Travel Life

The Great American Train Journey

Posted by Alyx Michele on January 27, 2016
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My next adventure is set! The majority of my students have Spring Break at the same time, and even if they aren’t going away they won’t want to work during that time anyway. What does this mean for me? I can either sit on my a$$ and relax at home doing whatever, or I can do something crazy. You know me by now. So here it is…I will be taking a train around/across America. Provided that all goes well with train schedules, I will even have some time to explore Seattle, Chicago, New York, and New Orleans! There is a guy who did a train ride from Emeryville, CA to New York, and his experience can be viewed here. It was a cool that someone has already done that, but just going across America isn’t good enough for me. I want mooooore! (sung in the tune of Part of Your World from Little Mermaid).

 

Anyway, my plans are as follows:

Emeryville to Seattle (spend the night and have time during the next day)

Seattle to Chicago by way of the northern states (dinner in Chicago)

Chicago to New York (spend the night and have time during the next day)

New York to New Orleans by way of the eastern states (spend the night and have time during the next day)

New Orleans back up to Chicago (breakfast and lunch in Chicago)

Chicago to Emeryville by way of midwest and southwest, stop in Los Angeles, then up to Emeryville! Then back home and back on the grind until the next adventure (South Africa).

 

Willingness to Try Something vs. Actually Liking It

Posted by Alyx Michele on January 16, 2016
Posted in: Travel Life. Tagged: , , , , , . 4 Comments

I am willing to try just about anything and everything. There are some things I don’t like, and go into eating them knowing I won’t like them, but of course I eat them anyway. I want as deep of a cultural understanding and experience as I can get. It is also especially important to be respectful when offered something. If that means a chaser is necessary, then so be it! That’s what alcohol and dessert is for! Trying (and finishing) things you don’t like can be considered…umm..character building?

I did, however, fail the test with a jam-filled, crumbly bar of sugar I had on the plane ride home from Iceland. It was called Happy Marriage Cake because it is supposed to give couples good luck on marriage and it is the perfect marriage of jam and bread. However, it did not make me very happy, and certainly did not make me married (HA). No harm done as it was only $3USD.

I knew I should have saved the tonic water I got earlier. That would have helped. I was hungry and the ham/cheese sandwich was a better monetary deal than the chicken sandwich I know I would have enjoyed more. The tonic water was used to wash the sandwich down, and I clearly didn’t plan appropriately for the dessert. Gotta love airplane food!

I guess I just don’t have as much of a sweet tooth as I used to. The Happy Marriage Cake is definitely something I would recommend to others though! It was tasty, but it was just too much for me.

All things said and done, whether it’s fermented shark, reindeer, silk worms, scorpion, or even fried tarantula, if people of certain cultures eat them, I will too when I visit!

 

What is the weirdest thing people eat that you’ve either heard of or have actually tried? I’d love to hear about those experiences in comments below! 🙂

Beyond Reykjavik

Posted by Alyx Michele on January 5, 2016
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“What are your plans when you go to Reykjavik?”

The majority of the questions I received prior to my trip were geared towards Reykjavik, the capital, rather than Iceland, the country itself. My plans for Reykjavik involved sleeping there, spending a day to walk around, and leave it to explore the rest of the country each day. It got me thinking about why people only seem to be asking about Reykjavik. Perhaps it is so isolated and off the radar of news broadcasters (except for the volcanic eruption in 2010), that people only know of the capital from their geography classes. But there is so much more to Iceland than just its capital.

snaefellsness peninsula

Snaefellsness Sunset

This picture sunset at 3:30 pm at the Snaefellsness Peninsula. It was alsoone of the few times the sun was this present! The picture was taken from my iPhone, an while it still looks really cool, I will be investing in a GoPro, so I can get better quality pictures wherever and whatever on earth I end up doing! 🙂

viking village

Southshore, by Vik

This was taken near an old viking village along the south shore of Iceland, close to the middle of it.

silfra diving

 

This was definitely one of the highlights of my entire trip! This is Silfra, the only place in the world where you can dive or snorkel between the North American and European tectonic plates. When I went, the water was warmer than the outside temperature. When I got out of the water, my hair froze. I highly recommend this experience, but maybe do it not in winter time unless you are me!

golden circle gulfoss waterfall

Gulfoss Waterfall

This picture was taken on the “correct” side of the rope, buuuuuut it is probably better to cross the rope in some areas when it isn’t so slippery…of course I did it anyway. The views!! (As seen in Prometheus).

 

There were too many pictures for one post to add to this one, so more will come when I post more about my time in Iceland. You can also check out the Facebook page for even more pictures!

Are you ready to leave?

