Post Vacation Thoughts

There is a bitter sweet feeling that comes over me at the end of a vacation. There is the desire to return home pitted against the desire to stay on vacation. For numerous reasons including a job, lack of additional funds, social and family commitments, etc, coming home has always been the undefeated champion in my life. I have learned lots while away from home, and I'd like to share a few thoughts.


Blogging the trip was fun, tiresome, and a little stressful. It was fun because it allowed me to share some photos and thoughts while they were fresh experiences. It was tiresome in that we were up and out of our rooms early in the morning often not returning until late in the evening. This allowed little time for image processing in Photoshop Lightroom, and little time to organize and type my thoughts. It was stressful in the sense that I had made the commitment to myself to make daily entries. This proved to be a difficult and, on occasion, an impossible task.


Blogging Tools
Photoshop Lightroom did prove to be the best tool for downloading, keywording, categorizing, and processing photo image files. It is, however, time consuming to accomplish all of these process steps. Time for my photo processing and blogging was at a premium.
Having a computer with adequate processing speed and a state-of-the-art wireless card, is essential. I was using a 5 year old Dell laptop. It has a gig of RAM, and it worked adequately for the Photoshop Lightroom processing. I was able to use Word for the drafts of blog input. This was helpful when I could not manage an Internet connection. There were 3 times when I was unable to connect with the wireless that was available. It was frustrating, and as you know, pulling my hair out was not an option. My conclusion was that the wireless protocol and my card could not get along. I thought that my older wireless card would work with the g or n protocol, but I don't think that it was. I could see the availability but no IP address would be assigned. One of the USB cards with the newer n protocol might have been the solution.

Our Travel

We traveled on planes, trains, buses, boats, and automobiles. We needed these varied means of transport due to the destinations we planned and the desire to be thrifty with our funds. These methods allowed us to see some things that we would have otherwise missed. The Express Boat from Vik to Bergen on the Sognefjord is a good example of seeing from another perspective. It did take a large amount of advance planning to coordinate plane, train, bus, and boat schedules. In some cases it was a challenge to find a rental car at a critical point in our itinerary.

Staying in as many hostels (not hotels) as we did was interesting. The cost of the hostel was well below most hotels. Of course, staying in a hostel is kind of like camping indoors. We had a private room at all of our hostel stays, but the toilet and shower was down the hall. We did stay at one hostel where we had a private bath, The only word to describe it is luxury. To save sheet and towel rental charges, we traveled with a sleeping bag liner (aka sheet) and an absorbent synthetic towel that we use when camping. The towel slips into a plastic sleeve when not in use. They are sold as synthetic chamois in auto supply stores. We stayed in 3 B&B's (one in old Reykjavik, one above a fish market in Keflavik, and one above a bar in Vik); 2 had toilet/shower facilities down the hall. We stayed at the Hammer Apartments which is hard to classify; it had a private bath but no breakfast. We stayed on a farm (toilet/shower facilities down the hall), and the very nice hotel in Molde. We survived all without any permanent scaring.

Our trip was self organized not a tour. In most cases this is our preference. It is very difficult to have real adventures when everything is organized into a fully structured itinerary. A lot of pre-planning is needed to pull off a self organized trip, but our feeling is that it is worth the investment. Note: there are some trips where a tour is worth it to us. An example is a small ship into Alaska's Inside Passage. We are planning to do that next summer.

Food

We like our food, and we liked the food we had on this trip. We ate lots of fish. I ate whale and lamb in Iceland; both were great. No, whale does not taste like chicken. Breakfast was somewhat of a challenge in as much as we normally don't eat that much cured meats (ham, salami, etc.) at breakfast. The pickled herring (normally, multiple preparations) was a breakfast treat we don't have at home. We had lots of dairy in Norway; so, if you are lactose intolerant, plan to bring some Beano . Beer and wine (both of which I consider to be food) are very expensive. If you are thinking of going on a "bender" in either country, sell the Mercedes and bring the cash.

Pylse vs. Pølse: Hot Dog Wars

Outside of a ball park on a hot summer day, I have never seen a group that so loves the hot dog, no matter what they call it. It seems to be the snack food of choice in both Iceland and Norway. Perhaps, it is the price or availability; they are everywhere. The preparation ranges from boiled to grilled to deep fried. The toppings are too numerous and varied to enumerate. I will say that the best dog was purchased in Stykkishólmur, Iceland. It is detailed in an earlier post; you can see a picture of the magnificent beast as well.

Exchange Rate

The dollar is not doing well against many currencies. I can assure you that this is the case in both Iceland and Norway. A dollar doesn't buy as many ISK (Icelandic Kroner) or NOK (Norwegian Kroner) as it has in the past. This has a big impact on the total cost of the trip. Our didn't give strong consideration to postponing the trip because of exchange rate. The way oil prices are rising, future trips will be impacted even if the exchange rate goes back to a level that it was 5 years ago. Staying in hostels and other similar actions helped ease the impact.

Although we have not yet received all of our credit card bills, it was a great trip, more than a vacation.

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