the franklin quail which looked plump and tasty, several species of eagle/hawk/vulture, and the bird called Zazu in Lion King. :) Real name currently unknown!

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Anyway, if you ever get the opportunity to have a safari experience, we strongly recommend it. Spend several days watching the animals and go with a knowledgable guide. We had a great time with Ludovic. It was a surreal and amazing experience.

Noosha & Brian