Yes, I'm one of 'those' girls ...

... and am a HUGE "Sex and the City" fan! Sure, last year's movie definitely had some slow/expendable parts, but even after seeing it in the theater, I've since watched it at least 10 times on DVD. A friend gave me the DVD for my birthday last year, and I ended up buying the Blu-ray version just last week.

Anyway, "Sex and the City 2" will be coming out next year. Don't know much about the plot lines, but you can bet I'll be seeing it soon after its release! The first trailer (just a teaser) came out yesterday:

Can't WAIT!

Avoiding a pick-up ... at 8 a.m.!

I walked up to my bus stop one morning last week. I was about the eighth person in line. A few people ahead of me was this Indian dude talking on a cell phone. He looked to be about my age, was shortish, and wearing a really strange/funky hat with crazy red, white and blue fringe on top. He looked my way a couple times, but I made sure to avoid his gaze. A couple minutes later, the bus pulled up. He got on, then a few people later, I followed. As I started walking down the aisle to the back half of the bus, in my peripheral vision, I saw him standing in an empty two-seat row. He looked at me and said, "You want to sit here?" pointing to the window seat. I pretended I hadn't heard him as I stepped into another row on the other side of the aisle a couple rows in front of him (my stop is the first on the route, so there were plenty of open seats). Then I pretended I'd just realized someone had said something to me, so I turned to look at him. He was still standing, and said "You can sit here," and I just kind of shrugged and said "Ohh...that's OK" as I turned around and sat down.

I must admit I was a little shocked that the guy was so bold at 8 in the morning! Sure, maybe he just geniunely wanted to meet someone new, or someone else Indian, but that 30-minute ride to work every morning is my time to read, listen to music or just tune out the world in general. So unless you're really, really cute, I'm likely not interested!

The entire bus ride after that, I was all paranoid that the guy was going to get off at my bus stop, and then try to talk to me on my way to my office. Thankfully, he either didn't get off at my stop, or else just didn't try to approach me. And then the next morning as I walked to my bus stop, I was all worried that he'd show up after me, and then rather than offer me a seat, he'd just come sit next to me (which I guess he could've done anyway that first day, but there were a lot of people still piling onto the bus at that point). I was relieved when he didn't show. Though I've been taking the same bus at the same time nearly every day since June, I'm pretty sure I'd never seen that particular guy before (much less any Indian guy, really!).

Some readers will think I'm being a bit cold with my attitude/avoidance, but it's more my fear of having to give someone the brush-off/heave-ho/rejection down the road. In my (perhaps overly optimistic) mind, I feel like I'll know when a guy is someone I'd be interested in talking to or getting to know better. At the very least, I'd like to think he'd be a bit more smooth -- and subtle -- in negotiating our first contact!

Trip reflections -- the good and the bad

The good:

The XE currency-converter application for iPhone really came in handy. I downloaded it before I left Seattle, and made sure to add my preferred currencies (for this trip, the Euro and Icelandic Kronur [didn't know then that I'd also be in the Czech Republic]). The app caches the latest exchange rate of your favorite currencies every time you go offline, so though my phone was in "Airplane Mode" (and thus not sending/receiving any kind of signals) my whole trip, I could still open that app to check the prices of things in U.S. Dollars. Since I hadn't made the Czech Koruny a favorite currency, before we headed to the country, I went to XE.com and ran the converter to find out that 100 CZK is about $5.80, so I just did the math whenever I had a price in CZK in front of me (yes, we chose three countries to visit that are on three different currencies!).

I borrowed my friend/boss' wee netbook to take on the trip. I think it weighs a couple pounds, and is about the size of a personal planner thingie. The computer was super helpful, and the only reason I was able to blog consistently at least every night. My cousin U, whom we stayed with for a week in the Netherlands, took her laptop with her to work (and didn't have a desktop), so that way we could still get online in her absence. Both the hostels we stayed in had (free!) WiFi, so we then didn't have to compete with other boarders for the shared computer, or deal with worrying about what sorts of exotic bugs we might pick up by using said shared computer ...

Wool socks rock! I have a few pairs of wool hiking socks, and they were my favorite pair to wear, especially since it was cold most places we went, and we did a lot of walking. The wool socks were warm, and because they were of the hiking variety, gave my feet a lot of support and cushioning.

Shoes were key. I think I spent most of my time in my Keen tennies. Thankfully, anticipating the cold in Iceland (but not yet knowing A and I would do the glacier hike), I also had on hand my new Merrell boots, which are insulated and rated to -25F. I must admit that even with those shoes and wool snowboarding socks on, my toes started getting cold a couple hours into our glacier walk. But overall, I was mostly semi-comfortable. I had taken my Converse lace-up boots, but my feet would start hurting towards the end of the day; they don't have good arch support, and we were doing a TON of walking. So next time, I'll either take low-tops (for casual/evening wear) and/or get some insoles to put in them.

