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September 25, 2011

My goal-less quest.

Posted by Grendel's Mother under adventure, travel | Tags: bucket list, dream, quest, travel |
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Many people these days are making up their own bucket lists. I’ve been thinking about it more and more these days. And not because my body is falling apart (it is) or that my life is a wreck (it’s not). Maybe I see others doing more with their time, maybe I’ve just stopped wanting to dream so much and to just do more. Maybe it was watching that series Planet Earth with the jaw dropping scenes of the wonders all around us. Maybe it’s just time to take my own kind of walkabout. My quest does not have a goal, such as saving someone’s life, destroying a ring, or killing a monster named Grendel. It’s more about just experiencing the world and the people in it.

But of course we have to address the obstacles to living out the carefree lifestyle that exists in our dreams.

Money—or whatever is needed for those pesky plane tickets, hotel rooms, etc. Doing the backpack thing and staying in dirt-encrusted hostels is not for me. Maybe when I was in my early 20’s—but even then I needed to know that there was a safe room for me to lay my head at the end of the day. I’m not saying I won’t camp out or need a four-star hotel. I just want my 40-year old back to not be in a knot in the morning.

Time—those sweet precious vacation days we work so hard for can be few and far between for the normal American. The Europeans have it great. Having said that, I’m grateful for having a life where I do have time off and don’t have to work three jobs or 90 hours a week.

Travel companions—getting someone else to come along with you to share the experience makes exploring this world so much more fun and meaningful. Whether the travel companions be friends or family, it’s really important for me to go with people I can have fun with.

For the most part, these obstacles can be overcome. You may not have the money or time to travel far and wide but you can make smaller and more budget-friendly trips and experiences wherever you live. For me, well I’m going for broke. I spent several years saving every penny I earned, putting them away for a time when I could start going on some trips. At the very moment I was about to start spending it all, I was laid off. That money ended up coming in handy while I was out of work. God definitely was looking out for me. If I hadn’t saved during those preceding years, I would have been in serious trouble. I am so blessed and grateful that I was able to save at all. God is good and He provides in mysterious ways.

But now I have a job again and my outlook on life has changed a bit. Am I still a saver, planner, and overall worrier? Yup. But I’m not going to let opportunities pass me by. I’m going to explore this beautiful world God created. I’m going to learn about other cultures and deepen my knowledge of history, anthropology, geology, languages, geography, and foodology. I’m going to meet people who will share their traditions, legends, historic landmarks, grandmother’s recipes, and beliefs. I’m going to marvel at the heaven-reaching mountains, the deep blue oceans, the colorful plants, the sand-swept deserts, and the luscious green forests. And in between I sure wouldn’t mind spending some time relaxing in Bora Bora (you know the place where the huts sit on the water and you can jump into the clear blue water right from your bedroom? (That’s where a sugar daddy would come in very handy.)

So here is my so-called bucket list of places to visit. (The whole “What I want to do before I die” thing includes a heck of lot more than travel.) Anyway, I’m tired of the phrase “bucket list” and feel that a new name is in order. One of these maybe?

Dawn’s Lambeth Walk. I did some research and the Lambeth Walk is a song from a musical about courage and acceptance that became a rallying cry for the Brits during the London bombing in World War II. It sounds kind of fun and cool. Look it up.
Tribal Wanderings. I’ll bring my culture and experiences to those around the world—and get a bit of other tribal customs in exchange.
Dawn to Dusk: Live the Path not Yet Taken. Ok, now I feel like I’m working on a brainstorm session for work—trying to come up with some random and witty theme.

Okay, let’s call it: Dawn’s Day-Tripping Dreams. Something exciting to think about and something to try to attain. If you’re in my circle of family and friends and are interested in planning a trip to one of these places, give me a shout! Or, if you own a travel magazine or run a travel business and want someone to visit these places and write about them for you, also give me a shout!

Dawn’s Day-Tripping Dreams (not in any specific order and subject to change)

Peru (Machu Pichu and the Nazca lines)
The Holy Land (Israel)
Alaska (cruise around the glaciers, see the wilderness inland, Denali, etc.)
Italy (Rome, Venice, Sienna, tour the countryside, visit the Vatican)
African (Kenya and Tanzania) safari
Napa Valley (wine tours)
Australia (the reef, Sydney, the Aborigine land, Uluru, etc.)
New Zealand (see the mountains and majestic scenery)
Galapagos Islands
Brazil (Rio but also cruise the Amazon)
China (the Great Wall, the Terracotta army, etc.)
Russia (The beautiful onion domes, red square, Moscow, St. Petersburg)
Normandy (tour the WW II sites, see Mont Saint Michel)
Paris (been there but would go back again and again and again…)
Greece (Ancient historical sites, cruise on the gorgeous waters, etc.)
India
Montana (maybe some kind of dude ranch experience)
Upstate New York and Maine (in the fall for the turning of the leaves)

I’ve been blessed to see so many places in my life and many of those places I’d love to visit again. France is a favorite and I would go back to see other parts of Egypt, Ireland, England, Canada, and various states in America. And of course I can’t go very long without visiting my Aunt and cousins in one of the most beautiful and peaceful places on earth—Walloon Lake, Michigan. There are some things you need to stick with and that’s one of them.

