Frostbite and Natural Selection

The Golden Circle is a route in southern Iceland encompassing some of the more impressive geological sites that can be reached within a day trip of Iceland.  The geysers were a part of it.  Most of the Golden Circle, however, are waterfalls - impressively large cascades of water.  The first was the waterfall Faxi.

There was even a ladder for salmon to travel upstream.

A little ways up the road was the even more impressive waterfall Gullfoss.  This is one case where the pictures definetly don't do it justice - Gullfoss is the same order of magnitude of Niagra Falls and is actually two seperate waterfalls - one 11 meter high and the next 21 meter high.  The second waterfall disappears into a crevice, so the full extent of the second waterfall is hidden. 

Seeing Gullfoss in the wintertime was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.  The winter temperatures caused large sections of the waterfall to freeze, resulting in huge ice formations. 

It was so cold staring over the edge of Gullfoss, and I felt like I would soon turn into a frostbit tourist.  However, the beauty was hard to tear myself away from.

Icelanders believe in natural selection.  Therefore, there are no warning signs or similar measures to protect touists.  It also means that they don't put down any sand or salt anywhere, including the main tourist destination of Gullfoss.  If you fall, it's your own fault.  I suppose it explains why Icelanders are a tough, if small, populace.

Walking on ice

Interestingly enough, Gullfoss waterfall features in the music video of the popular song "Heaven" by Live, where two lovers are seperated by the mighty waterfall, and end up jumping into the river to be together.  This blog by no means endorces such a drastic action, especially near large bodies of potentially violent water.

The Christmas Tree and the Bike

Christmas is once again approaching, and for us in the Netherlands, this means one thing:

How am I going to get that Christmas tree home?

There are plenty of lovely Christmas trees that are being sold this time of year.  In the market, in the grocery stores.  In stalls set up on the streets, fresh from local gardeners.  Some are in pots, others are freshly cut.  There are trees made of various forms of shruberry, pruned to cone shapes.  Some are even herbs, such as rosemary, with lights and ornaments hung from their delicate leaves, that can be recycled into food later.

Transporting these varieties home is always an adventure.  I, and many others who live here, don't just have a pick up truck to throw the tree in the back of.  Like everything else we do here, there is one two options for transportation - by bike, or by foot.

My first stop was to a local garden center.  They had lovely trees, all 5-6 feet high or larger.  The Dutch sellsman tried to convince me to buy one.  "I would love one," I said, "but I came here by bike and don't have a car."

"Not a problem," he said, and he began to explain to me how to balance the top of the tree over the handlebars while carrying the base of the tree one handed as I biked home.

I don't know about him - but I'm certainly not that coordinated.

Then there are the potted variety.  Last year, I bought a small potted tree (about 2 feet tall).  It survived until about April, when it decided to spontaneously die and loose all of its needles.  I decided then it was time for it to go in the trash, but there is something particular about the trash bins here.  There aren't communal dumpsters, rather, there are giant underground trash bins which you must access with a pass-card.  At the end of the year, how much your pass-card was used will determine how much you pay for trash that year.  The pass-card opens a small area which is big enough for one normal-ish trash bag.   

It's not big enough for a two foot dead Christmas tree, with pot, it turns out.

I don't have a saw so I couldn't cut the tree apart, so I decided to just shove the entire tree into this small opening.  A half hour later, I finally managed to get the tree into the container, while the container itself had thousands of dried up pine needles, a few dozen small branches, and some of my blood scattered around it.

Not a good idea.

So perhaps a better solution was to get a plant that I would know would survive longer than a couple of months, and wouldn't look weird in my apartment year-round.   One of those shaped ornamental shruberies seemed like a good idea.  I found a very nice one, and decided to just walk it home.  But then I picked it up, and realized that there was no way I could walk home (about a 30 minute walk) holding this massive pot with a tiny little shrubbery coming off the top.

I also played with the idea of getting a cut tree and somehow bungee-cording it to my bike.  The success of this method depended on a critical balance of coordination and skill, something I was sure I didn't have either of.

So finally, I came up with a solution.  I could make my own tree!  I bought several packs of tree-like garland.   These are much easier to carry than a whole tree!

Even still, the garland was quite large, and bungeeing it to my bike caused it to hang off considerably in both directions.  But I made it home without leaving a trail of garland behind me.

Garland - hanging on with bungee-cords, a bike lock, and sheer will!

Turning it into a tree was then quite a project, but an hour later, an old shoebox filled with a can of paint and old appliance manuals (for balance) came together with a mop handle and, of course, the garland itself, to make a lovely tree!

Merry Christmas, y'all!

Winning the Noble Prize

After crossing on the ferry (and receiving little sleep), we arrived very early in Stockholm - just after 6 am.  After navigating the subways on very little sleep, we decide to check into our hotel... at 7:45 am.  The man at the hotel took one look at us and at our bags as we walked into the hotel, then one at the clock.  "You want to check in before the hotel breakfast time even starts?" he asks us.  Luckily, our room was ready...

