tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11499796228680287422024-03-05T00:42:03.620-06:00ExcursionsTravelogues by Obi Orjih (a.k.a. Obezma)Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.comBlogger222125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-14874282272530496302024-01-27T21:53:00.000-06:002024-01-27T21:53:13.447-06:00Antarctica 2023-4 - Days 13-6 - 1/7-10/2024 - Journey home<p>I’ll combine the remaining days of the trip, as there was not much in terms of activity.<br /><br />Days 13 and 14 were for sailing back across the Drake Passage toward Ushuaia. Even though the sea was choppier on the return voyage, I didn’t have any issues with seasickness this time around. Day 13 had about 3 meter swells, while Day 14 had 4-5 meter swells. The wind speed on the second day of the crossing reached 50-60 knots, high enough that they closed the outside decks of the ship.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmjIJbgKN5qBzdFbx0vaL8KDXlDQIm6hu4snqTpgU0siHFZ40T2RRywTbdbvwRwnTIuLVRcy0bNhRtkPfHkUSPThhuGKM-NY5MQBV8kbYeTZP-w-WaT1hxyvCCSunbbW1T855NmKnSMUGb8eiIyTdsMZJP5QZ0qtwCLq2XO49dwtSTOlSuQ_vUUY48C6M/s1134/AntarcticaVoyageMap.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Voyage map Courtesy Intrepid Travel" border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1134" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmjIJbgKN5qBzdFbx0vaL8KDXlDQIm6hu4snqTpgU0siHFZ40T2RRywTbdbvwRwnTIuLVRcy0bNhRtkPfHkUSPThhuGKM-NY5MQBV8kbYeTZP-w-WaT1hxyvCCSunbbW1T855NmKnSMUGb8eiIyTdsMZJP5QZ0qtwCLq2XO49dwtSTOlSuQ_vUUY48C6M/w400-h281/AntarcticaVoyageMap.PNG" title="Voyage map Courtesy Intrepid Travel" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Inside, the days were scheduled with talks and activities, though we skipped out on most of them. The subjects of the talks/activities that I did attend included: the geology of Antarctica, the Antarctic treaty, knot tying, our ship (Ocean Endeavor), orcas (aka killer whales), and a fundraising auction. The auction raised funds for WWF and the Citizen Science charity; notable items up for auction included: driving the ship for 20 minutes, delivering the morning wake-up announcement, the ship’s Antarctica flag for the voyage, and the expedition nautical chart (with additional artwork). The flag and chart each fetched about $800-$900. There was a captain’s farewell event, during which they also presented some employee-of-the-month awards. The executive chef also provided some fun statistics about the amount of food that was consumed during our 1877 (later adjusted to 1927) nautical mile voyage; I don’t remember any specific amounts, but most things mentioned were in the hundreds of kilograms.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9y9M333TdGHCqAhtWManMYdbMEpEHPT9MR7vAinEOrh1xR5eR0M0Ansa8HyZ5ZM5bOj6wQbq4yCDQJZfi6iMTOE593M5zEGQzZ2R9iy46C7AMIvNhSu2CbfUE0N82Dg5arAatxJAUyNTxGhG4bUE2JPF2DjQVrD3HIZ5dAU1hhKF2_Eo9BGIqszyI0_g/s4032/PXL_20240108_132250498.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Expedition nautical chart + artwork for auction" border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9y9M333TdGHCqAhtWManMYdbMEpEHPT9MR7vAinEOrh1xR5eR0M0Ansa8HyZ5ZM5bOj6wQbq4yCDQJZfi6iMTOE593M5zEGQzZ2R9iy46C7AMIvNhSu2CbfUE0N82Dg5arAatxJAUyNTxGhG4bUE2JPF2DjQVrD3HIZ5dAU1hhKF2_Eo9BGIqszyI0_g/w300-h400/PXL_20240108_132250498.jpg" title="Expedition nautical chart + artwork for auction" width="300" /></a></div><br />Day 13 had a “plant based” dinner to promote Intrepid’s sustainable practices; I use the quotes because: (1) it was a vegetarian dinner, not a vegan one (as I expect the term plant-based to mean); (2) they still had the option to order the standard grilled chicken or fish that was available every dinner. In all, I think the dinner menu was reasonable for the clientele on board; I just have issues with the use of the term “plant based” to describe it.<br /><br />On Day 14 we settled our shipboard accounts, which included all onboard purchases and gratuity for the ship and expedition crews (they automatically added a suggested amount, which we did not change). We also each got $50 credits for the late boarding and missing dinner the first night of the expedition. We also tagged our luggage with ribbons (organized by bus color) and set them out for pickup before 11pm.<br /><br />We were originally supposed to be on the pink bus which went directly to the airport, but we changed to the green bus which went to a luggage storage location (a bar that they had rented for the morning/afternoon) since we had plenty of time before our 1:15pm flight. We disembarked around 9am, took the bus the short ride to storage, and stowed our luggage there for a couple of hours. We walked with Liz, Michelle, Diane, and Kayla to a cafe on the main street for breakfast. We made a couple more stops (cafe, pharmacy, chocolate shop) on the way back to storage, where we picked up our luggage and five of us (Diane’s flight was later that night) took a couple of Ubers to the airport.<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibWTXI_rF6rtcQRFREgksGNa0f007DR95BnO9jFtRuPUHbCSyG9p5lA8ucEKBRziF970-F1jTEa2xFzTLegscSuhMv_8_JlJ_a1gBF2nqvBBiUinO-EtWwxkmpwHPMCMh1-ug-3NjHFpXTkw96Vqsq_4HG7pvMN8jKb5EekoBupieEZwdBl1rQ7g0RcSM/s4032/PXL_20240109_162447155.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Flying out of Ushuaia" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibWTXI_rF6rtcQRFREgksGNa0f007DR95BnO9jFtRuPUHbCSyG9p5lA8ucEKBRziF970-F1jTEa2xFzTLegscSuhMv_8_JlJ_a1gBF2nqvBBiUinO-EtWwxkmpwHPMCMh1-ug-3NjHFpXTkw96Vqsq_4HG7pvMN8jKb5EekoBupieEZwdBl1rQ7g0RcSM/w400-h300/PXL_20240109_162447155.jpg" title="Flying out of Ushuaia" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>I somehow didn’t get dinged for overweight luggage, but Michelle did. This caused her to have to wait in the incredibly slow payment line while the rest of us (minus Liz, who waited for her) went through security. It all worked out, though, and she made the flight with us. Liz and Kayla were on later flights. Seating on the Aerolineas Argentina flight was a little weird. The first class section had economy seats, but was half empty - they seemed to only fill at most the window and aisle seats of each set of 3. Fran and I each had a side of row 3 to ourselves; though we had initially selected seats in row 1 at purchase time. We also saw something like 15 or 20 other people from our expedition on the same flight out. And there was another Intrepid couple on our same flight from Buenos Aires to JFK. We had about 5.5 hours between the flights, which were once again in separate airports. We shared a taxi with Michelle from AEP to EZE. The check-in line for Delta was really long, but we had plenty of time and no cause for stress. The flights today were better than the other way a couple of weeks ago in terms of pelvic discomfort. I suspect that the 2 weeks of antibiotics might be helping, but another big factor is less anxiety/stress on the return. I’ll also give a shout-out once again to the Global Entry facial recognition system that made immigration a breeze. The exit process in Buenos Aires also used facial recognition, but it didn’t go quite as smoothly (especially since I scanned the wrong boarding pass barcode, but also because it required taking off my glasses to work). As an aside, we didn’t get Argentina stamps in our passports because I guess everything is going digital.<br /><br />In closing, I’ll add a few thoughts about the trip overall. I can easily say that this was my favorite trip that I’ve taken over the last 6 years with Fran, and likely also my favorite of my lifetime; though there may be a bit of recency bias there, and I definitely struggle to remember all my past trips. And I say this even with the anxiety and discomfort caused by my pelvic condition. The landscape was more spectacular than anything I’ve seen before. And the excursions were (mostly) great, even though I’m not normally one for the cold. I particularly enjoyed getting close to the whales, and the seals and penguins were also fun to see. It was also good to have Fran to push me to do a couple of things, like day paddling, that I normally would not have done on my own.<br /><br />When we were at port in Ushuaia, I noticed a couple of fancier looking ships alongside. That got me wondering how much, if at all, the experience would have been improved on a new ship - the Ocean Endeavor is about 40 years old. Besides creature comforts (the other ships had rooms with balconies, and fancier looking terraces), the newer ships would pollute less than the Ocean Endeavor (which seems to release a lot of sooty smoke) does. Intrepid claims to operate carbon neutral, so hopefully they have high quality carbon offsets to balance the ship’s emissions. Nevertheless, I can’t say that I have any regrets about the trip, and would highly recommend Antarctica and Intrepid to anyone interested.<br /></p><p>--<br /></p>My favorite pictures from the trip can be found <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/nZfbRzwKkfymuJzz8">here</a>.Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-76877104197602998322024-01-27T19:40:00.000-06:002024-01-27T19:40:43.986-06:00Antarctica 2023-4 - Day 12 - 1/6/2024 - Last of the excursions (Base Brown & Danco Island)<p>We stayed in Downtown Peninsula for our last day of excursions. The day on ship began with a cool humpback sighting in the morning after breakfast, and ended with an exciting (Type B) orca sighting just before dinner.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSsoaGUWQp4JC8V3Hpct7YvZWsR6Cpa40IxOa83SaZQtuMBm9gM_DZURs7jN7ZMh4ILQUVovlHHLnjAwGMw3H8yPJPO8JB7i1XDFWAnquH3haucyNcrF_TRfyBBc2JK4YDNLEip7g8zhC6nLt-oYNE78CG1m5UWKMOOBLn-HDVt5DmNEM9xdQVU9C7UiY/s4898/IMG_1259%20-%20Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Humpback whales" border="0" data-original-height="3265" data-original-width="4898" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSsoaGUWQp4JC8V3Hpct7YvZWsR6Cpa40IxOa83SaZQtuMBm9gM_DZURs7jN7ZMh4ILQUVovlHHLnjAwGMw3H8yPJPO8JB7i1XDFWAnquH3haucyNcrF_TRfyBBc2JK4YDNLEip7g8zhC6nLt-oYNE78CG1m5UWKMOOBLn-HDVt5DmNEM9xdQVU9C7UiY/w400-h266/IMG_1259%20-%20Copy.JPG" title="Humpback whales" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>The morning excursion to Brown Station was the farthest south we got - almost 65° in latitude. The flag route at the station included a hike up the hill, where they had set up path to slide down on our backs (this was permitted, as opposed to most locations where we weren’t even allowed to kneel, because this was a designated camping site). Fran being Fran, she ran up the hill and did the slide two more times before we left the site. She built up a reputation for being active, where multiple people (like the expedition doctor) were regularly asking her how many times she had been up and down the hills.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp57jjGehqoM5VbyIzFwHxTAD_lktnLIaapqogArRPXM0A6KxAwfZDnnIFs13Cs5v03QqlUmxCY4PeXIJsgmt5wdilpfUufZi9qDDcMcSBDDnIoH5T6kiQQM5MhS_sg-ywQapZU9H1gqVu54nU_ojCVOVIJRhWISQVsUNHrXUEFkq0HGBNeASt5hEXoCc/s4032/PXL_20240106_184156309.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Danco Island" border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp57jjGehqoM5VbyIzFwHxTAD_lktnLIaapqogArRPXM0A6KxAwfZDnnIFs13Cs5v03QqlUmxCY4PeXIJsgmt5wdilpfUufZi9qDDcMcSBDDnIoH5T6kiQQM5MhS_sg-ywQapZU9H1gqVu54nU_ojCVOVIJRhWISQVsUNHrXUEFkq0HGBNeASt5hEXoCc/w300-h400/PXL_20240106_184156309.jpg" title="Danco Island" width="300" /></a></div><br />Our last excursion brought us back to Danco Island, in the previously visited Foyn Harbour. Fran and I decided that we liked cruising before the landing, so we stayed back a couple of groups after ours was called to ensure that we did the cruise first. The landing portion included more mini-hiking up snowy hillsides and observing Gentoo nests and highways.<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjigHtwxTgP6wty6SHu0rlaMmELnNtBM6LcSKjcRi0gBcOtpMLJm0FY9CiYFkTAVIIWWWgk7vpHVnRELhYtc2QqN6TcACStkBtAe0isyhumicnG5lnAFgNYToTO95tikYdYKWv9JQwENX06KgA8G5onXBle40bTpP2u6SRZ0KwdQicxhqtAKuAaKhXWwU0/s4898/IMG_1593.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Type B orcas" border="0" data-original-height="3265" data-original-width="4898" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjigHtwxTgP6wty6SHu0rlaMmELnNtBM6LcSKjcRi0gBcOtpMLJm0FY9CiYFkTAVIIWWWgk7vpHVnRELhYtc2QqN6TcACStkBtAe0isyhumicnG5lnAFgNYToTO95tikYdYKWv9JQwENX06KgA8G5onXBle40bTpP2u6SRZ0KwdQicxhqtAKuAaKhXWwU0/w400-h266/IMG_1593.JPG" title="Type B orcas" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>After the recap all the passengers went out to the bow of the ship to take a group photo. The forecast for the return across the Drake passage is a bit ominous, with 3 meter swells the first day and potentially up to 5 meter swells the second day. Let’s hope that we can outrun the incoming low pressure zone and minimize the bumps. We began our Bonine course before going to bed.<br /></p><p>--<br /></p>My favorite pictures from the trip can be found <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/nZfbRzwKkfymuJzz8">here</a>.Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-25184646577116431742024-01-27T18:45:00.005-06:002024-01-27T18:45:41.815-06:00Antarctica 2023-4 - Day 11 - 1/5/2024 - Foyn Harbour & Cuverville Island<p>We would spend the next couple of days in the area that the expedition leader referred to as “Downtown Peninsula”. This is the area that most Antarctic tourist expeditions visit. For the morning, we sailed down the Gerlache Strait and hung out in Foyn Harbour. We did a zodiac cruise that took us by a shipwreck (Guvernøren) of an old whaling company. A cool aspect of this cruise is that the ship sailed off afer dropping us off, and the zodiacs caught up to it down the harbor after cruising around.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrIEdjsdun8mUMAl5rtj4OpUm18BvwYaGKLs4-DW6i2fZtHlpzKmIz3kHJmaVBrcDfCmIW5Yr6USnMkB6EchhpguZ5oSJdwN5yLDPzp3iKz5zxEeK-53ljeW3WPvA4uYfQYFTyWYYvWs5Bn41Yk3u-IWT99dLKD2P5AtvYH_uS3DJul5-3uu-4m_JKg5E/s4032/PXL_20240105_124331512.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Guvernøren shipwreck" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrIEdjsdun8mUMAl5rtj4OpUm18BvwYaGKLs4-DW6i2fZtHlpzKmIz3kHJmaVBrcDfCmIW5Yr6USnMkB6EchhpguZ5oSJdwN5yLDPzp3iKz5zxEeK-53ljeW3WPvA4uYfQYFTyWYYvWs5Bn41Yk3u-IWT99dLKD2P5AtvYH_uS3DJul5-3uu-4m_JKg5E/w400-h300/PXL_20240105_124331512.jpg" title="Guvernøren shipwreck" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>The afternoon excursion was to nearby Cuverville Island, home to a Gentoo penguin colony. The cruise portion wove through an “iceberg graveyard” off the coast of the island. The landing portion felt a bit less invasive to me than when we went to the Adélie colony. I had been a little cold during the morning cruise, so I added an extra later for the afternoon. This ended up being a bit of a mistake, as I was overheating while walking around. But then I knew better for the next time.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcs-HHKvd15Zr2PPx0-Zs_E7XZRDn_4ejbzJpkScbi36NQgaWfBTOQq1nsaapKMI47qQ3_mq3m8mD6ni1IctPs5XfKdAd7cIcDC19K1uF_vHx1qkxAk9hB9tEWrgx8EXbIsVwYG013VVnzlzEZhyphenhyphenhDIHlFVjlwHdw9xenmpQXEVre5Q75FKod2pB_vQf8/s3264/PXL_20240105_204139530.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Cuverville Island" border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcs-HHKvd15Zr2PPx0-Zs_E7XZRDn_4ejbzJpkScbi36NQgaWfBTOQq1nsaapKMI47qQ3_mq3m8mD6ni1IctPs5XfKdAd7cIcDC19K1uF_vHx1qkxAk9hB9tEWrgx8EXbIsVwYG013VVnzlzEZhyphenhyphenhDIHlFVjlwHdw9xenmpQXEVre5Q75FKod2pB_vQf8/w400-h300/PXL_20240105_204139530.jpg" title="Cuverville Island" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Tonight was the camping night, for those (not us) who opted for that additional excursion. Transfer to the island in Leith Cove for camping began after dinner, around 10pm. There were 60 people camping, and many more on the waitlist. We heard from multiple guides that our expedition passengers signed up for more things than the typical tour group. This seemed to be because we had a younger group than normal; and that in turn was likely because there was a batch of 20+ Remote Year participants on the expedition.<br /><br />Another random musing… The west side of the peninsula has a noticeably different landscape than the Weddell Sea side. There is more snow, mountains, and glaciers on the west side, while the east side is rockier. I like the general landscape better on the west side, but in the sea I prefer the majestic tabular icebergs of the Weddell Sea more.<br /></p><p>--<br /></p>My favorite pictures from the trip can be found <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/nZfbRzwKkfymuJzz8">here</a>.Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-51795999596609016562024-01-27T18:29:00.001-06:002024-01-27T18:29:28.558-06:00Antarctica 2023-4 - Day 10 - 1/4/2024 - Freud Passage & Portal Point<p>Today was a day of alternate plans. Because, as Ryan would say, it’s an expedition after all. We were originally supposed to have a morning landing at Palaver Point and an afternoon landing at Cierva Cove. Right as they were starting the disembarkation announcements around 8am, they decided to call it off - the winds were too high and the water too choppy. They then scheduled some talks and onboard activities for the morning in place of the outing, while repositioning the ship to look for alternatives. Toward the end of the first talk, the presenter (who was a guide) let us know that he was being called to prepare for a standby excursion. And not too long after it was announced that we would be doing a short zodiac cruise in Freud Passage. We headed out around 10:15am for the one hour cruise with Carlos. The best thing about the cruise was watching 3 humpback whales from the zodiac, though we didn’t get all that close.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_RQ7XtSbdK0jegK4sSF1en1hc1wptxyU5_Asgz1CBAQjc5s6wIxaoWDL6aEMc12TEVGfpoFf79N3RlknF10RFJv38Iuulfe8KeDUe5CPUo4eeyvkWM_UIdTEdFwKEKm-Mn2sgeu7cZz8fTpVWFOWsYHPCXJPXB0aRps3WkFBQlTFpljdKbhiYXAf8Gu0/s4898/IMG_0665%20-%20Copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Humpback whales" border="0" data-original-height="3265" data-original-width="4898" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_RQ7XtSbdK0jegK4sSF1en1hc1wptxyU5_Asgz1CBAQjc5s6wIxaoWDL6aEMc12TEVGfpoFf79N3RlknF10RFJv38Iuulfe8KeDUe5CPUo4eeyvkWM_UIdTEdFwKEKm-Mn2sgeu7cZz8fTpVWFOWsYHPCXJPXB0aRps3WkFBQlTFpljdKbhiYXAf8Gu0/w400-h266/IMG_0665%20-%20Copy.JPG" title="Humpback whales" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>The afternoon excursion also ended up being a change from the original plan. It was a split landing / cruise at Portal Point. Since we were in the second to last mudroom group, we went on the cruise first - Julie was our zodiac driver. I think we were originally supposed to cruise for about 35 minutes, but it seemed closer to an hour by the time we were done. We spent the whole time watching a few groups of humpback whales feeding, sometimes getting as close as 100ish meters to them. It seemed like not more than 30 seconds would go by without us hearing spouting in some direction, then we’d each have to figure out which way it was to prepare to take shots as the whales surfaced. It was great seeing so many whales so close; Fran absolutely loved it. She also got a sighting of an almost full humpback breach (one of the things that I would most like to see during the expedition), but I missed it.