What’s on your dream list? Tell me and maybe we can talk about a little walk about.

August 15, 2011

Ice bars and warm hearts in Oslo.

Posted by Grendel's Mother under adventure, Norway, travel | Tags: Oslo, viking ship museum |
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This is the last post in the Iceland / Norway trip series. On this last day of the trip we had too much to do and too little time to do it. But it was a beautiful day and we took advantage of it and enjoyed a relaxing breakfast before heading out. The hotel was located right in the heart of the city and very close to the harbor, palace, and according to the various cab drivers and hotel clerks we talked to, “the place where the officials, you know, talk about things.” I’m pretty sure they meant the parliament building, but their description worked, so yet another cross cultural exchange had proved successful. We walked up to the palace to have a quick look-see. Amy asked the palace guard about when the changing of the guard was going to take place and he actually answered her. It’s not like in England where they stand stone-faced. This guy smiled and chatted but he did keep his eye on the grounds at all times. After a few photo ops we continued down to the wharf to catch a boat ride.

Amy and I took the hop on hop off boat over to the opera house while Butter and Jen took the ferry over to the island that hosted a number of museums. The opera house was an architectural wonder with numerous angles, windows, and other “cool” features making it quite interesting to explore. We walked up to the top where you can walk across the roof and back down again along the smooth slope of concrete.

Next stop was the island with all the museums. It turned out to be a pretty decent sized area and Amy and I huffed it quite a ways to the Viking museum where we met up with Butter and Jen for awhile. I loved the Viking ship museum. It held a couple of ancient boats as well as some beautiful carvings, an old carved wagon, and a funeral tent (can’t remember exactly what it was called). I honestly wasn’t sure before I went in that I would really like it but I did. It’s very worth it if you ever visit Oslo.

We then made our way over to the cultural museum. It was actually a very large site that had some collections inside a large building—my friends explored a photo exhibit there—as well as replicas of old Viking homes, churches, communities—you name it, scattered across many acres. They even had one section that was a replica of a more modern (but still colonial-type era) town. I fell in love with the Stave Church. It was truly magnificent. The shape and style was ornate, different, unusual, and filled with—of course—carvings. I can’t get enough of those, they are so beautifully done. There were some painted scenes inside the chapel and a number of crosses over the numerous gables and doors. A number of the houses throughout the museum site (as well as in other areas we explored) had grass growing on the roofs. I thought it interesting that we are now starting to go back to the days of the ancients. It’s considered very “green”—that is energy efficient and environmental friendly—to have grass growing on your roof. There are some corporations trying it out now. Must be something to it if the Vikings were doing it thousands of years ago. Along the paths I came across a group of young people in costume dancing some old jigs they used to do back in the day—that was a fun little treat. I ended the tour looking through some of the old houses they built. They were built up on foundations set at the corners (kind of like our beach houses on pilings but not that high). I guess the snow or floods made that necessary—who knows. But the homes were of course beautifully built. They didn’t just throw up some boards or mud, these people were architects.

My legs were giving out so it was time to hop on the cheap boat back to the wharf. My friends explored some more museums and we met back at the hotel to go to dinner. What to have for dinner in Norway? Why Chinese of course. Yup, went to a fancy Chinese restaurant—very nice indeed and the food was absolutely yummy. It was expensive and spicy too, but the service was excellent and it was a very nice way to wrap up a trip.

But we weren’t done yet. Nope. Amy and I had a mission. To visit the ice bar. The one in Iceland we were told was a dump, but this one was an offshoot of the famous ice hotel. They let people in every hour on the hour (the bartender needed a break to get out of the cold). So while we waited, we chatted up with Nikolas, my new favorite boyfriend who is now on top of the future ex Mr. Crowe list. He dressed us up in warm clothes and in we went. Lars—who also was making his way on to the favorite list—served us some quite yummy cocktails in glasses made entirely of ice. I would show you photos but it was so cold my camera froze and we only have fuzzy memories of that establishment. Seriously though, it’s an experience worth having if you get the chance. The entire place was made of ice—the booth, the bar, the glasses, the walls and floor—and it had fun etchings of things throughout. There were carvings in the walls and tables, handprints, and some things that got stuck in the ice. After last call was called, Amy and I were helped out of our jackets and boots by the darling Nikolas and headed back into the warm night of Oslo. We walked around a bit to get our last taste of the city, and headed back to the closet I called home for the night.

I recommend both Norway and Iceland to everyone. In fact, I’d probably recommend going in two different trips and taking longer in each country. But that’s me and I typically like to get more immersed into the cultures I visit while there. I’m blessed and grateful for the opportunity to travel to these places with three wonderful friends who made the trip really fun. It was a 40^th birthday trip for Jen and a 50^th for Butter and Amy and I went along for the ride! Thanks ladies!

