Poolplaying of the century

My brother Haukur beat me 3-1 at pool tonight! Blast his cotton socks! I think he cheated. He somehow assigned the balls to play his game. I was, however, excellent at potting the white at most awkward moments.

I'm home!

So! Four airports in equally as many days! But I am finally home with my family and dogs :) and of course friends and board-game nerdy friends!

My mobile was stolen/got lost somewhere between Selcuk in Turkey and Budapest but fortunately it was my old phone. I have got a new sim-card again, same number as before, so keep those calls coming in!

My brother Haukur is going away for a year in a few days, I shall therefore be busy doting on him. He's going to France as an exchange student with AFS. It's going to be hard to see him go, especially not have him here at christmas, but then again I am in no position to complain as I am also going away to California within a short period. But I will, however, be home for x-mas.

What great weather in this craggy-island!!! Darn! And everyone keeps saying (read: lying) that the weather has been FANTASTIC ever since I left, it only turned bad when I came home! Yeah, sure.

So, if anyone wishes to contact me and hear my pleasant voice and travel stories with detailed descriptions of toilets in many parts of the world!

Hmmmm... Mum just called me and showed me the bag of saffron that I brought over from Turkey. Amongst the threads of stamens are little, red beetles. Alive. Yummy. It certainly proves that there are no pesticides or anything else bad for you in the saffron. It is, however, not so appetizing. We have sealed the bag tight and are contemplating the next move. We may end up incinerating the whole thing if we are going to be sterile, paranoid westerners. No one knows how many bugs and worms we have eaten when eating figs, tomatoes, peaches and whatnot in Turkey!

Anyways, great to be back! See yous all soon!

Ephesus, Troy, Pergamon, Gallipoli, Temple of Artemis, WWI Battlefields...

I have walked, sat (and shat, even!) where the great civilisations paved their roads in marble, put frescos on their walls and mosaics on their pavements, contemplated how round the world was and planned their cities with great care and details. Ephesus is one amazing place, it's worth going to Turkey just for that!! The other places were pretty cool but Ephesus is THE place.

The amphitheater in Ephesus seats about 25 thousand people, 10% of the population. This was the largest city of its time and it's amazing to see how the archaeologists have managed to puzzle it all together. Sounds like a job for the super-nerdy puzzlers, Svava and Helga!! You will see it all when the photos will be loaded online (in the near future).

We are going on an overnight bus to Istanbul, then flying out from Istanbul airport at 3 pm. tomorrow, landing early evening in Budapest. Departing in the morning from there and arriving in London Heathrow early afternoon. Long time travelling. But it's been sooooo worth it! What a great trip this has been. We've really enjoyed ourselves, seen so much, met some very cool people (mostly Aussies and Kiwis) and had a genuinely relaxed and fabulous time! Shit, there's a big-ass hornet hovering above my head. I am stinky from the day's excursion to this little Greek village (yes, Greek) called Şirince and laying out in the sun, getting baked, and frollicking in the pool. What a life, eh. How lucky are we?!

See yous all soon!

Gallipoli, Troy, Pergamon

I've been there, done that, taken the photo! So cool to walk amongst ruins that are so many thousands of years old. Unbelievable what the Greeks and Romans and others were able to build! The heat was excruciating, can't understand how people lived in these conditions. But I guess I am not good with heat to begin with.

We are going to Ephesus tomorrow and then probably lounge by the pool and just relax. There isn't much else to do in the heat!

Gotta go shower for bed. I am all sticky after today (nasty!!)

G'nite!

ARHG!

OK, I CANT FIND THE CAPS-LOCK ON THIS LAPTOP (NO THERE IS NO BUTTON THAT SAYS CAPS-LOCK) SO I CANT TAKE IT OFF! uuuh... Abdul just came and fixed it. But it wasn't my fault! I didn't know! It was just a freakin' arrow-button!!! Muh!

But in the spirit of Ingunn's party, this is who I am. Just so you know. And I am soooooo upset that I am missing the party!! Darn darn darn!


You're the cowboy. You're charming, old fashioned,
and down to earth. You're more comfortable
alone on the range than in social situations,
but that doesn't mean you don't want someone
around to rope and ride now and then.


What member of the Village People are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Today was just a chill-day. We went and scoped out the bus station so that we'll have an idea what we are returning to after our 3 day Troy-Ephesus-Afrodisius-and-other-Roman-sites-tour along the Aegean coast.

