Reykjavik, Berlin, Prague, Vienna

Somewhere Between Isafjorður and the Ring Road...

2009-07-13T22:46:00.000-07:00

I took this picture. Check out the sky.

I´m back in San Diego now, but a part of me is, and will always be, in Iceland. Stay tuned, I took over 500 pictures. There must be a few other good ones in the batch I can post here.

Thanks to everyone who's out there reading this, and especially to Randy, Mione and Bere for watching the boys while I was away!

Last Day in Iceland

2009-07-12T04:44:00.000-07:00

I´m in Reykjavik today, the one place I´ve been before in this country. It´s a very cool city. They have this thing called 'the runtur' that they do on weekend nights. Basically, you go out and bar hop until the wee hours of the morning. It´s easy to do when it looks like this at 3 a.m.

Before that, I´d been in the most touristy spot in Iceland, Lake Mývatn, which translates literally to "Midge Lake" (a midge is a black fly). I went to an area of "new lava" - less than 30 years old - called Leirhnjúkur. This was pretty crazy. The ground all around us was steaming (it´s considered "active") and there were signs posted saying we were there at our own risk, yadda yadda.

But the belle of the ball is the lake itself. This is the view from the dining room (and my tent) at Guesthouse Dimmuborgir (Dimmuborgir means "dark castles"). Tons of little islands and inlets make this lake something really special.

Here´s a view of the south side of the lake, where I ran into my friends Francesco and Marina who I´d met in Akureyri. We´re having dinner tonight in Reykjavik, and I´m having drinks with my friend Mæja and her husband Mads, so I´m booked for the whole evening. Not a bad way to spend my last day in town (and, by the way, the weather here is gorgeous today!).

Akureyri

2009-07-07T14:06:00.000-07:00

If ever there was a version of San Diego here in Iceland, I think this is it. Hip but not full of itself, seaside (like pretty much every other town in Iceland), and totally down-to-earth despite the fact that they´re referred to as 'Iceland's Second City,' Akureyri has a lot going for it. This is a picture from the rooftop restaurant near the harbor called Strikið. They´re famous for burgers with hollandaise sauce and spicy fries (on the burger) and hollandaise sauce-laiden pizzas. The burger was actually really tasty, don´t knock it until you´ve tried it (though I wouldn´t make a habit of it).

This is a picture of Akureyrarkirkja - the church of Akureyri. It was designed by the same guy who designed Hallgrimskirkja in Reykjavik. There´s a picture of that (that I did not take) below.

Also went to Lystigarður - the botanical garden here in town. Lots of beautiful stuff, if you´re a flower nut, you´d love it.

All for now, this 15-minute time limit is really, um, limiting!

Back To Civilization

2009-07-07T09:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a very, very long day. Lots of driving in and out (and in and out) of fjords. Makes you appreciate straight roads and bridges sooo much! Not a lot to see, until these two snaps I took not long before the unpaved road met with the Ring Road again.

I also took this shot of Esja, the gigantic, forbidding mountain I climbed on my first day in Iceland, after only 5 1/2 hours sleep the night before leaving and *maybe* two hours on both planes in total.

As you can see, it's pretty menacing. You can't even see the top of it in this shot! I can't believe I climbed the whole thing :) (EDIT: You cannot even see anywhere near the top in this picture. The last thing you can barely make out is maybe 1/6 of the way up, at most. Hun er stór.).

Off to check out the Botanical Gardens (supposed to be excellent here) and take a few more pictures before dinner and hitting the town pool. I don't normally swim, but when in Iceland...

Guesthouse Kiðafell - June 30 and July 1

2009-07-05T17:26:00.001-07:00

This is the view from my guesthouse the first two nights I was here. I only went about 30 or 40 miles north of Reykjavik, which was actually a pretty good call, as you can see. My hosts were Norwegian, as it turned out, and were extremely hospitable.

On my first day in Iceland, I decided to climb Esja, this gigantic mountain. There were actually a lot of others climbing as well, but not so many that I felt crowded. The bad news was that I forgot my GPS, binoculars and hiking boots. So I made it all the way except for the last 30 or 40 feet, where the top of the mountain turned to a series of stone blocks. I was pretty paranoid about getting back down in my second-string running shoes, and for good reason as it turned out. I never fell, but trying to regain my balance one time I almost threw my left arm out of socket. It still hurts a little today, five days later.

Day two, I headed inland to see some lava caves. This is a picture near the entrance. I hiked in six kilometers, did the cave most of the way, then returned, and hiked the six k back.

Yes, I am doing a lot of hiking on this trip!

Day three, I travelled around the Snæfellsness peninsula by car, and ended up in Grundarfjörður. It´s a very laid-back and cool place. This is a picture of Kirkjufell, a giant mountain in the ocean just off the coast.

Just before I got to Stykkishólmur, I took a short detour through madness... Berserkjahraun. This is probably the most alien landscape I´ve seen in this county, and that´s REALLY saying something.

Standard disclaimer: The pictures do not do it justice. You´ll just have to see it for yourself ;)

Stykkishólmur to Breiðavik - Friday, July 3

2009-07-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

Started in Stykkishólmur, spent most of the day reading on the hill. Not much to do, but tried to catch the early boat over to the westfjords. No luck.

Ended up in Breiðavik, over some of the worst roads I´ve ever driven in my life. Seriously feared for my life, holding my breath around one particularly harrowing turn (no guardrails, blind corner, sheer drop, potholes and rocks).