If you have had your own adventures in these places and want to share, please do! Or if you are traveling there and want some more details or suggestions on things to do, not do, etc., just write a reply and I’ll get back to you. Again, my prayers go out to the victims of the attack on Oslo—just a week after our visit there. It was a shock to hear about that and having been through 9/11 in Washington, D.C. I can say it’s a scary, horrible thing to live through. God Bless you Norwegians and others who are healing from those wounds. Thanks for your hospitality and I hope to come visit you again.

Amy and Jen pose with a palace guard in Oslo.

a glass viking ship outside the opera house in Oslo.

Kids at play on the roof of the opera house in Oslo.

Amy at the opera house in Oslo

The Oslo Opera House

A beautiful carved wagon from the viking ship museum.

The Stave Church at the Oslo cultural museum.

Crosses on the Stave Church

One of the viking houses in the cultural museum.

Me in the big coat sitting on an ice bench at an ice table at the ice bar. Camera froze so photo is blurry.

August 9, 2011

Norway in a nutshell, a train, a bus, and a boat.

Posted by Grendel's Mother under adventure, Norway, travel, Uncategorized
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As I continue the saga of the four American girls traveling through Iceland and Norway, we find ourselves with a short time to explore the beauty of the Norwegian countryside. The way we accomplished this was by taking the famous Norway in a Nutshell tour. This tour goes from Bergen to Oslo (or the other way, or a round trip if that’s what you want).

First thing in the morning we hopped on the train out of Bergen. If you’re traveling this way you may want to consider going light on the luggage. Or finding a hot dude to travel with who can lug it around for you. But all was okay and there was plenty of room to store the bags and get great views of the fjords and mountains. At the quaint town of Voss, we changed over to a bus. They were short on busses but these Norwegians know how to move fast and a driver was found tout suite (yes, that’s French but it sounds better than “gang,” the Norwegian word for right away) and a bus showed up for the rest of us who were out-elbowed by the others. The bus drive to Gudvangan took us through some even more picturesque countryside. (I love saying Gudvangen, it’s fun and rolls off the tongue. You should try it.) The real fun was the harrowing sharp, hair-pin s-turns down the steep mountain side. At the bottom of the hill the driver told us to breathe and we all laughed because we actually were holding our breaths. Now off to catch the boat.

Ahh, the boat. This was the part of Norway I was most looking forward to. The fjord tour. As we got onboard we walked through to the other end of the boat, up two flights of stairs and then back again to the other end of the boat to the only space that was left, this little corner in the back of the boat. I planted my butt down and Amy, Jen, and Butter found spaces along the bulk head. At first I was kind of upset that all these tourists had once again pushed their way onto the boat and grabbed all the nice seats up front. I was upset that is until the boat left the dock and then turned around! Poetic justice. We ended up having the absolute premier rock star positions on the entire boat. Our view was straight on unobstructed and it was truly magnificent. Mile after mile, we floated through the water that cut between steep cliffs hosting long, flowing waterfalls. Occasionally we saw houses and farms and wondered how they got their cable.

Some well-meaning but idiot tourists on our boat kept feeding the seagulls that were flying around us. While it did make for some nice photo ops, I vowed to stomp on the bird guy at the first sight of seagull poop. Some of these pushy tourists tried to worm their way into our space but we held tight to our real estate and got excellent photos during the entire three-hour cruise. Once we docked in Flam we had a couple of hours to eat, shop, and play. If you take this cruise/trip you can make plans to stop off overnight at any of these places and take extra fjord tours, or go hiking, or partake in some of the other activities available.

The next segment had us back on the train and up, up, up the mountain. We stopped briefly at a waterfall. Suddenly, some Celtic-like music started blaring out of speakers somewhere and a woman appeared out of the remains of an old stone house. As she danced around the falls and house she seemed like some kind of witch. It was pretty cool. At the top of the mountain, I bought a $13 cup of beer while we waited for our next train on the Flam railway.

The train from Flam took us by crystal clear waters that were formed from the blue and white glaciers dotting the landscape. We ended up going back and forth bus to train to bus to train to bus before arriving back in Oslo. It was a long day but a great way to see the Norwegian countryside if you don’t have time to really explore.

After keeping Amy awake the night before we decided I should get my own room with sound-proof walls. I do believe that aside from those little sleeping holes they have in Tokyo, this was the most expensive square foot of sleeping space I’ve ever had the misfortune of staying in. Seriously, when I spend $250 on a hotel room, I’d like to be able to take a shower without bumping into the sink, be able to not have to hear a concert playing outside until 1 a.m., and be able to get out of bed without jamming my toes into the walls. But I will say that the concierge’s at the front desk were nice and just a little cute, so we had something good to say about the hotel. Breakfast was pretty good too.

So that’s it for Norway in a Nutshell. One more day in the saga to talk about—so stay tuned!