I will post at some point the extraordinary things that people shout out to us in the street, it's quite funny. But not now. It's way too hot in this bar. Besides, I'm in the mood for some more Efes-beer (Turkish beer, uses rice amongst other things as ingredient).

I have developed a nice tan! :)

Hamam!

I just had my first hamam experience (Abdul has already been once before, in Marocco) and it was pretty cool. It must have been an amazing place in its hay-day. This is the place we went to,
Cagaloglu Hamam.
Just checking in, we are on our way to chill in the centre garden and listen to the evening prayer calls.

Have a nargylah, have a nargylah, have a nargylah...

So! I've had my first nargylah. Apple. Pretty interesting. We were so 'in', so hip. Sitting at one of the cafes in the "cool" street, drinking the local aguardiente (firewater) and turkish tea, with the sweet smell of apple in the air. Now, both of us have burnt the back of our throats. All a part of the Turkish experience.

Ok, on to the travel story. We went to the Topkapi Palace, absolutely ridiculously grand. The Sultans really knew how to spend their money. There was also a tooth and hair from a beard and lock of hair, supposedly from the Prophet Muhammed. More impressing, I thought, was a couple of rain gutters, a door and locks from the Kaaba in Mecca! One of the sultans asked for it to be brought back when he was funding the restoration of the mosque.
The treasury had one of the largest diamonds in the world, 86 karats, found on a rubbish dump and traded for 3 spoons. When the reigning sultan heard of this, of course he claimed ownership and had his jewelry makers make him a ring. Pretty impressive ring, that!

Then we went to the Grand Bazar. That was a very interesting experience. It's absolutely enormous! We found ourselves in the "womanclothes" section of the market, lots of make-your-daughter-look-like-a-pile-of-crispy-pink-froth-dresses. The salespeople tried to sell me a few but I was disinclined to acquiesce to their request. We then made our way to the kitchen appliance section of the bazar and from there to the spices! Aaaaah... the smell! All the tea and spices! It was soooo tempting to buy just everything! But I resisted, with the help of the Abdul. Oh, yesterday he was asked if he was Pakistani. I found it pretty funny.

Today we went to the Aya Sofia, what an amazing place! Mosaics from around 1500 A.D. The Aya Sofia has an interesting history. It was a christian church, built by Romans. Burned down. Built again as a christian church, burned down again. Reconstructed in a christian form around 537 A.D. and then overtaken by the Turks and turned into a Mosque. Today it's a museum. It was pretty amazing to run my fingers across Roman columns that are as old as mud!

We wandered back to the bazar and bought some spices. Then we went back to The Square and watched the whirling derwishes. They are the guys in white coats with tall hats, whirling away in religious bliss. Very cool to watch.

It's late again, I'm getting a nice tan but still get stares from men and women all around. My theory is because everyone thinks I am a lesbian. You know the formula, woman with short hair = raging lessa. Never mind the man holding her. He's just a lessa-hag.

Ok, somebody waiting to get on the internet. Hope you are all well.

The page of my life...

...is uploading veeerry slowly. Dunno why, don't have time now to fix it. I'll try to look into it when I can. Sorry.

Again, lovely day in Bysantine, Constantinople, Istanbul. I still have a bunch of mosquito bites in my face, so I am as beautiful as ever. The ones around my eye are particularly charming as they make my eye seem swollen and red and very attractive.

Going to bed now. Gnite.

Men!

It's amazing how men can all of a sudden be absolutely hypnotized by floor gymnastics! The Olympic games are on a wide screen above the bar at the hostel, lots of shiny outfits prancing around... their chins are touching the floor. Very funny to watch!

Oh trouble... I'm in trouble... yeah trouble...

