travel

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July 13, 2011

Four Viking chicks go on a trip.

Posted by Grendel's Mother under adventure, travel | Tags: Iceland, norway, reykjavik, vikings |
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Where do I even start? What a fantastic trip! I just got back from the land of the Vikings with three very awesome women. We toured through Iceland and Norway and were in constant awe at the endless beauty of both countries. Upon first reflection, I found the people of Iceland to be very friendly, the land to be a mixed bundle of topography, and the water and air as clean as it gets. Norway was a carpet of green hills, more urban, more expensive than anywhere I’ve ever been, and quite lovely and rich in culture and history.

To get a full snapshot of these two countries we ended up taking quite a few trains, busses, minibuses, vans, airplanes, and taxis. We were pretty impressed with the public transportation system in Norway—having experienced how they find fast and suitable solutions for getting people where they need to go even when tracks are out due to construction, accidents, and random sheep crossings.

People keep asking me about the highlights and I just don’t know where to start. Each day brought new discoveries, new friends, new beautiful sights to behold. I love to travel the world and see all that God has created. I’m going to write a series about our trip so that anyone who is interested in traveling to these charming countries can hopefully get a feel of what to do, not do, or do again and again! I also will have to write on my company’s blog about the marketing side of this trip. I think the character of the Icelanders mixed with a bit of luck (so to speak) of a volcano erupting and catching the eye of the world, gave them an opportunity to sell themselves. I definitely bought into it and now have become a net promoter! Gooooooo Vikings!

If you have traveled to these countries and would like to share your experiences here, please do. The more perspectives the better. And maybe some extra laughs I may have forgotten about. Let’s get started!

Pre Day One

I drive up to the parent’s house and drop off the Grendel dog. Grendel would have done very well in Iceland—land of the sagas. His name is taken from an ancient tale that has some resemblance to the sagas. And completely off topic but something to note as I weave the tale of this journey, my right ankle is encased in a boot—to help me walk and heal a hairline fracture. Yup, going on a hiking type of trip with a bum leg. Oh well.

Day One

Meet Amy at the Philly airport and cruise up to Boston. We find the Moossachusets Cows and are already laughing. Butter and Jen arrive at about the same time and we are off to check in at the Icelandair counter. Upon arrival in Iceland, we stop to take a photo of the dinosaur coming out of an egg, get some booze at the duty free shop (they don’t sell alcohol in shops like we do), and then hop a bus for Reykjavik and arrive at Inga’s Guest House at about 1 a.m. It’s still light out but I note for the girls that “Sunrise is at 3 a.m.” Amy laughs and says, “You mean in two hours?” Yup. Awesome. Inga’s beds are comfy and we love our rented apartment so close to downtown! Next up, touring quaint Reykjavik.

Jen stands near a wall in the Iceland airport. It says it all and why we came on this trip.

September 23, 2010

Got Dairy?

Posted by Grendel's Mother under marketing, travel, Uncategorized
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Last week I travelled to Dallas, Texas to attend the International Dairy Show. I spent the last nine months working on promoting the show and got to see it come to fruition. My clients are really fun, smart people so it’s been a great experience working with them and learning about the dairy industry. And while this show is targeted to processors and packagers, there was plenty of food tasting to be had. The ingredients folks are there—giving away samples of new flavors. I was loving the funnel cake ice cream.

I felt like a kid walking the show floor. I got to meet Chester Cheetah and the Nestle Quick Bunny. I got my picture taken at the Got Milk? booth. Yup, I’ve got a milk mustache photo of me on the fridge now. Then there was the flipbook booth. I donned some silly glasses and hat and danced with maracas while holding a sign that says “single and looking.” It was turned into a book where you flip the pages quickly making it look like a movie clip. Got to get that for my other clients!

