Stavanger Norway

I fly from Budapest (Hungary) to Oslo (Norway) and then Oslo to Stavanger. During my layover I eye some sushi rolls. They are pre-made but taste good all the same. The fish just tastes fresher here.

I also stock up on some snacks at the airport store since I didn’t have any during my last flight. I seem to always forget to bring snacks.

After my short flight there is no wait at all to catch the bus into Stavanger city. I can easily pay on the bus by credit card. The flat I have rented is about a 7 minute walk from where the bus drops me. I am staying in the historic part of town distinct because of its rows of old white wooden houses. As I walk to the flat a group of seagulls scream by me, drop a piece of bread near me and they scream to pick it up again. It scares the crap out of me. They fly away but I should have taken that as an omen. More about that later.

It is 4:30 PM and it seems like all the attractions close for the day at 4:00PM if they are open at all; in fact some attractions only open days cruises are at port. The only thing to do at this point is go out to find something to eat. As I walk by the water a notice a very large cruise ship in port. I stop for a few minutes to see it leave the harbor.

Choices in food seem to be limited due to it being Sunday, in fact the grocery store that is supposed to be open at this time is even closed. I walk by the colorful district of Fargegaten. It is a lively area (relatively since Norway seems to be subdued) but it is filled with mostly coffee shops or bars so not a great choice for dinner. I’ll have to return for a drink another time.

I settle on a pizza place across the street from a very lively Irish pub. A group of football supports are having pre-drinks and chanting supporter songs loudly while they wait for their upcoming local match to start. I order a “pepperoni” pizza and salad and settle on a space outside to enjoy the cool but very sunny weather (Note: pepperoni sausage in the USA is rarely the same thing as you get in other countries. It is sausage but is a different flavor). My pizza and salad eventually come out and I watch a seagull occasionally stop at the the abandoned table next to be and loudly bang his beak on the plate. I am about one piece into my pizza and the bird is back. I fumble with my phone to get a video and within seconds the bird flys over and picks up my entire pizza and drops it to the ground while I scream “NO!”. The people next to me look at me with concern, the guys across the street are laughing and concerned as well. It is comical. I feel kind of stupid for leaving my pizza unprotected. The server at the restaurant is very kind. They make me a new pizza and I decide to move inside for part two. Before I move a guy from across the street approaches me to comment on the bird. We chat for a few minutes on how he regularly works at a bar down the street. He was intrigued on why there are so many more Americans visiting now when it was not common in the past. I didn’t have an answer for him. Maybe Americans in general are just traveling more.

Pizza, thrown on the ground unceremoniously

It’s hard to go to bed at a decent time since the constant sunlight is messing with my circadian rhythm. My flat is cute but black out curtains in the bedroom don’t really black out when it is still light out until 3:00 AM and for some reason the front windows have no curtains. Also I had lots of naps on the airplane on the way here.

You have to pay for public restrooms, by credit. This one cost less than $1 USD. They are always clean.

There are a handful of museums to see in the town but many of them seem to be closed on Mondays so Monday is the day I pick to hike Pulpit Rock(Preikestolen) where I am supposed to get some spectacular views of the fjords. I book a bus to take me to the trailhead which is little over an hour bus ride. I could do a cruise plus hike option but I already have some cruises booked later in my travels plus I really don’t want to rush my hike since I am a slow hiker. The bus ride is scenic with a drive through a long tunnel that has a beautiful blue lighted area about halfway through it.

The trail to the main attraction is about 5 miles roundtrip. It is certainly doable from my fitness level but I am coming into this knowing there will be a good amount of up and down that will make this trail more challenging than I am used to in my flatland. Just as I suspect there are many ups and downs (but most of the downs are on the return trip which may be considered worse depending on your perspective). The trail goes from steep switchback incline, to well formed stone steps, to randomly scattered stone steps which I have to almost do some scrambling to get over due to my short legs. In between there are some beautiful spots of large stone fins and wooden bridges in open areas. It is truly a beautiful hike. It is chilly at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit but between the intense sun and the physical effort in climbing, most are comfortable wearing short sleeved shirts during the trail effort, I know I am.

I finally get to Pulpit Rock and it is busy but the crowds don’t seem to annoy me as they normally do. Maybe all the fresh air and exercise has filled my body with extra serotonin. People are picnicking around. I take out the carton of coffee I purchased this morning and enjoy it along with the view. And speaking of the views, they are very nice. It is worth the effort to see the beauty. I take some pictures, relax and then head back. So far the trail as taken the amount of time it was estimated to take (it is estimated 2 hours each way and it took me just slightly over 2 which is notable in itself since I am generally much slower than the estimates say). I want to make sure I have plenty of time to get back to be bus at 4:00 PM since sometimes going down the rocks is much harder than going up – which I can say this is the case today. I feel the pressure on my joints, my knees and lower back. I will be hurting later. Many have walking sticks and while I usually have them when I travel for hiking trips in the USA, I never take them on international adventures. A guy on the trail tells me I should have rented some at the trailhead ….. I had no idea I could do that.