This second picture was taken at 1130 p.m. This is truly a magical place. Despite the fear I felt driving in, I´d love to go back one day.

View Over Isafjorður

2009-07-05T07:54:00.000-07:00

It´s a pretty amazing place. An amazing, dangerous, wonderful place, this Iceland. I´m serious when I say that I´ve had several experiences so far where I could have plummeted to my death quite easily. Is it worth it? Umm, jáááá.

This was my hike this morning. It´s a pretty famous view, and luckily the weather cooperated perfectly. I still have yet to use my rain gear, though I´ve been through some storms in the car.

I had some of the best fish I´ve had in my life today at a place called Tjöruhúsið, right on the bay. You can see it in the picture. Actually, you can see the whole town in this picture. I think this is the 3rd or 4th largest town in Iceland and it´s only got like 1300 people or something.

Sadly, I´m not sure I´ll be able to get up to the very remote Hornstrandir nature preserve on this trip. They don´t do day trips to Hesteyri, the ghost town on the shores of Hornstrandir, but there might be a five hour tour I can squeeze into tonight. If not, I´ll console myself with another piece of fish there.

Was out until 2 a.m. this morning, the sun never set. It looked lighter than dusk as I drank Viking and spoke Icelandlish with the locals at the only place that was open, a makeshift bar (no name, mind you), attached to the local information center.

The Thai restaurant in town is everything the guidebooks say it is. I wish I could eat another meal at both places. I might actually leave later tomorrow afternoon, instead of morning, to do just that.

The great thing about almost dying on a daily basis is that it makes you feel great at the end of the day, when you can merely say, "I survived."

404'd in Icelandic

2009-05-23T08:25:00.000-07:00

Too funny. Check this link to a non-existent page I found when trying to find a ferry up to the westfjords area:

http://www.seatours.is/404error.aspx?aspxerrorpath=/ferrybaldur.php

Back to Iceland!

2009-03-26T17:44:00.000-07:00

So yeah, I'm going back. June 29th through July 13th I'll be rockin' the Ring Road again, doing a full two weeks of exploring and speaking Icelandic, however poorly.

This will be my view out the window of the plane just before landing in Keflavik.

YEAAAAAHHHHH ICELAND!!!! HERE I COME!!!

Magnus' Gift of LOLCAT Keeps On Giving

2007-12-21T22:47:00.000-08:00

moar funny pictures

Magnus' Wish

2007-02-25T10:02:00.000-08:00

My friend Magnus was my saving grace in Vienna last year, and he has a rather unique wish. To build the ultimate bartending robot! If that's not a selfless desire, I don't know what is. Please read below from Magnus of www.roboexotica.org and www.shifz.org :

I wish for...

...the world domination of robots to be started by the perfect
cocktailrobot who will make all lowly humans into his addicted slaves!
Help me help create the ultimate cocktail mixing and serving robot by
granting me the financial means!"

Friday night when I did some late-nite browsing of the interwebs, instead
of ending up buying something from Amazon, i followed a link from
Boingboing and made a wish at Robinhoodfund - and asked for 10.000,- US$.

In case the wish is granted I'll split it up 50:50 to a) sponsor some
promising bots coming to ROBOEXOTICA 2007 and b) for the first time
provide prize-money to the winners of the Annual Cocktail Robot Awards.

So you can help make this happen clicking this link -
http://www.robinhoodfund.com/cast-your-votes/wish/id/1168 (and/or make
your own wish!).

... From the Robinhoodfund-page (if I had come across this on a less
trustworthy site than Boingboing i would never have given it a second
thought) ..

How it Works

Step 1 - Make a Wish
For the price of a free catalogue, the Robinhood Fund community
might
make your wish come true. Submit your naughty or nice wish for the chance
to share in the specified period's pot. Your wish goes up for voting at
the beginning of the new week, and competes with fellow wishers for the
entirety of that week.

Remember, your wish has the best chance if it's in the right place.
There are two categories, meaning two wishes are granted per week. Here's
more:

Naughty
Not every wish is about saving the world, saving a life, or saving
a
soul.
Be a little selfish. If your wish is about something you just want,
this is the category for you.

Nice
Sometimes people need a helping hand. If you are an innocent victim
of
cruel fate, failing health, dire circumstance, or know of a worthwhile
cause who is, post your wish to "Nice." You will be grouped with other
noble, deserving wishes for a little help from the Robinhood Fund.

Step 2 - The Community Decides
No elite board of directors - you and your peers decide whose
wishes
to grant. View wishes in each category to promote the worthiest wish of
every type.

Step 3 - Wishes are Granted
Each week, the coffers are emptied and the funds are distributed
between the winners in each category, granting as many wishes as the
amounts allow. It's just that simple.

Native Instruments Komplete 4

2006-11-25T10:24:00.000-08:00

Native Instruments is a company located in Berlin, Germany that makes some incredible-sounding virtual instruments for Mac and PC. I've been on board with them for several years now, since I found a steal of a deal to get Reaktor 3 with a free upgrade to Reaktor 4 for $200 (the software retailed for about $400-$500 at the time). After that, they offered Komplete, a collection of virtually every instrument in their arsenal, for a few hundred dollars more for registered users of one or more of their products, so I bit on that as well.

