Travels and Excursions

Land of sulphur and sheep heads

Reykjavik, Iceland

Earlier this month we decided to celebrate our first anniversary with a trip to Iceland. We hadn’t been out of the country for awhile, so it was pretty exciting to go somewhere new. On the 12^th of July we arrived in Iceland after an overnight flight. We were both pretty tired and cranky after a long night on plane, but we managed to find our way to our hotel in Reykjavik.

Our hotel was the Natura, which is owned by Icelandair. It was quite a nice hotel after some recent renovations, and was within walking distance of the city center and a thermal beach. After we had slept for most of the day we headed out to this beach, called Nauthólsvik. It was a chilly day, so the beach was deserted and we had the place to ourselves for a nice photo shoot.

The next day, after even more sleep, proved to be much more eventful. We started out early in the morning for a tour of the Reykjanes peninsula. This peninsula is really a huge volcanic field with lava field and hot springs. It is also one place where the tectonic plates of Europe and North America are drifting apart about one cm/per year.

After seeing some of the amazing cliffs and hot springs we headed over the the famous Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa set in the middle of a lava field. The blue-white waters are rich in minerals and silica, and are supposed to be very good for the skin. In addition to this, it was also the coolest part of our trip. The pool is very relaxing and warm, especially on a chilly day. I think we would have been happy to move in there, but all good things must come to an end. After our swim we took a shuttle into town and walked around the rainy streets in search of food. We ended up at an amazing Indian restaurant where Alex had to reevaluate his definition of spicy.

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Venice

Venice, Italy

Now that we’re done “teaching” we can once again give the blog some much needed attention. Without further adieu, here is Venice…

The morning of July 4th we flew from Austria to mainland of Italy. The flight was only about an hour and pretty uneventful. We got into Venice Treviso airport at around 1pm local time and hopped on a bus to the island of Venice (Piazzale Roma). By that point it was about two in the afternoon and the sun was scorching. From Piazzele Roma we caught a water-bus to our hotel.

The trip was very draining, mostly due to the heat. Water bus is a good way to get around, but isn’t especially fast. Our hotel was quite a ways down the Grand Canal, so we settled in for a long ride. It might be slow, but you get quite a view of the city. Our final bus stop was the Ca’Rezzonico, a very large house on the waterfront. It once belonged to a rich Venetian family, but has since been turned into a museum. Once off the boat it was just a few narrow streets to our hotel. I have never seen such skinny streets! It was hard to squeeze past people with our huge packs on.
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On washing sheep fur

Foshan, China

We asked the school where we work to help us decipher the washing machine instructions (above). Somehow, the English translation seemed more cryptic: [Read more]