Because my circadian rhythm has been off I am determined to not sleep on the bus ride back but nature takes over with the soothing of a bus putting me to sleep multiple times. I do wake to admire the long tunnel again.

Thoroughly exhausted I get a quick fast food dinner, get some groceries for the morning and then go back to shower and rest for the night. I lather up with bio-freeze and topical pain cream to prevent whatever might ail me in the night from this day’s hike. Luckily museums open later tomorrow so I can let myself slowly awake into the day.

Norwegian Petroleum Museum (Norsk Oljemuseum)

One of the big museums in town is the Norwegian Petroleum museum. The museum visit starts with a movie called Oil Child. Oil Child is an artsy movie about living in the region with the development of oil rigs shown through the perspective of the son of an oil worker.

The rest of the museum is the history of petroleum in Norway and especially this region. Oil has brought lots of money to this country and the decision of the government to nationalize part of its profits has provided many things to the citizens of its country: infrastructure development, medical care, and pensions. Still the museum is honest about the dangers of the industry and promotes alternative forms of energy that you can learn about through interactive exhibits. A visit to this museum gave me a different perspective of an industry I am indifferent to (at best) or suspicious of (at worst). I also learned that oil is not from the remains of dinosaurs (laughing) but it is from millions of years of time and some algae.

Norwegian Canning Museum plus graphic museum (IDDIS Norsk grafisk museum og Norsk hermetikkmuseum) starts with a printing museum visit that to be honest I didn’t find that interesting until it got to the section of can printing and the special artwork that was made for the canned fish such as sardines. We are told how the fish are caught, smoked and canned (by hand!). We also learn about how child labor was very prominent in the industry during earlier times. Then we learn about the collapse of the industry and then consolidation. I really enjoyed looking at the artwork on all the cans.

I think about visiting the history museum but it closes today at 3 as do all the other museums. To really appreciate this city you need a multiple day visit because the museums have such limited hours.

It is almost time for my dinner reservation anyway at a fish restaurant where i am determined to order some crabs. King crabs is what they have available today and they are served cold with pickled onions and this very delicious creamy chili crab dipping sauce. The sauce reminds me of the chili crab I had in Singapore.

You would never know by the level of sunlight but it is getting late and I have a very early flight tomorrow so early that I’ll have to call a cab instead of taking the affordable bus. Tomorrow I start the road trip part of my Norway adventure.

Long travel days….arrived in Singapore

The thing is that you never really know things will go until you are filling in the details when it comes to travel. I did not know it would take me multiple days to get to some of my “next” locations. These long travel times take a toll. I understand last time I took a travel sabbatical I took the correct approach with moving around the world in a step approach instead of the all of once (with the exception of starting in Seattle versus the East Coast).

I wake up early to finish packing my backpack. I hope everything fits as intended and it does. I get an email that my flight is delayed. The departure time has not changed. I look into it a little further and discover the arrival time is almost an hour and a half later than scheduled. They must have changed the flight plan to avoid something. This shortens my Seoul layover to about 40 minutes. This seems pretty risky. They give me the option to change my second flight to a later time. It is a long layover of like 5 hours but there is no stress anymore about making my connection. Only bad thing is I no longer have a seat assigned. I can assume I’ll probably be stuck in the middle somewhere of this not so short flight from South Korea to Singapore. I also arrive at 5 AM and I have a food tour scheduled at 9:00 AM. Will I force myself to go or skip the morning tour to rest??

I guess I’ll find out later.

The Terrorist Toddler

My flight from Seattle to Seoul is pretty much uneventful except with the flight extension. People around me all have tight connections that they worry about making. I feel good about being proactive about changing my next flight. However when we arrive in Seoul it appears that they are actually holding those connections; so I probably would have made that early flight if I walked really fast. Being that my flight wasn’t for 5 hours I took my time walking toward the gates. I finally get a seat assignment for my next flight and it is a middle seat in the second to the last row. Those are the seats I call toilet seats because you deal with people hanging around waiting for the toilets the whole flight. I decide that when the gate opens, I’ll go try to change my seat, preferably to another aisle seat. I head to the lounge.

There is a line at the lounge but I decide to wait in it because I am not thrilled with the airport food choices and I like to get my money’s worth out of that pass when I can. I find that lounges will not accept my pass at a growing number of airports.

I catch up on correspondence at the lounge and get some food to eat. I start heading down to the gate area since it’s a long walk and I would like to see if I could change my seat. Luckily or as I think is luck I am able to get an aisle seat and it’s not in the back of the plane. I am seated and it appears that there are two empty seats in my four across row which would be nice but I can’t be that lucky.