Organized tours, though sniffed at by most people my age and younger, can be an awesome thing. It's so nice to hand over the reins to someone else, and then be led around the city. Plus, the guides give you all kinds of cool background info on what you're seeing. We also liked meeting some new people from other countries. Being that we were in Prague for only two full days (and an evening and morning on either side of those days), the tour helped us see the city's best highlights. And then, on our second day in the city, we had a bit of familiarity with the sights' layouts, and could go back and spend more time at our favorite places.

I highly recommend http://www.picnik.com for on-the-go photo editing, when you don't have a photo editor on your computer. Yes, it's a bit time-consuming, but they have all the tools you need -- crop, resize, sharpen, adjust exposure/brightness/colors. I used it to prep all the photos I ended up posting on this blog. Thanks for pointing me to the site, Noah!

The bad:

A and I had good intentions when we left Seattle -- we packed a bunch of fruit/nut bars, fruit leathers, applesauce containers and easy mac 'n cheese, intending to save money by eating those as snacks/meals whenever possible. However, once we got to one city or another, the draw to eat locally -- though not necessarily local -- was too strong. So we ended up bringing a lot of that stuff back!

We tried to rely on the maps supplied in our Lonely Planet/Time Out guidebooks, but those weren't always comprehensive/detailed enough to prevent us from getting lost at least once a day. As we didn't know we'd be in Prague before we left Seattle, we didn't have a guide book for it, and instead bought a city map at a convenience store as soon as we got into town. That map was so helpful, and made it very easy for us to navigate the city. Yes, it was a pain to have to unfold/refold the full-size map, but again, it helped us get around town more efficiently than we had anywhere else.

I didn't know in advance that money-exchange counters don't exchange coins -- though they're happy enough to hand them out to you in the local currency! So I came home with pocketfuls of change in Euros, Czech Koruny and Icelandic Kronur. We were happily able to get rid of some of the Euros on the Icelandair flight from Reykjavik to Seattle, though, as you can buy menu items in USD, Euros or with a credit card. We spent 6 Euros (about $9) on a sparse fruit salad and some nacho Doritos. Hey, at least the coins didn't go to waste ... the universe only knows how little USD those Euros will have next time (if ever) we're in a country that uses them!

I need to do a little test and weigh my suitcase when it's empty. I honestly didn't over pack (too much), but my bag when I first packed it was 60 pounds!! I was able to get it down to Icelandair's limit of 50 lbs, but I was scratching my head over why it'd been so heavy in the first place. In the end, it didn't seem like the Icelandair check-in folks paid too much attention to our bags' weights anyway, but I'm sure my arms appreciated those 10 extra pounds being gone.

Next time, I need to pack much lighter. A and I each had a 50-lb rolling suitcase, and then we had a third checked bag, which was a smaller suitcase that pretty much only held our sleeping bags. Then for A's carry-on, she had a duffel bag, and I had my purse (which was a bit on the bigger side, but small enough to stow under the airplane seat in front of me) and a rolling carry-on (with my neck pillow, extra books, travel games and computer). On the way home, we also ended up checking in a day-pack, as both our suitcases were over the limit. All these bags made getting around on public transportation (trains and buses) a bit sweat-inducing and stressful. But, bear in mind that traveling in winter time inevitably means packing bulkier and heavier clothing, plus shoes for rain/cold/snow.

Overall, I'm happy with how everything on our trip went in general, considering that I hadn't really traveled anywhere in seven years. I didn't forget to pack anything major, we did successfully get our bags lugged around everywhere, we enjoyed the sights in all the cities we went to, and the hostels I ended up booking for us turned out to be really good (yes, even the 10-bed place in Reykjavik!). Certainly, it'll be much easier to plan and then go on my next travel adventure!

Day 13: Last hours in Reykjavik (and on our trip)

Due to another 10 a.m. check-out time at our hostel, A and I got up around 8. I hopped in the shower, and then we began packing up the last of our belongings. We parked our bags by the front desk, and then set out on foot. We mainly wanted to do some shopping.. We saw and fell in love with some jackets at 66 North, and Icelandic outerwear company, but everything was super expensive (the thin down jacket I liked was $383), so I only left with a kids' hat (and A with nothing). We found a random store a block away called The Viking, where we each picked up a much cheaper jacket (though wind/water proof, not down). A also picked up a cute wool hat at another store. On our way back to the hostel, we stopped at a famous hot-dog stand where Bill Clinton once ate. I got a hot dog with gremolata (? it's a variation of mayonnaise) and fried onions. SO GOOD! We were tipped off to the place by Johanna, of course.