</p><p>The (mainland) landing was at a place where we did a tiny bit of glacial hiking for an hour. The guides had flagged out a path that traversed 2 hills and circled back on itself. The path through the snow was narrow, and we were asked not to deviate from it (in one section in particular there was a danger of crevasses, and in fact that section was blocked off because a crevasse had been recently found). We were also treated to a group of seals resting on the snow - the initial group of 2 grew to 4 as we were leaving. The last point of note is that there was another small group of expeditioners nearby who had apparently traveled there in a yacht - we noticed them in the distance when our ship initially approached, and the hike took us even closer to where they were. I should also mention that we saw one or two cool iceberg calving events.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfdHtLLM12gj4LLV0Z-x4A1AfnB60VG7NoeGBJvgmHOOGE8StRptkzrvUeWDEm4Z4qFovYjoe_m-jOZXcK9pl8mSsxDXV_UcKMZbSBOWvadR22kc3zpukofwDlUjYOJZLcvyffGpL6D3LH0PvWoerQ0AGJeL7OgOHL3vkSqb5xiN9-7JDKXW-86r7mQUc/s3264/PXL_20240104_195915530.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="My Portal Point selfie" border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfdHtLLM12gj4LLV0Z-x4A1AfnB60VG7NoeGBJvgmHOOGE8StRptkzrvUeWDEm4Z4qFovYjoe_m-jOZXcK9pl8mSsxDXV_UcKMZbSBOWvadR22kc3zpukofwDlUjYOJZLcvyffGpL6D3LH0PvWoerQ0AGJeL7OgOHL3vkSqb5xiN9-7JDKXW-86r7mQUc/w400-h300/PXL_20240104_195915530.jpg" title="My Portal Point selfie" width="400" /></a></div><br />At dinner we chatted for a while with Chris and Marissa, the guide couple who had led our day paddle outing.<br /><br />One random item of note… We took advantage of the shipboard laundry to help get our underwear through the whole trip. But I would have been much better off packing underwear for the full duration instead of the extra base layers that I brought along. Conservatively, I think I ended up not wearing about one-third of the clothes that I brought, and simply re-wore items more than I expected. And the laundry prices were as expensive as you’d find at a hotel - $2.50 per underwear, and more expensive for other items.<br /><p></p><p>--<br /></p>My favorite pictures from the trip can be found <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/nZfbRzwKkfymuJzz8">here</a>.Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-27124115943777987092024-01-27T18:20:00.000-06:002024-01-27T18:20:16.747-06:00Antarctica 2023-4 - Day 9 - 1/3/2024 - View Point<p>In accordance with the early schedule for the day, we had breakfast at 6:30am - 30 minutes after it opened. We were the first normal mud room group (apart from the photography group, who is always first) called for the morning outing, with the call going out a little before 7:20am (about 10 minutes earlier than expected). The original plan was a split landing at View Point (our first Antarctic mainland landing), but the zodiac cruises were cancelled soon after we were on board, and everyone just did a landing. The site was a rocky beach that led to a walk over some shale to an outlook with some man-made structures. There was a meteorological station, two Chilean huts (one long abandoned) for emergency shelter, and a cross. The area around the huts was scattered with Crabeater seal bones and remains, from a hunt by humans. We spent about an hour on land before boarding the zodiacs for the return trip to the ship.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKTl3JEhvaY_cjBbxGLDD6HecxBr5HmvqCCZi9tYfwfIzMXKV5NT1TMCnjtDTQZYxen8dtX4sPYw_fFFk7ygxqbwkwXmCxX-wMUh5mPcSW2TnhKbo2lXzE-bHluYpeKBLXyRBlTHv3UU2P4k6c9Q-EjDL5TJIQY4uTFIMK8FPPJS92lQ791Hf_iTIN1kE/s4032/PXL_20240103_110604572.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="View Point - Chilean emergency hut" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKTl3JEhvaY_cjBbxGLDD6HecxBr5HmvqCCZi9tYfwfIzMXKV5NT1TMCnjtDTQZYxen8dtX4sPYw_fFFk7ygxqbwkwXmCxX-wMUh5mPcSW2TnhKbo2lXzE-bHluYpeKBLXyRBlTHv3UU2P4k6c9Q-EjDL5TJIQY4uTFIMK8FPPJS92lQ791Hf_iTIN1kE/w400-h300/PXL_20240103_110604572.jpg" title="View Point - Chilean emergency hut" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>The return to the ship ended up being a bit of an adventure. We headed straight for the ship, but as soon as we approached they pulled up the gangways; the captain decided to move the ship to clearer waters to escape approaching ice. Unfortunately, these clearer waters were also choppier waters. We hovered around for a bit while the ship was being moved, and took a small diversion to go gawk at a seal laying on an ice floe. Afterward we turned and followed the ship through the path it had made through the ice, hovering around and waiting for a decision to open the gangways and allow approaching. After a couple of false starts and some circling, we became the second boat in line to approach. By this time the water was quite choppy in the 35-40 knot winds. The adrenaline level was elevated when the first zodiac had an incident where one side was caught under the gangway and resulted in a puncture of one of the seven compression chambers. Fortunately the passengers were able to unload without any injuries, as the zodiacs are built to withstand multiple punctures. We eventually made it off the boat successfully as well, in spite of the big bumps; we had been on the zodiac for about an hour by that time. All of the other zodiacs also had successful unloadings, and no other ones sustained damage. The expedition leader, Ryan, later said that this was in his top 5 roughest loadings/unloadings in his 70+ Antarctic expeditions.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH5FK6AKd47plhPKe0CfRYXcFA7fTl2MUL1Oeuhyphenhyphen1dkXNSlqydESQrqxNGaOYRiRx-2NVbxOquKImIFJuS8dVdq9ANXV3hCw7UnU_1P-oWwTTjw0JrjDD1AgHlNVVlakbMqFiCsWTCv2YD71C7eRzjFsongX8mHDnV3lFVRZtUDdGe5n5w-x3PF0Z8EkY/s4898/IMG_0316.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Casualty of rough waters" border="0" data-original-height="3265" data-original-width="4898" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH5FK6AKd47plhPKe0CfRYXcFA7fTl2MUL1Oeuhyphenhyphen1dkXNSlqydESQrqxNGaOYRiRx-2NVbxOquKImIFJuS8dVdq9ANXV3hCw7UnU_1P-oWwTTjw0JrjDD1AgHlNVVlakbMqFiCsWTCv2YD71C7eRzjFsongX8mHDnV3lFVRZtUDdGe5n5w-x3PF0Z8EkY/w400-h266/IMG_0316.JPG" title="Casualty of rough waters" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>The afternoon excursion was supposed to be a landing at Brown Bluff. But because of the sustained high winds, the rough time in the morning, and the fact that the ship was running behind schedule because of having to navigate sea ice, the afternoon outing was cancelled. Nobody in the restaurant seemed to be surprised when the announcement was made during lunch. The ship would instead get a head start on passing through the Antarctic Sound to head to the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula. The day’s programming was updated to include a few afternoon talks to replace the cancelled outing. Fran spent a couple of the afternoon hours out on deck and in the bridge of the ship; the ship has an open bridge policy, where (at almost any time) guests can come hang out in one corner of the bridge, and use provided binoculars. When I went to join her and a few others once, we got into a discussion about how read the electronic chart being displayed. Ryan, the expedition leader, happened to come up to the bridge, so I called him over to ask about the chart. This led to further discussions about his path to becoming an expedition leader, his experiences on Antarctic expeditions, how he plans expeditions and excursions, and other topics; it was an interesting and informative time for the group of people who were up there at the time.<br /><br />The water became choppy as we navigated to the west side of the peninsula; so much so that I developed a hint of queasiness. I got through dinner alright, though, and then was fine to laze around the room for a couple of hours before turning in for almost 9 hours (!) of shut-eye.<br /></p><p>--<br /></p>My favorite pictures from the trip can be found <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/nZfbRzwKkfymuJzz8">here</a>.Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-38130206174928880082024-01-27T18:06:00.002-06:002024-01-27T18:06:53.989-06:00Antarctica 2023-4 - Day 8 - 1/2/2024 - Croft Bay & Devil Island<p>It was an early morning, with breakfast starting at 6:30am and disembarkation starting around 8:30am. We were still on for the day paddle - basically, paddling in inflatable kayaks - and met in the reception area at 8:20am. Like the kayakers, day paddlers are given dry suits to wear over our internal layers. The instruction and preparation process took a while, but we eventually made it down to board a zodiac. The guides were Chris and Marissa, who just happened to be a couple. The zodiac had 5 inflatable tandem kayaks and 1 regular solo kayak tethered to it. Chris drove us out to some open water, and then we began boarding the kayaks.<br /><br />I took the front seat of our kayak while Fran took the back. This was my first time in any sort of kayak, and I was initially not good at all. Enough so that Fran at one point told me to stop paddling so she could figure things out herself. I feel like I improved over the course of the 2 or so hours, though, and we were probably the second fastest kayak (vs fourth-ish initially) by the end. More importantly, the paddle was quite spectacular despite my initial learning curve frustrations. We spent a lot of the time paddling through grease ice - the thin layer of flexible ice that forms on top of water as it starts to freeze; this only made the learning curve steeper. In some cases Chris used the zodiac to break a path through the ice for us to follow. The weather was great - sunny and calm - so I ended up taking off my gloves and using just the paddling pogies. The harder than expected ice work and the sunny weather (still around freezing temperature-wise, though) meant that I worked up quite a sweat by the time that we were done. We hopped back on zodiac and Chris drove us back to the ship.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLzHGkeTF63EiVHPpPZapXKM8Y4vMX5X-sqxXTy86j5YK4v99HvDJ6RxT0KcMq62YhbwO7kL7TLin77Lq00n8CsGEb2YICcWtLthn_5aAuv500ucJC7B8VSXtqyzeNSZwZU815vcsLE85n6LFVR_RQ3m7OGTxY5jKlEuYVL0U56Lu6l9d_inU1YNUdPnY/s4032/PXL_20240102_135244033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Day paddle on inflatable kayak" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLzHGkeTF63EiVHPpPZapXKM8Y4vMX5X-sqxXTy86j5YK4v99HvDJ6RxT0KcMq62YhbwO7kL7TLin77Lq00n8CsGEb2YICcWtLthn_5aAuv500ucJC7B8VSXtqyzeNSZwZU815vcsLE85n6LFVR_RQ3m7OGTxY5jKlEuYVL0U56Lu6l9d_inU1YNUdPnY/w400-h300/PXL_20240102_135244033.jpg" title="Day paddle on inflatable kayak" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Because we were paddling, we missed out on the regular zodiac excursion. From what we later heard, we didn’t miss much, as they made a relatively simple split landing (half on land, half cruising; then switch) without a ton to see. The original hope was to make a landing on the fast ice at the south end of Croft Bay, but the scouts had found it not strong enough to hold the big groups.<br /><br />The second outing of the day was another split landing, this time at Devil Island. The island is home to a large Adélie penguin rookery. We were in the second mud room group, so we were one of the first to disembark around 3:45pm. The first half went to land while the other half cruised, and then they switched after an hour on shore. A flag route was set up along the rocky beach, leading right into the penguin colony. We were directed to stay 5 meters away from any penguins, though this was pretty much impossible at times (and some people weren’t trying too hard to meet that guidance), and to walk at “penguin pace”. They also had us move in clusters at penguin pace so as to minimize blocking of the penguins’ paths between the water and their nesting areas. I had mixed feelings about this landing - while it was certainly nice to be so close to the penguins, it was obvious that we were disrupting them (even if without any significant long term impact) on their home turf. The zodiac cruise after the landing was nice, but less of a spectacle than the landing.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfrWvpWnNcNDEyTQiYUI0pU3QThI1ZbOvIcgye_prZO6WTK45N2lhxLHntRjcT0DiA7WLK2_apbwm29CrUNp4VK5TYVAkiQQCofBGiPA4kDregvU9TCijAhfDVviFqzonEJD98507Hx7NcbDJAa9hM7qz8oGBR0gu6-ueK6JJ1FSTDGsW0Z8LDwJuwyn8/s3264/PXL_20240102_194755476.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Devil Island" border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfrWvpWnNcNDEyTQiYUI0pU3QThI1ZbOvIcgye_prZO6WTK45N2lhxLHntRjcT0DiA7WLK2_apbwm29CrUNp4VK5TYVAkiQQCofBGiPA4kDregvU9TCijAhfDVviFqzonEJD98507Hx7NcbDJAa9hM7qz8oGBR0gu6-ueK6JJ1FSTDGsW0Z8LDwJuwyn8/w400-h300/PXL_20240102_194755476.jpg" title="Devil Island" width="400" /></a></div><p>The plan for tomorrow includes two more landing attempts within the islands at the boundary of the Weddell Sea before we head over to the western side of the peninsula. However, there’s a chance that the high winds forecasted for tomorrow afternoon could cause that outing to be cancelled; the wind has already started picking up tonight. In any case, there will be an early start once again tomorrow. The post-dinner activity was a talk by one of the guides who spent the last summer and winter working in inland Antarctica for the US Antarctic Program, primarily at McMurdo Station.<br /></p><p>--<br /></p>My favorite pictures from the trip can be found <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/nZfbRzwKkfymuJzz8">here</a>.Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-85060779173213570462024-01-27T17:55:00.003-06:002024-01-27T18:33:04.593-06:00Antarctica 2023-4 - Day 7 - 1/1/2024 - Admiralty Sound & Seymour Island<p>I finally got some decent sleep after the somewhat late night. Our expedition leader Ryan thought that we should start the new year off with a bang, scheduling the polar plunge (where passengers jump into the 0.5°C water) for this morning. Being averse to both cold and deep water, I did not take part in this activity; but Fran was super excited for it. Ryan was also sensible enough to start things off later than normal, with breakfast opening at 8am. Fran did the 8am yoga class, then we met up at 9am to eat.<br /><br />The ship was parked in Admiralty Sound next to Cockburn Island. The weather for the day was pleasant - although the temperature was similar to yesterday’s 0°C, the sunny skies and lack of wind made things feel warmer. The plunging began around 10am, with Fran’s group being called about half an hour later. It was fun to watch (from the safety of the 7th/8th deck) the various types of jumps that people did. We later found out that 157 people took the plunge, more than 75% of the guests. Most people did some sort of pose facing the photographer, but some people got creative with it. Diane did a back dive, while Fran did a swan dive. A few people slipped as they jumped off, resulting in more of an awkward fall; a couple of people who slipped (including both Tom and TJ) took a second more successful go at it. They put down mats about halfway through to help prevent slipping. After Fran’s plunge she went up to the sauna to warm up alongside many of the other plungers.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi854NpYnxRudWMnfR-9iMs8ZvtoUgWHzuFTytAfo7qj8y-KksKsThgU4nm9mYNhe3gdDhegW2P8OOexE49heTMeyt-q2Ox8rxvWPpq2oscjRjS21g1ByhleNTRrsStfdRsWMsCPgccckXw_bbd4Dq-USh5vVxF6lNTBJB2dtHYPNM9SecvpWBwJeOlX2A/s2100/OE4-5_AM_20240101_OE4-6_AM_Photo_Plunge-4636.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Fran's polar plunge" border="0" data-original-height="1401" data-original-width="2100" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi854NpYnxRudWMnfR-9iMs8ZvtoUgWHzuFTytAfo7qj8y-KksKsThgU4nm9mYNhe3gdDhegW2P8OOexE49heTMeyt-q2Ox8rxvWPpq2oscjRjS21g1ByhleNTRrsStfdRsWMsCPgccckXw_bbd4Dq-USh5vVxF6lNTBJB2dtHYPNM9SecvpWBwJeOlX2A/w400-h266/OE4-5_AM_20240101_OE4-6_AM_Photo_Plunge-4636.jpg" title="Fran's polar plunge" width="400" /></a></div><p><br />As we were finishing up lunch Ryan came on to announce that the afternoon excursion would be to the primary location that he had mentioned the night before. This was the site of a group of mummified crabeater seals on Seymour Island - he had only just learned of this via a friend in the weeks leading up to the expedition, and was fairly sure that no tour group had ever tried to go there. He apparently consulted a research paper about the site and combined that with Google Maps sleuthing in order to come up with a plan. They had sent out two scout boats in the morning while the polar plunge was going on, and had managed to find the site. We later found out that one of the boats had to be left on the muddy shore because the tide had pulled out while they were scouting.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2_o4fCJ-Sf0aNchViRXXWOZZn_nAV0UQ9I-VRyuCfOkqVkDVRITYCQ-algAApzW74kjQIn5JQEAhyphenhyphenS2J5liwwOxh4rG0f8_ScBnA5QiHrrsdOJi23-G5lafs7tim7tUr7snDn4_sKlxRQ2B9CvJQZ7UKRxKO2K4FzLaV1OlNLZ2z_U2mYBf179aBpot8/s6000/IMG_0797.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Young elephant seal among Adélie penguins" border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2_o4fCJ-Sf0aNchViRXXWOZZn_nAV0UQ9I-VRyuCfOkqVkDVRITYCQ-algAApzW74kjQIn5JQEAhyphenhyphenS2J5liwwOxh4rG0f8_ScBnA5QiHrrsdOJi23-G5lafs7tim7tUr7snDn4_sKlxRQ2B9CvJQZ7UKRxKO2K4FzLaV1OlNLZ2z_U2mYBf179aBpot8/w400-h266/IMG_0797.JPG" title="Young elephant seal among Adélie penguins" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>Zodiac boarding began around 2:30p. On each excursion (or plunge) they rotated which mudroom group to start with, so our group was moving closer to the front. However, we ended up boarding toward the end because I had to go back to the room to find my hat, which I apparently had accidentally dropped just outside our room. Our driver/guide was Carlos, who was another good navigator - so far I have been lucky with the drivers I’ve matched with (there have been a couple on other boats who seem less experienced). The cruise had a bit of an unfortunate start, as a couple of the last boats (including us) were called back to pick up an extra passenger, as the number had apparently overflowed what they planned for; but the 2 hour clock restarted when we pushed off for the second time, so we didn’t lose those 20 minutes. We ended up staying out for almost 30 minutes longer than the planned 5pm return. And fortunately my bladder wasn’t struggling very much, probably thanks to my new technique of semi-dehydrating myself before the excursions.</p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJPMMRKs75EITLS43YrLcPOSrXcnJoKeysMLu4BUCiw4NKVvw4kbatRveuSEonqA1F4mJdMo8ZS-EC1tBl51IK4Ji1uRQEP1z9VbiNEO1JQN6F29vYk-bQQ7jp03Bhi8IOJVuV_XLIeVr7h3IENzgbXBg4CyXvp28evfy1VdeCFssIIGjm8nzrdkrvEIU/s4032/PXL_20240101_191714572.