Day 5 - Iceland

I arrived in Iceland this morning about 630am after not getting much sleep. I did intend to sleep, per my last post, but nope...that didn't happen. I found the Hunger Games movie and it wasn't night time really, so I watched it. I did end up sleeping for about an hour, but I was plenty tired today. Have to deal with my Jetlag someday, might as well do it now. I arrived, got the first stamp in my new passport and headed to find the bus to Reykjavik. I wanted to get out some cash, but my knowledge and understanding of the Icelandic Krona system is small. They utilize the thousands mark. Thus everything had 3 zero's behind it and I couldn't tell if it was thousands, or a decimal place. I eventually, after sticking my card in 3 times and cancelling it...got out some Icelandic money. I´ll keep it for when I come back in a couple weeks.

I did get a bus ticket to the main Reykjavik bus station and headed that way, after transferring once, I finally arrived and got to see Elin. She was patiently waiting for me. I didn´t realize the international airport was so far away from the city. We ran to get some breakfast at a local bakery and headed back to her place. Elin's kid´s and husband were still sleeping, so we chatted for a little while and ate some yummyness!!!! Elin has wifi that I could use, so I tried out my iMessage and Facetime features with those stateside. It worked out great! Eventually about 10:30am, I was getting super tired, and I took Elin up on her offer to take a nap. I slept for a couple of hours.

After my nap I showered and made myself not look a day old and we grabbed some lunch and walked around downtown Reykjavik. For lunch we went to a seafood grill and I had the catch of the day, which was a white fish, that I don´t recall the name to. It was good! We walked by some beautiful jewelry stores that are native to Iceland, tempting, but I had to keep walking. I did find some things I wouldn't mind getting, but I'm going to wait until when I come back so I don't have to carry them all around England and back. Elin suggested a day trip on the day I´m here in a couple weeks, so I think that sounds like a great idea!

We came back and I took a couple cat naps on the couch while we watched some Olympics and just relaxed. It was nice to relax. Elin cooked a leg of lamb for dinner which was good, I'd not had it before. After dinner Elin and I went for a walk around her neighborhood. We walked by the bay/ocean for a while and it was just BEAUTIFUL!!! I have some pictures to share when I get back. The sunset was wonderful. Mind you this walk was after 10:30pm...it feels so much earlier than that!

It's been a great day, and I am sad I have to leave tomorrow and not see Elin again for a while, but I´m so thankful for her to allow me to stay with her and be a wonderful host!! Thank you. I love Iceland and I will be back!!!

Love

Day 4 - Providence to Iceland

I started out today saying goodbye to Stephanie as she headed off to work. I then got ready and Stephanie´s friend came and picked me up and we went and had brunch chilled around Providence. My flight left at 9:30pm and I wanted to be sure I was at the airport with enough time, so I shot for 6-6:30. That meant we had to leave Providence around 5pm, and I wanted to be back to pack up my suitcases and finish downloading some things to my Kindle.

Brunch was good, we went to a little restaurant on Broadway street, which is near downtown Providence. I had a very good Omelet and home-fries. Afterward we went down to another place that is known for mimosa´s and had a mimosa and just talked. Later we walked around the area, I got some last minute things at Walgreens and we headed back so I could pack up.

I had enough time with packing, since I couldn´t access the wifi to download things to my Kindle that I was able to make some calls. Eventually we headed out for the airport and we arrived just after 6pm, good timing.

I left out of Terminal E, which is the international Terminal at Boston Airport. Let me tell you this was a no-frills type of terminal. I got checked in and through security in about 45 min (but better early and with enough time than late), and through security it was a very interesting terminal. It seemed like it was an old metal building that they fashioned into a terminal about 20 years ago. I mean it´s plenty nice, but like I´m use to at other airports, the gates, were all along the exterior wall, and they were not jutted out in anyway. The seating for everyone was in the middle of the building with just a few little places to eat or shop. The big positive was that they had free wifi and so I could download those books I wanted! Yay!

I got to chat with my mom and dad before heading out and the flight took off pretty much on time. I am determined to sleep, but this plane is really quite nice. My day/night will be cut short with my flight east, so this really is the end of my fourth day. On my Icelandic Air flight, I am in the exit row, giving me plenty of leg space, I have plenty of personal space, I got my own pillow and very nice blanket and the personal tv for us in the exit row is under the seat. So these digs for a flight are nice perks. I can´t remember or know if this is just international and I haven´t flown it in a while, or if it´s a non-American airline that gives some nicer perks.

