Weekend fun in Portsmouth!

I am sitting on a bus heading to London currently and figured it would be a good time to write about what we did over the weekend. To my surprise, the weather here has been very sunny and mild, actually seeming hot sometimes while we are walking around. I had figured by this time of year all remnants of summer were long gone, but I definitely welcome the nice weather.

This past weekend we stayed pretty busy going around Hampshire and checking out places I've never seen before. Saturday we made a trip down to the historic dockyards in Portsmouth and did some shopping. The dockyards house old naval ships such as the Warrior and the Victory that saw action in the Battle of Trafalgar. A few years back when I was visiting there was the 200th anniversary of this battle and there were renactments and fireworks commemorating the anniversary. It's pretty cool to walk around the dockyards and see all these old ships still moored up; you can take a tour on them, but we opted to just walk around. Here's the HMS Warrior with the Spinnaker Tower in the background.. I'll post some more pictures of the boats when I can get them off Paul's phone. Apparently all the music and apps I have on my phone have eaten up my memory, I have to do some housekeeping with that so it's easier for me to take and post pictures

 On Sunday we enjoyed a nice breakfast at a cafe located in the Royal Marines museum. To my delight, there is a obstacle course with a zipline outside the cafe. After we had breakfast, we walked around all the old guns and boats on display in the courtyard. We took some pictures of Amelia posing in the guns, and I went on the zipline. There was  boy souts troop there for a meet-up and as this is an obstacle course geared toward children, they probably thought I was crazy. It was fun, though! Gotta love a zipline!

I should probably give you some background on this elephant you may happen to see often throughout this journey. We have named her Amelia, and she is a gift from our dear cousins, Meghan and Mitch. They were given a snake named Gordon that traveled with them and appeared in various photos, and has been with them for a few years. We now have our own traveling friend, an elephant. She tends to be adventurous so be on the lookout for Amelia as you check out our pictures.

After our breakfast and obstacle-coursing, we drove to an old manor home and gardens called the Stansted House. I've never watched Downton Abbey, but if I could imagine the home and area they live in, this would place would be on par. I do intend on catching up from the first season, I just have to have some time when I'm not moving all over the place. What's funny though is that Downton abbey is actually a fictional place and while there is a place in England called Downton, you will not find what you're looking for. Apparently people have gone there to try and see where the show is filmed only to find they were poorly mistaken and find it doesn't actually exist. Ha!

Anyways, at Stansted House there was a child sized steam engine that drove around the gardens..

And yes we rode on it. 

After our train ride we went through a maze, and luckily we managed to find our way to the center to ring the bell and then made our way out alive. Phew!

The house and gardens also had a working farm, and they sold ice cream made from the dairy cows that live there, as well as cheeses, meats, and other assorted local foods and brews. Paul was in heaven and picked up some venison sausages. Needless to say he enjoyed Bambi but I didn't. 😜 My finicky eating habits may keep me from trying things, but I just love animals too much to chow down on them. I used to think my veggie ways were mostly health based but now when I see cows or horses or puffins or any other animals that some cultures cook up, I think I'd rather have them for a pet than a meal. I think that goes back to my childhood when I was seriously wanting a Scottish highland coo or a real cow as a pet in our yard. (True story)..Of course, if we are somewhere and I am given food from a local, I am not going to turn it down or make them upset... As long as I have a choice I'm going to keep the furry friends out of my diet.. Paul can try all the exotic things he wants ☺️

So here is the house on the grounds.... Not too shabby...

We also made a friend who happened to be sitting on a bench in the yard surrounding the house.

Shocker!!

This cat was huge and could probably eat our little indoor kitties back home. He was friendly though.

I think it's safe to say we have enjoyed our time in Portsmouth so far.. I am looking forward to doing some more outdoorsy things and hike around the South Downs, which is home to some beautiful countryside in Hampshire. We have a flying visit ahead of us in London, we are getting there around 3:30 and are heading to the Indian Consulate for an appointment to get our visas tomorrow at 8:45 am sharp. Should be interesting navigating the tube during rush hour.. Fingers crossed we make it in good time and have no problems getting the visas! 🙏I'm already checking out yoga ashrams....👌

More photos to come when I can get some decent wifi!!!

MC

The "Relaxing" Part of the Trip

Paul and I have decided the next few weeks here in the UK are our "relaxing" or "quiet" part of our trip, mostly because many of the places we are visiting are familiar, as well are the customs, food, and how to get around. I will say, though, that there is no way I will be proficient at the London Underground system during these next few weeks. That system just confuses me.