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Seymour Island - first Antarctic landing" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJPMMRKs75EITLS43YrLcPOSrXcnJoKeysMLu4BUCiw4NKVvw4kbatRveuSEonqA1F4mJdMo8ZS-EC1tBl51IK4Ji1uRQEP1z9VbiNEO1JQN6F29vYk-bQQ7jp03Bhi8IOJVuV_XLIeVr7h3IENzgbXBg4CyXvp28evfy1VdeCFssIIGjm8nzrdkrvEIU/w400-h300/PXL_20240101_191714572.jpg" title="Seymour Island - first Antarctic landing" width="400" /></a></div><br />As far as I can tell this excursion hit a new high point for all the guests. For one, we made a landing, so we can all say that we have set foot on the Antarctic continent. Secondly, the landing was at a rarely visited/seen site that required extra planning by the expedition crew. The nice weather also made a positive contribution. The site was quite far from the ship, and required going around Cockburn Island to get there. The landing site was a muddy beach next to a glacier. The seals were a short walk away across some rocky ground. There, Ryan proudly gave each incoming group a brief history of the site. I don’t think any of the groups came close to keeping under the 20 minutes that they were each supposed to stay at the site; but then again the guides were totally fine with people taking their time to soak it all in. On the cruise back to the ship we were met by the ship’s drone at the ice floe that still (we had seen it on the way out) had a Weddell seal lazing on it.<br /><br />Dinner tonight was a BBQ buffet out on the aft of the 7th deck; plus a DJ. It was an admirable effort to take advantage of the nice weather, but with the boat moving it was too cold to hang around longer than the time it took to quickly eat. We later found out that the day paddle groups would be going out tomorrow, and we were set for the morning outing. A late announcement was made after 10pm when an emperor penguin was spotted on some ice - a rare sighting in these parts.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0tVxfXezGRMK6ug5lzojVD0lKdfdy6mmMoYLJ_SU5eTbqUjZjktCDUQ8Zki5VLAg6ucqf3VtqVdyUdGW1ttBjYNfbF2fcVubcu-PUXojZHltowAoGxno1VtEvY0h6Pi6awVIOdiF7_SUGqEXTFeMpEDX_C60evBVQf-QFHAZ3zVV4A1xjSqsOD0wy4xU/s2100/OE4-5_AM_20240101_AM_Photo_Bodman%20Point-5604-Enhanced-NR.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Lost Emperor penguin Courtesy Intrepid Travel" border="0" data-original-height="1401" data-original-width="2100" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0tVxfXezGRMK6ug5lzojVD0lKdfdy6mmMoYLJ_SU5eTbqUjZjktCDUQ8Zki5VLAg6ucqf3VtqVdyUdGW1ttBjYNfbF2fcVubcu-PUXojZHltowAoGxno1VtEvY0h6Pi6awVIOdiF7_SUGqEXTFeMpEDX_C60evBVQf-QFHAZ3zVV4A1xjSqsOD0wy4xU/w400-h266/OE4-5_AM_20240101_AM_Photo_Bodman%20Point-5604-Enhanced-NR.jpg" title="Lost Emperor penguin Courtesy Intrepid Travel" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>--<br /></p>My favorite pictures from the trip can be found <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/nZfbRzwKkfymuJzz8">here</a>.Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-7715578107665135892024-01-27T17:21:00.007-06:002024-01-27T17:36:35.009-06:00Antarctica 2023-4 - Day 6 - 12/31/2023 - First excursions (Heroina and Paulet Islands)<p>The sleepless nights are starting to get old. This time I think it was mostly from anxiety about the off-ship excursions and how my bladder would handle them. The plan from the night before indicated that the first disembarkation for the first excursion would be at 8:45am. However, the expedition leader (Ryan) announced around 6:30am that we were now aiming for an 8am disembarkation. Before breakfast Fran also found out that her sign-up for the acoustic zodiac had been accepted, and that they would be touring in their separate zodiac as part of this first excursion - so we would be on separate zodiacs. The expedition used the term “zodiac” for their rigid inflatable boats (RIBs) - I think it’s a particular brand of RIB.<br /><br />After a quick breakfast we returned to the room so that Fran could hurriedly prepare for her boat - they were among the first groups, while our normal group (Crabeater Seals) was third to last. They call passengers down to the mud room by group, with about 20 passengers to a group - this avoids overflowing the mud room. Once down in the room, passengers don their muck boots, coats, and life vests, then line up to board the general zodiacs in groups of 10 or 11 - your call group doesn’t matter at this point. Special groups (photographers, kayakers, science groups) of course board specific vessels and don’t take part in the general lines.<br /><br />The calling of the groups went faster than we anticipated, and I was quite flustered at having to get on all my gear without my "guide" Fran to help me. I somehow managed to get prepared in time and made it down after my group was called. I put on the boots, jacket, and vest, and lined up. The boarding members head down the stairs, step in a tub of Virkon to disinfect our boots, then board with the help of the guides as soon as the zodiac pulls up.<br /><br />This first excursion was a sea cruise at Heroina Island - one of the bigger of the Danger Islands at the tip of the Antarctic peninsula. We apparently had good conditions in the Weddell Sea, as the water was relatively calm for us. The main attraction at this island was a very large colony of Adélie penguins. Our driver Julie drove us around the sea ice and toward the island. The penguins were all over the island and the nearby waters, including on top of the ice floes. We got within 3 or 4 meters of swimming penguins at multiple points on the cruise. One of the “highlights” was witnessing a leopard seal that had caught a penguin and was bashing it against the water and ice to dismember it so that the seal could eat it. Another noteworthy moment was the first whiff of the mass of guano (feces) when we got close to the island and a bit downwind. Apparently some other groups ahead of us (including Fran's boat) had also seen some whales, but we did not get sight of them.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKw8X_LtDQlCEPwFAtqjSCdFddGpEq_62tpLeSqEjDy2OHWXeU0rwxWYxvtjwJAjEofcTWm_CEfllpAAJHm-GWos57l-AW8v7d8nW1XMDw6Fr7jAgE8RP6da5AyUkfnWN25MkjoktcFxRyjb4wJqLKUk_zGj95BksFQJwh96PByrEPDdTEBtGyTH7J6Kk/s6000/IMG_0704.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Adélie penguins on Heroina Island" border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKw8X_LtDQlCEPwFAtqjSCdFddGpEq_62tpLeSqEjDy2OHWXeU0rwxWYxvtjwJAjEofcTWm_CEfllpAAJHm-GWos57l-AW8v7d8nW1XMDw6Fr7jAgE8RP6da5AyUkfnWN25MkjoktcFxRyjb4wJqLKUk_zGj95BksFQJwh96PByrEPDdTEBtGyTH7J6Kk/w400-h266/IMG_0704.JPG" title="Adélie penguins on Heroina Island" width="400" /></a></div><p>We headed back to the ship after about 75 minutes of puttering about. The boat was still buzzing with excitement, but unfortunately I was starting to have the pelvic discomfort; the high speed dash to the ship helped in terms of time, but not in terms of comfort. I was also getting a bit cold toward the end of the cruise, so I’ll have to think about how to adjust my layering to improve that.<br /><br />Once back on the boat, we brush our boots off in a tub and then step in another tub of Virkon. From there we head up to the mud room and get changed. Fran was waiting for me in the mud room, and we immediately began exchanging stories. She had a great time on the acoustic cruise (they were making sound recordings to support a PhD project for a researcher on board), though she didn’t get as much time for sightseeing as other zodiacs did.<br /><br />From there we headed up to the common areas to debrief a bit with some fellow passengers before going back to our room. Fran went to the gym for a quick workout while I hung around, chatted with a few others in the lounge, and went to the “Polar Boutique” to buy some glove liners. I met back up with her for lunch while the ship was making its way toward Paulet Island for the afternoon excursion. Afterward we had a check-in about how I was feeling, which turned into a bit of an intervention, but also some inspiration for me to make a better time of the trip and stop sulking so much about my condition.<br /><br />It took a while to get to Paulet Island, partially because of all the sea ice, and the announcement around lunch indicated that we would arrive in the area around 3pm, and hoped to begin disembarkation at 3:45pm. However, the wind picked up when we got to the area, and they announced around 3:30pm that they were repositioning the ship downwind of the island to get some shelter to operate the gangways, and would continue to assess the situation. Unfortunately, the result of this is that we weren’t able to make a landing on the island. We began disembarkation around 4:45 for another 75-ish minutes of zodiac cruising. This island also had a large Adélie penguin colony. This time there was more sea ice / pack ice for our driver Andy to navigate during the cruise. We saw 3 different types of seals (Elephant, Leopard, Weddell) laying out on the rocky beaches.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkxbF8gU1fNj9SuJDeNoeKBkPui_G_hmE2vHgcPdt1RRqZ1c4UP5TuyGlh2zWdwq4TljKY3BjIctKxMtvkOa1xTHQ8FZYd_YIWRkLHFx6QsYGfCKtPTp_Cqs0guoKiRNayb2NyvOrz-_p7yCQzdDegB8obcNxFrZHsbRQ9BPvdPzVeVdLRmYiKfygD5j8/s6000/IMG_0755.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Adélie penguin jumping into the water" border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkxbF8gU1fNj9SuJDeNoeKBkPui_G_hmE2vHgcPdt1RRqZ1c4UP5TuyGlh2zWdwq4TljKY3BjIctKxMtvkOa1xTHQ8FZYd_YIWRkLHFx6QsYGfCKtPTp_Cqs0guoKiRNayb2NyvOrz-_p7yCQzdDegB8obcNxFrZHsbRQ9BPvdPzVeVdLRmYiKfygD5j8/w400-h266/IMG_0755.JPG" title="Adélie penguin jumping into the water" width="400" /></a></div><p>After the cruise we headed over to the restaurant for dinner; it was buffet style this time, and had some New Year decorations. After dinner we changed into more festive clothes before heading out to the lounge to join the New Year celebration. It started with a series of musical performances by the expedition crew before moving upstairs for a mini dance party. We rang in the New Year (Argentina time) with Liz, Michelle, and Diane, then headed off to bed.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj32wVFLXbknIePkcRCUtz-FL9aiTpBpxUG9vTvfcyIkF44O17K_rzM7QxDFlMWNkDNenAu-8LqcsAMg4CoYmNTzjp0lhhDbgMkZOdcquNCUEHTcnZ7m8mKtljgDJO96iHOrMgrqt5Mt6Dg5ys8bqhNaPlvBetXx-7I-6AHsWHctZHq3BoRqx7_0OKt8Z0/s3264/PXL_20240101_030138778.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="New Years Eve - I'm wearing Fran's jacket" border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj32wVFLXbknIePkcRCUtz-FL9aiTpBpxUG9vTvfcyIkF44O17K_rzM7QxDFlMWNkDNenAu-8LqcsAMg4CoYmNTzjp0lhhDbgMkZOdcquNCUEHTcnZ7m8mKtljgDJO96iHOrMgrqt5Mt6Dg5ys8bqhNaPlvBetXx-7I-6AHsWHctZHq3BoRqx7_0OKt8Z0/w400-h300/PXL_20240101_030138778.jpg" title="New Years Eve - I'm wearing Fran's jacket" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p></p><p>-- <br /></p>My favorite pictures from the trip can be found <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/nZfbRzwKkfymuJzz8">here</a>.Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-18924891643077435292024-01-27T17:07:00.005-06:002024-01-27T17:25:51.793-06:00Antarctica 2023-4 - Day 5 - 12/30/2023 - Drake Lake<p>I had some trouble falling asleep the night before, but eventually did get a few hours of decent sleep in. Fran slept pretty well. She did the 8am morning movement yoga class and then met me for a quick breakfast. I was feel better after a night of more sleep, and was beginning to get my sea legs. It also helped that the water grew calmer throughout the day as we reached the end of he Drake Passage and transitioned to the Weddell Sea in the evening.<br /><br />In terms of scheduled programming… We watched a talk about whales at 9am. Beginning at 10:15am, they called us down to the mud room (by zodiac groups - we were in the Crabeater Seal group) to try on (and exchange if necessary) the muck boots and outer (Gill) jacket that we were being loaned for the expedition; mine fit fine, while Fran exchanged both her boots and jacket for different sizes than she had ordered. Next was an intro to photography briefing at 11am, followed by lunch. We went to a talk on the history of Antarctic expeditions at 1:30pm, a briefing for day paddle participants at 3:15pm, and a talk on penguins at 4pm. Fran spent some time in the sauna before we watched the daily recap remotely at 6pm.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOSr_121JeaybMCvE95L6FvoYU8XS8S3uQowipQfqAcZ3zSfKiVZrGX1Sf8o0NDXzSBnSNYZxsrYYYCoV6KAuHcFM7tfSfFA-fLaS33gjIHXpqkXdP-IWw0qAwGWbHllk7t4KWrsjuMI2IbIYPpfDVFkAZzGzgGRNqNkpAymhnbaLZyU_8J_7e1rbXtGE/s4032/PXL_20231230_140523750.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Our lockers (153 & 154) in the mud room" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOSr_121JeaybMCvE95L6FvoYU8XS8S3uQowipQfqAcZ3zSfKiVZrGX1Sf8o0NDXzSBnSNYZxsrYYYCoV6KAuHcFM7tfSfFA-fLaS33gjIHXpqkXdP-IWw0qAwGWbHllk7t4KWrsjuMI2IbIYPpfDVFkAZzGzgGRNqNkpAymhnbaLZyU_8J_7e1rbXtGE/w400-h300/PXL_20231230_140523750.jpg" title="Our lockers (153 & 154) in the mud room" width="400" /></a></div><p>My nausea essentially dissipated by the end of the afternoon. I wasn’t the only one feeling much better, as others passengers who had mentioned being sick were now in better spirits. It was also palpable in the mood at dinner, as people were more upbeat and there was more chatter in the dining room. I got a more of an appetite at lunch and dinner, though I still wasn’t quite finishing full meals even by dinner. Speaking of the food, it’s been unimpressive, though fine, so far. One of the expedition crew was talking it up before we left, so there was a bit of reason to raise expectations. But so far it hasn’t matched his hype. Which, again, is fine; especially given the remote location where we started and where we are going. I don’t think people are here for the food.<br /><br />We, particularly Fran, also spent a decent chunk of time sightseeing outside on the deck and in the bridge of the ship as we cruised through the Erebus and Terror Gulf. We saw some icebergs (a couple with penguins on them) and some whales (humpbacks and fin), and others reported seeing seals. Fran saw an iceberg calving.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzyh08ETPSTcQOUkcPCcx7EQx0mIToLNyGm1XLYW0SlYNayvC-weypm6NsKoYSLnsZmhXPZBFQ5Z6R0PnBh5QYGfTjrZtoOQhIJnpB-k_xwSXRYE42HUliFQcS3WwVE66VrEfBkqW_qT-4xh4sPlmp5Rem3DYevFVCSNzbqbBwGsNJ7WEoP69sH745Rc4/s6000/IMG_0520.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="First big iceberg" border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzyh08ETPSTcQOUkcPCcx7EQx0mIToLNyGm1XLYW0SlYNayvC-weypm6NsKoYSLnsZmhXPZBFQ5Z6R0PnBh5QYGfTjrZtoOQhIJnpB-k_xwSXRYE42HUliFQcS3WwVE66VrEfBkqW_qT-4xh4sPlmp5Rem3DYevFVCSNzbqbBwGsNJ7WEoP69sH745Rc4/w400-h266/IMG_0520.JPG" title="First big iceberg" width="400" /></a></div><p>We found out that the plan for tomorrow is to have 2 zodiac excursions to the islands at the tip of the peninsula - one in the morning, and another in the afternoon. The afternoon excursion should include time on land.<br /></p><p>--<br /></p>My favorite pictures from the trip can be found <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/nZfbRzwKkfymuJzz8">here</a>.Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-12103833558956521672024-01-27T17:01:00.005-06:002024-01-27T17:27:55.109-06:00Antarctica 2023-4 - Day 4 - 12/29/2023 - Into the Drake Passage<p>Once again my sleep last night could have been better, especially given that the late night and early start of schedule didn’t give much time to sleep. The ship cast off right as we were going to bed around 1am and spent the first few hours in the calm Beagle Channel. I got some sleep during this time, but I woke up a couple of times, and I definitely had some anxiety about how things would change once we hit the Drake Passage. It was around 6am when the big bobbing began, and I couldn’t sleep much after that. We later learned that the water conditions were apparently “mild”, with only 2.5-3 meter swells. Well, nothing about that felt mild to me, even though I have seen footage of much worse. My shaky sea legs somehow got through a shower without falling (the handles were a lifesaver), and we made it to breakfast about 20 minutes before it ended at 9am. Despite the Bonine tablets that we had started taking the night before for motion sickness, I was already feeling queasy, and had to force myself to eat at least a little; the heat in the dining room didn’t help my intense sweating, and I even briefly had the shakes a couple of times (including while in bed). I certainly wasn’t the only one struggling, as we came across a few people who were in the act of vomiting or had already done so. Meanwhile, Fran had essentially no problems at all.<br /><br />The first mandatory activity was a safety drill at 9am, followed by a mandatory intro briefing at 10am. I could barely keep my eyes open from tiredness during the briefing, in addition to feeling unwell. Luckily, the next mandatory (for all) briefing wasn’t until 1:30pm, so I took some time to rest/nap in the room. Fran had a sea kayaking briefing at 11am, but I did not sign up for that activity. However, she cancelled her reservation after the briefing because she found out that the sea kayaking group went out on every excursion, so if she did that she couldn’t also do any excursions with me (without also putting out her assigned kayaking partner).<br /><br />I once again forced down some food for lunch, and started to feel slightly better after. On the other hand, the pelvic discomfort started up around that time. I took the opportunity after lunch to check in with the expedition doctor/medic about my seasickness and over-active bladder - this was mostly information only, as there were no new actions to take about either condition.<br /><br />The 1:30pm mandatory meeting concerned IAATO and biosecurity when visiting Antarctica - extra measures are taken to ensure that travelers are not bringing any foreign species to the continent (e.g., via seeds stuck in outerwear velcro). Afterward passengers were asked to bring in their outerwear for checking by expedition crew, and cleaning (e.g., vacuuming, sanitization) if necessary. I was a bit of a wreck for the rest of the afternoon, so I didn’t attend any more briefings (they were all optional) in person. The expedition/ship has a nice feature where they broadcast the feed from the main presentation area (the Nautilus Lounge) on a channel on the TVs in the room - I took advantage of this to watch a couple of the briefings remotely while resting in the room. On Fran’s urging, I also went outside briefly a couple of times to get fresh air. She spent a lot of time out there, enjoying the air and looking out for wildlife - she saw a whale.<br /><br />The expedition leader holds a daily recap where he shares plans for the next day and brings on guests for lightning talks. This happened at 6:30pm today, and dinner followed at 7pm. Unlike the buffet breakfast and lunch, dinner was a la carte. I couldn’t eat much once again, and actually began to feel worse during the meal. We headed back to the rooms soon after dinner to settle in and try to catch up on sleep lost the night before.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-ywcx4xLquuBHxgy2HIicYQZFDz3-LfKcwtvzU6jsrF_zCXN8-FrQZnRSN8F17-JRba7IO5irvM1m7kayklnbkl58HVuKU_Ip-i2M-oiLyv2oXru2FNEq98TASxtP_lttmBk0iWk2Yh-eafxqE_7g2UboQzlK9CMN7CH1H1ONu9sH-BFAVhI5fu29NOI/s4032/PXL_20240104_130649354.