Regardless, Good night.

Love

Day 3 - Boston

Today was a great day spent in Boston with Stephanie. Stephanie has taken many a friends and family to Boston, so she is a good tour guide in and of herself.

  We took the train into central Boston and started to look for the Super Duck Tour ticket stand. We decided it would be fun to take that tour around to see the Harbor and the city history sites.

  After finding thee ticket selling place we walked around the Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market area before grabbing lunch at the Purple Shamrock, an Irish Pub. I had fish and chips...Gotta eat seafood here. I even tried Steph's lobster roll.

  Then we walked around Faneuil Hall, this was a gathering place built in the mid 1700's. Inside you could see the meeting room that is still used today. They also had a visitor's center and gift shop (like any good site should). Inside the gift shop, it brought me right back to my youth. After my 2nd grade year my family and I went on a tour of the northeast. Being all of like 7-8 years old, I don't recall the details, but I have some fuzzy memories. In the gift shop you could but all the things I had got when I was younger (see pictures). Sam the minute man book, paper money and replica's of the constitution and declaration of independence. There was even Jacob's ladder that I played with for years. I loved seeing these things!

   Later while waiting for our tour we followed the freedom trail a little more, saw the holocaust memorial and then onto the Old North Church, through the area like little Italy. Next we walked around the wharf/pier.it was nice on the water and I had finally cooled down (stopped sweating). The humidity is crazy...all the while Steph is now cold...there's something wrong with this picture.  Lol.

  About 2:30 we boarded the shuttle to the tour. With our Duck tour starting at 3. You might be asking what is a Duck Tour? Well it is a tour that goes both on land and on the water, in the same vehicle. Kinda neat. We got a land tour of the city and the historical stuff and then we splashed down into the Harbor near the old Navy Pier. There were lots of neat things to learn on the tour...that's why I like a good tour.

  After the tour we walked back to the Boston Common to see some things we hadn't yet stopped by to see. Meanwhile the weather gods decided to open up on us. We did break for a yummy cupcake at Sweet (a bakery), before continuing. We waited out the rain some, but eventually made it to a CVS to buy some rain gear. I brought an umbrella, but I chose not to bring it into Boston...silly me!

  I bought a poncho, but didn't want to look like the stupid person (tourist) in a poncho...so instead I was the stupid tourist getting soaked. 
   We did see a couple more things on the way to the subway. We then headed upto Cambridge to Harvard.

   Now I don't know about you, but I'm not good with where my Ivy league schools are located. 1. I'm not from the northeast, 2. I never wanted to or would have a ghost of a chance getting into school there and 3. I can't cheat, their location is not in their name (i.e. Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, etc.). Thus I didn't realize that Brown was in Providence or that Harvard was actually in a suburb of Boston as is MIT. Now I did know that MIT was in Mass, but who knew where. Lol. Ignorance at it's best!

   Needless to say by the time I was walking around Harvard I was a drowned rat and finally decided to pull out the poncho. Better than never??? We walked around and saw a few buildings...library, science center, where they hold graduation. It was fun despite the rain.

  We ate at a place on Harvard square which was very nice and good. I tried scallops and had a good chicken dish. Yum!

  After dinner we were worn out and just took the train back. When we got back I could have gone to bed...but no, thankfully Steph turned on the Olympics! What was I thinking! It's still primetime on the east coast! I was happy to see some coverage, because I'm going to miss it when I don't have it anymore...i.e. tomorrow.
  That was my day in a nut shell...or not. heading to Iceland tomorrow...leg 2 will begin. I'm thankful to get to stay with and see Stephanie on my trip! Thanks!

Love

P.S. Again please forgive any typing errors, or sentences that don't make sense, using the phone is great, but predictive text is tricky sometimes.

Day 2 - Providence, RI

Today I got to start my trip out full force getting to see the great city of Providence, RI. This is where Stephanie lives and she sure showed me all the fantastic sights!

  We started downtown (more commonly known as DownCity to the Providence residents) for lunch at the food trucks. I had some yummy food (see picture) and a homemade pudding pop!  We are in a park DownCity and then walked around the downtown some. I got to see Brown University and RISDE too. Then we drove around the city some, where I got to see one of the oldest streets with homes on it built in the mid to late 1700's! Really neat!

  Then we headed south to the Bay to see the water. On the way there we stopped to get Lemonade Icee like things. I got watermelon flavored since I'm not the biggest lemonade lover...the watermelon was very good! We got to the Beach and just chilled out for a while. It was nice.