Then came along Komplete Care 2005, a subscription service for the instruments. 2005 would be the greatest year for Native Instruments products, a press release stated. So for another couple hundred bucks, I was in for a pound, as they say.

2005 turned out to be a great year indeed. We were treated to such wonderful products as Absynth 3 and Battery 2. . Then came along Reaktor 5 and Kontakt 2, the flagship synthesizer construction kit and sampler, respectively. Either one of these two would have been worth the investment.

Komplete Care 2006 came along, and I managed to find it for about $150, which was about $75 cheaper than anywhere else. I think it was a database error over Thanksgiving weekend last year that wasn't corrected in time, but I took advantage of it while it lasted. I looked forward to any products that NI might put out in the 2006 calendar year, but I knew all along that it would be impossible to top 2005.

It turned out I was right. As the year went on, customers started to become agitated. The company's Kore system, their first foray into the hardware market, was met with mixed reviews. No new products had been announced that fell under the Komplete Care umbrella, and the natives were getting restless.

To quell the troops, NI sent out a free update to Komplete 3, which included the B4 organ, Guitar Rig II (software only) and Elektrik Piano, all excellent pieces of software. A few more months passed, and they sent out copies of the Absynth 3 and Kontakt 2 Tutorial DVDs. This was a nice gesture, and as I already had the Absynth 3 DVD, I decided to make a few bucks selling it on eBay. It went almost instantly.

After a few more months of nothing, NI upped the ante by offering an upgrade to Komplete 4. This was substantial, because it included Akoustik Piano, the one piece of software I'd been seriously considering buying. They also threw in a gift certificate for $180 to be used in their online store before the end of the year. Nice.

Then when they started sending stuff out to people, their registration center went belly-up. People were pissed off all over again. So the company's brand-new synthesizer, Massive, was offered as a free download. Good move on NI's part.

NI posted a forum entry for users to write when they'd received the software, and the reports started flooding in. From Germany. It turned out that they'd had a serious issue with their American distributors.

Well, if you're still reading this, here's my post on the NI forums in response to all of this.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi All,

I got mine (Komplete 4 Upgrade DVD set) on Wednesday here in San Diego, CA. There were a few issues with installation (mostly related to my DAW's DVD player and the fact that I had to clear out several gigs of data to get the Akoustik Piano library to fit!), but I did manage to get everything up and running by last night.

A few things:

1. The service center update FAILED all night on Wednesday. AARGH!!! There's nothing like getting a brand new toy and being told you can't play with it because the company's having technical difficulties. I accept that NI can't be up 24/7, but come on people, can't you give us ONE DAY of slack before you forbid us from using these fantastic pieces of software?

2. I was messing with some registry settings and I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it, but Kore complained about some dlls not being available on startup, and then proceeded to scan a TON of dlls. This took over 10 minutes and it still hadn't loaded, so I forced quit. The error message suggested that reinstalling could solve the problem. So I uninstalled, reinstalled, re-registered, everything went fine from there.

Why was I playing with registry settings? For some reason, on a previous install of Komplete 2 or 3, I accidentally told my VSTs to live in C:\VSTPlugins\VSTPlugins. So I searched the registry for that string and replaced it with simply C:\VSTPlugins. I'm not recommending this, but it seems to have worked for me.

3. Nuendo 2 froze after installing Komplete 4. It was hanging when it was trying to load the Absynth 4 Surround VST. CPU spiked at 98-99% and it never recovered from that.

I fixed it by moving all four Absynth 4 VSTs out of my VSTs folder and onto my desktop temporarily. I started up Nuendo 2 without incident. Exited Nuendo 2, put the VST dll files back into the VSTPlugins directory, started Nuendo 2, haven't had a problem since.

I haven't had much chance to play with the new stuff yet, but I will say that Akoustik Piano sounds absolutely AMAZING. I'm just stunned at how great it sounds. And I really like the potential of the arpeggiator in FM8. Massive's got some nice sounds in it, and I'm happy to try that out as well. Anything that sparks inspiration.

For all my complaining, I have to say this: I told myself that if NI managed to get me my update by Thanksgiving, I'd be pretty impressed despite everything else they've done this year. Actually, I think they've done some very nice things for the Komplete Care class of '06. Sure we complained, but when I purchased KC06 I knew nothing might come of it, but I liked the idea of "software insurance." I'd still purchase it for '07 if it's offered, and I'm sure many others would as well.

My one overall grievance with the company is that they refuse to send US customers product updates from the US. Why? I have friends who work for NI in Los Angeles, which is just over 100 miles from here. I could have been playing with my new products over a month ago.

Just my $0.02.

Cheers,

-ix

Iceland - Vik - A View from the Hotel

2006-09-21T22:43:00.000-07:00

This is what I saw when I woke up in Vik, this is what I saw. You're looking at the beach down yonder. The motel is on a high hill off the ring road.

Farewell, Vienna, I'll Be Back

2006-09-18T05:33:00.000-07:00

Thank you Berenice.

Thank you Magnus, for letting me tag around with you and for showing me Roboexotica.

Thank you Sylvia, for translating everything during Metalab and the closing party.

Thank you Johannes, for Taugshow.

Thank you, Andres, Jorg and Stefan for Coordinated Sewing Machine for Mapping, Analyzing and Transforming social Groupings of interactive Systems.

Thank you Lorenz, for documenting this important occasion.