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Front of my key card (with makeshift lanyard by Franny)" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-ywcx4xLquuBHxgy2HIicYQZFDz3-LfKcwtvzU6jsrF_zCXN8-FrQZnRSN8F17-JRba7IO5irvM1m7kayklnbkl58HVuKU_Ip-i2M-oiLyv2oXru2FNEq98TASxtP_lttmBk0iWk2Yh-eafxqE_7g2UboQzlK9CMN7CH1H1ONu9sH-BFAVhI5fu29NOI/w400-h300/PXL_20240104_130649354.jpg" title="Front of my key card (with makeshift lanyard by Franny)" width="400" /></a></div><p>Some early observations about the fellow passengers on the expedition (198 total according to what we overheard at check-in)… The age range/composition skewed a little younger than we expected. One surprise is that there is one family that brought young-ish children - about low teenage or pre-teen. Another surprise is that Australians are tied with Americans as the most represented nationality (I believe 35% each) - we didn’t realize that Intrepid is an Australian company. Ethnicity is mostly white as expected, though there are quite a few Asians and a couple of other Blacks. Lastly, it should come as no surprise that people visiting Antarctica are already well-travelled. Of the people we’ve conversed with (or observed) so far only a couple of days in: this is the 7th continent for quite a few of them; a few of them are on extended trips (including Tom and TJ on 18 months through Africa and Latin America); a bunch have done previous expeditions with Intrepid; there have been many mentions of outdoor/adventure hobbies/interests/activities.<br /></p><p>--<br /></p>My favorite pictures from the trip can be found <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/nZfbRzwKkfymuJzz8">here</a>.Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-52788994596260502122024-01-27T16:48:00.004-06:002024-01-28T20:40:07.368-06:00Antarctica 2023-4 - Day 3 - 12/28/2023 - Glaciar Martial<p>We received word yesterday when checking in that the meeting time for embarkation would likely be moved back to 7pm tonight from the originally planned 3pm. We tried last night to find an activity to do for today, but we couldn’t find a reasonably timed tour (e.g., to the national park). One concern/limitation was that it was supposed to snow and rain today. Also, we would need to give our luggage to Intrepid by 9am and then check out by 10am - even with the embarkation delay.<br /><br />After breakfast and checking out, we decided that we wanted to do the hike up the nearby Glaciar Martial. Fran ran into another couple from England, TJ and Tom, with similar ideas. We waited around for them and all set out around 11am. It was about a 15 minute walk up the road to the start of the trail, and then another hour or so to get up to the top. It was snowing and quite windy during parts of the hike. We left TJ and Tom behind about halfway up, and if I was alone I probably would have turned around as well. But I had Fran there to keep me motivated to “just make it to the next bend” and then decide from there. I was definitely close to my limit in terms of cold as well, and needed to keep moving to maintain the warmth. In any case, Fran and I made it to the end of the trail, which was simply marked by a succinct sign post. The end itself did not provide a particularly stunning view, but the general landscape along the way was quite admirable. Also, there turned out to be not much of a glacier at all; perhaps because it was summer.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlD-QufqeeOVbPx6579NFU2yDPVZxv1AJgHlAxFyOYDjvi3G_B_9Ya82s92nQyWrNvTxlxMvG4aMhCI3n_B52pKx3n6-OjRpGtVJUlkc-F-76P7fj7HQgyM_o5XdOIzXZCHId8iBFuC401yjwfjNbVdls3e9gE3fUxSSEunWCLh0tnPCsxSL8_bkEC4mk/s3264/PXL_20231228_143041834.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Hiking the Glaciar Martial trail" border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlD-QufqeeOVbPx6579NFU2yDPVZxv1AJgHlAxFyOYDjvi3G_B_9Ya82s92nQyWrNvTxlxMvG4aMhCI3n_B52pKx3n6-OjRpGtVJUlkc-F-76P7fj7HQgyM_o5XdOIzXZCHId8iBFuC401yjwfjNbVdls3e9gE3fUxSSEunWCLh0tnPCsxSL8_bkEC4mk/w400-h300/PXL_20231228_143041834.jpg" title="Hiking the Glaciar Martial trail" width="400" /></a></div><p>We took another hour to get back down to the hotel, where it took me quite a while to warm my fingers up to functioning condition again. They had a nice fire pit set up in one of the rooms, which helped provide warmth and dry our gear (in particular my inner layers). I should mention that I didn’t really have any pelvic discomfort until about halfway down, and didn’t have too much trouble lasting the remaining half hour or so.<br /><br />After resting in the hotel for a while, we decided to take an Uber into town around 5pm to check out the gear shops again and have a light meal at Cafe Martinez once again. The meeting time was 7pm for departure by bus from the hotel, and 7:30pm at the final meeting point by the pier for those declining the transfer. We found out when we arrived at the meeting point that the ship - Ocean Endeavor - (which we could see from the shore) hadn’t even docked yet from the previous expedition (it already had one failed docking attempt after bad weather), and boarding would be delayed. Eight of us (including Michelle, Liz (who turned out to be from STL as well), TJ, Tom, Steph, and Katrina) decided to go wait and grab drinks at a nearby restaurant/bar overlooking the port; a couple of other smaller groups from the tour later came to the same place to have food. Fran bought a few empanadas from a small shop across the street for us to have later - the original expedition plan included dinner on the ship that night, but it was becoming more likely that this wouldn’t happen.<br /><br />The latest information we had was that the ship would attempt to dock again at 9pm, and that we should be back at the meeting point by 9:30pm. We were able to watch the ship pull in and dock successfully, at which point the group headed back to the meeting point (around 9:45pm). After some more waiting around (the ship still needed to be unloaded after all), we eventually boarded the buses and were driven onto the pier, where we could board from the gangway. We were on board sometime before midnight. After a quick safety briefing we met our luggage back in our rooms. We didn’t get to bed until around 1am.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvhcELGR4MLmImwLccKxoCIcxWo4pmE3hkJmgVm9Jcds5AzAkzkDrnhPVj9kUczEslI3ianBl-Cz5A7QBp6N73WnullZQasOqT1sIlaGEZ8JFPXwmro7wsEc5ZDzfOWHP9udqs8f5p2N7t_G4l6KIfq3lFBrC_5triJVwUsnw68J05Zm42KXAGlwhyphenhyphenV5A/s4032/PXL_20231229_020302011.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Our room for 12 days; they gave us the jacket as part of the package" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvhcELGR4MLmImwLccKxoCIcxWo4pmE3hkJmgVm9Jcds5AzAkzkDrnhPVj9kUczEslI3ianBl-Cz5A7QBp6N73WnullZQasOqT1sIlaGEZ8JFPXwmro7wsEc5ZDzfOWHP9udqs8f5p2N7t_G4l6KIfq3lFBrC_5triJVwUsnw68J05Zm42KXAGlwhyphenhyphenV5A/w400-h300/PXL_20231229_020302011.jpg" title="Our room for 12 days; they gave us the jacket as part of the package" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>-- <br /></p>My favorite pictures from the trip can be found <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/nZfbRzwKkfymuJzz8">here</a>.Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-3095279707703843732024-01-27T16:40:00.002-06:002024-01-27T17:26:54.288-06:00Antarctica 2023-4 - Day 2 - 12/27/2023 - Ushuaia<p>I fell asleep quite quickly the night before, but didn't stay asleep for very long. A combination of factors (a hard bed, street noise because we had the window open because otherwise the room was burning up, the early sunrise, and some pelvic discomfort) led to me spending probably more time awake as asleep over the course of the night; but at least I was resting. Fran thankfully slept better than I did, but was still tired from missed sleep over the last day of traveling. We therefore took our time getting going, and checked out around 11am. We wouldn't be able to check in to the hotel for the first night of the tour (the Wyndham Garden Hotel del Glaciar) until 3pm.</p><p>We left our luggage at the hotel while we went out to explore Ushuaia, particularly the main street Avenida San Martín. One of our first stops was for a late breakfast at a cafe. As we were leaving, we saw the couple who were at the taxi stand at the airport the night before. Fran, being the thoughtful and amicable person that she is, asked if they were able to figure out whatever plans they were having trouble with last night, and this turned into an incredible conversation. It turned out that they (George and Jenna) were doctors on their honeymoon trip, and the transfer they missed was to volunteer as medics on an expedition, and they were trying to figure out what to do for the time being before beginning their own Antarctica tour in a week. At some point they mentioned a friend who was a doctor who would be on our tour, and then I remarked that I should probably see the medic on our tour about my overactive bladder issues. This then turned into a free medical consultation as they tried to diagnose the underlying cause of my prostatitis, and suggested that I restart a new longer course of antibiotics. We took their informal prescription to a nearby pharmacy and were able to buy the second choice antibiotics over the counter. It's still somewhat unbelievable to me how Fran's "making friends" led to an encounter where these two doctors took time out of dealing with their own issues to display such helpfulness. I should also mention that my bladder symptoms were much better today than they had been the previous couple of days - probably thanks to a night of rest after the portion of the journey I was most anxious about.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVQyXvwHSuloW1q8fRGpFqvXsiAX-PyCV6AEe4uzGKmhqbHmWtwfyRba2mGRppOoQPCoNToX3qRgJ4mhsFz6wlqADTy_nsT9_o-kVb6JFHISK2THOMmNdYi1_IeaXdrimKV9-emsII0PIO8FD-6MdOJx3Inb0nfdEwwqWqnblRcpcHP6MRTGKXmDMvT7Q/s3264/PXL_20231227_172352085.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="By the shore in Ushuaia" border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVQyXvwHSuloW1q8fRGpFqvXsiAX-PyCV6AEe4uzGKmhqbHmWtwfyRba2mGRppOoQPCoNToX3qRgJ4mhsFz6wlqADTy_nsT9_o-kVb6JFHISK2THOMmNdYi1_IeaXdrimKV9-emsII0PIO8FD-6MdOJx3Inb0nfdEwwqWqnblRcpcHP6MRTGKXmDMvT7Q/w400-h300/PXL_20231227_172352085.jpg" title="By the shore in Ushuaia" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>We next continued to the end of the avenue, to the Museo Marítimo y del Presidio de Ushuaia - an old prison that had been converted into a museum about the prison, the maritime history of the area, and the history of native peoples in the area. It was worthwhile to see, but probably not worth spending a ton of time there - the collection is seemingly random at times, and there's too much to stay interested in for an extended period of time.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKgHECA36vR0rPfhSBMOTHK_8MgKeNjLhAgo6X29ZW6aqW695bGEipejKlXjMgZ_LRhX9ozISX6P7o2n6TkZCl-temMCIr8BzRZ_O366vMg3kdPiS11ckRD8X-zkntLHs0IHWcnRME1q5QI8sI1J9iYZctWPgqjY269RAz21Ay_j6zB017qvLhLQUb6fw/s4032/PXL_20231227_202757050.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Looking down toward Ushuaia from Wyndham Garden Hotel del Glaciar" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKgHECA36vR0rPfhSBMOTHK_8MgKeNjLhAgo6X29ZW6aqW695bGEipejKlXjMgZ_LRhX9ozISX6P7o2n6TkZCl-temMCIr8BzRZ_O366vMg3kdPiS11ckRD8X-zkntLHs0IHWcnRME1q5QI8sI1J9iYZctWPgqjY269RAz21Ay_j6zB017qvLhLQUb6fw/w400-h300/PXL_20231227_202757050.jpg" title="Looking down toward Ushuaia from Wyndham Garden Hotel del Glaciar" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>It began to rain lightly while we were in the museum, turning the nice crisp day into a wet and cold one. We eventually made our way back to a cafe for a hot chocolate while we waited for a couple of outdoor gear stores to open from siesta. After checking out the stores, but not buying anything, we we headed back to the Isla Bonita Suites to ask for a taxi over to the Wyndham Garden, which was about 10 minutes up the mountain out of town. We checked in with the tour group and the hotel, and later headed back down to meet some folks at the welcome mixer. We had (a disappointing) dinner at the hotel restaurant with a new friend Diane before heading up to the room.</p><p>--<br /></p>My favorite pictures from the trip can be found <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/nZfbRzwKkfymuJzz8">here</a>.Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-72663976674628336602024-01-27T16:33:00.001-06:002024-01-27T17:26:11.343-06:00Antarctica 2023-4 - Days 0-1 - 12/25-6/2023 - To Ushuaia<p>This trip had been in the making for a long time; but the timing turned out not to be so great from a personal health perspective. Fran and I decided in February 2023 to pull the trigger on the Antarctica trip that we had been considering for a few years. We booked a 14 day tour through <a href="https://www.intrepidtravel.com/en/antarctica">Intrepid Travel</a>, mostly because they had offered a discount to Googlers last year (though sadly not this year). The bad timing part is that I somehow came down with prostatitis (an inflamed prostate) in early September, and, despite a few attempted treatment methods, have since had an overactive bladder and frequent pelvic discomfort. Needless to say, this is less than an ideal situation for the trip we are calling our honeymoon; never mind the tens of thousands of dollars we spent on it. You can imagine that I've been stressed out about this for a while, and stress is a contributor to prostatatis and can make symptoms worse. And unfortunately, the previously somewhat manageable symptoms began to flare up much worse 2 days before the trip.</p><p>We left on Christmas day, taking an 11ish hour overnight flight from JFK to Ezeiza airport in Buenos Aires. I'll spare the details, but mention that the pelvic discomfort made this the most uncomfortable flight experience that I've had (though keeping in perspective that there are many people in much worse situations). Thankfully I had Fran there for support and reassurance; and it helped to have the two outer seats on the Boeing 767, giving us unobstructed access to the aisle. We both managed to get a few hours of (admittedly low quality) sleep during the night.</p><p>We arrived at EZE a little after 10am, and then had a 5pm flight from the other Buenos Aires airport, Aeroparque, to Ushuaia. The line to get through immigration was initially overflowing the queuing area, but things sped up as they distributed the foreigners to the VIP and Argentinian lines once those had receded. As we exited customs we found a stand for Tienda León, a company that we knew offered a shuttle bus between the airports. We also found out there that they offered a taxi transfer, so we opted for that instead - it was about twice as much as 2 tickets for the bus, but would get us there much faster (an immediate 45 minute ride vs waiting 45 minutes until noon and then a 1.5 hour ride).</p><p>We got to Aeroparque (which is just north of downtown) around noon, 5 hours before the flight. We couldn't check in until 2pm, so we found a cafe to grab a quick bite and then wandered around the airport grounds for a bit, looking for an outdoor seat to enjoy the nice weather (it was sunny and around 70° Fahrenheit). I was still dealing with discomfort and frequent urination, but managing. Matters were not helped by the discovery that the wheels of my (admittedly old) giant suitcase had both cracked in half; but they were thankfully still usable. We checked in and dropped off the luggage just past 2pm. We both noticed that our suitcases were tagged with "Sky Priority" by the agent, but didn't think much of it at the time. We next exited the airport grounds and walked across the road to check out the Christopher Columbus monument by the water, then returned to go through security.</p><p>Upon lining up to board the 4 hour flight, we found out that we were to board in the Sky Priority line. At that point we realized that our seats in the first row of the plane were probably not ordinary seats - they turned out to be in first class, something Fran didn't know when she selected them (and they were not expensive tickets either). That surprise certainly made the flight less uncomfortable, given my state at the time.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbg_wIW_yAVj9vXlSULn0IPI-PR01hHCuiZ-BvWWNobzshRKxlFE0KDzD-SRb7CCJ9TvddZ-wxHT_lfhd2-Igtamrb8B6f4PrZxXGC4EN9cArj4QJcPcM5leZESr6yL2LqU48qsUuS1Yffzk5rTE6ae-5JzQwhSbJBLOI7tKjEbbgbUUVnXXQ8VhEguyQ/s4032/PXL_20231226_235744068.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Flying into Ushuaia" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbg_wIW_yAVj9vXlSULn0IPI-PR01hHCuiZ-BvWWNobzshRKxlFE0KDzD-SRb7CCJ9TvddZ-wxHT_lfhd2-Igtamrb8B6f4PrZxXGC4EN9cArj4QJcPcM5leZESr6yL2LqU48qsUuS1Yffzk5rTE6ae-5JzQwhSbJBLOI7tKjEbbgbUUVnXXQ8VhEguyQ/w400-h300/PXL_20231226_235744068.jpg" title="Flying into Ushuaia" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p>After landing in Ushuaia we made our way to the taxi stand. There were a man and woman from an earlier flight in front of us who were trying to figure out how to make it to somewhere far, as they had missed their transfer from the airport. We didn't think too much of it at the time (besides that it was an unfortunate situation), but they would end up having an impact on our trip by the next day. We took a taxi into town to our hotel for the night - Isla Bonita Suites. We were both quite tired by now, and didn't stay up much later.</p><p>--<br /></p><p>My favorite pictures from the trip can be found <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/nZfbRzwKkfymuJzz8">here</a>.<br /></p>Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-68143081952498680272023-08-06T20:28:00.000-05:002023-08-06T20:28:25.324-05:00Eurotrip 2023 - Days 7-8 - 7/28-9/2023 - To Milan, part deux; heading home<p>Our Como Airbnb had an absurdly early check-out time of 10a, but that was fine with us since we wanted to head back to Milan with enough time to make our 3p ticket time at the Duomo. We walked over to the Como–Brunate funicular (Funicolare Como-Brunate), with a plan to take the tram up to the top (Brunate) and then maybe walk back down to Como. Some signage at the bottom station hinted at a 25 minute walk up (vs the 5 minute tram ride), so Fran decided to walk instead. I took her bag and got in line for the tram, eventually getting on the one that departed at 10:45. The plan was for me to get to the top and wait for her, as we thought she wouldn't be more than 20 minutes behind at most.