A woman boards late with an adorable toddler. They sit next to me. She suddenly becomes not so adorable.

She pretty much held my whole section hostage during most of our flight. And she was right next to me, screaming at decibels that probably have caused at least temporary hearing damage. It’s not really her fault, nor her mother’s. They both had a really long travel day already, if I’m not mistaken the same route I took, delay and all. It is much to ask of a 1-2 year old. Despite that it was a very unpleasant ride for me. My plan to sleep through the flight was reduced to maybe a combined total of 2 hours of sleep, if I was lucky. While we are landing every person around me is holding their ears. One person looks at me with pain and pity. I smile and point to my noise canceling ear plugs. They don’t totally kill the noise but they reduce it to non painful levels. Again I can’t get mad at the mom because there is literally nothing she can do.

I checked a bag from Seattle to Singapore. Before I get a lecture about carry-ons let me just say that I used to travel that way in the before times, when I was younger and needed less things to keep me alive (or at least keep me in a good mood while I travel). It is not feasible to carry on everything I need, especially for a 2 month trip where I am visiting various countries with different weather and different culture norms. Both my AirTag and Delta luggage tracking never updated my bag leaving Seattle. While in my layover in Seoul it became apparent that I might be arriving with no luggage.

After all that worrying about my vaccine card I was never asked to show it. I guess all they wanted was for me to attest that I had the vaccinations. As a USA citizen I could use the automated entry system. Which means no human touched my passport. I realize that also means I have no entry stamp for this country. How can I prove I am actually here? I guess the technology is so good that stamps are useless. It kind of stinks for memory purposes that I have no stamp though.

Now I am finally in Singapore and my hotel is nice. Even though I arrive at 7 am my room is ready because I proactively booked the night before….I am learning something in my old age. I am very happy to check into my room.

No time to rest though since I am heading out on a food tour at 9:30 AM.

Flying to Madrid

I am starting my Spain adventure in Madrid. My last trip to Madrid was ten years ago. I feel like I got to see most of the city last time. The goal in staying in Madrid isn’t really to visit Madrid, the goal is to use it as a home base for some day trips: Toledo and Segovia.

My international flight from the USA is out of JFK. I try to schedule padding between my international connections in case of flight delays. Unfortunately this time my international flight is delayed. This time the plane is at the airport but there is a delay to taxi the plane out of the storage area where it has been sitting for the past few hours. We are delayed hours waiting for the plane to be brought to the gate. In addition, the Delta terminal at JFK has seen better days; the airport has broken bathrooms, broken ipads, and very slow staff. The terminal is crowded and having that extra time in the airport is not a comfortable experience.

Eventually we board the plane and fortunately the flight is pretty pleasant. In the past I slept well on long flights but find it hard the past couple years. I probably have a total of an hour’s rest on the flight. Luckily I have nothing planned the first day.

I make it to my hotel early so I drop my bags and go walking nearby. This is my first time staying at a hotel at the Room Mate chain (Room Mate Mario Hotel). It isn’t the cheapest stay but I’m happy with what I get for the price point I pay. I am near the big opera house. It is a central location and close to a metro stop.

Opera metro station and theater in the background

I walk over to the Royal Palace of Madrid and take a stroll. It is not on my agenda to go inside but I do take some pictures of the outside and the nearby Catedral de la Almudena. I walk a little further into the nearby area which mostly seems new to me because I don’t recall the area much from my last visit to Madrid.

Gotta love Europe in the summer. Look at this weird bear.

Soon enough it is time to check in so I return back to the hotel to check in and get cleaned up from my flight.

I get the wifi password and it doesn’t work. One of the symbols looks like a variation of the British pound symbol. I try different iterations and nothing works. I am too tired to go get a new password and decide to deal with it later; plus my Spanish is rusty (even after a month of Duolingo reviews). I dislike defaulting to English. I don’t like being that type of traveler I like to at least attempt the primary language of the land. I give it my best effort.

After cleaning up I wander to one of the favorites of my past the Mercado de San Miguel where I order myself a nice glass of Vermut (Vermouth). Nothing compares to the vermouth I get in Spain. The market is a nice and easy place to try different types of pintxos (pinchos or small tapas) and regular size tapas. It isn’t cheap and it gets crowded in the evening but vendors at the market are used to dealing with tourists so it is an easy way to jump into the Spain tapas experience. It is also perfect for my first jetlagged evening.

It is still early but I am tired so I slowly stroll back to my room to go to be early. I have my first day trip scheduled to Toledo tomorrow.