Our first night in England was spent with Paul's brother Stephen who lives in London. He was kind enough to come meet us at the airport so we didn't have to navigate our way to his home from Heathrow airport. By the way, it was so cool to walk into England for the first time and flash my British passport to the super kind and soft spoken Immigration Officer.. I had to give a "ha-ha" to the people waiting in the other line. It will definitely be nice to use this passport all around the EU.

Within a few hours of touching down, Paul, Stephen and I ate at his local Indian restaurant and I had probably one of the best curries I've ever had. I guess I will have to wait a few months to compare English Indian food to the real deal... Nevertheless, it was hot, spicy, and soo tasty. By the time we finished our dinner it was already Midnight, so we walked back to his shoebox sized London flat and called it a night.. We had planned on getting up the next morning and heading to the Vietnam Embassy  to apply for our visas.... until we realized the were 105 pounds each, which came out to way more than what we would have paid in the US. So after doing some research, we found you can get a different visa that you get upon arrival.. We figured that would be the most economical.. If anyone has experience with the Vietnamese Visa upon arrival, I'd love some insight.

Once we ruled out a trip to the embassy, we had time to explore the area around where Steve lives.. I began in the morning by going on a run around his area, where i discovered it was a very diverse place. There were lots of families from different ethnic backgrounds all around his neighborhood; I don't know what I was expecting coming from the "melting pot" of America, but England is probably just as much as a "melting pot" as we are, especially now they are part of the EU. I saw kids skipping off to school in their uniforms with their parents and people heading to work...it was definitely alive with traffic and pedestrians. I had to be careful when crossing the road because after all, they drive on the other side of the street. I enjoy running around places I visit because it helps you get the "feel" of the place and see things you may not otherwise see.

Next we took a nice long walk down to Notting Hill, which is pretty close to Steve's shoebox apartment. I could have taken a picture of Hugh Grant's door from the movie, but instead I took this one because this street had lots of cool shops and some of the best produce I've ever seen. This street was really fun to walk down, and I even made a kitty friend that was laying out in the sun. (Now that we have no animal friends to greet us or be around, Paul and I tend to get really excited when we see cats and try to talk to them..... People probably think we are weirdos... We even tried to face time with our cats at my mom's house, but they were just trying to find where our voices were coming from)

We walked around Notting Hill and stopped off for some gourmet pizza, then we had to head back and get our gigantic bags and prepare to make our way down to Paul's hometown on the south coast, Portsmouth. We have both already decided that we have too much stuff, and are planning to send back a box of things that we don't feel are absolutely essential at this time.. It's one thing to walk your bag from plane-car-destination, but when you have to lug it from plane-bus-subway-walking down the street-destination, you realize how heavy your bag is.... and that mayyyybe you don't need everything after all. This trip may turn me into a minimalist by the time we're done.

Bye-bye, beautiful Iceland!

September 15th in Iceland must be a pretty pivotal time... It's the official date of the end of the tourist season and beginning of the winter winds. We left Vik on the 15th, with the intention of stopping off in Skogarfoss to see the waterfall for a night and stay in a guesthouse. Needless to say, after sitting in a gas station for 3 hours due to the bus schedule change (because it was September 15th) and being chilled to the bone by the ever-increasing winds, we decided to just head on back to Reykjavik. Another factor was that the mini-bus we boarded was almost blown off the road by the wind. I'm talking hurricane force winds here... Iceland is a place of extremes and there are no trees to muffle the winds, so they blow and whip all across the flat plains. We were driving along the "golden circle" road near the ocean and we could see mini-typhoons coming in close to shore, meanwhile our bus is getting shoved to and fro by the wind... At one point a guy who was among a group of German backpackers said the only English I head him speak during the ride, which contained an explicative in reaction to the bus being pushed into the other lane by the wind.. It was an interesting ride indeed.

One great thing about Icelandic buses is that they all have Wifi.. So, while we had no place to stay booked in Reykjavik for the remaining nights, we were not to worry because I could hop on airbnb.com and find a kind local to take us in. I searched for a place with the dates we had remaining and found a bright, clean apartment that belongs to a girl named Inga. If anyone makes it out to this part of the world, I would definitely get in contact with either of the hosts we have stayed with because it made our trip so much better.

Inga came to pick us up from the bus terminal and I immediately knew it was going to be a good ending to our visit to Iceland. You know when you meet someone and you feel like you've known them for a while? That's how I felt about Inga. She is very genuine and kind, and likes to have a good time. We enjoyed talking with her and playing with her dog, Cohen. We have a lot in common and I hope she comes to visit us when we get back to Jacksonville!! :) I was sad to leave our newfound friend today, but our itinerary calls us back to the airport and onward to London.

