Keflavik (the FIT Hostel Experience) (Post #12)
June 15th, 2005This is just a quick post to update our blog on our last night in Iceland.
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Myvatn, Iceland (Post #11)
June 13th, 2005On Saturday, June 11, we took a bus from Akureyri to Myvatn, a small village next to a lake. Unfortunately, we missed the 8:00am bus because the hostel owner told us the bus left at 8:30 when it actually left at 8:00. The next bus left at 10:00am but went through a small town more north called Husavik. This turned out to be a good thing because the drive to Husavik was breathtakingly beautiful and the town itself was lovely. We got to walk around it for 20 minutes before the bus left to our final destination of Myvatn. Here is a picture of Akureyri.
Akureyri, Iceland (Post #10)
June 10th, 2005Today we took a 45 minute flight to Akureyri, Iceland which is a town in the north. We went to our usual bakery in Reykjavik this morning where Michele can get 3 cups of coffee for 100 ISK ($1.70) – which is a steal here.
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Reykjavik, Iceland – Part 2 (Post #9)
June 9th, 2005In the past 3 days we have done a variety of things in Iceland. We spent a couple of days wandering around downtown and getting in a fair amount of walking after we took the bus the first day and realized we could walk to the downtown area. We ate a lot of interesting food and for dinner one night we went to an “All U Can Eat” Fish Buffet – fish is a big thing here and there is no shortage of it.
Today we went to the Laugardalur pool, which is next door to our hut. This is the largest natural water geothermal pool in Iceland. After that we went on a 6 hour tour of geological features in the country side surrounding Reykjavik. The tour is called the Golden Circle tour and included some famous Icelandic sites. A couple of photos appear below but you can see more on our webshots site (link is below after the two photos).
Picture of us in front of the famous waterfall, Gullfoss
Itinerary (Post #8)
June 8th, 2005First, thank you to everyone who made comments, especially about the links not working. We are learning more and more all the time about posting links to various things in our blog and I think we have it figured out now. So, the links should be fixed.
Also, we just posted our gear list (see post #5) since that is a frequently asked question that we get. The other question we frequently get is “Where are you going?” Of course, we will not list here all the gory details of every city in every country – besides, WE don´t even know that yet – but we do know we will travel within the counties in our itinerary via bus, train, ferry, and plane. Anyway, for all inquiring minds, here is the answer to the burning question, “So, where will you be over the next year?”
Reykjavik, Iceland (Post #7)
June 7th, 2005We are finally here in Iceland after a long red eye flight. A picture of the hut we are staying in can be found by clicking
here. More pictures and commentary coming later….right now we want to eat and bathe.
We love blog comments but if for some reason you want to say something to us more directly, please email us — mikeandmichelertw at hotmail dot com (appropriate punctuation changes will be required of course).
The Struggle to Get it All Done (Post #6)
June 7th, 2005Many of you probably wonder what happened to our blog, why we didn´t post it, why you never heard from us, etc. Well, the simple truth is, we really struggled to get everything done that we had to get done before leaving on the trip. The move into our 10×10 storage unit was supposed to take 1 day but for a number of reasons our move out ended up taking 4 days. The last week it seemed like everything that could go wrong did go wrong and at times it felt like our list of 400 “to do” items was not all going to get done. The “it would be good if…” items were completely discarded but we managed to check off the last two mandatory items (call Michele´s Dad and cancel our cell phone service) in the car on the way to the airport. (A big THANK YOU to Mike´s parents for driving us to Baltimore-Washington International airport.)
Here we are with our 30 pound packs about to get in the car and drive to the airport.
Click (here) to view.
We love blog comments but if for some reason you want to say something to us more directly, please email us — mikeandmichelertw at hotmail dot com (appropriate punctuation changes will be required of course).
Gear List (Post #5)
June 4th, 2005Ah yes…the gear list…what everyone wants to know (besides the itineray). “So, what are you bringing with you?” everyone asks. Our packs weight about 6 pounds by themselves and 30 pounds each with all the stuff in them. If we add our day bags to our packs this adds another 4 pounds. Mike´s is 4800 cubic inches and Michele´s is 4100 cubic inches. We do not have any cotton in our packs. All our clothes are made of quick dry material and can dry in about 2-3 hours. We also focused on buying things made out of light weight materials such as a titanium spork (spoon-fork combo) and many things in our pack serve two functions – for example pants that can also serve as shorts when the legs are zipped off. Anyway, here is the list:
Each of us has:
pants (Mike has 2 zip off to shorts, 1 regular, Michele has 1 zip off, 1 regular)
2 long sleeve button down shirts that convert to short sleeve
2 short sleeve t-shirts
1 long sleeve t-shirt
skirt and tights (Michele only of course)
shorts
3 pairs underwear
3 pairs socks
3 jog bras (Michele)
2 tank tops (Michele)
Marmot rain jacket
turtle neck
light weight fleece zip up (Michele only)
medium weight fleece pull over
bandana
winter (knit) hat
sun hat
gloves
mittens (Mike only)
sandals
hiking shoes
bikini swim suit (Michele)
belt
multi-tool (Mike has Leatherman with knife, can opener, etc; Michele has credit card size 5-in-1 tool with knife, compass, magnifying glass, etc.)