Posted by Alyx Michele on January 2, 2016
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Am I ever? The only time I will answer “yes” to that question is if I’m leaving my house to go on some kind of adventure, particularly when travel is involved. Wanting to leave my house has nothing to do with my roommates, they’re wonderful. And I love my job. I enjoy the people I work for and with, and the students I have are amazing as well. Everyday at work is a more or less perfect balance of productivity and entertainment. But if I am in another country or taking part in any new experience, chances are I will not want that to end. But it has to.

There is always more to see where you are and even more to see where you aren’t. And so as always, I say, “This was a nice adventure and I will be back, but in the meantime it is off to some new adventures in new places.”

The World Unfiltered, and so are my photos

Posted by Alyx Michele on December 31, 2015
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All of my photos are unedited. That’s the idea behind “The World Unfiltered”. Some of the pictures from the project I worked on in Peru (which will be up soon) are edited, but I didn’t take them, and they are properly credited. The pics from Iceland (which will be up even sooner!) are just from my iPhone 5S. Some pictures have and will come out better than others but that is the charm of the natural world, no?

I have indeed decided to invest in a GoPro and because it’s a better camera it will capture things better. It will also allow me to capture experiences that are not suitable for phone usage (sky diving, scuba diving, bunji jumping, etc., and that way I won’t have a repeat of the Great Barrier Reef waterproof phone case fail. I am going to still steer clear of any extra alterations and enhancements.

I’m in Iceland 

Posted by Alyx Michele on December 23, 2015
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img_4297Hello! I know it has been a little while since I have last posted, and I should be posting stuff while I am here. I didn’t bring my laptop and the app on my phone changes the formatting of my posts that I have tried to write. Also I haven’t had much time to write anything while here, except notes to keep track of everything. I’ve been out doing things, seeing things, meeting people, etc. I have been taking lots of pictures and taking at least semi detailed notes so it is easier to write everything when I get back to the States. The picture featured is from the Snæfellsnes peninsula, but I shall leave you with just that for now. Stay tuned and Happy Holidays!

How to Prepare for a Trip

Posted by Alyx Michele on December 18, 2015
Posted in: How Tos, Travel Life, Travel Tips. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Wait until the day before to do anything, then sit on your bed staring at the pile of stuff to go through.

Go out and buy things you don’t have…Er at least things you don’t see and are too lazy to put effort into searching for.

Think you’re cool buying new underwear then realize you grabbed the wrong size. Thank you Ross for being so cheap so no huge loss is experienced!

Roll the crap out of everything before putting it into your bag.

Take only essentials. (Shirts, leggings, phone charger, power adapter, passport, moneys, underwear, toothbrush, pants, hat, texting gloves that make your already awful texting skills go to sh!t, and I suppose pants. Yes, pants are good.

Wear your would-be $249 puffy jacket that you bought for $19. Again, thank you Ross!

Money  (NEW and unfolded bills for exchanging) in rfid blocker lined money belt.

Pay off credit card and rent before leaving.

Get excited about large paycheck direct deposited four days into the trip.

Stay up super late watching a movie and goofing off with roommates because sleep is overrated and since you’re not going to sleep anyway you might as well be social.

Pack your toothbrush.

Scrounge for another toothbrush so you can brush your teeth without having to unlock your backpack cuz it’s soooo difficult.

Layout clothing/heavy layers for flight. Saves space in bag to wear thickest stuff and airports and planes certainly do not feel like summertime.

Go to airport and take a wrong turn so you can take the scenic route to your terminal with your roommate.

Attempt to make jokes with the airline employees because what else would you do if you’re there at 4:45am?

Get overpriced food and coffee at the airport with just enough time for it to process so you can’t go to the bathroom to take care of what coffee does to people unless you want to miss boarding.

Okay it is 6:27, I am boarding now to New York bound flight #1/2. See you later!

 

South Pacific Travel Plans

Posted by Alyx Michele on December 9, 2015
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Hello! I have updated the South Pacific page under Destinations to reflect my list of things that I want to experience when I travel there. Please click the link below to check it out and leave responses for feedback and things I may have missed! 🙂 

 

South Pacific

Australia and New Zealand Travel Plans!

Posted by Alyx Michele on December 6, 2015
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Hello! I have updated the Australia and New Zealand pages under Destinations to reflect my list of things that I want to experience when I travel throughout those places. Please click the link below to check it out and leave responses for feedback and things I may have missed! 🙂

 

Australia

Australia

New Zealand

New Zealand

Antarctica Travel Plans

Posted by Alyx Michele on December 5, 2015
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Hello! I have updated the Antarctica page under Destinations to reflect my list of things that I want to experience when I travel there. Click the link below to check it out and leave responses for feedback and things I may have missed!

 

Antarctica