Here's a shot of downtown Reykjavik, which is, conveniently, about three blocks from our hostel:

And finally, we made one last stop, to the harbor, and took some shots of and in front of the beautiful scenery we saw for the first time (all our other outings in Reykjavik were in the dark).

Thank you, Island, it's been great, and we hope to experience more of you sometime in the future!

With that I'm officially wrapping up the extended blog coverage from our trip ... see you in Seattle!

Day 12: Glacier walking in Iceland

Well, our two-week adventure is just about done. We're going out with a bang, though, as today was a really fantastic glacier walk in southern Iceland on the Sólheimajökull glacier tongue (don't ask me to try and pronounce that, I just copied and pasted it from the Web site!). A and I rolled out of bed around 7:30 a.m. and sloooowly got dressed in the dark, as all our roommates (by yesterday morning, there were three other girls in here) were still sleeping. I have a lot of plastic bags in my suitcase, as well as one huge and very loud space bag, so I actually took my suitcase into the hall so I could open it up and root around to get what I needed for the day.

By 8:30, we were in our hostel lobby, and soon after, the Reykjavik Excursions shuttle bus pulled up to get us. After picking up some other folks in nearby hostels, we were off. It was a two-hour drive to the glacier, and around 10, the sun finally started coming up, and we got some great views:

During the ride, I also realized that sh*t, I'd forgotten my gloves!! We stopped at a service station about 30 minutes from the glacier to visit the restroom and buy food, and luckily they had some Polartec fleece gloves for sale. They were a bit small, but I just found the largest pair, and bought them without even looking at the price.

Then, we all (there were about 12 of us, and two guides) arrived at the end of the glacier "tongue," and split into two groups. Our guide was named Atna (or something ... that's his name in my blog, anyway). We got fitted for crampons, and got ice axes. Then we walked a few hundred feet out past the car-park area, and sat down to strap on our crampons. Atna gave us about two minutes of training on walking with the crampons, and then we were off:

Because no snow had fallen on the glacier, we didn't have to worry about ice bridges or hidden cravasses. The ground was solid ice, and you could see the blue of the water/ice very clearly (the dust/dirt everywhere is thanks to all the winds and volcanic dust that gets blown around):

Obligatory shot with the ice axe held in a funny position..:

Atna takes us through an ice tunnel:

Atna helps someone get up and out of the ice tunnel:

Etc.:

The weather was of course cold (I'd say in the 20s, Fahrenheit), and we even had some snow flurries. Plus it got windier and windier the higher up we went. Atna would periodically just stop and look around for seemingly no reason at all, and we'd all just stand around him, waiting...waiting...and then he'd whistle some tune after a few minutes and set off again. Very strange, and not super fun when we were amid the wind gusts!

On the way back to Reykjavik, we stopped to visit two waterfalls, Skógafoss and Seljalandsfoss. I'm beat now, so I'll try to post pics of those later (they're your basic waterfalls, no offense, Icelanders!). On the 1.5-hour journey from the second waterfall to Reykjavik, darkness quickly fell, and the bus was really silent. We got back to our hostel around 6:30 p.m. Turned out we had a new roommate, also Indian, but from Australia. She (let's call her S), A and I all hit it off right away, and headed out around 8 (A wanted to shower) to track down an Italian restaurant recommended by the hostel's receptionist. We set out, and immediately got lost (yeah, surprise! street signs are a rare commodity in downtown Reykjavik, at least for us!). We walked in a couple big circles, asked a couple random folks for help, and then finally stumbled into the restaurant a good 40 minutes later (we discovered on the way back that the place was actually only about 5 blocks from our hostel ...). The food was good (especially the delicious warm chocolate cake we got for dessert), but due to super slow service, we didn't pay our bill until 11:30 p.m. We were going to stop by a bar on the way back to "meet people," but the cold was getting to us by that point, so we ended up just coming right back. A and I spent some time trying to pack up most of our bags, as we have to check out by 10 a.m. tomorrow. Our flight back home to Seattle isn't until nearly 5, so we have a few hours to kill between check-out and catching the FlyBus to the airport -- we'll spend those hours shopping downtown, and finally seeing Reykjavik in the daylight for the first time!

OK, exhausted ... Pooja out.

Day 11: Travel day, arrival in Reykjavik and most hilarious pic EVAR!

Oh MAN!! I caught A unawares in our hostel as I snapped a pic of her from my top bunk while she was e-mailing. Thanks for being a sport about my posting this, A. It's too hilarious for the rest of the world to not see!!