Awesome room!

And we were able to go back to bed for a while.

Then we head out to the city.  Apparently, it's the nicest summer that the Nordic countries has seen in 10 years, and everyone was out and about to enjoy it.

People in the skate park.

Stockholm has lots of waterfront property, given the fact that it spans many island.  A point if you can guess how many (no google!)

The combination of sun and water gives rise to some really nice picnic places.

Of course, the weather is not always like this.  This sign serves as a reminder of the rest of the year.

And of course, no modern European city visit is complete without a cow sighting.

We visited the hall where Nobel Prizes are awarded.  Next time we visit this building, it may well be to receive this award ourselves!

In front of the tower.

Later on that day, we actually did receive Noble Prizes!  Nobel Prizes in ice cream eating.

Stockholm is also known for its interesting metro stops.  If you visit in the winter and the weather is horrible, one of the suggested itineraries is to go from metro stop to metro stop and look at the art.  Our favorite by far was the metro stop decked out in retro video game tiled walls. 

And of course, no retro video game metro station is complete without space invaders...

... in love.

Another one is decorated with "fake" ruins and neon street lights.

Even in the summer, it can get a little chilly.  But the Swedes,  after not seeing the sun all winter, still want to enjoy outdoor cafes.  The solution?  Many cafes provide blankets so you can sit outside and not be cold.

Battlefield: Sun

It seems all I do is complain.

All year long, I have been complaining on how cold, rainy, and windy the Netherlands has been.  Now it is none of these things.  It's hot.  The humid air hangs in a stagnant, unmoving mass above the city, with no hope for a refreshing rain shower.

And still, I complain.

Yeah, yeah.  I've lived in Texas.  I should be used to the heat, right?  Well, there is one important difference.  In Texas, you wake up in your nice air-conditioned house.  You walk into your garage, which is slightly warmer, get in your car, turn on the AC, drive to work, run into your building, where it is air-conditioned to a good 60* F cooler than the outside.  You feel pretty dumb bringing a sweater to work when it's 120* outside.  The hottest part of your day is when you come back to your car at the end of the day, which has been parked outside all day and is now hotter than super-critical plutonium.

But Dutch summer is something completely different.  Sure, it is not as hot, but there is NO RELIEF.  No air conditioned bedroom to sleep in.  No freezing office.  Not even a cool grocery store to walk around in for a break.  It's hot.  Everywhere.  

Figure 1: Idiotic window design

It turns out that my house has a pretty idiotic window design.  (Figure 1)  The only way to get fresh air into the house is to crack open the window, which opens about a fraction of a millimeter.  This pretty much eliminates any hope for a breeze (if there was a breeze in the first place).  And since I live on the top floor, that means all the hot air goes into my apartment and stays there.

Because of this, my apartment has pretty much been at 30* C (or 86* F) for a week.  It is hotter inside than outside, and at least outside, you can feel fresh air on your skin.

I have therefore waged battle on the sun.  The curtains are always closed, but this pretty much blocked what little air I could get from my window (open a fraction of a millimeter).  I tried putting a yoga mat up in the window to block the light but let in the air, but after a few days, the yoga mat melted.  So finally, I taped aluminium foil up in the window.  I ran out of tape, so I used whatever sticky things I had left.  I knew I was saving that gum for something!

Ahh!  Immediate relief!  I can feel the temperature drop already.  Take that sun!

Just remind me of this in two weeks when the rain comes back and I again go into sun withdrawal.

Heading North for the Summer

Greetings from Helsinki!

 

For our summer vacation this year, we headed up to the farthest north we've ever been.  We started our trip in Helsinki.  The Helsinki skyline is dominated by two large churches, both very different.  The first is an Orthodox church, built on top of a rock, dominating the skyline with its green domes topped in gold.

The inside was beautiful and ornate, as Orthodox churches often are (and, unfortunately, un-photograph-able as well).  But we were able to see a wedding at the church, including seeing a bunch of kids throw rose petals directly at the bride.

The other church is the Evangelical Lutheran Church, which has a much different character.   It also sits high above the city, but is purely white, again topped in green domes. 

The inside is much plainer, but it features an incredible organ.

Check out the gold finnish on that organ!  Ba-dum-dum.

Another interesting church Helsinki has is the famous "church in a rock".  Instead of building ON a rock, like the other churches, they decided to cut construction costs and blast a hole in a big piece of granite, and building their church in the hollowed out area inside. 

By doing this, their church is pretty unpretentious on the outside.   In fact, people even come to sunbathe on the roof of the church.

A woman in a bikini, sunbathing on a church.

 The inside is pretty cool though - with all of the walls made of pure rock.

Finland was enjoying an uncommonly warm summer.  As typical for places that don't get a lot of sun for the rest of the year (cough Netherlands cough), once it is sunny, everyone heads outside.  And it sure was nice to be outside as well.  There were plenty of places to sit along the water and enjoy the sun.