Thank you everyone at WerkzeugH, for the food and the hospitality.

Thank you, everyone at Paraflows and Monochrom who I forgot.

I'll see you soon.

Vienna - Night of the Living Dead Media - Dawn of the Web

2006-09-18T05:14:00.000-07:00

After the symphony on Saturday, I immediately headed over to MuseumsQuartier where the lads from Paraflows were throwing their closing party, and what a party it was. In their typical fashion, every detail was executed, and it all worked with the theme.

The theme of the party was Night of the Living Dead Media - Dawn of the Web; the whole thing was set the night before HTML, the language used to script Web pages, was born. A pretty cool concept, from the cocktail waitress walking around with a silver platter of silver champagne glasses (only ball bearings and other metallic goodies in those glasses, mind you), to the 90's-themed music the DJs were spinning.

I made it just in time for the performance, which consisted of a vocalist and a guitarist singing songs about events that were taking place circa '91, including some pretty funny rants about (what else?) sex and drugs. Thanks again to Sylvia for translating all of this for me!

After the performance the DJs started banging out thick-kick drum'd mid-paced techno, a style that's probably known as "tech house" these days. Back on the night of Dawn of the Web, though, it was all just music.

Some of the other great touches included the projections of original Sega and Nintendo systems on opposite walls. People could actually play the Nintendo system, and I saw some pretty heated games of MarioKart up there. All in all, it was a great way to conclude a week of innovation, creativity and community.

Thanks to everyone who was responsible for me having such a blast here in Vienna!

Schoenborn Palace, Vienna

2006-09-17T03:38:00.000-07:00

There were some things I liked about this place, but NOT the hordes of tour groups I had to fight my way through to make it through the 40-plus rooms of this place. The outside was much cooler. I bought the E-ticket, so I could pretty much check out everything for only a few Euros more. The first picture is part of a garden just to the left of the palace, if you´re looking at it from the front.

This next one is a picture of some flowers in said garden. The hedge (above) surrounds the garden.

Finally (for now), this is a picture of the palace from the back, on an arcade called Gloriette on a hill. Gloriette was built in 1775, and I climbed to the top of it to take this picture. I used some serious zoom here, as the palace is quite a ways away from Gloriette.

Mozart at Musikverein, Vienna

2006-09-17T03:26:00.000-07:00

Last night I managed to score front row balcony tickets to see the symphony in Vienna. The program was all Mozart, which was cool. They did the song from that car commercial, the one from The Simpsons where Homer is in space and about to crash into the ant colony, and the one from that Mickey Mouse cartoon. I thought they might do the theme from Beef (it´s what´s for dinner) but maybe that´s not Mozart. I´m only somewhat cultured.

But seriously folks, it was a great night and a great experience, despite the many numbers they did with opera singers. They were impressive at times, but for me, it was kinda like going to a downtempo show and having the band bring out an MC to rap all over the otherwise good music. This wasn´t quite as bad as that, though.

Vienna - City of Tiny Lights

2006-09-16T02:08:00.000-07:00

Big thank yous go out to Berenice and Magnus (from Vienna) for making last night a great one! Berenice has been posting comments on Magnus' pictures at 23hq.com (Bere, please post link!) and so she introduced us.

I got some great shots of Schoenborn Palace yesterday, and I'm working on getting tickets to see Mozart tonight, so don't worry, I am getting a good mix of culture here.

Magnus and I met last night at Karlsplatz, a major transit centre here in Vienna. I said I'd be wearing a blue raincoat, he said he'd have an exploding umbrella. We agreed to meet in this huge expanse of territory, and somehow found each other. Headed over to the venue to find we were about 2 hours early, so he took me on a breakneck pace walking tour of the city, mostly of the museums. He suggested the Leopold Museum, so that will be the one I go to in addition to the Freud museum.

Had a drink, checked out his workspace, and then back to the venue. A bar was setup in the basement of Konzerthaus, along with a room with about 50 chairs, a set of decks and a guitar. Two men dressed as pirates were the hosts for the program, called Taugshow. Taug, as I understand it, is to really dig something here in Vienna. It's part of a larger event called Paraflows '06 that's going on now. They did it in English for the first time, which was great for me, as my German is pretty bad.

Their guests included such eclectic guests as Lauren Hill's personal shopper and a man from New Zealand who is working on a project to create self-replicating machines. The monologue (or dialogue) between the two hosts and the audience at the beginning focused on typos in email (or eNail, they quipped), and was pretty damn witty at times.

The musical act was also well-placed and well received. I have to get all the names straight, and I'll post a link to the main site later.

I'm off to the brunch they're hosting for Paraflows now, and I have to probably go to the venue to score those Mozart tix and it looks like rain. Should be an interesting day, if not a dry one, here in Vienna.

Aah, Prague

2006-09-13T01:00:00.000-07:00

I arrived to Prague on Sunday, and I leave tonight. I don't want to leave, but Vienna awaits.

When I arrived, I was feeling pretty awful from a full night out in Berlin on Saturday, but I headed into town to explore nonetheless. Walked around as it got dark, fascinated by the architecture and the castle looming in the distance on the other side of the Vlatva River. Got a little turned around, found something to eat, and jumped back on the tram to go home.

Monday I explored the city alone. I managed to see quite a bit of it, as it's really a small city compared with Berlin. Berlin has about 14 pages of maps in my DK guide, Prague, six. A bit smaller, but I'm not sure what the scale is like.

