Please ma'am

May we have some hand sanitize please? 

Apparently the men's bathrooms weren't as impressive as the ladies 

Oktoberfest

I feel like all I've done this blog is write about how things are "unlike anything I've ever seen before", but time and again that phrase proves to be accurate and Oktoberfest is certainly not the exception.

I can only start at the beginning, with our first round of maß at the Hofbrauhaus Bier Garden:   

Pleasant Oktoberfest surprises:

- Amazing food.  Schnitzel and spätzle, beer and apple strudel oh my. 

I'm turning into a cross between a maß, a schnitzel and sausage. Not exactly the most girlish of figures to be sure. 

- zero lines at the surprisingly clean-ish ladies WC, it seems the disproportionate male to female ratio works in my favor on this one. I have a picture but I'll spare you all. 

- The dirndl and leiderhosen, and I'm not talking about the sleezy Americanized Halloween costume version (though I did see those too). Rather a traditional dress that we saw not only at the Weisen but around town, on trains and I stores.  It was beautiful and very cool. 

- the speed with which one can obtain yet another maß.  Seriously, these waitresses take care of business.  Off waited longer for a drink at a half empty bar before. 

Because clearly, we were in desperate need of more. :)  And make no mistake, while Dan and Ryan are most frequent subjects of my pictures, we were all right there with them.  

Happy Oktoberfest to you! 

It's so fós-y

Things that were left off the list of things I was told about Iceland: the waterfalls and the rainbows. 

It appears that even a minor amount of Internet research would have enlightened me as to the waterfalls but nothing, nothing could have prepared me for the rainbows.

In an Iceland state of mind

The drive from Keflavik to Reykjavik boggles the brain a bit in that after a 6 hour overnight flight, it appears that you may have in fact landed on Mars.  With one smooth road leading the path through the volcanic fields to Reykjavik, there's nothing but moss covered volcanic rock endlessly on either side of you. 

 

Even more surreal is that a short nap, a short drive and some hiking later, those Martian-like lava fields turn into some of the most rugged, yet simultaneously rolling green/brown/yellow/red mountains and waterfalls I've ever seen. 

Driving in I could help but wonder why on earth this place was Dans "favorite", but in truth I'm starting to get it. 

Ok...a little rough this morning.

So I chose to fully engage Runtur last night. May have been a mistake as I am paying dearly for it today.  But considering I may never venture the way again to the land of Vikings and Dragons...no regrets. 

Fascinating story of a country trying to find its way...NOT a hundred years ago....but very recently.  

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_Iceland

And now it has a life of its own. And we participated in that celebration last night...and my body is really ticked off about that right now.  But time to power through. 

I will be sad to leave this place tomorrow. 

I truly feels as if we have been visiting another planet....

Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory...(yes, "mine" is the correct word from the song)

It's difficult to take in and process the incredible landscape here.  But as with anything...if it surrounds you continuously then you may stop noticing it...or start taking it for granted. 

I don't think that would happen here. There are some things that just remain marvelous to the senses....this IS Iceland.

 

Hallelujah for Half Empty Flights

When we checked in for our flight last night, there were suddenly (and mysteriously) bulkhead seats available. With extra leg room being the commodity that it is when traveling with the long legged, we snagged them immediately and didn't question to heavily why we hadn't been charged the "Economy Plus" rate.  Nevertheless, all the way to the airport we congratulated ourselves on being masters of the universe and foiling the system. 

As is typical when one tempts fate...we discovered upon boarding that we hadn't foiled the system at all and that we'd be squishing all those legs into a regular row with the rest of us. 😕💩

As it turn out, we got lucky and hallelujah for undersold flights. 5 people spread out among 3 rows for 6 hours is far more comfy than smooshed into 2. 

Long story short, we're almost there.

Thank you night shift for acclimating me to functioning on minimal sleep bc its 0550 am, feels like 0250 am, very minimal sleep has been had, and like Miley, we can't stop, we won't stop.  

Onward to Reykjavik!

Where are we??

OFF WE GO!!! Icelandair Flight 688!

For all our friends reading this blog, or not, below is the link to the Flightaware for our flights.

And we're off!!!! :)

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/ICE688

Boys like planes

Our bird.

Life is happening!

Work is behind us. The cars are parked. 4 out of 5 of us have cleared security.  There's beer. All that's left is for us to pour ourselves into our plane seats and let the pilot do the rest. We're going on an adventure!!

And so it begins

At least 4 of us are through TSA and sitting at the bar at Ruby Tuesday.  Excitement is top notch, and on point. 

Just ordered my pretzel bacon cheese burger.  

This is going to be great. 

It's time.

The future foreign five.

Thank you to Sarah Kantz for the awesome hand drawn caricature of the 5 travelers.  Very cool!

You never know.... 

Random Friday:
I was just told that Dr. Harrison (MR2Kev) and wife will be in Iceland on a stop-over from Scotland the same day (Weds 09/30) that we are in Reykjavik prior to our long haul back to the States.

Would be great to catch up for dinner in Reyk that evening if our schedules work out!  

It's not a blog, if there isn't a post

Truer words have never been spoken.

That said, tomorrow we shall a "1" in the weeks symbol of our countdown timer.  Excitement grows by the day.  Today marks 15 days until we leaves.

I'm ready to feel the cool, damp air of Iceland.  The crazy wild landscape.  I'm ready for an adventure with some of my favorite people.  Granted, I've seen some of this before, but it's just breathtaking - and worth seeing again.

Check out the video of Gummer and I there in 2013 (click this link).

d

3 weeks

3 weeks!  

3 weeks from now I'll be transformed from sitting on my couch to walking the streets of Reykjavik!

#tbt to that trip!!

3 Weeks. 3 Loooooong Weeks.

Is it bad that it feels like I've been waiting on this trip for months?  I somewhat share Gummer's feeling that travel this year has been slow for me, even though it really hasn't been.  I've maybe not traveled as much, but I have certainly gone further.  A trip to Saudi Arabia and Bahrain were done (which you can read about on my blog www.dbw.ninja - sorry for the selfless promotion lol), but other than that it's been pretty local and not a lot of flying to see things that were new and different. 

Maybe it's just because it was slower than travel last year.  Last year... I went a lot of places; Vegas 3 or 4 times, Munich, Dublin, NYC, and a couple of other places I can't remember. This year just seems like it's been much more work, and a lot less play.

I am excited that I get to show new people one of my favorite places, ICELAND!  Iceland is a really awesome place, with spectacular places to see them.  Even though it's not new to me, I am really going to enjoy seeing and hearing Anna and my friends talk about how wildly different it is from the Florida we left 7 hours before.

I won't wear out it all out, there is 3 weeks of blogging to be done before we leave!

http://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/vacation?iso=20150923T190001&p0=3287&msg=Iceland+and+Oktoberfest&font=hand&csz=1&swk=1

d

Today is Wednesday, September 2nd.  We are formally 3 weeks from our central Florida expedition for Euro-Trip 2015 dubbed "The Viking and the Bavarian."  I can't speak for the other travelers, but I'm getting excited!  3 weeks out finally puts this trip within calendar sight.  I can visualize the voyage ahead and begin planning my days leading to our exodus.

Please welcome Dan, Anna, Robb & Jon.  They are my traveling counter parts who will be also be contributing to this blog.  Expect regular contributions from all involved.

This year has been unseasonably slow for me in terms of travel.  I'm over due for an international get away.  Let's do this!