Salento: Mirador Alto De La Cruz

Yesterday I did a physically intensive hike so today I am taking it easy my last full day in Salento Colombia. I finally took advantage of the nice breakfast at my hotel. I’ve also walked down to the bus station to ensure I have a bus ticket for tomorrow. Tomorrow evening I travel to Cartagena by plane. Salento has no airport so I need to ensure I have a bus ticket to the nearby town with an airport – Pereira.

I don’t have much planned today but I know I want to take the stairs up to the Mirador Alto De La Cruz, a place to get a nice view of town. I walk toward the stairs.

There are a series of colorful steps that take you up to the top.

I descend down the stairs and decide to stop at a nearby bar to have a daytime cocktail (the same bar that the dog had taken up seats for previously).

After my drink I walk around and appreciate town. Stopping to shop or lounge at another bar. I again appreciate how nice it is to be able to travel to smaller towns. The bus rides are long but they are so worth it.

My bus ride out of town isn’t until later the next day. I leave my bags at the hotel lobby and order a pizza at a nearby restaurant, because pizza.

I arrive at the bus station in time for my ride to Pereira. Once I arrive at the bus station in Pereira I still need to catch a taxi from there to the airport. It isn’t clear where the appropriate place is to catch a taxi. Taxi drivers tell me it is illegal to pick up passengers in areas not designated as a taxi pickup area. I wander around the bus station and eventually I am able to flag a cab down that will pick take me to the nearby airport. The cab driver misunderstands me and doesn’t drop me off in the correct place at the airport. I find myself walking pretty far to find the correct terminal – which sounds odd since it is a pretty small airport. I believe I am dropped off at the international terminal when I am flying domestically. Pereira airport is currently under construction. From the outside appearance it seems like the new airport will be pretty nice when it is complete but for now it is a small and confusing airport.

Waiting area and food court before going through security

At the airport I wait in the main waiting area for a while not knowing what to expect after security. I eventually cross security and there is a narrow walkway between the gates. I notice a small bar along the walkway so I decide to squeeze in and order a beer while I wait for my flight to board. The bar overlooks planes that are boarding. I must mention that the gate area is totally open air to the outside. This means that basically someone can just hop over the ledge and head out to a plane. Security is so much more relaxed here compared to what I am used to in the USA.

Nothing but a low concrete barrier between me and that plane

The flight to Cartagena is decent – no complaints here. Once in Cartagena there is an expensive cab ride to my hotel from the airport. It is late so I figure a cab ride is the safest approach to get to the tourist areas. Luckily Cartagena is a night city and there is a hotel clerk available at check in. I’m tired so I’ll have to experience the city tomorrow.

Hotel 3 Banderas is the hotel I booked for the couple days I am traveling alone. The options in Cartagena seem to much pricier than I’ve experienced in other towns and not as nice. My hotel is satisfactory but I don’t like not having a real window in my room and it does get damp in my room with the air conditioning running (at one point I had a puddle of water on the floor). The hotel reminds me of my stay in Saigon.

Hotel on a beautiful street (one with flags outside)

Auckland and end of NZ

I am heading to Auckland where I will return my campervan. After clearing my stuff out of the van I hold my breath and await for any “damage” charges, especially since I broke and replaced those two dishes. Luckily everything is fine….I guess I have trust issues with car rental places.

They provide a ride but it doesn’t go very far and I need to get to Auckland proper. They drop me off at the train station though. I carry all my junk (plus extra things I haven’t yet tossed) on the train to the city center.

I check into my hotel and I am exhausted. Not really sure why but I feel sick but not sick if that makes sense. I had been planning on meeting up with a couple women I have met in past travels but I can’t seem to have the energy to nail down plans. I pick the wrong time to want to rest!

To be honest I really don’t do much in Auckland. I walk around only to get a couple meals. Otherwise my time is spent lazily. I am having another one of those lulls again. My laziness doesn’t end anytime soon because I start my really long travel in a day or two. I am changing to another continent and time zone, more about that in a little while.

I craved a bagel and it was nearby this sign that pretty much sums up my mood.

I do stop for some sushi and crayfish by the water. The crayfish is super expensive and I am disappointed. I waited this long to try this? It must be better in other regions of the country?

My last meal in New Zealand is a salad – I am craving Halloumi once more but this salad grosses me out since the chicken looks and has texture like it is undercooked. The café insists the chicken is fine but it grosses me out.

I head to the airport. I am flying to Santiago Chile to recover from my jetlag. My next destination is South America. The flight to Chile seems like the shortest most reasonable place to stop to recover. I schedule a couple days here and hope I have time to do at least some city sightseeing or a wine region tour but I do almost nothing except sleep and go out to get a meal or two. I do end up watching the Superbowl at the hotel bar. The game is all in Spanish but it is a good time to brush up on the language since I am heading to Colombia next.

My time is totally wasted in Chile (unless you count restorative sleep) but I really hope to return again someday.