Prague is a city of twists and turns, of winding roads and changing street names. All the streets are stone and about as wide as your thumb, so it's tough to get around and easy to get killed. But believe me, I'd rather die in Prague than live in a lot of places I've been.

Monday ended simply enough, I headed back to the hostel, had a couple of beers at the "bar" there for about $1 USD each, and crashed out.

It was a massive day out in Prague Tuesday, as Markus from Perth, Australia and I headed out to hit the town. Went up to the castle where we somehow managed to see the president of Lithuania. Took the funicular (read: tram) down to the base of the Vlatva river and stumbled into the Museum of Modern Art where we were treated to an exhibition by Kupka. More on him later.

Headed out to ask about some tourist activities. Maybe it was the Prague talking, but we wanted to do something special to commemorate our trip. So we sussed out some help from the tourism office.

We asked the girl at the tourism office, "Excuse me, do you speak English?"
"Yes," she proudly replied.
I cleared my throat and said, "We'd like to jump out of a plane." She wasn't quite sure she'd heard us right. Markus bit his lip, hard, to keep from bursting out laughing.
"Excuse me?" she asked, puzzled.

Next we headed to Klub Arkitecture for dinner. Had some asian-fusion style pork and some local dumplings, along with Czech beer, of course, some of the best and cheapest in the world. It was almost $2.25 USD per pint at this club, which is actually pretty expensive for this place. Yeah I know, I'm in heaven.

Finally, after dinner, we decided to catch some music at one of Prague's many excellent jazz clubs. Finally found one after trying to find another one from Markus' Lonely Planet guide that listed the wrong address. They had a sign on the door that read, WE ARE NOT JAZZ CLUB. WE DO NOT KNOW JAZZ CLUB.

When we finally got to a decent one, we saw an excellent four-piece combo complete with a vocalist with stylings recalling Bebel Gilberto and an older gentleman whose fingers were difficult to see when he played his stand-up bass. The guitarist had serious chops as well.

We stumbled home after two sets, finally springing for a cab after we couldn't find the 52 (night tram) back to the hostel. Our hostel, by the way, was absolutely excellent. Look up The Boat House if you're ever fortunate enough to find yourself here.

I have been writing this over the last couple of days. I´m in Vienna, heartbroken that I had to leave Prague, but we´ll see what this city brings. Not much so far.

I´ll try to post more on Prague soon, and something on Vienna. Watch this space for the story of the dumbest thing I´ve done on this or any other vacation.

Prague

2006-09-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

Slept on the train most of the way down to Prague from Berlin after closing the bar a bit late with my new friends Tim and Bashar. Bashar totally hooked me up with point-to-point directions from the hostel to the train station, and when I got back to the hostel and got all packed up, Glen and Anya gave me a wakeup call to get out the door ontime. Although, Glen did come running in like he'd forgotten and I was so disoriented from only sleeping a few hours I didn't even notice he was pulling my leg. Glen is the Kiwi who owns the place, and Anya's his girlfriend. If you're ever in Berlin, that's the place to stay.

Took a cab here today because I couldn't figure out how to buy a ticket for the tram. It turns out most people just forego that part of the experience. Hardly anyone outiside of the tourism industry here seems to speak much English. I don't mind being surrounded by their language though, it's really different and cool, in its way.

Tomorrow I'll do all the touristy sightseeing stuff. It's pretty reasonable here but maybe not as reasonable as I'd imagined. xe.com says that 100 Czech Republic Koruny is about $4.50 USD, and I managed to get a ameal tonight for about 150 including tip (10% here is decent) and a good-sized Budvar beer (original Budweiser, none of that American stuff here!).

I'll post more pictures when I get to a computer with USB, not sure that these have them at the hostel.

Goodbye Berlin, Hello Prague!!!!!!

2006-09-09T14:30:00.000-07:00

I hear Prague rules.

I don´t doubt it.

Berlin was up and down, but I had some great experiences here, for an ex-club-kid who didn´t go out Friday OR Saturday night.

Iceland.

How happy I was.

P.S. Coca Cola SUCKS in Germany.

Dropping Knowledge

2006-09-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

Dropping Knowledge

Today I happened on the coolest thing in Berlin since the fall of the wall, maybe. There's an organization called Dropping Knowledge (www.droppingknowledge.org), and they hosted their first ever table of open ideas here in Berlin today. I was fortunate enough to be part of it all. Here is a picture of some of the panel members at the end of the 100 question day.

It was a massive outpouring of emotion and opinion from these 112 panelists. I was very proud to have been there for sessions 1-2 and 7-8, the alpha and omega of this very important event.

112 panel members. 100 questions, 11,200 answers. It was a long day for all of us.

This is what it looked like when it was all over. More to come.

In line at the Reichstag

2006-09-08T14:31:00.000-07:00

These four semi-mimes operated a life-sized mannequin to help make the time pass more quickly while we waited to get up into the Hitlerdome. You wouldn´t believe some of the things these skilled puppeteers can do with Mr. Foamy here. That´s my translation, ov course.

Berlin - Hostel Thoughts

2006-09-08T14:13:00.000-07:00

Which key?

OK, it's this one.

OK. Now which way does it go into the slot?

Up, no, down. No, up. Teeth up. OK.