Tonight we get to sleep in Paul's brother's flat in London. We joked that it will be 3 of us staying in a place the size of Inga's bathroom.. Tomorrow we get to go on an adventure to the Vietnamese consulate in London to see about getting our visas, and have made plans to return to London to get Indian visas, see the Local Natives play a show, and maybe even reunite with fellow Jacksonvllians as the Jaguars take over Wembley stadium for a NFL game.. Sad to leave this country of the kindest people I've met, most dramatic scenery, and best wool sweaters, but excited to see friends and family in the UK!

Until next time,

MC

The land of puffins, fermented shark, and so much more..

I cannot express how thankful I am to Bon Iver for posting his music video for "holocene" on apple itv and the fact that I randomly stumbled upon it one day when we didn't have cable. Iceland is so frikkin cool... So far we have gone sightseeing in Reykjavik, met some really nice locals (I've found every person I've met here to be SUPER nice and happy...which is awesome), stayed in one of their homes (courtesy of airbnb.com), traveled to Vik, and hiked up a mountain. Most of these things I did in the same outfit that I left the states in on Thursday.

When I said the anticipation was building, well, it built up until we were 2 hours delayed in Chicago, which in turn led us to sprint from the terminal "B" at Boston Logan Int'l Airport to the "E" terminal, only to be met by a grouchy TSA lady and then a nice one who allowed us to scoot through security as our names were being called over the intercom, which then allowed me to run shoeless to the gate and met by a very kind IcelandicAir flight attendant with a bottle of Icelandic water in hand for me. Phew! Talk about an adrenaline rush! Paul and I were so worried that we would miss our flight. We made it by the skin of our teeth. Needless to say, our sprinting efforts allowed us to board the flight...our bags, not so much. Didn't get them until 9 this morning.

Now we are enjoying the beautiful scenery. It's hard to describe in words just how gorgeous this place is... The soaring black mountains covered in bright green moss and grass are all around you, some of them look alive as geothermal steam squeaks out the top.. It is so cool. My only regret so far is that we didn't rent a car.. There is public transport here buuut the stops are often far from the really neat places to visit, which makes it impossible to visit (unless I wanted to walk with my huge backpack...nah.) I'm not sure where we are headed to next... We may stop in Skogar to see this awesome waterfall that you can stand behind.. The Icelandic story  is that this is the only place in the world where a woman can propose marriage to a man...not that I have that to worry about! ;)

More to come.... 

MC

Tree Pose on top of a cliff and Wheel in front of the arch formation... I had to do it :)

The Snaking Line

I've been back in Georgia for almost two weeks now spending time with family and taking some time to relax and get stuff done before we set off. In my mind I'd like to think of this process of planning, buying tickets/miscellaneous trip related items, and getting prepared to be on the road for 9 months as the snaking line you have to stand in before getting on a roller-coaster. Thinking of snaking around and around while the anticipation, fear, and excitement build before getting on the ride and screaming your face off is a pretty good simile for what I am feeling right now... We have been waiting and saving and planning for what feels like forever, and now we are next in line to get on the ride. I am excited to get on and experience what this trip has to offer, but nervous to leave everything that is comfortable and familiar to me behind.. My goal this trip is to not be tied down by what is "normal" in our culture and to live in each moment, accepting what it has to give, and learn from it. I laugh when people say "well you guys are going on a long vacation, aren't you?".... I'd like to think of it as an educational experience. I want to come back with more knowledge of the world around me and become a better person from it.  Oh and to do yoga everyday. I want to be a yoga badass by the time we return in 9 months :)

The past 3 days I have packed and unpacked my pack more times than I can count, minimizing the amount of clothes each time I pack it up again. This has been the hardest part... Thinking of what I need and what can stay. I've tried to narrow it down to 4 pairs of shoes, 5 bottoms, 7 tops, 3 jackets, 7 pairs of underwear, 3 pairs of socks, and a bathing suit. I like to have options, so this has been tough. I am trying to remind myself that I can buy stuff as we go along, but I'm so used to not buying stuff just for the purpose of shopping that it's going to be hard for me. I think I've conditioned myself out of compulsive shopping.... That's a good thing!

My next post will be from close to the Arctic Circle, in Iceland. I cannot wait to see the glaciers, black sand beach, volcanic rock, and beautiful scenery. By that time I will have reached the end of the snaking line and will be on my way to one amazing ride. I'll be screaming my face off inside, with feelings of excitement and anxiousness for what's around the bend. I hope you will join me as we see amazing things, eat amazing food, and meet amazing people. Prepare to be amazed! I know I am almost prepared... :)