</p><p>About halfway up I began to have thoughts that it would take me much more than 25 minutes to get up there. And then I received a phone call from a Belgian number, which I ignored until a voicemail was left for me. And then 3 texts came in from that number. It turned out that Fran had found out that the hike up is actually 2.5 hours (though in retrospect we're sure she could have done it in perhaps 1.5, given her hiking speed) and decided to abandon the plan, for fear that I would have panicked after waiting longer than the agreed time and begun hiking down, and would have had to contend with both our backpacks on the longer-than-expected hike, and might have missed her on the mountain as there were actually 2 different trails to the top. She had tried to call and text me using the phone of one of two women she had encountered who were also trying to find the trail up; she did not have international calling nor data activated on her phone. And then, unsure that I had received her messages, she had raced back to the bottom station to see if she could catch me if I hadn't yet gone up, but I was already gone. Then she found a worker at a nearby cafe who was able to get her phone on their Wifi and she was able to call me using WhatsApp.</p><p>We decided that I would get on the next available tram back down to the bottom; she didn't have any money on her, so she couldn't pay for a ticket for a tram to the top. I was already frazzled, and it didn't help that our call got disconnected. I had only bought a one-way ticket, so I needed to buy another ticket back down to the bottom. However, the station at the top did not have a ticket booth, and tickets had to be bought from affiliated shops nearby. I found a souvenir shop which sold tram tickets, but they only accepted cash for the tickets. So I rushed back to the tram station, which had an ATM, to withdraw cash before heading back to the shop to buy a ticket. It wasn't until I was back at the station with ticket in hand that it occurred to me that because there was nobody at the top station enforcing anything I could have either just stayed on the tram to ride it down or hopped over/under the turnstile to get back on. In any case, I made it back down and reunited with an equally-freaking-out Fran outside the bottom station. We learned a lesson for future trips - no more splitting apart unless she has a way to contact me and some money.</p><p>We debriefed each of our sides of the story as we started walking toward the train station. We decided to detour to get some breakfast/lunch treats at a bakery and then a fruit stand, and then headed to the station to catch the 12:26p train back to Milano Centrale. From there we headed back to the numa apartment to drop our backpacks off before walking over to the Duomo di Milano (Milan Cathedral). Fran had purchased us 3p tickets that included the church interior, building terrace, and museum. We decided to do the terrace first. The climb was not terribly strenuous, and was split up between two levels. What made me sweat the most was the scorching sunlight, especially on the top section. After admiring the views and taking some pictures we headed back down to enter the church. However, we were turned away because Fran (as a woman) was wearing shorts that didn't cover her knees; we were directed to their shop across the street where she could buy a plastic weave shawl for 3 Euro, which she did. After that we entered and had a look around. We had a particularly fun time trying to find the correct place to take a picture to recreate the view from a couple of paintings we had seen at the Gallerie d'Italia a couple of days prior. After the church interior we crossed the street to walk through the Duomo Museum. There we split a free video guide, which was pretty informative, and made the museum visit worthwhile. In all we were both impressed by the Duomo, and found each portion of the experience enjoyable. And I got a figurine to add to my collection.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7EaP2PMfM5gSKoTc_La_KngC0bVznjv4gWMIGoanA8Ycn8j5XqiUNJRzZY_qddJEWQGkzXonKpJFVAyWUS5Nc_IZLV_4XsSD-Y787vjBzEAYShBvz4dFq7sc1d3NlaK8miHF54n5oP0ID0GA86yf7rWX8pW9DwbuWOVbQzWBPrTS_fFuxqJjaNhC8jd4/s4032/PXL_20230728_130926304.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7EaP2PMfM5gSKoTc_La_KngC0bVznjv4gWMIGoanA8Ycn8j5XqiUNJRzZY_qddJEWQGkzXonKpJFVAyWUS5Nc_IZLV_4XsSD-Y787vjBzEAYShBvz4dFq7sc1d3NlaK8miHF54n5oP0ID0GA86yf7rWX8pW9DwbuWOVbQzWBPrTS_fFuxqJjaNhC8jd4/s320/PXL_20230728_130926304.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the terrace of the Duomo<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>Afterward we meandered back toward the apartment, stopping at a couple of shops to look for some more gifts. For dinner we decided to go to a pizza restaurant called Di Gennaro that was recommended by a clerk at Lacoste. It was about a 10 minute walk away, and was partially tucked away from the super-touristy plazas. We split a couple of pizzas, one quattro formaggi, and one with an interesting mix of capers, olives, and oregano. They were decent pizzas (at least compared to the trash from Bellagio), but not in the top 50 percentile of pizzas that I've had in my life; perhaps Neapolitan style is not my favorite. After dinner we walked back to Cathedral Square (aka Piazza del Duomo) to do a bit of people watching before going to another Venchi location for our daily dose of gelato. We ate that back at the square while killing some time before it got dark enough to turn on the street lamps. The lit lamps were necessary to finish our project of recreating another painting of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. After that it was back to the apartment for our last night on the trip.</p><p>---</p><p>Fran and I were actually on separate flights back to JFK. When we initially planned the trip, she was going to spend a few extra days in the Como area after I left. However, she decided to change her plans, to leave the same day as me, after her sister Alexandria was having a rough recovery from brain surgery; thankfully Alexandria is doing better now. By that time my Emirates flight was sold out (in economy) so she couldn't get on the same plane. She ended up getting a ticket on an ITA Airways flight earlier in the day, 12:30p vs 4:10p. She also overpaid by a factor of 2 for the ticket, but that's a story for her to tell.</p><p>She left the apartment around 9:40a to catch the express train (XP1) to Malpensa airport (MXP) from the nearby Cadorna train station. Checkout was at 11, so I left at that time to check on a longshot that I could get into the Google office to hang out there (and get free snacks) before heading to the airport. As expected, the office was closed (at least to those without the separate building entry badge, like me), so I went to a nearby cafe to grab a bit of breakfast. The office is a short walk from the Garibaldi train staion, which also has an express train to Malpensa. I caught that train (XP2) at 1:05p and began the journey home.</p><p>---</p><p>My favorite pictures from the full trip are <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/sGhLzVQqfH5jiRzG8">here</a>.</p>Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-90630280324663061182023-08-06T20:25:00.004-05:002023-08-06T20:25:42.886-05:00Eurotrip 2023 - Day 6 - 7/27/2023 - Lake Como<p>Somehow we were able to pull off all the plans that we hatched the night before, and with only a couple of minor moments of stress. We left our luggage and the bulk of our belongings at the numa apartment, and packed overnight bags for a day/night in the Lake Como area. First was a metro ride to catch the 8:43a express train to Como from Milano Centrale railway station. Then we walked from Como San Giovanni railway station to the Como docks to catch the 10:10a outbound ferry. We got off at Bellagio after riding for about 2.5 hours. In Bellagio we stopped for some lunch at a random hotel outdoor bar and then made our way to I Giardini di Villa Melzi, a nice lakeside botanical garden recommended once again by Chloe. After strolling through there we made a stop for gelato and headed down to the ferry dock. Fran made a detour to a silk shop while I (eventually) got us a spot in line for the 3:50p ferry back to Como. The ferry arrived late, and we weren't on our way until about 4:15p. The return journey was shorter (closer to 1.75 hours), as this particular route made fewer stops. Back in Como, we found our way to the Airbnb Fran had booked for the night, which happened to be on the same block as the restaurant (Figli Dei Fiori - Osteria) where we had made a 7p dinner reservation on the recommendation of my sister-in-law Rachel.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVB8RuiNOlKu50Z-7bkUOeoOcET8FdQjvHG4GgAAIFz7qNKLITpsBBOa4aW_T-1jcVIhYEYJWrgrRzFeb9GMptdDTSSItBb_4-m2ThiElNXtNc-3wkylk4COtWMj67v0XyblT8BDwPYhcrqozv-9LJX3OE04lmMQ--EuRw0stPhUmRpFI4k0YS184zs90/s3264/PXL_20230727_115537788.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVB8RuiNOlKu50Z-7bkUOeoOcET8FdQjvHG4GgAAIFz7qNKLITpsBBOa4aW_T-1jcVIhYEYJWrgrRzFeb9GMptdDTSSItBb_4-m2ThiElNXtNc-3wkylk4COtWMj67v0XyblT8BDwPYhcrqozv-9LJX3OE04lmMQ--EuRw0stPhUmRpFI4k0YS184zs90/s320/PXL_20230727_115537788.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Selfie in Bellagio</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>Now to say a bit more about some of those things we did... The ferry rides were nice, but I was ready to get off the boat by the end. I can't help but compare them to the <a href="https://excursions.obezma.com/search/label/Eurotrip%202022">boat rides that we took in Norway last year</a>. The scenery was similar in some ways (water passages with mountains on the sides), but with obvious differences in waterside architecture (no villas in Norway, ha) and weather (it was cooler in the morning, but mid-80s Fahrenheit in the afternoon here). But there were too many people for my liking on these Italian boats. And also too many people in Bellagio. And so many people trying to board the ferry back to Como that they had to cut off the line and leave some off the boat; thankfully we made it on, but we would have sweat it out less if I had done my job and gotten in line earlier as Fran had asked me to. Oh, and the pizza that I had for lunch in Bellagio was pretty trash; but I don't think it's representative of Italian pizza in general, so that's fine. On the good side, the dinner was pretty solid, with Fran once again enjoying it more than I did; though I have to give props to their "cheese plate". We once again ordered more food than we could eat.</p><p>---</p><p>My favorite pictures from the full trip are <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/sGhLzVQqfH5jiRzG8">here</a>.</p>Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-69200833002819606282023-08-06T20:24:00.000-05:002023-08-06T20:24:08.867-05:00Eurotrip 2023 - Day 5 - 7/26/2023 - Gallery day in Milan; aka Chloe for the win<p>The original plan was to start the day with a hot air balloon ride, the second time around that Franny has tried to treat me to / surprise me with one. However, we found out a couple of days ago, that (<a href="https://excursions.obezma.com/2018/08/eurotrip-2018-day-6-8102018-to-bruges.html">just like last time</a>) the trip was cancelled due to weather. We initially didn't understand why because the forecast (and the actual weather) looked great for the day. But our best guess now is that the cancellation is related to the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/palermo-airport-closed-two-killed-north-fires-storms-batter-italy-2023-07-25/">severe</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/07/25/italy-hail-switzerland-europe-storms-wind/">storms</a> <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230725-storm-brings-down-trees-in-milan-as-fire-closes-sicily-airport">from</a> a couple of days ago, as we witnessed many downed trees and other carnage left behind.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhek3b-O3A_ftS0Xbmb161lW01NfrlDtRmv2_NNBohu2R_-fmkXwQSRHypVpwzGEWHB06MUEaLci7LtRkHuubYaVFZUobs98FvoMHUvlhR-tdmVYz4uLm_xBpw4QXYiAlU76C-_dFxOkKAOECxGln67OqKP0_b9I0Q3dFHF_tvlDC3YNr2z7HT8rM14-jc/s4032/PXL_20230726_094131715.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhek3b-O3A_ftS0Xbmb161lW01NfrlDtRmv2_NNBohu2R_-fmkXwQSRHypVpwzGEWHB06MUEaLci7LtRkHuubYaVFZUobs98FvoMHUvlhR-tdmVYz4uLm_xBpw4QXYiAlU76C-_dFxOkKAOECxGln67OqKP0_b9I0Q3dFHF_tvlDC3YNr2z7HT8rM14-jc/s320/PXL_20230726_094131715.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Google Milan building next to Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>Instead we made an excursion to the Google office to check it out and have some free breakfast. The office is by the Garibaldi train station, and we took the metro there. We made it about 10 minutes before breakfast closed at 10:30a. After eating and checking out a couple of floors, we walked to a couple of nearby chocolate shops (Venchi and Zàini) so that Fran could buy some treats and gifts. After that we hoped back on the metro to head to Sforzesco Castle (Castello Sforzesco), though walking would probably have been just as efficient (I think Fran was trying to be more accommodating for me after last night). We walked around the perimeter, but couldn't enter the castle because of damage sustained during the storms. From there it was a fairly short walk back to the apartment to chill for a bit.</p><p>We had 2p tickets for Fondazione Prada, a modern art gallery highly recommended by Chloe (Fran's brother's girlfriend). I was highly skeptical going into this, but it turned out to definitely be worthwhile. It was a 45 minute walk during the hottest part of the day, so I decided to take the metro there while Fran did her walking thing; this time we were both satisfied. I'm not sure that "gallery" is necessarily the right description for the place, but I don't have a better word for it. It's a building complex with exhibits in multiple different buildings. The big building had my favorite installations, the top one being a pitch black room that led into another room full of huge mushrooms. A couple of the other buildings were kinda meh. Check out the pictures for a bit of a taste, though photos weren't allowed everywhere.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4-QqAPzICrQRNj3V5zgy6mXzDBxSP414sUQTh5Hu9qU0n43AO7mYHpsYpTpmJnkSd7pPcP9rNI7LycG40ucenPziFso7ZPiSeDHC859ZLeTUoRIkQ7BvueHeoAQ_c2EfJUu3Akv8GpsQRucNj5qYlcyNE1M5jLSnFA8hmBPOIOhXmuguoh4hETta1Ua8/s4032/PXL_20230726_134029660.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4-QqAPzICrQRNj3V5zgy6mXzDBxSP414sUQTh5Hu9qU0n43AO7mYHpsYpTpmJnkSd7pPcP9rNI7LycG40ucenPziFso7ZPiSeDHC859ZLeTUoRIkQ7BvueHeoAQ_c2EfJUu3Akv8GpsQRucNj5qYlcyNE1M5jLSnFA8hmBPOIOhXmuguoh4hETta1Ua8/s320/PXL_20230726_134029660.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside an exhibition hall at Fondazione Prada<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />From there we exercised our metro day pass some more (though we ran into a bit of a snafu with one of the tickets not being accepted a couple of times) to get to Gallerie d’Italia (aka Gallerie di Piazza Scala). This is a more typical contemporary art museum, with a mix of works from the 18th/19th century and later. This was also a nice gallery to visit, but if I was only able to pick one I would choose Fondazione Prada because it is more striking.</p><p>After another stop at the apartment, we walked to a restaurant called La Gioia for a 7:45p dinner reservation. This was another Chloe recommendation, and the cacio e pepe just about lived up to her hype. We also sampled her suggested tiramisu; Fran loved it, but I'm not a big tiramisu guy. After dinner it was back to the apartment to figure out plans for Como the next day.</p><p>---</p><p>My favorite pictures from the full trip are <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/sGhLzVQqfH5jiRzG8">here</a>.</p>Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-59901086895367951512023-08-06T20:19:00.004-05:002023-08-06T20:19:49.933-05:00Eurotrip 2023 - Day 4 - 7/25/2023 - To Milan<p>Our last night and morning at Alta Moda weren't entirely seamless. There was some sort of water leak above our bathroom, which caused a loud drip that started around 11p. Thankfully it trailed off around midnight, and closing the bathroom door muted much of the sound. By the morning there was a prominent water stain around the light fixture in the bathroom. We informed the hotel staff, so hopefully that got taken care of.</p><p>The other water-related issue was that the hotel was shutting down the water from 9a to 4p due to ongoing construction work just outside. This didn't affect us too badly since we were leaving for the airport around 10:15a, but it would have been nice to take care of some final "business" before departing.</p><p>We skipped breakfast at the hotel and walked over to catch the 100E express bus back to the airport. It began to rain lightly while we were on the bus; thankfully we missed the rain except for the brief walk out to (and wait to board) the plane. Our flight to Milan (Bergamo) was delayed 40-ish minutes from the scheduled 12:40p departure due to bad weather, but we didn't find this out until we had boarded the plane. This pushed our arrival back until almost 3p.</p><p>We had purchased shuttle bus tickets in advance to take us from Bergamo Airport to the Milan city center. The bus stop was next to the Centrale metro station, so we took the M3 to the Duomo station and found our way to our accommodations. We had booked 4 nights at the numa Camperio Rooms & Apartments. The apartment we booked was quite nice and spacious (especially compared to the room in Budapest; think something akin to a large studio apartment in Brooklyn), and also pretty centrally located. The check-in process is all digital, and you get a code that you use to enter the building, as well as your apartment. I would definitely recommend this place, if you're OK with spending a little bit of money.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0wKYjpRf1LXtor9_Z8ft4F19fWP-pjNjeWn050nP_aZ8duN2UqOp9lE0gdkEQfWmV0ovmz0v16ZwIh7ecuuGoYYK1yx69XG28hsFqi3wL_1qXCMp-ROx60lIKgDE8yh6l21kMHVb9wyRsuUJN1Y1map4oUvVP05QqoSjAf7dmYNVUsU5ONh3N4qo0Wmo/s4032/PXL_20230725_192843160.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0wKYjpRf1LXtor9_Z8ft4F19fWP-pjNjeWn050nP_aZ8duN2UqOp9lE0gdkEQfWmV0ovmz0v16ZwIh7ecuuGoYYK1yx69XG28hsFqi3wL_1qXCMp-ROx60lIKgDE8yh6l21kMHVb9wyRsuUJN1Y1map4oUvVP05QqoSjAf7dmYNVUsU5ONh3N4qo0Wmo/s320/PXL_20230725_192843160.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Duomo di Milano<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />We rested in the room for a bit and tried to find somewhere to have dinner. Fran settled on a place called Propaganda Alimentare Agriturismo Urbano, as it had the farm-to-table vibe she was looking for, and we made a 7:45p reservation. The map revealed that it would take about 65 minutes to walk there (it's a bit out of the way), which was barely enough time to make it there. Fran insisted on walking, while I preferred the 25 minute subway route. In the end I decided to walk with her, as I didn't want to separate while she had no cell service (my Google Fi plan was serving us well in Europe). I later regretted that decision, as I was a sweaty and uncomfortable mess by the time we hustled our way to the restaurant, and did not make for good dinner company. Despite that, the gazpacho that we both ordered was off the chains (i.e., really good). Besides that Fran enjoyed the rest of the food more than I did. On the way back to the apartment (by metro, this time), we stopped by a Venchi for some gelato dessert.</p><p>---</p><p>My favorite pictures from the full trip are <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/sGhLzVQqfH5jiRzG8">here</a>.