I guess it's all Abdul's fault. Trouble follows him. Wherever he goes. But he also gets us out of trouble. Or maybe it's my blond, lesbian-short hair, or my lack of mustache. Who knows. But anyways, it's over and we're better for it. The deal is we had an attempted robbery last night. Somebody tried to go into our backpack while we were walking down the high-street after dinner, going to the hostel. Abdul's lightning-fast reactions scared the bastard away but then another one came over with an eerie confidence about him. It was a pretty nasty experience and I was rather shaken by it all (of course I would never admit it!) but we now know that the Istanbul police speaks very little english but is all willing to do as much for us as they can. They were all pretty nice about it, their reactions were a far cry from the Romanian train operators and workers'. After going to the police station we headed back to the hostel and on our way there we saw the bastard again! We ran and got the police (they were about a 100 meters away) but because of their lack of english, german, spanish, icelandic, farsi, swedish, french and our complete and utter lack of turkish they didn't know at which guy we were pointing. So the bastard got away twice that evening. We left the shitty hostel with the hole-in-the-ground-toilet with broken doorknobs, dead lightbulbs, dirty shower etc. and went to Sultanahmed, the old part of Istanbul. Very touristy but because the tourists are all in Athens, it's VERY pleasant. We are staying in a lovely room with A/C, en-suite with a NORMAL TOILET!! Woohoo!! Me very happy! It's right next to the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazar and every cool museum, palace and historic monument you can imagine. Yes, prices are higher, but it's just so beautiful!

Today we went to the Blue Mosque (see link above)and saw a lightshow at the mosque in the evening with turkish narration about the beginning of Istanbul (we think), the The Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts (we were looking at over 600 year old prayer carpets!!!) and then we just strolled around, had lots of street-venders ask if they could help us spend our money (as if we need help!!!) and reply in a cheeky manner that it's free to look, when we've said that we're not buying anything.

Again, gorgeous food and too much of it! I've given up trying to be Abdul's good inner voice and point out to him that maybe 4 main courses are too much for just him.

Oh, a very funny thing: whenever we are stopped by a Turk and they ask where we are from they usually ignore me (i am but a mere woman) and just listen to Abdul. When he says he's English (technically he is, born in Wales) they are never satisfied with that and always ask what his origin is. They can clearly see this Asian dude trying to pull off being an Englishman and they're not buying it!! :) You can take the boy out of Asia but you can't take the Asia out of the boy!!

G'nite, it's late. We have an early start, going off to the Topkapi Palace.

If you have a date in Constantinople...

... she'll be waiting in Istanbul!
Freakin' unseasonable weather! So, you in Iceland get all the warmth and sunshine while we suffer from unseasonable cold and thunderstorms. But according to the weather, it should improve tomorrow. It'd better!!!
I added another continent to my collection, I have now been to Asia! >D Wooohoo! We went over to the non-touristy part of Istanbul on a boat to a town called Harem and walked around for a while and had absolutely lovely food at this hidden (CLEAN TOILETS!) place. Wonderful. Really cheap as well, as they don't raise the prices for lack of tourists.

While we were looking for a restaurant in Asia (heehee!) we heard the prayer calls for the midday prayers. It was very cool. Felt very authentic.

We are waiting a thunderstorm off in a hostel we'll be going to in a couple of days. It seems nicer than the one we are staying at now. It's really well placed for the touristy stuff, the big bazaar, the Blue Mosque, the Ayaz Sofia, Hippodrome and carpet shops in the hundreds. Lots of street hustlers, too. The part of town we are at now is very Turkish, i.e. locals hang out there, not too many tourists. It's a very nice part, lots of nice cafes and stores etc. but in terms of touristy stuff, they don't have too much.

Going now, tata for now. And remember to note any jealous comments on my blog!!! :)

Istanbul was Constantinople... long time gone...

So, we've finally arrived to the land of fez hats, nagylars and mustaches. It's really amazing to see how thick and fluffy the stachios can get. Hypnotizing.

After a loooooooong and annoying trainride (about 19 hours on plastic-covered seats with only enough room for one of us to sleep) through the night from Bucharest to Istanbul (annoying 'cause every freakin' time we'd approach a border, we had a minimum of 3 sets of officials coming, inspecting luggage, inspecting tickets, inspecting passports... transport police, customs officers, border police... you name it, they were there. As you can imagine, this gave us little time to rest because we were busy showing our passports, pointing to our luggage or showing our train tickets!).... ehm, got a little sidetracked there. I'm calm, I'm relaxed. Anyways, we arrived today, Sunday. The smell of spice is in the air, with a hint of urine and filth (much better than just urine and filth, like in Bucharest). We went off to the nearest internet café to try and figure out the exchange rate. We sort of know it but it's hard work getting used to it, too many zeros. For example, an hour on this computer is 2,000,000 turkish lira.