Some people even took walks ON the water!

While in Helsinki, we also tried the local cuisine - Hesburger (the Finnish equivalent of McDonalds) with its addictive mayonnaise, recommended to us by our Finnish friend Sami.

Are you Finnish-ed with your fries?  Ba-dum-dum.

People in Finland aren't quite as excited about their bikes as the Dutch, but there were still a lot of bikes to be seen, including this one, which is now mostly rust, with a wine bottle in the back basket.

It would make the Dutch proud.

Helsinki also has this weird monument that tourists (like us) travel halfway across the city to see.

It tried sucking Bram's brain out.

Luckily I was able to talk to the big steel man and I put a stop to that. 

Near the ocean, we see one of the huge cruise ship/ferries, being loaded with a semi truck!

The street signs were in both Finnish (on top) and Swedish (on bottom).   Oddly enough, when we were in Sweden, none of the signs were in Finnish.  I had no chance of understanding the Finnish, however, the Swedish actually seemed a bit natural to me, having Germanic roots.  Finnish, on the other hand, is part of the Uralic language group, which I have never heard about before this trip.

I can almost understand the Swedish.

 Helsinki also had some disturbing sculptures.

Why?

Do you know Santa lives in Finland?  He actually is from Lapland.  Lapland is well known for its interesting winter landscapes like this.  But, luckily, we did not visit Finland in the winter.  During the summer, Santa heads south, and runs a mini-mart. 

Ok, so we didn't see snow, and we didn't see the Northern Lights.  Actually, the Northern Lights are visible (at least from the northern parts of Finland) for 9 months out of the year.  But not during the summer.  Why?  Well, they are too busy showing off their sunshine, available at all hours of the day or night!  Here is the view from our hotel room after 11 pm.

Land of the Almost Midnight Sun.

Enjoying all that sunshine.

We finnished of the day (ba-dum-dum) by going to listen to a cover band for the Beatles.  They weren't half bad, and even reminded me of the Beatles in their younger days.

And for a point: of the songs covered in this video, what was the earliest one released by the Beatles? (no google)

Where Dutch People Fear to Tread

A cold spring caused us to put it off as long as possible... but finally, we could wait no longer.  On the last day my parents were here, we went to the Dutch national flower show - the utterly massive botanical garden known as the Keukenhof.

It's open for just a couple of months every year, when the flowers - mostly hyacinths, daffodils, and tulips, are in full bloom.  

When talking to my Dutch friends about the Keukenhof, I found that not a single one has ever stepped inside.  Were tulips just too common in their minds?  Perhaps when you grow up surrounded by millions of flowers, they aren't a big deal anymore?

As one of my friends put it - she envisioned the inside of the Keukenhof being filled with millions of tourists, all with cameras, bent over the flowers, completely oblivious to the world outside them and flowers.

Nothing could be closer to the truth.

And I am not innocent of this - I went through my entire media card in my camera in one day along with both batteries.  I finally had to stop taking pictures, no, not because I wanted to, but because I had to.

But really, I could not help myself.  The outdoor grounds of the Keukenhof are put together by very talented gardeners, who don't just plant the tulips and other flowers, but put them together into very artistic displays.

Unfortunatly, it has been a cold spring, so a lot of the tulips outdoors were still not blooming.  But, there were tons of daffodils and hyacinths (which smell amazing, by the way), along with some cold-weather hardy tulips.

Many of the tulips remained in bud form:

As we ate lunch in the Keukenhof, we found that this duck made a living by sneaking up to people behind this hedge and darting his head out.  I don't know if he was trying to be cute to earn bread, or if he had dreams of being a raptor.

My parents and I make our way across the water.

Seeing all these flowers raises the questionIt taxed my mind - how many different ways can you take a picture of a tulip?

There's the close-up:

Balancing on your toes while hovering overhead:

From the side:

In bud form:

With other tulips receding into the distance:

And from underneath:

Most of the flowers have very creative names.

Finally, we reach the apex of the show.  Especially with it being so cold outside, most of the tulips are blooming inside the main "tulip greenhouse".  There are literally thousands of variety of tulips inside - millions of flowers.  The smell of so many flowers penetrates your very inner being.

My mom immediately took off, taking pictures as she went.  

My dad looks a bit overwhelmed.  He, however, took the longest of all of us to get through the greenhouse.

Later that afternoon, my mom told me "I'm exhausted.  I can't take another picture of a flower."  I actually reached mom's limit!  It lasted only about 15 minutes however, until we saw the next interesting flower.

They even had the rare, man-eating variety of tulip.

Along with these spiny creatures.

So much red!

They even had some concept gardens on display.

All white:

Trailer home:

And the lazy-man's garden.

Some wild animal, loose among the flowers.

And finally, to round out the day, the obligatory "tulip and windmill" photo.