</p>Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-48063471880567383312023-08-06T20:18:00.000-05:002023-08-06T20:18:03.985-05:00Eurotrip 2023 - Day 3 - 7/24/2023 - Budapest on foot<p>Today was a day of visiting historical buildings in the city. We got going just in time to get breakfast at the hotel before it closed at 10a. Our only solid plan was a 2:15p English language tour at the Hungarian Parliament Building (Országház). Before that Fran wanted to go inside Matthias Church (Mátyás Templom) and check out Margaret Island (Margit-sziget). After the tour we would go to St. Stephen's Basilica (Szent István Bazilika).</p><p>We started by heading toward Castle Hill for the third day in a row. This time I was too lazy to climb so we took the tram (aka Buda Castle Hill Funicular) up to the top. In my defense, the forecast for the day was mid-90s Fahrenheit, and it was already mid-80s. Unfortunately, you can only buy round-trip tickets for the tram, so we intentionally "wasted" half the fare. We got tickets for Matthias Church, and also filled up our water bottle at a nearby fountain - I have to say that Fran and I are fans of when cities have public fountains near popular spots where people can freely fill up on water. The church was pretty neat, with an impressively painted interior. My favorite part, though, was probably the multi-color roof tiles which were arranged in various designs (we technically had seen the roof when we were there, without entering, a couple of days ago).</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxAI0db_t-TelOj9oxSPkxS8moayVoa411SPSx5ZNFVD4J5PKtiPvvyJDvNcQviUNuW4PxyVp81bEsCTtR9jX6sIeEOY4-sCdQWEFXQyYtenh9mWbyGhZGaT5vyBnbBQL8KXZzI5c-fwo6-39xD2982NOK54WNKkzWsKWcr3XBf5P7BeDKvHdBcL9rO20/s3264/PXL_20230724_102439488.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxAI0db_t-TelOj9oxSPkxS8moayVoa411SPSx5ZNFVD4J5PKtiPvvyJDvNcQviUNuW4PxyVp81bEsCTtR9jX6sIeEOY4-sCdQWEFXQyYtenh9mWbyGhZGaT5vyBnbBQL8KXZzI5c-fwo6-39xD2982NOK54WNKkzWsKWcr3XBf5P7BeDKvHdBcL9rO20/s320/PXL_20230724_102439488.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Selfie on Margit Bridge<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>After the church, we hoofed it up to the Margit Bridge and crossed over to Margaret Island. There was no real plan of what to do there, but Fran got the urge to rent a two-person quadricycle when we came across a bunch parked by the fountain near the entrance. We had over 1.5 hours before the tour started, so we rented one for an hour. With Fran behind the wheel we wandered around the island for the full hour (despite initially thinking that we would take 45 minutes or so). This included getting lost in a parking lot that I'm pretty sure we were not supposed to enter, and taking an off-road shortcut to get us from the perimeter path back onto the interior paths; both stories that are better heard from Fran in person.</p><p>After returning the quadricycle we crossed the other half of the bridge back into Pest and headed to the parliament building. We made it there 10 minutes before the tour and exchanged our digital tickets for printed ones. The tour basically consists of being chaperoned by two staff members while listening to a provided digital audio guide. Pictures are allowed except for within the Domed Hall where the crown jewels are displayed (and protected by 2 guards whom you're not supposed to get within 2 meters of). The audio guide was quite informative, and went into the history of the main rooms on the tour in quite some detail. The tour lasted about 45 minutes. I found the building impressive, and would say that the tour is worthwhile if you're into historical government buildings.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOJc8SI0Cw2mchUYg3MVgoQca0FQ7qcpkD2KTry4fQ9Sd2MrMkrZ3NO1nx0hxKM3MsayMfbVd9k4WXde8qbjXc61YPzFlA8q0u_VTsKD90YZEwON1I3Y8pehjT57cJPkI3XHmddXeXvoNLb2njossJshUhUkt4qLsORNiRfCTYJkdprutxRQpYtsVBhFo/s4032/PXL_20230724_125739589.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOJc8SI0Cw2mchUYg3MVgoQca0FQ7qcpkD2KTry4fQ9Sd2MrMkrZ3NO1nx0hxKM3MsayMfbVd9k4WXde8qbjXc61YPzFlA8q0u_VTsKD90YZEwON1I3Y8pehjT57cJPkI3XHmddXeXvoNLb2njossJshUhUkt4qLsORNiRfCTYJkdprutxRQpYtsVBhFo/s320/PXL_20230724_125739589.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Parliament chamber</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>The next stop was St. Stephen's Basilica, before the last ticket sales at 4p. This time we got a pair of all-in-one tickets, which include access to the panoramic terrace surrounding the dome. As befits the name, the basilica is an impressively large building, with an equally ornate interior. It also houses the preserved hand of its namesake, Stephen I, the first king of Hungary. I was surprised to find that the terrace access includes an option to use elevators for most of the ascent (which is divided into two parts). Nevertheless, we chose to take the stairs all the way up and down. It was interesting to see the space between the inner and outer domes at the top of the climb. The terrace is located a few tens of meters below the outer dome.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghjw2H-wW6kjBXdNCQR0oXg5vx--gQ26Dt3ELq8qgMOyRDLCCxRdY7Wl1Q1gZM3uGOMVXe0XO4mYi13CN6Ko_4n_TEnl_Rrv6JNyKdfKOwPUxkUtf4_oPQ_R8BaQ7dDrSuBzoNzZQ_4hoOSvjVvFGahX2xVzt-41Fqhk0d1BxW-C8gmDTYY7OcNt0A_MY/s4032/PXL_20230724_135332005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghjw2H-wW6kjBXdNCQR0oXg5vx--gQ26Dt3ELq8qgMOyRDLCCxRdY7Wl1Q1gZM3uGOMVXe0XO4mYi13CN6Ko_4n_TEnl_Rrv6JNyKdfKOwPUxkUtf4_oPQ_R8BaQ7dDrSuBzoNzZQ_4hoOSvjVvFGahX2xVzt-41Fqhk0d1BxW-C8gmDTYY7OcNt0A_MY/s320/PXL_20230724_135332005.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St. Stephen's hand (aka the Holy Right) in his basilica<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />After leaving the basilica we went to a nearby gelateria that Fran had spotted on the walk over and got a couple of cups. The unique thing that struck us about this place, aptly named Gelarto Rosa, is how they shaped the gelato as rose petals in the cones; we weren't super interested in that experience, though, and just went with the cups. We then made our way back to the hotel, with stops for water and gifts, to rest for a bit and plot dinner.</p><p>Speaking of dinner, it ended up being a huge disappointment, especially after an hour of research by Fran that settled on a place that ended up not existing (or at least we couldn't find it). You can read more about this catastrophe on <a href="https://thefranimal.travel.blog/2023/07/24/budapest-hungary-2023-day-3/">Fran's travel blog</a>.</p><p>---</p><p>My favorite pictures from the full trip are <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/sGhLzVQqfH5jiRzG8">here</a>.</p>Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-27873239736758718772023-08-06T20:11:00.001-05:002023-08-06T20:11:33.272-05:00Eurotrip 2023 - Day 2 - 7/23/2023 - Hungarian Grand Prix<p>Today's primary activity was the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix, the main reason that I/we had chosen to come to Budapest in the first place. It was especially exciting because my favorite driver, Lewis Hamilton, had won pole position in qualifying for the race the day before. But before that Fran wanted to check out the Hungarian National Gallery, which she had bought tickets for (including the special exhibit on Lajos Gulácsy) the day before. And before that the first order of business was breakfast at the hotel, which was decent.</p><p>We arrived at the gallery around 10:15a. We first walked through the special exhibit (which didn't do too much for me, but it seems like Gulácsy was an interesting fella), and then glanced through the rest of the permanent exhibit. The dome balconies that are accessible from the cupola room provide some great views across the city.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Fg4ovb1ALHTCqhpTaueqP4lOyxTgpek1Wy-0rKprfa8nVSp3zCjYGOWCkOmkFZRCY878vLvPNcT5GZMYotz7noR0iYOJflViyS2ISkO3bR8M7J6CFXN_HQWrf6hVsy_4h18htbduZsqHQeDI75ciFTk-jDUfXaVkS_tJ3Pdurbn103iN1jpdTNe-ESo/s4032/PXL_20230723_091210144.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Fg4ovb1ALHTCqhpTaueqP4lOyxTgpek1Wy-0rKprfa8nVSp3zCjYGOWCkOmkFZRCY878vLvPNcT5GZMYotz7noR0iYOJflViyS2ISkO3bR8M7J6CFXN_HQWrf6hVsy_4h18htbduZsqHQeDI75ciFTk-jDUfXaVkS_tJ3Pdurbn103iN1jpdTNe-ESo/s320/PXL_20230723_091210144.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hungarian National Gallery - dome balcony<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />After leaving the gallery and doing a little walkabout, we headed back toward the Chain Bridge to find a decent spot to call a taxi to take us to the Hungaroring. I had found out the day before that the event had partnered with the ride-sharing company Bolt, which apparently also runs taxis in Budapest (?), to provide taxis to the circuit; the benefit of this is that the taxis could take the VIP lane from the highway and get to a designated drop-off spot next to the venue. I'm not entirely sure how much time that "VIP" treatment ended up saving, as that lane seemed to move pretty slowly for much of the time, but we got to the circuit in a little more than an hour, giving us almost a couple of hours before the 3pm race start.</p><p>We spent a good chunk of that pre-race time first making it past the main grandstand on the way toward our seats in the Silver 4 section at the final turn, and then waiting in line at a Middle Eastern food stand (more falafel for Fran, though this one was apparently not very good; I had a flatbread sandwich, and we split some fries, which we didn't finish). We made it to our seats about 35 minutes before lights-out. The view was pretty solid - we were right at the final turn and could watch the grid preparations on the main straight. The weather was quite warm (almost 90 degrees Fahrenheit) and sunny, so you can imagine how sweaty I was even well before the race started.</p><p>The race itself turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. Despite being on pole, Lewis had a bad start and was down in fourth place by the end of the first lap. There were no safety cars during the 70 lap race, so the only opportunities to shake things up were during the pit stops - most cars opted for a two-stop strategy. Lewis appeared headed for a fifth place finish (Checo undercut him during the second round of stops, after starting out of place down in ninth), but he found some late pace and passed Piastri for fourth; and if there were a couple more laps he could probably have challenged Checo for the last podium spot. His Mercedes teammate, George Russell, had a comparatively more satisfying race, recovering to finish in 6th after starting 18th due to a bad Q1 session. And of course Max Verstappen won the race - his 7th consecutive victory (and the 12th in a row for the Red Bull team, a new record) in a second consecutive dominant season. You can watch official highlights from the race <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZANotpFRoMo">here</a>.</p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqLIl__TjUJpjOnJhFS3-1eLLj3xcojuhP6PSrJKFk6JcBIq1fd-qRJQ4mjUZ2bMsgjsB_6OU2aQFFAMup9H98nAURYIer3576bE1E9XJUFe9G9-hcEhHxRa0p1TUdzm1WPGZLJ_C3esP6CJj1VUjw-gcocov1lYgAGzXtNtEFzPr4mLhDaBMVimVaEYA/s3264/PXL_20230723_124447475.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqLIl__TjUJpjOnJhFS3-1eLLj3xcojuhP6PSrJKFk6JcBIq1fd-qRJQ4mjUZ2bMsgjsB_6OU2aQFFAMup9H98nAURYIer3576bE1E9XJUFe9G9-hcEhHxRa0p1TUdzm1WPGZLJ_C3esP6CJj1VUjw-gcocov1lYgAGzXtNtEFzPr4mLhDaBMVimVaEYA/s320/PXL_20230723_124447475.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hungarian Grand Prix<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p>My impression remains that it's much easier to follow the race on TV than it is live. But having a track-side screen in view (which we also had last year in Austin), as well as a view of more significant portions of the track (compared to last year) did make things a bit easier. Going forward, I think 1 in-person race a year (provided that I have good seats) is a solid plan.</p><p>The race itself only took about 1.5 hours. We stuck around our seats to watch the podium celebration, mostly on the track-side screen, though we did have line-of-sight to the podium itself in the distance. There was a noteworthy occurrence on the way out... While waiting in line for the portable toilets I noticed a guy who appeared to be having a seizure by the exit gate, and nobody appeared to know what to do. Fran, having lots of experience with her sister Alexandria, rushed over to hold the man's head to prevent it from hitting the nearby step. Eventually medics were summoned and arrived on the scene to take over. Huge props to my wife for taking action instead of just standing there and pointing like I did. By the time we left the man seemed to be alert again (though the medics kept him lying down) and reunited with the rest of his party. We have no idea what the cause was, nor whether he had prior history of seizures.</p><p>We walked back to the taxi drop-off area to see if we could get a taxi back into the city. We expected it to be busy (after all 100,000+ people attended the race that day, and a good chunk of them would have had similar ideas), but we were not prepared for how long the taxi line was. We didn't think we had a chance of getting to the front of it in less than an hour (and probably much longer), so we decided to investigate alternatives. It was around 5:30 by this time.</p><p>Google Maps showed that we could walk 22 minutes (into the center of the nearby village of Mogyoród) to catch a bus into the city, where we could transfer to a subway. So we decided to try that. Turns out a lot of people also had the same idea - there were probably a couple of bus-loads of people there ahead of us. Also, when we checked, the next bus wasn't due until 7p, or another hour. There were quite a few taxis crawling by (traffic wasn't moving very quickly, plus they were on the lookout to score due to high demand), and we asked a couple of them how much it would cost to go to the city. The quotes ranged between 30,000 HUF (~$87 USD) and 40,000 HUF (~$117 USD); for comparison, the ride out had cost about 20,000 HUF (~$59 USD). While this was exorbitant, we would probably have been willing to pay it if we could; but they only accepted cash, which we didn't have any of.</p><p>The next plan of action was to walk 44 minutes to the Mogyoród train station to catch the commuter train into the city, where we could transfer to the subway. Up the road we ran into 4 British guys who we had earlier struck up a conversation with; they had bailed for the train station, but saw a bus coming after going past the next bus stop, so they were walking back to the bus stop to board it there. We joined them, as there were far fewer people at this stop than the original one, but in the end bailed on that idea as well. We weren't sure where this bus was going, it didn't seem like it could fit everyone, and we didn't have ready access to a means to pay for the bus.</p><p>We continued on to the train station and eventually made it there around 7p. Luckily they left a ticket window open where we could buy a ticket by card. We boarded the train that was sitting there a minuted before it departed. We took that to the last stop at Örs vezér tere, and switched to the M2 subway across the street. From there it was a few stops to Astoria, which was a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We were back in the city center around 8p, about 3 hours after leaving the circuit.</p><p>We found an appealing (to Fran at least) Lebanese restaurant called Byblos on the walk back, and decided to have dinner there. The food was pretty good, but we ordered too much of it. After dinner we stopped at a gelateria, where I had to try the ice cream in a chimney cake cone (chimney cakes are apparently a big thing in Budapest).</p><p>---</p><p>My favorite pictures from the full trip are <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/sGhLzVQqfH5jiRzG8">here</a>.</p>Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-18387127563008678132023-08-06T20:06:00.004-05:002023-08-06T20:06:50.155-05:00Eurotrip 2023 - Days 0-1 - 7/21-2/2023 - To Budapest<p>Apparently our new thing is flying to Zürich overnight, because this vacation started with the same Friday night flight from JFK as 364 days ago. This time we had a connection in Zürich to Budapest. We departed JFK almost an hour late, but we apparently made up the time in the air (despite some moderate bumps over Nova Scotia) and arrived just about on time (almost 11am). We had no problems making the connection given the almost 1.5 hours between arrival and departure, and there was no line at passport control. I barely got any sleep on the overnight flight (though not for lack of trying) and tried to close my eyes some more on the flight to Budapest. Fran seemed to get even less rest than I did. Despite this, we were both in better shape (i.e., felt less tired) than last year for the first day of the vacation.</p><p>After arriving in Budapest and gathering our luggage, we found our way to the 100E Express Bus stand. The ticket machine was pretty straightforward to use, and the bus arrived soon thereafter. It also turned out that the first stop in the city center was about a 7 minute walk from our hotel, so the transfer was pretty easy. We checked into the Alta Moda Fashion Hotel, and then headed up to the room to decompress for a bit. I would say that the hotel is pretty decent, and well-located (it's on a pedestrian-only street with lots of restaurants around, but with the potential downside that it's quite touristy). My only complaint about the room is that the shower is tiny, but that may be par for the course in these parts.</p><p>We headed out on foot sometime around 5p across the Erzsébet Bridge and toward the Castle Hill area in Buda. We first stopped at Várkert Bazár, but then saw in Google Maps that our next stop (a cafe that Fran had picked out called Ruszwurm Confectionery (Ruszwurm Cukrászda)) was due to close at 6p so we hustled over there. We got there about 5 minutes before the hour, but it turned out they were open until 7p. We sat down and sampled 3 of their cakes (the castle caramel cake, the raspberry cake, and their famous cream cake). I thought they were decent, but Fran liked them a lot more than I did - especially the cream cake. After the snack/dessert we headed over to Fisherman's Bastion (Halászbástya) to admire the view and snap some pics.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUA0YZ2IYBUmtmFzjitbpETITZCvULjKJjVeTwUPvvR4hyi4lJlnwZJq9gDnDv-hfg6Ah-Q3EIzY8BTURRAjCyDT3mj3_6VLQI87nZR2lVhA4qojytNxJ6tko1g0hA2WTzDe50U5Dg8w_kP6cK22S-vcOCqBMt4QHD8_Cmel1P-9-wDyofWdwjL4mTJ80/s4032/PXL_20230722_163712274.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUA0YZ2IYBUmtmFzjitbpETITZCvULjKJjVeTwUPvvR4hyi4lJlnwZJq9gDnDv-hfg6Ah-Q3EIzY8BTURRAjCyDT3mj3_6VLQI87nZR2lVhA4qojytNxJ6tko1g0hA2WTzDe50U5Dg8w_kP6cK22S-vcOCqBMt4QHD8_Cmel1P-9-wDyofWdwjL4mTJ80/s320/PXL_20230722_163712274.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Matthias Church (Mátyás Templom)</td></tr></tbody></table><p>By now it was time for some real food, so we headed back toward the hotel, determined to satisfy Fran's craving for some falafel along the way. We attempted to cross back over the Danube on the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, but found that it was closed to pedestrians. So we headed back to the Erzsébet Bridge and crossed there. We settled on a fast casual hummus bar close to the hotel and had a late dinner there before returning to the hotel.