MP3 player
Lonely Planet guidebooks
toothbrush
toothpaste
dental floss
sun protective lip balm
sun screen
soap
shampoo
disposable razors
hair tie rubber bands
quick-dry towel
glasses
duffle bag for pack (for putting on airplanes)
pad lock
watch
sunglasses
ID (passport, driver´s license)
Yellow fever certificate and list of vaccinations and immunizations
sleep sheets
travel cup
spork
1-l.e.d. light
journal
travel alarm
blow-up neck pillow
sleep mask
ear plugs
malaria pills
antibiotic pills
passport photos (12 each)
caribeaners
vitamins
prescription medicine
wallet
comb
hairbrush (Michele)
contact case with mirror (Michele)
backup contact lenses (Michele)
contact solution (Michele)
tampons and panty liners (Michele only – obviously!)
reading glasses (Michele only – Mike is too young for these!)
batteries
salt packs
pens and mechanical pencils
1 eye pencil and small blush (Michele´s make up)
traveler´s checks
cash
ATM card
credit cards
copies of important documents
day pack
Shared stuff:
zip lock bags of various sizes
deck of cards
antibacterial (wet) wipes
hand sanitizer
safety pins
duct tape wrapped around ink pen
mirror
calculator
universal sink drain plug
kleenex
q-tips
antibiotic ointment
thermometer
sewing kit
clothesline
campsuds (detergent)
5 SD cards (for camera and MP3 players)
motion sickness pills
sleeping pills
vivarin (caffiene) pills
iodine pills
DEET
Kwik (pictogram) cards
language books and (electronic files)
camera
camera charger
electrical adapters
hand and toe warmers
super glue
cork screw
little plastic and rubber insects (to give out to kids)
bandaids
shoe laces
lotion
Whew! No wonder our packs weigh so much! So that´s what we will be carrying with us for the next year.
We love blog comments but if for some reason you want to say something to us more directly, please email us — mikeandmichelertw at hotmail dot com (appropriate puctuation changes will be required of course).
The Final Countdown (Post #4)
June 2nd, 2005Well, a lot has been happening since our last entry. we’ve been trying to throw together all the last-minute details of this trip while selling Michele’s 1994 Acura Integra, finding a storage facility for Mike’s Lexus GS400, and packing the entire 2 bedroom + loft apartment into a 10′ x 10′ climate controlled storage unit. Check out this picture of a tightly 3/4 packed 10′ x 10′ storage unit!…
Meanwhile we finally got our tickets for all flights through entry into mainland South America at Santiago, Chile. We do not yet have our return trip (to the U.S.) booked yet because, a) at the time we booked all the other legs of the trip the tickets for our departure from South America could not be booked yet (tickets cannot be booked more than 330 days in advance) and b) we wanted to allow for some flexibility on returning to the U.S. We’ve also been making copies of lots of documents, buying traveler’s checks and practicing packing our packs. We’ll tell you about all the stuff we’re bringing and what our itinerary is in another blog post.
We love blog comments but if for some reason you want to say something to us more directly, please email us — mikeandmichelertw at hotmail dot com (appropriate puctuation changes will be required of course).
The Anti-Malarials Saga (Post #3)
May 25th, 2005As with many aspects of trip planning, there has been much debate about what the best anti-malarial prophylaxis would be. A few weeks ago Michele got a prescription of 300 capsules of Doxycycline filled to cover her from the time we land in Kenya until a month after we return to the U.S. Mike attempted to get his primary care physician to prescribe a similar course but he would only commit to a 60-day prescription (60 x 100mg capsules). Since we had to go to a special travel medical clinic in order to get our Yellow Fever vaccinations, we decided to just consult with the medical staff there about which anti-malarial would be best for us and our intended destinations. After consulting with the medical doctor at the travel medicine clinic, he told us that taking Doxycycline for 300 days could result in more harm than good. Based on this information, we decided to go with different types of anti-malarial drugs. We also learned some areas of the world have strains of malaria which are resistant to some of the more commonly used drugs that we decided to use. To make a long story short, we decided to bring Malarone – to use from late October when we are in Kenya through mid -March when we are in Singapore – and Lariam for the South American areas. While Míke´s health insurance would cover these drugs, Michele´s HMO would not. Michele decision to use these drugs anyway was tough because these medications ended up costing her $700. Because of the cost, the inconvenience of carrying so many pills and the sometimes unpleasant side effects of some of these drugs, many people opt to just go ahead and travel to areas with malaria and chance getting the disease then they just undergo a course of treatment if and when they become infected. We were not sure we wanted to do that so we finally decided to each purchas 145 Malarone capsules and 10 Lariam capsules. We will use the Malarone in Africa, India and South East Asia and switch to Lariam in South America after a short break from anti-malarials while in New Zealand.
Mike subsequently tried one of his Lariam to ensure he could pleasantly tolerate any of the drug’s side-effects. After a week he’s had no problems. Michele decided she could not afford to try any of these out (cine her HMO seems to have shorted her one) so we hope she doesn´t experience any of the negative effects associated with Lariam. Stay tuned on that one…
We love blog comments but if for some reason you want to say something to us more directly, please email us — mikeandmichelertw at hotmail dot com (appropriate puctuation changes will be required of course).
Michele Harmon