Now which way do I turn it? Left? Left feels right. Let's try that. OK now how far do I turn it? All the way?

Too far.

I hope I'm not waking anybody up.

I hope nobody wakes me up.

Push the door. Still locked.

Try the other way. All the way. OK, that worked.

Did I tip enough at the restaurant?
Do they tip in this country?

But they know I'm an American. What does that mean?

Should I tip more?
Less?
Should I tip at all?

What precedent does this set or not set or unset?

OK, now where's that key?

Berlin Uber Alles!

2006-09-07T11:20:00.000-07:00

Well, maybe not over all, but it's still pretty cool. Not as cool as Iceland, mind you, but that's a pretty frigging tall order.

I walked all over the city today, and took bus line 100, which is the hot tip if you want a free tour of all the big sites. This is a view down Unter den Linten, which is the main drag near my hostel, at sunset this evening.

I've heard mixed reviews about Berlin. All I can say so far is that everyone here has gone out of their way to help me whenever possible, and the people have been very warm and friendly. It's a little strange, as sick as I was of English in Reykjavik is about as weirded out by all the German (and no English) that I'm hearing here. I've been trying not to think in Icelandic (when I'm not thinking in English), but it's really, really hard. I know now that I'll be back to Iceland in the not-too-distant future to do the entire ring road. As expensive as Iceland is, there's really no place like it on Earth, or anywhere else for that matter.

Sunset At the Beach In Vik

2006-09-07T01:54:00.000-07:00

We´d just dropped off our German hitchhiker Nils when Kieth and I got to Vik. It had been raining the whole trip, but I predicted sun when we arrived.

I love it when I´m right :)

This is a picture of one of the most visually stunning and mysterious places I think I´ve ever been. The black sand of this beach is very coarse, and very beautiful.

I have so many more pictures but I´m off to Museum Island here in Berlin. I´ll try to post some more pictures soon.

Thanks to everyone for the comments!! It makes me feel like you´re here with me.

And What Does One Do On A Glacier?

2006-09-07T01:49:00.000-07:00

GO SNOWMOBILING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

High Atop Mighty Vatnajokull

2006-09-07T01:44:00.000-07:00

Tuesday I went up to the top of Vatnajokull, the biggest glacier in Europe (and 3rd biggest in the world) with my new friend Kieth. Here´s a picture from about halfway up. The top of the glacier is about 2km high, if I am not mistaken. Here, we are probably about 800 m up. The view would have been better if it weren´t raining, but it wasn´t coming down too hard. I can´t complain about the rain, I really got very lucky. For such a rainy place, I only saw rain for about 1 1/2 days.

Iceland - Ring Road Pictures (cont.)

2006-09-07T01:35:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of the "glacial lagoon," which is between Vik and Hofn. I had no idea it was there, so needless to say it was a nice surprise to come upon this. Look at the blue color of the glaciers. I donät think the color could ever come out as vivid as how it looked in person.

One Road to Rule Them All

2006-09-07T01:10:00.000-07:00

Iceland´s Route 1, which circles the entire country, has some amazing sites. I´m in a cyber cafe in Berlin (which RULES, by the way, despite the fact that the y and z are switched on the keyboards) after driving from Reykjavik to Hofn and back over the past two days.

Here is one picture of one of the manz waterfalls on the Ring Road. I have never seen such beauty. More to come.

The Golden Circle Tour

2006-09-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

I did the Golden Circle tour today. It was probably about $100 USD but well worth it. We went all over the place, from the smelly sulphery geothermal plant that pumps all of the water for Reykjavik INTO the city to the cheesy gift shop at the end where they screwed me on postage (because of this, all them postcards what come from Iceland will end up costing me about $4 USD apiece).

This is a picture of the site where Iceland´s first parliment was held. Lotsa history today. Iceland was founded in 930 A.D. Pretty funky huh?

Also, on a personal note, I was in a room with five very nice people last night and one jackass who snored ALL NIGHT LONG. Me and the three girls (all from Michigan and Ohio, what happened there??) in the room got ZERO sleep. I kept dozing off in the bus.

Cry me a river, as long as it looks like this :)

A huge ever-growing pulsating crater that rules from the centre of the ultraworld

2006-09-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

Need I say more? If you don´t get the reference, don´t worry. Look at the colors - the water, the soil... one thing I can say about this place is that pictures will never do it justice. You have to see it for yourself.

Iceland´s famous The Blue Lagoon

2006-09-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

If you´ve never swum in The Blue Lagoon, I highly recommend it. It´s a natural geothermal spa. That means it´s powered by volcanic activity, like much of Iceland.

Who was asking me why I wanted to come here again?

Reykjavik - Picture of sculpture near harbor

2006-09-03T15:13:00.000-07:00

When I find out the name of the sculptor I promise to update it and give him or her credit.

Greenland from above

2006-09-03T15:11:00.000-07:00

As promised.

I woke up in Reykjavik

2006-09-02T06:24:00.000-07:00

Well, my days of practicing the language have paid off. I met a couple of people last night who were very hospitiable, and extremely impressed that I spoke the language at all. They never asked me to repeat anything, so I assume they either understood me or just didn´t care what I was saying. Either way, thað er flott (that´s cool).

I´m in a basement Internet cafe on the main drag, as far as I can tell. This place is much crunchier and less corporate than the one last night.