</p><p>---</p><p>My favorite pictures from the full trip are <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/sGhLzVQqfH5jiRzG8">here</a>.<br /></p>Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-78911869307996312652022-08-09T22:59:00.004-05:002022-08-10T07:28:19.513-05:00Eurotrip 2022 - Days 15-16 (8/6-7/2022) - Back to Oslo then home<p>Saturday was a long travel day, with a three-part journey to get to Oslo around 10:30p. The first leg was a ferry (or express boat) from Balestrand to Flåm. This was actually a continuation of the ferry that we had taken to get to Balestrand from Bergen two days prior. The boat was scheduled to depart from Balestrand at 11:50a, but it didn't arrive until about 20 minutes after that. The ride to Flåm was once again quite scenic (and again Fran spent the trip topside while I mostly hung out on the lower deck), and we somehow made up some time to arrive right around the scheduled 1:40p time.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbUNmrJukvUegtV5dmCQq09J2ms302yzfpwib-LTWi58hvZRlDPldiVh28orMiaDObcLtsxifciuELowr0cnpEL_I4SBlp-CHRsTjuXiNddU1EJb-JuRcSvvdf4d-pkOPYy9oq6ETCyxkDLGUhFBidTiTmZ2nfpDjltWiPQb5nWNYCsF642MQPnPqw/s3264/PXL_20220806_112429259.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ferry from Balestrand to Flam" border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbUNmrJukvUegtV5dmCQq09J2ms302yzfpwib-LTWi58hvZRlDPldiVh28orMiaDObcLtsxifciuELowr0cnpEL_I4SBlp-CHRsTjuXiNddU1EJb-JuRcSvvdf4d-pkOPYy9oq6ETCyxkDLGUhFBidTiTmZ2nfpDjltWiPQb5nWNYCsF642MQPnPqw/w320-h240/PXL_20220806_112429259.jpg" title="Ferry from Balestrand to Flam" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>We had 3 hours to kill in Flåm before our hour-long ride on the Flåmsbana (Flåm Railway), a slow and scenic train ride on old tracks that were built about 100 years ago. Fran and I (to a lesser extent, but mostly in concurrence) weren't all that impressed with Flåm, and were glad that our itinerary spent significantly more time in Balestrand instead. We didn't want to tow our luggage for 3 hours, so we paid the approximately $10 each to stow them at the luggage depot for a couple of hours. We then found a spot to eat the hotel sandwiches that Fran had packed, and a couple of pastries we bought from seemingly the only bakery around. Next we went for a walkabout, including ascending a nearby hill to get a better view of the area.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgny9TOJPZS2VgbZx_KcRm3SlewhJZoOZSX6rc2vAW5YTjPVCOPSiuorsseMB7whyOjMdDzRoUPX1Di8LWBwC0CvKvhqesvvFjC2TtMj2qUP6-1b3dVs7EatJK85z0xy7-SMtVILYY5QJApg48Wt2pPu1iW9GesszndbZhvuXQMbcJlMVOeSfwFvGeY/s4032/PXL_20220806_132042081.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Flåm" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgny9TOJPZS2VgbZx_KcRm3SlewhJZoOZSX6rc2vAW5YTjPVCOPSiuorsseMB7whyOjMdDzRoUPX1Di8LWBwC0CvKvhqesvvFjC2TtMj2qUP6-1b3dVs7EatJK85z0xy7-SMtVILYY5QJApg48Wt2pPu1iW9GesszndbZhvuXQMbcJlMVOeSfwFvGeY/w320-h240/PXL_20220806_132042081.jpg" title="Flåm" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p>We picked up our luggage and made our way to the train platform with plenty of time to spare, being among the first to board. Once again, I wasn't terribly impressed with the Flåmsbana. There was some benefit to going slowly such that we could absorb the surrounding sights more, but (with one exception) it wasn't much more scenic than the regular train ride in that part of the country. The exception to that was the stop at Kjosfossen waterfall, where passengers were able to get out for a few minutes to take pictures; but that experience was tarnished by the abject tourist pandering where they played some Norwegian folk music and had some dancers representing the forest spirit - I'm still puzzled why that is a thing.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-AZ27THDqezYdyUG9U-DWFVyujldVNrvgOxiLgW1cYEBEPjLLNjwlrLMxx1u0IJXrtHHCgvPfS3SnI0GGwigdpuYgO5kRs8rNog2lG9jZplDStl3DbZ2Dua5I4LYpCjEkN53fs4OXb7MwaDIf0IFQt1A50L_Rvd5ifQHHdDAFvWIvyzLOZJw-qc4T/s3264/PXL_20220806_152131108.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kjosfossen waterfall stop on the Flåmsbana" border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-AZ27THDqezYdyUG9U-DWFVyujldVNrvgOxiLgW1cYEBEPjLLNjwlrLMxx1u0IJXrtHHCgvPfS3SnI0GGwigdpuYgO5kRs8rNog2lG9jZplDStl3DbZ2Dua5I4LYpCjEkN53fs4OXb7MwaDIf0IFQt1A50L_Rvd5ifQHHdDAFvWIvyzLOZJw-qc4T/w240-h320/PXL_20220806_152131108.jpg" title="Kjosfossen waterfall stop on the Flåmsbana" width="240" /></a></div><p></p><p>We were a few minutes late arriving at Myrdal, which cut into our already short 7 minutes transfer time to the Vy train to Oslo. Nevertheless we made the transfer and settled in for the almost 5 hour ride to Oslo. For "dinner" we grabbed a couple of barely tolerable (frozen) pizzas from the cafe car on the train. After arriving in Oslo we made the 15-ish minute walk to the Hotel Bristol, the same hotel that we had spent our first night there.<br /></p><p>--- <br /></p><p>On Sunday we had a 7:50p flight to NYC (JFK), so we had a day to kill in Oslo. We were fortunate that the hotel allowed us to do a late checkout at 5p, so we were able to keep all our stuff in our room until then. After breakfast and a relatively lazy morning we headed out to check out a couple of the museums on the Bygdøy peninsula. We walked down to the harbor and then took the museum ferry across. We first went to the Norsk Folkemuseum (Norwegian Museum of Cultural History). Fortuitously, our entry time just about coincided with an English guided tour, which I would definitely recommend. The tour focuses on the medieval buildings and architecture, and we also had some time beforehand to check out one of the main exhibit halls. Because of that tour I would rate that museum over our original destination, the apparently better reviewed Fram Museum. The Fram Museum turned out to be pretty solid as well; though there's a ton of information on the walls there, the best part is walking on and through the preserved boat. In between the museums we spent a bit of time hanging out at the shoreline park in front of the Fram Museum.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6eQTMl1s7KxaLJRsDTl2dU5K5O-VpP9gSDEfFi_lVyepyd_l1CzSqdDLfXogNXrEXPT7VVGgzhbuk_y18_2WwRDBPqvPTgs3FcgLmNc1bwoPdqst_hrdozzArorjxttxHbuQ6VfQp10DNEli9cHDqpU0O3kFPhrDUjPnPbHGJP7b0jO6S8oi5sUsK/s4032/PXL_20220807_100246282.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Guided tour at the Norsk Folkemuseum" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6eQTMl1s7KxaLJRsDTl2dU5K5O-VpP9gSDEfFi_lVyepyd_l1CzSqdDLfXogNXrEXPT7VVGgzhbuk_y18_2WwRDBPqvPTgs3FcgLmNc1bwoPdqst_hrdozzArorjxttxHbuQ6VfQp10DNEli9cHDqpU0O3kFPhrDUjPnPbHGJP7b0jO6S8oi5sUsK/w320-h240/PXL_20220807_100246282.jpg" title="Guided tour at the Norsk Folkemuseum" width="320" /></a></div><p>After the museums we took the ferry back to the city center, made a quick stop for ice cream, then walked to the vegan cafe that we had enjoyed our first day in town (Nordvegan) for a very late lunch. We finished eating after 4p, giving us time to finish packing up at the hotel and head for the airport; we took the Flytoget express train back there. And that was about it for the trip. I guess the last thing to mention is that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_Atlantic_Airways">Norse Atlantic</a> (the low-cost airline we took home) was more of a budget airline than I expected for a 7.5 hour cross-Atlantic flight. You have to pay for every little thing there - even water and blankets; we were prepared and didn't pay for anything extra besides the checked bags that we had already prepaid for. Other than that the flight was fine; flying on a 787 Dreamliner can't really get all that bad.</p><p>---</p><p>Full pictures for the trip here: <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/44Vf8gccA5UfLjTo7">https://photos.app.goo.gl/44Vf8gccA5UfLjTo7</a></p><p> </p>Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-28469583659073739522022-08-09T21:15:00.000-05:002022-08-09T21:15:49.281-05:00Eurotrip 2022 - Days 13-14 (8/4-5/2022) - Balestrand<p>We had an early start with an 8am ferry from Bergen to Balestrand. Once again we didn't board until a few minutes before departure, and so had to search a bit before finding a couple of adjacent seats in the middle of the lower level. I stayed in those seats for most of the ride, while Fran staked out a (standing) covered spot upstairs and outside; I did go out a couple of times to take pictures and say hello to her. The ride had some nice views, but it (obviously) wasn't intended to be scenic in the same way as the cruise the day before. The second half of the ride went through Sognefjord, which is the widest and deepest fjord in Norway (and apparently the largest non-glacial fjord in the world, if I understood the boat crew announcement correctly?). We arrived at Balestrand around noon, about 10 minutes later than the planned time.</p><p>The impressive Kviknes Hotel is less than a 5 minute walk from the boat dock. Unfortunately our room was not yet ready, so we stowed our luggage in the luggage room and then tried to occupy ourselves for a couple of hours. We found out that the Norwegian Travel Museum adjoined the hotel (i.e., occupied the same building), so we bought a couple of tickets and walked through that for a bit; it wasn't very impressive, but it helped kill some time. Our room was ready when we we went back to the lobby to check on our room around 2p, so we were able to move our stuff up there.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoRZXUutb6QszmGUH45vHfEAen5m2-Ra65z6P3AEIEvT-QUUKB9ic25F6G6og5JPKxxB-pjyvmLh3GPiYd5b7_35sY8tevuJ0sdwcgcz2gUBwbJIS4ViXo8h0UCpf4XkZtcGWQHUFagknKx1X2fJ8THnvsQTmeaWv8p5Dga2L_yo4zQhOwo4JvRLgT/s4032/PXL_20220804_130618611.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoRZXUutb6QszmGUH45vHfEAen5m2-Ra65z6P3AEIEvT-QUUKB9ic25F6G6og5JPKxxB-pjyvmLh3GPiYd5b7_35sY8tevuJ0sdwcgcz2gUBwbJIS4ViXo8h0UCpf4XkZtcGWQHUFagknKx1X2fJ8THnvsQTmeaWv8p5Dga2L_yo4zQhOwo4JvRLgT/s320/PXL_20220804_130618611.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>After a bit of pondering - mostly due to the fact that it had been raining steadily since we arrived - decided to head out for a walk to see the hotel grounds and then a couple of the local attractions. We walked to St. Olaf's Church, an Anglican stave church which we later found out (from our gregarious dinner host, David) was the inspiration for the cathedral (and possibly the snowman's name?) in the Disney movie <i>Frozen</i>. From there we walked to the <a href="https://www.ciderhuset.no/">Ciderhuset</a> (Cider House), where we bought 6 bottles of locally produced ciders (3 alcoholic for Fran, 3 non-alcoholic for me) and some local honey. Then it was back to the hotel to dry off. Dinner was included in our hotel reservation, and we made a 7:30p reservation when we checked in. The meal was buffet style, and once again included a nice variety of options for appetizers, sides, mains (though more so for meat-eaters than vegetarians, particularly for the warm dishes), and desserts.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzLlwpXqMuYshwpV4dz8vSnRZkPMgpUdgDVbkSE-o6AigYoeKleLqFpo1HF_gZnmP9ERe7ZP7iWXCBhwqZYnoNlvFbV-8PIm7KfgU0UZ8EsvUcNzttji3gl5VjoC5XFOnNh_Iq-V2ZIOdQxhF9g-ypdiPpEBKsGItI-rEwli11oG27Vd20kT6IjeL9/s4032/PXL_20220804_170505408.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Kviknes Hotel - the old section" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzLlwpXqMuYshwpV4dz8vSnRZkPMgpUdgDVbkSE-o6AigYoeKleLqFpo1HF_gZnmP9ERe7ZP7iWXCBhwqZYnoNlvFbV-8PIm7KfgU0UZ8EsvUcNzttji3gl5VjoC5XFOnNh_Iq-V2ZIOdQxhF9g-ypdiPpEBKsGItI-rEwli11oG27Vd20kT6IjeL9/w320-h240/PXL_20220804_170505408.jpg" title="Kviknes Hotel - the old section" width="320" /></a></div><p>---</p><p>The weather was looking better for the next day. We had considered doing a morning rib-boat tour of Sognefjord and then a hike up Raudmelen in the afternoon, but eventually decided on just the hike. We had the (once again high quality) breakfast buffet at the hotel and then were out the door a little after 9:30a. We walked the 20-ish minutes to the start of the nature trails and then began the ascent. The first two-thirds or so is designated moderate, while the final section to the summit (right about where the tree line stops) is labeled challenging. I would say this is mostly true, though there are some portions of the first section that are just about as steep as the top part. None of the trail is particularly technically challenging, but it does take some work to get up to the 972 meter high peak. And being one who sweats profusely, it was a good thing that Fran planned ahead and brought shirts for me to change into at the top (we joked that she is my Sherpa for life); the temperature hovered in the high 40s / low 50s (Fahrenheit), so my drenched clothes did not make for a particularly comfortable time. The rain mostly stayed away during the hike, though there were some brief periods of sprinkles. The passing clouds didn't make for the best of views at the top, but the sunshine during the descent was quite pleasant. We also had a couple of rainbow sightings - one in each direction. We made it up and down in around 4 hours, including the break at the top.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJvuzdSCcivb1xtZZlmJAtonEwfyZZf6ZuA3RTrWQ-R-YQHGSQmlS4lxO8eYWLVaWsOLXa4CTFsgGW8neERH3JBwgyX_OmDcyCMA4NHtuiZGDRkkMIaelqAJuGFTqv5tVc7IKDJzj3mDYqTYQlJrVrKSSA_QxM9He3c3J6-l3azC_AeDdNdH_sVrpK/s4032/PXL_20220805_084422775.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Looking toward the peak of Raudmelen after going past the tree line" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJvuzdSCcivb1xtZZlmJAtonEwfyZZf6ZuA3RTrWQ-R-YQHGSQmlS4lxO8eYWLVaWsOLXa4CTFsgGW8neERH3JBwgyX_OmDcyCMA4NHtuiZGDRkkMIaelqAJuGFTqv5tVc7IKDJzj3mDYqTYQlJrVrKSSA_QxM9He3c3J6-l3azC_AeDdNdH_sVrpK/w320-h240/PXL_20220805_084422775.jpg" title="Looking toward the peak of Raudmelen after going past the tree line" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUIYZC7sCrAYIEdhpVJbECauN6cNvdiF9Wtb5eywLsGpm3qlHX7sS5qmTDiWbIp7nBL_ZOiOpqvb8c5c5xcv7cQbN7IoFcaz88jxfElSEO-xoH6QO16sJ07T58jdw6BUF1YBFLarR_-h-QPOlMRW86ytRyBdQPYi3dw38BoTqi0Be7IzvhScEdEh3v/s3264/PXL_20220805_093417615.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Fran and I atop Raudmelen" border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUIYZC7sCrAYIEdhpVJbECauN6cNvdiF9Wtb5eywLsGpm3qlHX7sS5qmTDiWbIp7nBL_ZOiOpqvb8c5c5xcv7cQbN7IoFcaz88jxfElSEO-xoH6QO16sJ07T58jdw6BUF1YBFLarR_-h-QPOlMRW86ytRyBdQPYi3dw38BoTqi0Be7IzvhScEdEh3v/w320-h240/PXL_20220805_093417615.jpg" title="Fran and I atop Raudmelen" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNFW01L-QRN8Z54HJLbbGd3stXoHMOwUa4ooLbnAfvLfA_zWkUotkb8Zv4kV8qWsKFN9g4q2FoDnL8lVR--n2QmO_fhChm7p59ulY8IrwkPiNTkdI5k-XtI1LgUVDOHybyjKoH_3To8FlnU25U53en75lNKoU7-V2Sc6FWRD8rlpDRWY6_fAShgwxA/s4032/PXL_20220805_101007035.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Second (more prominent) rainbow sighting on the hike down Raudmelen; I believe that is looking toward Tjuatoten" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNFW01L-QRN8Z54HJLbbGd3stXoHMOwUa4ooLbnAfvLfA_zWkUotkb8Zv4kV8qWsKFN9g4q2FoDnL8lVR--n2QmO_fhChm7p59ulY8IrwkPiNTkdI5k-XtI1LgUVDOHybyjKoH_3To8FlnU25U53en75lNKoU7-V2Sc6FWRD8rlpDRWY6_fAShgwxA/w320-h240/PXL_20220805_101007035.jpg" title="Second (more prominent) rainbow sighting on the hike down Raudmelen; I believe that is looking toward Tjuatoten" width="320" /></a></div><p>I was ready for a good sit by the time my shaky legs (which have never been great at handling descents) made it back to hotel. After some snacks and a shower I lounged in the room for a few hours while Fran went back out for a little walk before joining me back in the room. We later repeated our 7:30p dinner in the dining room.</p><p>---</p><p>Full pictures for the trip here: <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/44Vf8gccA5UfLjTo7">https://photos.app.goo.gl/44Vf8gccA5UfLjTo7</a></p>Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-20331012962990382522022-08-05T09:24:00.012-05:002022-08-05T11:27:28.272-05:00Eurotrip 2022 - Days 11-12 (8/2-3/2022) - Bergen<p>Our self-guided tour continued with a 10:25a train from Oslo to Bergen. The tour company texted Fran to let us know that we would need to switch to a bus for the last leg of the trip, from Voss to Bergen. We later found out that this was due to maintenance being performed on the tracks. We had breakfast at the hotel (an impressive and varied spread of hot and cold foods spanning a couple of different rooms) and then walked to the central station. The train portion of the journey provided some nice countryside and mountain/hill views. At Voss everybody got off the train and scrambled downstairs and outside for the waiting buses. The rain did not help with the confusion. But in any case we got ourselves and our luggage on one of the buses. The bus ride was longer than scheduled because of both a car accident and roadwork; we arrived at the Bergen bus station a bit after 6p, an hour later than the original train would have put us there.</p><p>Once at the bus station, we needed to figure out how to get to Thon Hotel Orion - it was raining, and the bus station was farther away than the train station. Google Maps told us to take the #12 bus, but it took us a while to figure out where to catch it to go in the correct direction (Fran saved us from taking it in the opposite direction, avoiding a repeat of the Zürich fiasco). We eventually found the correct platform (U, despite the sign being knocked over), and with the help of a couple of other travelers downloaded the Skyss app to buy a couple of single ride tickets (which was probably a bit unnecessary, but whatevs). On a slightly related topic, I should say that I have been pleased with my Google Fi cell service throughout the duration of the trip; it's been great just being able to use my phone everywhere without worrying about lack of service or extra charges.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZR288xz5besGI2rBWL8kPnSJ3TGIgM_FlIxp-NlYVaZ0La6LIBK46o846_hBI1bWkPFah1PwXzDpC89J-CGM2xALpdA1-gtgTrormHAyFzsHXpl3FBYskj7LTUGINKOBPdjof1r4cH29HQ19NlntkDP-9rxuUn5qZdmJRlRFtL-2GoXF9v61QON1/s4880/PXL_20220802_192936955.PANO.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Across from Bryggen at the Port of Bergen" border="0" data-original-height="1662" data-original-width="4880" height="109" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZR288xz5besGI2rBWL8kPnSJ3TGIgM_FlIxp-NlYVaZ0La6LIBK46o846_hBI1bWkPFah1PwXzDpC89J-CGM2xALpdA1-gtgTrormHAyFzsHXpl3FBYskj7LTUGINKOBPdjof1r4cH29HQ19NlntkDP-9rxuUn5qZdmJRlRFtL-2GoXF9v61QON1/w320-h109/PXL_20220802_192936955.PANO.jpg" title="Across from Bryggen at the Port of Bergen" width="320" /></a></div><p>Anyway, we made it to the hotel and checked in. Then we headed back out for a bit of a walkabout and to find dinner. We settled on an India place called Maharaja, which was decent. I also got some ice cream on the circuitous route we took back to the hotel.