Anyway, moving on ... We had a thankfully less dramatic departure from the Netherlands this morning, thanks to the hours of packing we put in last night (though I hardly slept last night, and am really feeling the burn now). We said our goodbyes to U around 9:45 after the taxi guy pulled up, and then we began the fun task of lugging all our bags downstairs and out of her building, and then through the train station and onto the train itself. Thankfully, it wasn't rush hour -- it's like India times 10 in the train stations then, there're so many people -- but it was still taxing. Thankfully, we had some assistance with bags here and there from some other train riders.

Once we got go Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam (after about a 30-minute train ride from Utrecht), we checked in our bags and then set off to do some duty-free shopping, mainly for items requested by our Dad. We found one item he wanted (Sennheisen [sp?] headphones), but we'll have to try for the others in Keflavik Airport here in Iceland. Our flight from Amsterdam to Keflavik was about three hours long. We had a great view of Iceland as we flew in; A snapped a few pics from her window-seat vantage point:

As you can see, it's pretty barren! Though I don't think we passed over Reykjavik itself, which is where I think the bulk of Iceland's population resides. After we arrived at Keflavik, got our bags, and began heading toward the exit, we two, among the sea of white people, were of course pulled aside for a random Customs check!! Thankfully, it was painless; they just re-x-rayed all our bags, and then we finally were on our way. We stepped out into the frigid air (-2 degrees C/28 degrees F) to hop on the FlyBus that most people seemed to be also hopping onto. This took us on a 50-minute drive into Reykjavik, and then we hopped a smaller shuttle at the bus terminal that took us to our actual hostel.

Our hostel is right in the middle of downtown Reykjavik, which is really convenient. And though our room is a 10-bed, female-only ensuite (meaning, we share one bathroom inside our room), there's only one girl in here besides A and me. The guy at the front desk, who I believe is Australian, has been amazingly helpful. He even, at our request, booked a day tour for us (more on that in a sec) and charged it to the hostel. We then paid the hostel back with our own credit cards. After plonking our bags down in our room, we consulted our (via Johanna) Lonely Planet guidebook, and decided to walk a couple blocks down the street to a tapas restaurant. After dinner (which was good, but nothing exciting), we walked a bit further into the downtown area, and swung through a grocery store to pick up some food for tomorrow's outing. We then came back to the hostel around 8, and are now getting ready to head back out to chillax at a cafe. Apparently the cafes become dance clubs in the late evenings, so A and I will take separate key cards so she can stay out late and party and meet "people" if she so desires.

As for tomorrow's outing, we're actually going on a glacier walk, which sounds super amazing. I think we'll be gone for 10 hours total, but four of those hours will be spent on the road getting to and from the glacier. We get to wear crampons and wield an ice axe and everything! If you want to know more about what we'll be doing, there's more info on the Icelandic Mountain Guides' Web site. Think it's supposed to be partly sunny tomorrow (or, at least, not wet), so this should be a really special experience. More tomorrow night, of course!

And I must of course toss a huge thank you to Johanna, for the guide book, e-mailed/phone advice and even helping us find this great hostel!

Day 10: Lots of running around

Waited too long to write this up, so it's gonna be quick. Just got too caught up in catching up with U after our Prague jaunt, and then A and I tried to get the bulk of our packing done. We were successful, in my opinion, but as it's now nearly 1 a.m., and we're planning to be up at 7:30 a.m., I'm sure it's still going to be a bit of a manic morning tomorrow (we're going to order a taxi for 9:45 a.m. to take us to the train station).

Our trip back to Utrecht was uneventful; we checked out of our hostel (which, for the great reveal, was the Prague Lion -- I'll try to write more about it later) around 9:45 a.m., and stashed our luggage in their luggage-storage room. Headed to Old Town Square and picked up those last-minute souvenirs I mentioned yesterday. Then we sat down for a huge breakfast at a restaurant in Old Town Square, right in front of the Astronomical Clock. It was sunny/warm enough that with the help of the nearby heater lamp, I was able to enjoy my breakfast in just my T-shirt and thin microfleece -- really nice way to stay goodbye to the city. Oh, and FYI, Johanna: Not much further action on the whole Christmas-tree/booths thing. The light strands had been put up about halfway down the tree, and the booths had red felt roofs, but that was it.

Got back to U's around 6:30.. more paneer for dinner, and two servings of tea to bookend the food. Then we were delighted to discover an episode of "Australian Border Patrol" on the TV. Saw an amusing bit on a Chinese lady who was very distressed that she couldn't bring her boxes of mushrooms (with no name in English) into the country ...

OK, fading fast, I'm off!