After getting our bearings we set off to find a taxi that would take us to our Chill-out Café hostel. The driver was a lived-out man, with a HUGE belly, smoking, big, ungroomed mustache, hadn't shaved in days. Smelled of sour cigarettes and sweat. Lovely. He continued to smoke while we were in the car and when I rolled down the back seat window he objected profusely (I pretended not to understand Turkish, which I don't really, but I knew what he was saying) but he was rudely interrupted when one of the competitors tried to ram into the side of our taxi. They both stopped (in the middle of the road, just before the entrance of a tunnel!!!!) and started shouting and I mean SHOUTING! Jolly nice to express oneself. I just love it when road rage hits my taxi drivers. But we survived, I with the help from my cutie-pie.

We had to walk a bit to find the hostel and on the way we saw Starbucks. I needed a coffee so off we went. I had also had my share of disgusting toilets on the train. I thoroughly enjoyed the Western feel of a crispy-clean Starbucks toiletseat on my butt, the air smelling of too much airfreshener. It burned the back of my throat but I didn't care. They provided toiletpaper! I was in toilet heaven! Sometimes, globalisation can really be a ray of light in a world of dirty toilets.

So, we finally found the hostel, VERY chilled-out, just like the name suggested. We even have our own room, which is not what we booked, but never mind, better for us! It's nice to get a bit of privacy. I started looking for the toilet... and found it just across the hall. It's turkish. Very turkish. It's a hole-in-the-ground-turkish. The kind of turkish that has been here for centuries. Björg not happy. Björg no like filthy toilet where you have to squat and hold on to the butt-cleaning water tap to prevent her from falling in. It's tradition to rinse off your butt afterwards with water from a jug (left hand, of course!!) Poor Abdul, having to deal with my toilet-whining. But if there's one thing I REALLY appreciate about our part of the world, it's the toilets. And the toilet paper they provide. They don't really do that here, or in Romania. It's BYO.
The food here is amazing. We are going to try EVERYTHING. Yummy!
I could go on and on about what we have experienced in the last 24 hours or so, but I would just be rambling.

Oh, one more thing, I managed to fiddle with the computer here so that I can get an Icelandic key board! This Linux system is pretty good! Ég get skrifað á íslensku, alveg eins og ég vil! Það er sko brilliant! Híhíhí! Vona að allir hafi það gott í hitanum heima og ég læt heyra meira frá okkur fljótlega. Kyss og knús frá okkur. Bæjó!

We have arrived to Istanbul

After being screwed over by the State Train company in Romania and being greeted with the most unhelpful attitude from the staff, we are glad we are in Istanbul.

We are now trying to get our way around the currency (a mıllıon zıllıon ıs lıke one krona or somethıng!) and try and fınd a way how not to get screwed by the taxı drıvers who descend on us lıke locusts on fresh grass.

AAAAAH! Thıs keyboard has all these Turkısh symbols, the commas and perıods at the wrong places!!! Im gıvıng up. Bye for nowç

Sibiu-Transylvania

The vampire-tour continues. We have now moved further afield, heading for the Fagaras-mountains. Things just keep getting more and more beautiful. When you think you've seen it all, a gypsy boy rips up the car door and asks for 'gummi.' We concluded it must be chewing gum, not condoms.
Driving through the mountains is quite hazardous, Abdul has picked up the natives' way of driving, much to my displeasure. Overtaking up the hill on the bend in the road over the bridge. That's the way to do it. But still, I maintain my composure and admire the dilapidated factories tucked away in the valleys, next to the beautiful medieval towns. It's such a juxtaposition. Again, we concluded, without any depth of knowledge, that it's all remnants from the old communist times. It' just so messed up. HUGE, and I mean HUGE, chimneys sticking out like a sore... chimney... with a Sound of Music-like backdrop. Can you imagine?? Maria singing in the Alps, with a MASSIVE chimney and factory next to the fields of Edelweiz??!!!! Aweful! But hey, we can't judge, these people need jobs. Lots of poverty.

OK, gotta go to the Non-Stop Supermarket and buy some "paine" and "fructi."

We're heading for Bulgaria in a couple of days, don't think we'll find an internet cafe in the middle of a UNESCO Biosphere reserve.

Ta ta for now.