</p><p>---</p><p>Our main planned activity the next day was a fjord cruise to Mostraumen (through Rødne Fjord Cruise) that Fran had added on to our tour. We ate breakfast at the hotel (this hotel also had a nice spread; and as with the last one Fran made a couple of bread and cheese sandwiches to take with us for lunch) and then walked to the pier to catch the cruise. We boarded about 7 minutes before the planned 10am departure time, but even by then most of the seats (and definitely all by the windows) were already taken; we initially took a couple of seats in the middle section. At this time it had been raining lightly but steadily so almost everyone was indoors in the lower deck. But Fran was not content with being stuck inside on a fjord cruise so she scoped out the outside area of the top deck and snagged one of the ~6 covered seats for me. This seat was next to a couple from Poland who (we found out in conversation) had planned their trip around seeing Björk in concert in Bergen that night; and so of course I inquired where the concert was happening, and it turned out to be at an outdoor venue literally next door to the hotel where we were staying.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwTYJapG7t1v2q78XvThF99Qc9Xa-ILvlm45pFsfM-m1axsFuLl7iGz5dozZeTUDjbkoRgsGfbY34_T-itMMju309PxEeI2c1tzP_Z081wbYDUKHVkpTWPth1G3oQHYK-fwhjYTZmlDBO2UNMQ0__DiLwdPY3_s9c8ItM0nbLwRaGE_rP3WviY-rUG/s4032/PXL_20220803_092716481.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Bergen-Mostraumen fjord cruise" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwTYJapG7t1v2q78XvThF99Qc9Xa-ILvlm45pFsfM-m1axsFuLl7iGz5dozZeTUDjbkoRgsGfbY34_T-itMMju309PxEeI2c1tzP_Z081wbYDUKHVkpTWPth1G3oQHYK-fwhjYTZmlDBO2UNMQ0__DiLwdPY3_s9c8ItM0nbLwRaGE_rP3WviY-rUG/w320-h240/PXL_20220803_092716481.jpg" title="Bergen-Mostraumen fjord cruise" width="320" /></a></div><p>In any case, the fjord cruise was pretty spectacular, despite the gloomy weather. The rain cleared up soon after we cast off, though it did return for a couple of sections of the cruise. The low clouds prevented us from seeing the tops of the mountains in many places, and (according to one of the ship's crew members) caused the color of the scenery to be more muted. That same crew member also told us that this had been the coldest Norwegian summer in 50 years (though some <a href="https://www.newsinenglish.no/2020/07/24/coldest-summer-in-nearly-30-years/">later research</a> suggested only in 30 years), and a particularly wet one. I think the temperature hovered in the high 50s and maybe low 60s (Fahrenheit), which of course felt a bit colder outside on the boat. Nevertheless, it was a treat to float by the stunning mountains, cliffs, and remote villages. The trip out ended with a surprise stop beneath one of the cliff-side waterfalls; after that point we turned around and headed back to Bergen. We arrived around 1:15p, squarely within the planned 3-3.5 hour duration.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijB9-l000jgiSXH2KortXRCFOcsIHSUZaliMkv4OPfL9xn7hUOz7H0IJ6kdrQPiEjDx0d5EuYrhm_BZlG-jefruczgAG8S1zIB4H-Adjmu9x7A5AwlFwxus7JMsbaaTAkMAyU4EOAn1UREGXvrwdx2B5bJXauocIA5SasSlrwVqEjaxBYytk7cONMm/s3264/PXL_20220803_093702024.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Bergen-Mostraumen fjord cruise" border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijB9-l000jgiSXH2KortXRCFOcsIHSUZaliMkv4OPfL9xn7hUOz7H0IJ6kdrQPiEjDx0d5EuYrhm_BZlG-jefruczgAG8S1zIB4H-Adjmu9x7A5AwlFwxus7JMsbaaTAkMAyU4EOAn1UREGXvrwdx2B5bJXauocIA5SasSlrwVqEjaxBYytk7cONMm/w320-h240/PXL_20220803_093702024.jpg" title="Bergen-Mostraumen fjord cruise" width="320" /></a></div><p>Back in Bergen we needed to back a pit stop at a couple of outdoor clothing shops so that Fran could buy new waterproof shoes - her sneakers were letting water in and her feet were soaked and cold (my toes were wet, but not to the same degree as her). After that we made our way to Fløyen, one of Bergen's city mountains, and hiked up that. It took about 40 minutes to get up there; the steep incline was enough for me to work up a good sweat, though I wouldn't call it too strenuous. After admiring the view for a bit we walked back down, then to the hotel.</p><p>I bought tickets to the Björk concert while we had a bit of a rest. Then after a shower we walked back out to grab dinner at a Thai restaurant, before heading to the Bergenhus Festning for the concert. The performance began at 9 and featured renditions of her songs with a live orchestra (setlist <a href="https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/bjork/2022/bergenhus-festning-bergen-norway-bb2616e.html">here</a>). It briefly threatened to rain in the middle of the show, but thankfully held off. We both enjoyed the show, though wished we would have been able to see the Polish couple in the crowd to wave hello and maybe thank them for letting us know about it.</p><p>---</p><p>Full pictures for the trip here: <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/44Vf8gccA5UfLjTo7">https://photos.app.goo.gl/44Vf8gccA5UfLjTo7</a></p>Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-42955517495337437432022-08-01T16:24:00.010-05:002022-08-05T11:26:24.309-05:00Eurotrip 2022 - Day 10 (8/1/2022) - To Oslo<p>Tjorven (and the kids) drove us from her mom's house in Hamburg to the airport so that we could catch our 10:20 Eurowings flight to Oslo. They came into the terminal with us and we said our goodbyes while in the line to go through security. The short flight was mostly uneventful, except for a bit of moderate turbulence as we began our descent. After arriving, we bought a couple of return Flytoget express train tickets to the city.</p><p>Fran had arranged (through Fjord Travel Norway) a self-guided tour of Norway for us for the next 6 days. This began with a night in Oslo, and then would take us to the west coast for a couple of days for some sightseeing in the fjords. Our accommodation for the night was Hotel Bristol, which is well-located close to the city center, a block from where the bustling Karl Johans Gate turns into a pedestrian-only thoroughfare. We found the hotel without much trouble and were checked in and settled into the room before 2pm.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhicJhyYg7X5TnQFAi5kA5XrtMThGMd8bs9EvC1-HBZaVaX2sBm9d7XDLCnbhRU0DUjv_ic_cbhKtBt57pxHu-eVCAWze3fl9KIdW_dB_sm7r3tufE_tcqWp1l99TkUrc_X2Me0_ZLvIf3XaBHvCGMvWRy6EzshHyMDHKdPdi8Yfo2s-GCZV6fjBgXf/s3264/PXL_20220801_130328428.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Vigeland Sculpture Park" border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhicJhyYg7X5TnQFAi5kA5XrtMThGMd8bs9EvC1-HBZaVaX2sBm9d7XDLCnbhRU0DUjv_ic_cbhKtBt57pxHu-eVCAWze3fl9KIdW_dB_sm7r3tufE_tcqWp1l99TkUrc_X2Me0_ZLvIf3XaBHvCGMvWRy6EzshHyMDHKdPdi8Yfo2s-GCZV6fjBgXf/w320-h240/PXL_20220801_130328428.jpg" title="Vigeland Sculpture Park" width="320" /></a></div><p>We soon headed out on foot toward the Vigeland Sculpture Park. The hotel clerk had suggested a couple of nice streets to walk through on the way there, so we walked through Palace Park (Slottsparken), then turned onto Oscars Gate to walk by a few of the nice embassy buildings there. Soon after we turned toward Frogner Park (Frognerparken, which contains Vigelandparken), it began to rain. We waited out the storm under a tree (on Gyldenløves Gate) and then continued on to the sculpture park. The rain held off for the rest of the day, so we were able to enjoy the sculptures in the dry (unlike <a href="https://excursions.obezma.com/2012/07/eurotrip-2012-day-15-629-oslo.html">the first time I was there</a>).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHYFeHuhyc6hh1vmkyQbaUyH9rFw0NJyYf7QEdbfoc5ZFO5ZRMYBDRw7jtEyrxf5J3g9F3Fk2LNrTzH_G-HkRSLRHP_JEO-PRqsuGIt0dRCV2LORN3NJA9oUY6ZfwdOmXsW9Tz4uKJmjxSLrGbsb2ryO70sZFeV6S3fZ1O4r1qDd5Rb2wJ2SF4dEQO/s4032/PXL_20220801_132703646.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Vigeland Sculpture Park" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHYFeHuhyc6hh1vmkyQbaUyH9rFw0NJyYf7QEdbfoc5ZFO5ZRMYBDRw7jtEyrxf5J3g9F3Fk2LNrTzH_G-HkRSLRHP_JEO-PRqsuGIt0dRCV2LORN3NJA9oUY6ZfwdOmXsW9Tz4uKJmjxSLrGbsb2ryO70sZFeV6S3fZ1O4r1qDd5Rb2wJ2SF4dEQO/w320-h240/PXL_20220801_132703646.jpg" title="Vigeland Sculpture Park" width="320" /></a></div><p>We took a different path down another major street, Bogstadveien, on the way back to the city center. This allowed us to check out some shops and grab a quick snack - a pastry that somewhat resembled a fancy cinnamon roll. We made a quick pit stop at the hotel so that Fran could change her sandals to sneakers and then continued on to one of my favorite landmarks - the Oslo Opera House. We walked up to the top to enjoy the view and take in the surroundings (which included an impromptu choir performance, and a careless kid wiping out while dangerously descending the building steps on a scooter).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimrc9SHg5g0lfvpZOuTqLoxWd_8VU0CmkOFyORwtNARK7plYqJqEgkhEGoylJN7UF6w5vPWrNYIeBnBZeZtPeVPAYEPotmgNf3KppU_WCgHrwX6hRLc7_VZKKQ313_vQaWS3faobISzHbzHuZT06FxECY0agrmqZtO7XWSeHZM8Ohn4st-XKDGqw97/s4032/PXL_20220801_160918018.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Oslo Opera House" border="0" data-original-height="2167" data-original-width="4032" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimrc9SHg5g0lfvpZOuTqLoxWd_8VU0CmkOFyORwtNARK7plYqJqEgkhEGoylJN7UF6w5vPWrNYIeBnBZeZtPeVPAYEPotmgNf3KppU_WCgHrwX6hRLc7_VZKKQ313_vQaWS3faobISzHbzHuZT06FxECY0agrmqZtO7XWSeHZM8Ohn4st-XKDGqw97/w320-h172/PXL_20220801_160918018.jpg" title="Oslo Opera House" width="320" /></a></div><p>Next on the agenda was dinner. We walked back to a vegan cafe/restaurant that Fran had spotted down the block from our hotel. Fran got a rice-based bowl, and I got a noodle-based bowl that was recommended as their best seller. The flavorful options and our lack of substantial food that day combined to hit the spot. And in a surprise celebrity spotting, Woody Harrelson and his wife came into the cafe as we were finishing up our meal. After dinner we walked back to a gelato store that we had seen on Karl Johans Gate, before heading back to the hotel.</p><p>---</p><p>Full pictures for the trip here: <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/44Vf8gccA5UfLjTo7">https://photos.app.goo.gl/44Vf8gccA5UfLjTo7</a></p>Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0Oslo, Norway59.9138688 10.752245431.603634963821158 -24.4040046 88.224102636178856 45.9084954tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1149979622868028742.post-34134596449794649522022-08-01T15:29:00.001-05:002022-08-05T11:24:48.961-05:00Eurotrip 2022 - Days 3-9 (7/25-31/2022) - Zürich, Quelkhorn, Kiel, Hamburg<p>Most of the motivation for us going to Zürich on this trip was so that I could spend a day at the Google office there with a few of my colleagues. We checked out of the hotel and made it to the office around 9:30a. I took both of our luggage up while Fran had a day spend in the city; she ended up <a href="https://thefranimal.travel.blog/2022/07/28/zurich-day-3-quelkhorn-days-4-5/">biking around the lake and doing a bit of shopping</a>. My time at the office was good overall - it was nice to meet a few colleagues in person, check out the office, and sample the office food for breakfast and lunch (I think the NYC office easily has better food). Fran came back to the office a bit after 3:30p, and she was able to come in and change before we headed over to the train station. We took a train to the airport, where we caught our Swiss Air flight to Hamburg.</p><p>In the airport at Hamburg we were greeted by Fran's aunt, Brigitte, and her husband, Jens - we were staying at their house for the next few days. They took us out to dinner at an Italian restaurant in the outskirts of Hamburg (which was pretty good, though I didn't get the name), and then we made the rest of the drive back to their house in Quelkhorn.</p><p>Fran had been looking forward to introducing me to her extended family in the Ottersberg area, and it was great to meet all the people that I had heard so much about. We stayed in Brigitte and Jens' beautiful home, which had modern decor that nicely contrasted the surrounding farmland. Christoph, Fran's uncle, and his wife Beate live right next door in another lovely home. Both houses had recent extensions that nicely showcased a German style that I have quickly become a fan of. And both couples were ultra kind and welcoming of me into their homes and the family.</p><p>The next few days were not too exciting in terms of adventure, as I was still working. They joked that Google had established a new office in Quelkhorn. Despite putting in some working hours, I still had a good time during my stay there. I met Christoph and Beate the next morning (Tuesday, 7/26) after we arrived. Christoph, Fran, and I had breakfast together in his house, and then he introduced us to a great game called Sjoelbak, which is like a Dutch version of shuffleboard. It was even more enjoyable since I somehow managed to beat both Fran and him. For dinner that night he and Fran made us the Indonesian dish Gado Gado.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNgzwxb_5Jc7jDX2iOhexmKlg7bDLR0aWk7fd9ApbKCRZVyaieYEqN4ith5Ea0EmtbI1N4kOcAX8tgFMBmHDxFyNrgYTgsOFkrbTw_EzVLxxrC4qZaLyqiEtxVItZz6OW4KCJd0YDAcJZnjGYYaS-ag-YU8UVSHJwJutz_sxvQ5MTkZ9sMeOgVPKI2/s4032/PXL_20220727_162802414.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Fran, Brigitte, Jens, and Louie in front of a sunflower field" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNgzwxb_5Jc7jDX2iOhexmKlg7bDLR0aWk7fd9ApbKCRZVyaieYEqN4ith5Ea0EmtbI1N4kOcAX8tgFMBmHDxFyNrgYTgsOFkrbTw_EzVLxxrC4qZaLyqiEtxVItZz6OW4KCJd0YDAcJZnjGYYaS-ag-YU8UVSHJwJutz_sxvQ5MTkZ9sMeOgVPKI2/w320-h240/PXL_20220727_162802414.jpg" title="Fran, Brigitte, Jens, and Louie in front of a sunflower field" width="320" /></a></div><p>On Wednesday Jens brought his son Ole's dog, Louie, home from work. After I was done with work, we (Jens, Brigitte, Fran, Me) took a long walk over to Ole and Laura's apartment to return Louie, and then to a restaurant called BergWerk in Quelkhorn for dinner. Christoph met up with us there. Jens' sister and her husband also happened to be there that night, so we all ate together at a table. We all had pizza, which turned out to be better than I expected given the thinness of the crust; I had the four-cheese (vier sorten käse) variety.</p><p>Thursday's dinner was Christoph's special käse (cheese) fondue - my first time ever having it. We also dipped banana slices and grapes in addition to the standard bread. I was mostly able to keep pace with Christoph's voracious appetite, but ran out of steam right at the end. After the meal Beate (who doesn't eat the fondue) came over for an hour or so.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6dC2nl4lrgDyZI_tFXiRY-MXiXojCnxN29_j7fYb9uZWLvmGyjbmOEo0XfAtxqBvBR_5jACIvXKMwdFp_9VEs9YjUuUk87voLhLLbLBh4DsFMrmKGk9yM4LDHqz5MVxs6b9CYA2gw_R-esm_1bwi96p8W2HpoQFVKK-8mFzMm7C1PBOjYlXe99ffg/s4032/PXL_20220729_080709909.MP.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Fran and Christoph play Sjoelbak" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6dC2nl4lrgDyZI_tFXiRY-MXiXojCnxN29_j7fYb9uZWLvmGyjbmOEo0XfAtxqBvBR_5jACIvXKMwdFp_9VEs9YjUuUk87voLhLLbLBh4DsFMrmKGk9yM4LDHqz5MVxs6b9CYA2gw_R-esm_1bwi96p8W2HpoQFVKK-8mFzMm7C1PBOjYlXe99ffg/w320-h240/PXL_20220729_080709909.MP.jpg" title="Fran and Christoph play Sjoelbak" width="320" /></a></div><p>Friday (7/29) was my first non-working weekday of the trip, and also the day we were to make our way into Hamburg and then to Kiel. After saying goodbye to Brigitte and Jens (who were off to work and then a weekend on their boat), we had breakfast with Christoph and then played one final match of Sjoelbak - I held on to my title of weltmeister with a record-breaking (for us) last round. After that Christoph took us to the Ottersberg train station, where we caught the late morning train to Hamburg.</p><p>In Hamburg we had lunch with another of Fran's aunt's, Gabriela, her partner Ülle, and their daughter Leoni. The highlight of the meal was probably the nectarine and burrata salad to start, though the risotto was also quite good. After the meal, Gabriela took Fran and me for a walk along the Außenalster (a lake along the Alster river). Ülle, who had picked us up from the train station, then dropped us off at a U-Bahn station so we could take it out of the city center to meet up with Fran's friend Tjorven.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzbRoeMOkR9GuT2Bim4dQBcB300THzsM-o_nJZZtite4HRe18n3MWQLTvhhJo66hpVWzIq7OU0My4T44GLMXEgPeWUD9i6iixpFc0RPOKaET72jo1yTL0rSoxcpZ-8tsoX2_duu92DsCf8uoR_azeB9PSVIEx6M8o04bAHuKhKQe5AUhKU-xM1iw1c/s4032/PXL_20220729_161141368.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Tjorven and Benedict's backyard" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzbRoeMOkR9GuT2Bim4dQBcB300THzsM-o_nJZZtite4HRe18n3MWQLTvhhJo66hpVWzIq7OU0My4T44GLMXEgPeWUD9i6iixpFc0RPOKaET72jo1yTL0rSoxcpZ-8tsoX2_duu92DsCf8uoR_azeB9PSVIEx6M8o04bAHuKhKQe5AUhKU-xM1iw1c/w320-h240/PXL_20220729_161141368.jpg" title="Tjorven and Benedict's backyard" width="320" /></a></div><p>Tjorven picked us up at the Barmbek station, and then drove us to their home in Kiel. The time spent with them didn't get off to the best of starts when their daughter Tabea wailed loudly for most of the hour-plus ride up to Kiel because of the two new strangers in the car; but she was more than comfortable with us by the time we parted ways. We spent a couple of nights with the family (Tjorven, husband Benedict, son Klaas, daughter Tabea) in their house. Highlights during the stay included hanging out and having all our meals out in their spacious backyard, many of said meals including fresh vegetables from their garden, a walk along some neighborhood trails, and a visit to the forest and beach at Steilküste Stohl.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR7BM1Gz3MGnCqITj5iTmy7jU1MejIC1hnE9FxwsJaTSYLsXJ9M7kj-24vQbQXvjGn-gWzhEdUTn7bgs0u0ZOFFZAW6OmQHwZ5qYuYwdSh2jJvu0bUP19Dh5de5OShrTPoabDsTYzB10bm1_mp-7u35tGdTEaoyj_Xdpus2PLaI2DvuknjWZel_wFD/s4032/PXL_20220730_103334803.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Fran helps Klaas take a picture of Tjorven and Tabea" border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR7BM1Gz3MGnCqITj5iTmy7jU1MejIC1hnE9FxwsJaTSYLsXJ9M7kj-24vQbQXvjGn-gWzhEdUTn7bgs0u0ZOFFZAW6OmQHwZ5qYuYwdSh2jJvu0bUP19Dh5de5OShrTPoabDsTYzB10bm1_mp-7u35tGdTEaoyj_Xdpus2PLaI2DvuknjWZel_wFD/w320-h240/PXL_20220730_103334803.jpg" title="Fran helps Klaas take a picture of Tjorven and Tabea" width="320" /></a></div><p>We had a morning flight on Monday (8/1), so Tjorven and Fran decided that the best plan was for Tjorven to drive us (and the kids) to her parents' house in Hamburg where we would all spend the night; this also gave Tjorven a chance to return her mother's car, which she had used to pick us up. Her parents fed us a delicious dinner that evening, and we capped off the night watching the women's Euro 2022 football final.</p><p>---</p><p>Full pictures for the trip here: <a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/44Vf8gccA5UfLjTo7">https://photos.app.goo.gl/44Vf8gccA5UfLjTo7</a></p>Obi Orjihhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07928957745077683316noreply@blogger.com0