Tonight I´m headed to The Blue Lagoon. As this keyboard doesn´t seem to have an underscore character, I just had to hunt on the ´net to find a frigging underscore character so I could put that link in there. This is painful. Anyway The Blue Lagoon should be extremely cool. I think the hostel organizes trips from there, so I´ll just head back there no later than about 430 or 500 this evening. There doesn´t seem to be a colon on this keyboard either.

Outside, some people are singing their hearts out about smoking crack. They were just down here looking up the lyrics to said song. Now there´s an American girl looking for directions to some publishers. It turns out she worked for childrens´magazine, and she´s trying to get her book published. She wrote it and did illustrations for it.

This keyboard is kinda sucky and I forgot my damn cable again to dump those pictures, so I´ll leave it at this for the time being.

101 Reykjavik

2006-09-01T11:58:00.000-07:00

I should probably retitle this blog, I Speak Icelandic Poorly. I finally got up the courage to talk to the stewardess on the flight over to Iceland and she couldn´t understand a word I said. Well, that´s not true, after i repeated myself she did understand me and I understood her answer.

I´m trying over here, and people are very friendly and patient. So far nothing massive has happened, went to the state store after walking from the first hostel thur center of town.

It´s cool because there are a lot of words I recognize when I´m listening to people speak, but there are a lot of other languages here...

Today´s highlight had to be flying over Greenland. I took some pretty amazing pictures. I´ll post them soon.

Calm

2006-08-31T05:52:00.000-07:00

Hmm.

Very strange. I sat up bolt-straight in bed at 5:15 a.m. this morning. I don't consider that freaking out, though. Freaking out is what a friend of mine did just before we caught a cab to the airport for San Francisco. He was a large man, and yet he emitted this girl scoutesque squeal of frustration and glee. Damn, man, it's only Frisco.

So I'm packed, I have a room tomorrow night in the center of Reykjavik, and my ride doesn't get here for another six hours. Looks like I'm going to have to find a way to amuse myself. I did just get the movie 101 Reykjavik from my Netflix, so maybe I'll throw that on before breakfast here. And I should probably head up to 7-11 to get a little coffee.

Hmm. I'm much more calm than I thought I'd be.

17.5 hours before the plane leaves from San Francisco to Keflavik.

The first "Oh sh*t" moment of the trip

2006-08-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

I'd been explaining to everyone who would listen about my epic trip.

"Yeah," I'd muse, "I take off from San Francisco at 11:30 PM on Thursday and get there at about 2 p.m. GMT (local time) on SATURDAY! Can you believe that?" I figured I must have had some crazy long layover in Minnesota.

I should have checked the itinerary more closely. Or at all.

You see, I don't do a lot with paper. I print about two pages a month at work, and I don't have a working printer at home. But tonight, I decided to check it.

It turns out I arrive in Reykjavik on FRIDAY afternoon, not SATURDAY.

This is great news for my trip, 'cuz I get an extra day, I thought. So I went to hostels.com and started booking a night at a (much more expensive) hostel in the city center. However, when I was just about to complete the booking, I got a message that stated, "We cannot verify availability for all nights you selected."

Well, shoot, I only selected one night!! Ut oh, I thought, but quickly formulated a plan. If I wasn't able to get into a hostel that first night (and wouldn't shell out $150+ USD for a 2-star hotel) I'd simply run the runtur. The runtur is the all-night party that happens every Friday and Saturday in Reykjavik that starts at 11:00 p.m. and doesn't end until the pubs close at 3, 4, even 5 a.m., and then it spills out onto the streets and continues until everyone's too blitzed to see straight. By that time, I would have been able to check into my hostel on Saturday.

This was not to be, however. Somehow, the gods of the Internet smiled on me, and the fourth time I tried to book the room, it worked. So I've got a place to land in the city now. Now I just need to figure out where this place is.

On Learning Icelandic

2006-08-30T07:55:00.000-07:00

I do so love learning a language that will maximize my communication skills in exactly seven types of situations:

1. When I'm in-between Vik and Hofn and I'm trying to order food or get directions.

...

Hmmm... ok, well, maybe only one situation. I've read and heard that pretty much everyone under the age of 80 speaks English over there, so I'm not really counting on having to use this new skill. However, I'm going to use it every chance I get. I've talked to people who have studied a language for years and then went to that country (Japan in this case) only to find they didn't understand word one. Japan's pretty different from Iceland, though. At least I think so anyway. I guess I'm about to find out.

28 hours until I leave for the airport.

Packing List

2006-08-29T19:18:00.000-07:00

1 pair of jeans
1 pair of pants
3 T-shirts (colored)
PASSPORT
DRIVER'S LICENSE
CREDIT CARDS

1 t-shirt (white)
2 short-sleeved collar shirts
1 oxford
hoody
2 pairs shorts
bathing suit
5 pairs underwear
5 pairs socks white
1 pair socks black
extra shoes
sandals
raincoat
hat
bandana
coat

money belt
daypack w/ lock
first aid kit
swiss army knife
flashlight
lip balm
watch w/ alarm
towel
camera, batteries, charger
M3 (mp3 player) & charger cable
sports mp3 player & USB cable
extra batteries for sports mp3 player (also has Icelandic mp3s on it)
headphones
plastic bags
toilet paper
contact stuff
glasses
earplugs
passport
extra passport photos
photocopy of passport & driver's license
shampoo
conditioner
face scrub
hair stuff
toothbrush
toothpaste
melatonin (to fight the jetlag)
journal
pens
printout of friends' mailing addresses (for postcards)
printout of itinerary

Have I forgotten anything?