What’s that you say? Did I work? Yes, and I’ve got blisters to prove it. I interviewed lots and lots of people for a video I’ll be working on later. I got an extensive tour of a cold delivery truck, and detailed lectures about a clean seal bottling machine-thingy, a new kind of packaging machine, a cow-milking type machine, and some food-safety technology. I also ran some focus groups (that can be another topic altogether), tried some funky tea, and heard President Bush speak.

So, lots of fun was had at the Dairy Show. Next year we’ll be combining some peaches and cream and heading to Atlanta. Oh, and as my long-delayed flight neared home I looked out the window and saw a view of the Big Dipper that I’ve never seen before. It was so low on the horizon that it looked like it was even with the plane. Cool. Irrelevant to this post (except maybe I was dreaming of a big ice cream scooper), but cool.

I’m back now and going to try to lose the weight I gained. The new thing now is yogurt. Not quite as good as strawberry milk, yummy cheese cubes on forks, ice cream samples, and cream cheese, but it’ll have to do. Off to work on my other clients—just as important, I just wish they had cooking demonstrations in their exhibit halls!

Yummy cheese samples

Chester Cheetah

Yogurt samples

The milking machine

August 5, 2010

Ice cream, trampolines, and other obsessions.

Posted by Grendel's Mother under travel
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Well I wanted to write one last post about my trip to Nova Scotia. Here are some final impressions and things that were interesting about the place and the people.

One thing my parents and I noticed were some obsessions these people have. Ice cream is one of them. For a country that is so far north they sure do have lots and lots and lots of ice cream vendors. Everywhere we went we saw the little ice cream signs. And yes, we tested some yummy flavors like Udderly Devine that was made up of creamy vanilla ice cream with swirls of chewy fudge chocolate surrounding scrumptious peanut butter filled chocolate cups. Mom appreciated that one, too. Dad—boring vanilla. I hate being on a diet and dreaming about mouthwatering food! Man, that treat was good to have right in the middle of the day or on a walk around the docks at night. It’s why I love vacations. Okay, moving on.

Another obsession was trampolines. We drove around almost the entire province and saw them everywhere. The funny thing was, all but one or two did not have any kind of protection or security surrounding them. Not like in the states where everyone is scared of either litigation or letting their kids do anything more dangerous than playing video games.

Other impressions. Let’s see. They talk funny. But we know that already. What else. Driving around we kept seeing signs with question marks on them. I thought that was funny and so random. When I realized it was for visitor information stations, it wasn’t as funny anymore. The fish and chips dinners I had were all excellent—except at the one place that boasted they had the best in the world. Mom and I did not agree with their claim. Nova Scotians are generally pretty friendly people except when you talked to them about the new increase in their tax. Nova Scotia boasts a 15% tax rate. Yikes.

They also have a neat recycling program where the government makes everyone pay a 10 cent deposit on all bottles and cans. If you take the bottles and cans to a recycling facility (which happen to be very difficult to find) you get five cents back. Hmmm. To me that kind of looks like a tax wrapped up in a fake sustainability program. Even so, this province has some of the best green initiatives I’ve seen. Everyone recycles and they are serious about conservation. We could take some lessons in living that way. Their land sure is pretty—they want to keep it that way.

They are also pretty keen about protecting whales and wildlife. I wrote previously about the protected park land. We also went to a whale museum and learned about their efforts at protecting them (the ones we didn’t see). That reminds me, my friend Fast Ed called the other night and we chatted about Nova Scotia. (It was Ed and his wife that got me interested in going there.) Ed told me a story about how he has a picture of himself standing on the dock in Lunenburg and in the background was a whale being gutted by the locals. Nice. Guess the conservation policies didn’t go into effect until after the 70’s.

So in wrapping up the Nova Scotia journal, it was a nice trip in general. The hiking and scenery were absolutely beautiful. The people were nice and fun. The food was good and the weather mostly perfect. It’s time to spin the globe and pick the next adventure. My parents and I want to do a safari so I’m taking donations now! Or if you live somewhere interesting, I’m accepting invitations to come visit and stay with you.