   Tonight, a friend of Stephanie's made a very good dinner and we watched the Opening Ceremonies! It was very nice to have a home cooked meal since I don't think I'll be having to many of them while traveling.

  The Opening Ceremonies started and I'm glad I was able to watch them. They were good, although I did wonder at times what was going on. I greatly enjoyed the Parade of Nations! I think it's funny...every 2 years I watch an Opening Ceremony and it's always a geography lesson and each time I say "I've never heard of that country". Silly silly!

  I liked the symbolism of the Cauldron and flame. I liked that it united the world's 204 countries together because that's what the Olympics is all about!

  Off to Boston tomorrow, it should be great!

Love

P.S. If there are bad grammer mistakes or sentences that have words that don't make sense, forgive me...I'm writing this all on my phone swype keyboard and I need to get to bed..so no proofing right now. Sorry and thanks.

Packing and preparations

It has been a  hectic week, but I put my list together and marked things off as I could.

I was gone for a fabulous weekend in Kearney until Sunday, which made me put preparations off until I got back. This did add a level of stress, but in the end with a well put together planning list and some good friends it all worked out well.

One thing on my To-Do List was to get my toes painted with the Olympic Rings. I found this design online and loved it so...I took it in and they were able to put it in action. Thank you Luxury Nails!

I'm now in the airport ready to fly to Boston to see Stephanie! The trip is officially under way! Bring it on!

Love

Olympics 2012 the back story

Welcome,

  I'm starting this blog to document and share my upcoming trip to the 2012 Olympics in London.

A little back story.  How did I get to the London Olympics?  Well, it all started when I studied abroad in college in Reading, England in 2003.  I enjoyed my time in England so much, I made it a goal to get back to the country as much as I could.  In 2005, London was chosen as a host city for the summer Olympics and I knew right then and there that I wanted to go.  Fast forward about 5 years.  I'm now out of school and in Wichita, and I knew I still wanted to go and knew it was time to start the planning.

1 + years leading up to the Olympics:

The real journey started in the spring of 2011 when the Olympics tickets became available to the public. This process was via application.  Each person applied for which tickets they wanted and in what price range.  By the end of May 2011, I found out that I was denied any tickets.  I didn't expect to get all of the 5 tickets I had requested, but I didn't expect to get none of them.  So the next step was that any of the people that were denied tickets were allowed a first come, first serve opportunity to get tickets on their website before the tickets were available to the general public.

Getting Event tickets:
Jump to late June 2011....I woke up and waited with multiple windows open on the website to be sure to maximize my opportunity.  I got in fairly quickly, but then the website quickly came to a slow trickle.  I could tell the website was crashing under the insane amount of traffic of Americans wanting tickets.  I did manage to get two events in my cart and pay for them.  Beach Volleyball and Diving.  Later that afternoon the website came back up and I was able to get a ticket to Athletics (also known to us Americans as Track and Field).  I was excited to get these tickets.  The Diving ticket was even to a medal's round.  I might have chosen some different tickets if the website hadn't crashed, but I'm super happy with the tickets that I was able to get.

The last year:
I've worked on planning the travel portion of my trip for the past year...well it's been longer, but actively planning for the last year.  When I was searching out flights, I found that one of the cheapest flights over to London was on Icelandic Air.  That was perfect, it gave me a wonderful excuse to stop in Iceland and see my friend Elin.  On top of that, a departure city that had Icelandic Air was Boston, and my friend Stephanie recently moved to Boston, so I thought...wow!...I could plan a trip to see 3 friends in one! So that was it.  I eventually booked flights from Wichita to Boston to Iceland to London and back.  I will have about 4 days in Iceland between the outward and return journey's, and a few days in Boston with Steph and then a lot of good fun time in England for the Olympics and seeing some friends that went to school with me. 

The last month:
Because I have literally been planning this since 2005 (in my head at least), it has been increasingly difficult to believe that it is actually going to happen.  I know that time is fading away, but it still doesn't seem real.  I leave in 1 week and I'm slowly getting things ironed out.  Thanks to my friend Duick, whom I'll be staying with for a while in Birmingham, I've got most of my travel plans inside the country figured out for game days.  I spent some time and got information from each of the different venue's that I'll be visiting and I should be well on my way.  Now, just to pack.  I haven't started, but soon I will be getting things put in a pile, and ready to pack.

  Now I have this blog and I will do my best to keep it up-to-date with entries about my time on my trip, my adventures at the Olympics and the individual Events and hopefully to post some pictures so you too can share in my experience, if you so choose.

Love