Itinerary

2006-08-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

By popular demand, here's where I'll be and when.

Thursday, August 31 - SAN DIEGO CA(SAN) to OAKLAND CA(OAK)
Flight 1590 M
Depart SAN DIEGO CA(SAN) at 3:05PM and
Arrive in OAKLAND CA(OAK) at 4:25PM

Flight Icelandair FI670
From: SFO
Departure date: 31. August, 2006 Time of Flight: 23:35
Confirmation seat at check in
To: KEF

Arrive at KEF 1:30 pm local time, September 2

September 2-3
Reykjavik City Hostel

Septebmer 4
Höfn Hornafjörður hostel, Höfn, Iceland

September 5
Vatnajökull Glacier, then to Vik, Iceland - Hotel Dyrhólaey

September 6
wake up, drive from Vik to KEF airport, on to Germany

Flight Icelandair FI212
From: KEF
Departure date: 06. September, 2006 Time of Flight: 13:15
Confirmation seat at check in
To: CPH

Flight Icelandair SK1677
From: CPH
Departure date: 06. September, 2006 Time of Flight: 19:30
Confirmation seat at check in
To: TXL

September 6-9 Berlin
Schlafmeile Hostel

September 9
hop a train down to Prague

September 10-14 (arrive morning)
stay at The Boat House south of the city center, right on the river.

September 14
hop a train down to Vienna

September 15-18
stay at hostel called Porzellaneum (arrive morning)

September 18
hop a train back to Berlin

September 19 (arrive morning)
back in Berlin with all of four hours to catch flight back home.

Flight Icelandair SK4724
From: TXL
Departure date: 19. September, 2006 Time of Flight: 12:25
Confirmation seat at check in
To: OSL

Flight Icelandair FI319
From: OSL
Departure date: 19. September, 2006 Time of Flight: 14:45
Confirmation seat at check in
To: KEF

Flight Icelandair FI657
From: KEF
Departure date: 19. September, 2006 Time of Flight: 16:35
Confirmation seat at check in
To: MSP

Flight Icelandair F9667
From: MSP
Departure date: 19. September, 2006 Time of Flight: 19:35
Confirmation seat at check in
To: SFO

and finally...

Wednesday, September 20 - OAKLAND CA(OAK) to SAN DIEGO CA(SAN)
Flight 1233 M
Depart OAKLAND CA(OAK) at 7:35AM and
Arrive in SAN DIEGO CA(SAN) at 9:00AM

You know, I think I could have probably packed more into this trip. Maybe I'll try to do the whole thing blindfolded to add some challenge to the whole thing. Oh, wait. That might defeat the purpose of seein' the world.

(pre) Vienna - Tips from my friend Joe at work (who's lived in Austria)

2006-08-26T01:02:00.000-07:00

My friend Joe at work just got back from China. He had some tips for me, including the following sites:

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Austria/Bundesland_Wien/Vienna-320332/Nightlife-Vienna-Grinzing_Heurigen-R-1.html

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Austria/Bundesland_Oberoesterreich/Hallstatt-329225/Things_To_Do-Hallstatt-BR-1.html

But the money tip, I think, was probably about Grinzing. Grinzing, from what I gather, is what they'd call "farther afield" from Vienna, but not so much. It's reachable by public transportation, although he mentioned it was the "last stop" on some rail line.

Here's the text of his email:

Getting to Grinzing on public transport is easy – ride the U2 metro line to Schottentor, and then get tram 38 or take bus 38A from Heiligenstadt (U4 metro). After dinner, ride the bus another five minutes uphill to the Kahlenberg viewpoint for panoramic views of Vienna. Whether in a car or on public transportation, an excursion to Grinzing and a stop in a heurigen is well worth it.

Thanks Joe!

(pre) Berlin - Clubbing Tips from my Next Door Neighbor

2006-08-25T08:05:00.000-07:00

My next door neighbor's very cool. She's led a pretty interesting life, and has lived in a lot of different places in the US and Europe. She went out of her way to find this information for me. She knew I was heading to Berlin, and contacted some friends in Germany for some advice on which clubs to go to.

____________________________________________________

My friend gave me names of 3 clubs, hopefully that'll do it for you.

Sage Club, 90°Grad, and Cafe Moskow.

Those are the cool clubs I guess, so enjoy!

____________________________________________________

Thanks, Jelena!

Yes, I speak Icelandic

2006-08-23T22:27:00.000-07:00

Q: Name a language only 300,000 people in the world speak.

A: Icelandic.

Yes, I'm learning Icelandic. I bought two separate sets of book + CDs, and I've been carrying one with me (Teach Yourself Icelandic) ever since I booked my flight in June. The folks at work probably think I'm sneaking sips of it like a wino with cheap chardonnay, but the truth is, I haven't had as much time as I would have liked to enjoy the privilege and pleasure of joining such an exclusive club.

My pronunciation may be atrocious, but I'm willing to take that chance, as I'm drinking vodka-spiked beer and eating the local delicacy (rotten shark meat) that I'll strum at least a few heartstrings, albeit over $9 pints of Viking.

So what the hell am I doing in the most expensive country in the world?

Going broke, that's what :)