But, really, the dog comes first
Posts tagged Iceland
Two Iceland Travel Tidbits for Americans
Jun 10th
This is a puffin running away from us. I have 22 frames of him (her?) trying to get airborn.
This is the little guy doing a fly by. I hear they each have unique designs on their beaks; like fingerprints.
1. Know your PIN number for your credit/debit card.
If you are driving, you’ll need gas. Gas stations now require a pin number. All of them. Everywhere in Iceland. (Someone told us it was new this year.) Shell stations wouldn’t take our cards but the N-1 stations were accommodating. (This kind of assumes you won’t be using cash. (I never use cash. I always use my credit card. I do not know my pin.) But if you were using cash, presumably you’d need your pin to get cash out of an ATM.)
The only time I needed a PIN was for gas pumps. (And I only needed to sign my credit slip when outside of Reykjavik. No one asked me for an ID – except the guy renting us the car.)
This whale was just hanging out, eating. No hurry, no stress, no interest in us whatsoever. Just eating. Given that he (she?) came up and dove about 20 times and I have about 47 gig of pix, you'd think I'd capture more of the ginormous beast (humpback).
2. Phones* – when you turn on your phone, on the plane, on the runway it will pop up with a message about Iceland call charges and data charges. Promptly turn off your cell data use. (iPhone instructions here.)
Cell data charges result from all those automagic things your smart phone does. I’ve heard tales of $1000 phone bills. Use your Wi Fi.
In Reykjavik, it seemed that every place except hotels had free Wi Fi. Outside of the capital, Wi Fi was a little harder to find, but not much. (Also – outside of the capital, all our hotels had Wi Fi.)
Whale footprint. This is the mark whales leave in the water when they dive. And this is what most of my whale pictures look like.
* A note on US federal gov’t issue phones: Ask your agency. Some will work, some won’t. Contracts differ. ASK your IT department. Also, “Iceland” is not “Europe”; be specific.
A note on the Color Addiction: I’m so glad I frogged. I’m three-quarters re-knit (by ridge count. Each row is longer than the next …) (In two days. That says I spent a week thinking about it in Iceland. Counting stitches. Stretching it out. Plotting. Planning. Refiguring. … /sob.)
I blame the scenery
Jun 8th
It started off easily enough and progressed quickly:
Color Affection - all but the last few border rows are completed. But like any shawl project, it looks rather shapeless all bunched up.
I casted on at home, just before leaving for the airport. I knitted for two weeks while touring around Iceland. I almost finished on the plane on the way home. (I did not knit in the car on the way home from the airport: it was dark. I had not seen “dark” for two weeks. Lack of sun seriously cuts into one’s knitting time.)
I had some doubts (Is “three stitches after the previous short row wrap, the wrap plus 3 stitches or the wrap plus 2 stitches?” (And in either case, why on earth did I knit 3 stitches after the previous end of row?) Was I supposed to have enough short rows to use up all the stitches? What was the shape of this thing? How many stripes were there?) But I didn’t have a plan B, so I kept knitting.
I know I made some mistakes and I kept knitting.
I arrived home a week ago (and then there was a tornado.) And today, I put it on a life line and spread it out to see what was happening:
And it is not going to block out well.
I know it doesn’t look tooo bad – but trust me, it was wonky shaped. And I would have been annoyed every time I saw it.
And I totally blame this view for my lapse in counting:
Myvatn
and this view for my failure to read directions
The little lambs totally wagged their tails when nursing.
and this view for ignoring the problem and continueing to knit
Can't you just see a lopapeysa in there?
and this view for squelching any doubts about shaping
I did not expect to see reindeer. I think they came down from the mountains because of the wind storm/dust.
Seriously – check out the larger view:
And now there is this view:
/sigh
Decisions, decisions…
May 15th
Which shoes to bring (other than the hiking boots)? I opted for my birks Because I’m such a fashion statement so I can show off my hand knit socks.
My bag is packed – everything is clean and charged; chargers are packed.
The plants are watered; the cats are fed.
Now, do I unpack the dishwasher or cast on??
Iceland, the Ring Road, two weeks. I have every intention of posting a Lopapeysa a day but I know there’s a few days with no known internet connection. Be well!
4 sleeps away
May 11th
I count, as one of my Great and Defining Life Experiences, that moment in Iceland (10 years ago), when I had crawled up under the lip of a glacier. The day was freezing cold and it was snowing. It was November 2001. There was about 8ish hours of daylight – grey and cloudy.
I was in this dark cold space, with million year old water dripping on my head, and suddenly I understood on some visceral level what global warming meant: the space I was in was created by water runoff – runoff from the glacier drips. That huge ginormous chunk of ice was melting – despite the cold, despite the snow; it was continuing to shrink.
A few years later and I’d go to Antarctica. Something about these very cold, very old places gets to me. I can feel it now even as I type.
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That middle photo amuses me - apparently, I've been taking texture-y geometric-y closeups for a while. Black is crushed lava sand next to white foam wave on a beach.
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My entire reason for being in Iceland in 2001 was to check out the possibility of driving the Ring Road. (National Geographic Traveler had an article in 1994 that started this all. I’m still trying to locate it in hard copy.) Ten years later, Dude is making it happen.
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Note the first: Plants and gardening couldn’t have arranged to be on a “normal” schedule this year? This two weeks early is killing me.
Note the second: I wavered for about a millisecond on the “what yarn to bring to Iceland” question. Franklin reminds me that there is yarn in grocery stores.
Note the third: We can also blame Clara. I think there’s still has room. (Don’t quote me on that.)
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On a housekeeping note – I’m trying to figure out the posting from iPad and links to Facebook and Twitter. (Updates are slow due to that missing FIOS router which is arriving today.)