Bjonkers Dracul

VAMPIRO VAMPIRO VAMPIRO

...is it vampyre or is it bamphyre..
ROMANIA IS THE SHIT!!!! We spent the night in Bran (yes, where Dracula lived) and boy, do they milk it! There is Vampyre camping sites, vampyre markets, vampyre pubs, special vampyre toothbrushes (i'm making that one up, but it wouldn't surprise me!)... we just spent the night at non-bamphyre persons' home and had a bloody good time (pun intended!!). The man of the house, with his big, fluffy and well-groomed mustache, got us both VERY drunk from the local moonshine, brewed from whatever they grow on the farm. It was good, but hard liqour in huge quantities does give one the hair of the dog, from which both of us are suffering. Wonderful people, fed us like we had never had food before! So, the waistline is probably expanding on this trip.

Our time is up at the cafe, we have to get going and scare a gypsy kid from our car and make sure he didn't dent it. We promised payment on return, provided the car is in tact.

More of the adventures later...

Budapessssshhht...

Wow. What an amazing city. The weather has been great during our stay, just two short showers for the whole 4 days. We saw the Castle District yesterday, a UNESCO World Heritage site. And I can see why. We then had an early picnic/dinner on the grounds of an old church, Margaret Church, which was destroyed in the 2nd World war but the tower was rebuilt. It was absolutely gorgeous. The warm sun setting and creating long, orange shadows, the wasps hovering over our food, the bells tolling... it was wonderful. Hungarians make these really REALLY good sausage-things! Wonderful with some new bread and local beer. Yummy!

Well, gotta go. Today it's Margaret Island, the old market house and some dome on a church we saw last night when we were cruising on the Danube. Then we are off to the wonderful train station to catch an over-night train to Bucharest. We'll be there tomorrow morning, setting off straight to TRANSYLVANIA (read with a Hollywood-like Dracula accent). WUAAHHAHAHAAAA......

Catch you later.

Hello from Hungary!!

Well, I am not sure where to start, but everything in this country is an experience. Right from the flight over to finding our bags at the airport to buying train tickets to eating the food. But it's all great! Budapest is an amazing city, so much to see and do. It's hard to choose. Unfortunately, there's a herd of tourists wherever we go... maybe it's because we are ourselves a part of that annoying tourist group.
Very few people speak good english or any other foreign language for that matter. Signs are always only in Hungarian, so if there is no diagram, it's easy to be confused between the ladies' and the boys' room. :) Draw me a diagram, I say, as I was but a three-year-old toddler!

There's a definite identity crisis in the city. You have HUGE Coca-Cola and NOKIA signs on top of neo-classical buildings. You have a Burger King right next to the old market house. There are Marilyn Manson fans, there are little old ladies with shawls so small you have to step over them, there are VERY fashionable young women, wearing all the right clothes, the right perfume, the right make-up.... but with hairy armpits! It's all great!!

Must go now, hope ya'll are well! We are off to see the castle, wohoo!

Bid ad heilsa ollum a Islandi! Knus og kossar :)

Just so you won't forget how we look like! :)

A beautiful viewpoint in Kruger National Park

Some friends, eh?!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BROTHER ERIK, 11 YEARS OLD TODAY!!

I have gotten the distinct feeling that some people who I consider my friends do not wish me well on my travels. I have, however, gotten threatening mails, vulgar expressions, quite direct implications about my health being in peril... I am not sure these people will receive their postcards or presents!!!! HMMMM....

Despite of that, I carry on regardless and quite jolly about the prospects of my trip. Whether I will get food-poisoning, we shall see. But if I do, I know who's the culprit (SVAVA!!!!!!)

Anyways, good trip to us from all of you! I shall try to log in and let you all know if/when we are safe and with or without food poisoning.

Good bye for now.

This is Dumle, logging off.

Over and out.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I'm leaving tomorrow...

Oh yeah! I'm going going going going, tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow! Woohooooo! Yeeehaaaaw!
All packed and ready to roll! Lots of torn feelings as this is a bit like an era coming to an end.

Last night I was informed of the brilliant creation called e-messenger. Very clever. WUAHAHAHHA... WUAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAA.... WUUAAAAAAAAHAAAAHAAAAAAAHAAAAA!!!!

Last night we went to check out Magnea's baby, and she just gets more and more beautiful by the day! So hard to resist. Poor baby, she was passed around between the four of us as each of us admired her :) Oh, what an adoreable baby!

Gleðilegan Verslunarmannadag!!

Well, the weekend is soon coming to an end. No work tomorrow, working on Wednesday, and then on thursday WE'RE OFF TO BUDAPEST!!! It's kinda sad that we're leaving Iceland and won't be here together for a long time. But I am also looking forward to the new challenges ahead. It's all very exciting :)