Tromso, Norway

As a trial blog post I am told the previous one looked ok with minimal weird formatting issues (my giant pet peeve) so I will try again! Arrived in Tromso on Thursday evening to a personal chauffeur from my airbnb because they couldn't wait for me to take the bus! They had other plans. The wind was incredibly intense and I am told there were northern lights that night but I missed them, unfortunately. I passed out! The next day I walked around the city (very small as my host had noted) and went for a practice run and groceries. I went to some nice free exhibits (photographs and sculpture: marble pillow!)

 

like 6 minutes walk from my accommodation. The evening welcome dinner at the aquarium was good, photos in previous post.

On the next day I headed out to the Polar Museum, with a lot of detailed descriptions of how they trapped and killed animals in the past - while of course necessary to live in this climate (skins and meat) it was a little grim. Then I went to the third floor and found an entire exhibit about a guy named Fridtjof Nansen who decided in 1893 to build a ship strong enough to get frozen into ice and then drive it into the sea above Norway and see if the current would bring it, in ice, across the sea. Mind. Blown. What an insane idea, a, and b, imagine making a ship that could withstand that? Oh my goodness! There are a lot more details that are too long for this already long post, but go read about him if you like! View from museum:

 

Headed back to prepare for my (HALF marathon) race and got to the starting line only to realize my watch was dead as I had forgotten to charge it. So no documentation in my watch of my personal record, but I definitely achieved one. The day before had been very icy (crazy Norwegian teenagers sliding down hills on their heels, not my idea of fun!) but this day was just slush. I did decide to run with spikes despite my lack of training in them, and it was a good decision as there was minimal damage to my shoes and I felt a lot more confident even though there was no ice. I was elevated a bit off the slush (still wet feet!) and not subject to filling my shoe tread with slush and then sliding on further slush. Out and back course (ran all the way to the airport and back!) and despite some hard snow pelting is it was warm (between 30 and 40) and comfortable. I did really well and really enjoyed myself though I was obviously tired at the end. Took 25 minutes off my previous time which felt pretty good. A few small/medium hills but overall very level and fun. Headed to the post race ceremony and buffet afterward, a little disappointing that many of the female winners didn't come get their awards (not as big a problem for the men, don't know why) but interesting to see. They also Skyped with Norwegians researching in Antarctica who had completed the race at the same time we had. Hilarious! They had mailed them medals so we got to see them put on their medals on Skype! Many male and some female winners from Tromso, many gyms around and it appears to be a strong running culture here. Ate with some nice people and had a good time. 

The next day I was very lazy (though not sore) except that I went on a reindeer sledding tour in the evening. Asked lots of questions!! Did you know that there are 17 possible ways to notch a reindeer ear for identification purposes and with all the 17 possibilities of notches in each ear there are enough different combinations to give every reindeer herder their own individual "brand"? We got to feed the reindeer lichen to aid their digestion and have reindeer stew. He said no reindeer farmers are in it for the money, it's a way of life and that he prefers the city so he brings some of his reindeer here to near Tromso to run this business instead of staying in the remote areas to herd his reindeer (his are with his family's and they watch his for him).

 Today decided to walk across the bridge to the attic cathedral (triangular building in top left of port photo above)

 

It'll be fine, she said, you're not afraid of heights anymore, she said! Yikes! But it was a nice walk and glad I did it! Was not that impressed by the church but the view was amazing. Waiting now at airport for next leg: Oslo! Plane had to go elsewhere to get fuel because they made it circle too long while they were snow plowing here so it might be a while! A few things I have noticed (then done I promise!):

• The weather blows through so quickly, the sky clears and darkens, storms and stops, very quickly. This morning looking out from the church I saw what looked to be a ski jumping doodad like a half mile maybe to the north and looked back 5 minutes later to see again and it was gone into fog. Very interesting weather (on Gulf Stream?! Whatever that means)
• It seems they really like automatic doors, to the extent that I thought the customs lady (who was not impressed with me running in January in Tromso) was trying to keep me from passing until I realized the door was going to open if I kept walking!
• Busses with chains!
• Cars, casually stopping, on very steep grades coming downhill at intersections leading to the main streets. I only saw one accident and I have no idea how that is! Good tires, good driving!
• Green license plates for commercial vehicles. 
• While there are cars, the downtown was relatively calm and lots of people walking around at all times of day. (People with spikes on walking around sounds like horse shoes!) Including at 9:30 at night after my reindeer tour on a Sunday people were waiting for the bus! What accommodating public transit!
• Mercedes plows (short nose big trucks attached to sanders) that shake the house, but often they are just sanding, not plowing.
• Bucket loader plows with snow box attachments on the front.
• Several giant grader-style plows running in tandem at the airport.
• (Relatively) large rocks used as traction on sidewalks (not sure about the roads), so big they were stuck in my running spikes!
• Grey crows (I thought they were black but maybe grey) and back/white birds (magpies) sticking in snowbanks in the wind and gulls flying even in the insane wind, blowing them every which way.
• Beautiful red, yellow, blue or grey houses with seemingly impossible driveways. Just gorgeous and crazy to think of people surviving and thriving this far north having to import so much! (But not reindeer or shrimp! Yum!)
• Supermarket open 7-23. Which hour are they closed? Dying to know!
• Very good time in Norway thus far! On to the next adventure! (When the plane arrives!) Update: arrived at Oslo apartment 1am!

Departure

Greetings from Norway! I have been practice running, learned that eggs and milk are refrigerated in the grocery store and seen very little daylight! Conditions were very very windy yesterday but it seems to have calmed down, so that is good. It is now quite warm and weirdly rainy. Should be interesting running! Time lapse packing photos below:

 

 Welcome dinner at the aquarium last night was fun! Seals (which kept jumping when I left to look at other stuff even though I stood there for 20 minutes!)

  

Creepy fish with blue eye?!?



Hilarious shrimpies

 

and a pretty starfish



Apologies for the terrible phone photos (aquarium photography isn't particularly easy either) Just trying this out to see if it works. Happy weekend to all

Travel Update!

Hello to all!

Disgracefully did a very poor job of taking photographs on my November 2016 voyage, but it was a fun one. Visited IKEA for the first time (and found St. Albans Cheese at the Paramus, NJ Whole Foods), walked/ran with lovely dogs, and watched Zootopia (again!) in New Jersey. Went to workout class, ran and ate amazing salad in Pennsylvania. Had a stopover in Nashville, where apparently there is an actual size replica of the Parthenon. Who knew?

Sorted and organized my friend's apartment, classroom and papers, went to IronTribe and ran my fastest 5k ever (recorded on my running watch) in Memphis (where the fire hydrants are silver and "someone got drunk and planned" the street grid, according to one of my friend's coworkers)

Much driving to get home for town band! Including books on tape, Radiolab and many school busses in Canton, NY. Facebook summary of driving events:

Musings from my multi-state road trip: Why are there so many fireworks stores by the interstate? Do they think that we have an urgent need for them while driving? It would, I guess, make it more interesting. Flea market named Flea World. Really? SOOOOOOOOOO many trucks, and dead deer :-( and other dead things. Also, people pulling over to the side of the road at really weird places... and abandoned cars get these stickers on them apparently, maybe tickets? I thought it was a scavenger hunt! Saw a goat in Kentucky just chillin' on the interstate, no big deal. Can America make up NO original place names? I drove by Scotland, Glasgow, Sparta, Verona, Seville... who knew I could do that in America? And finally, some states have really pretty names/labels on their roads that pass over the highways. Not boring like Vermont! Safely made it to visit dear friends in 3 states!

Then I was off to London after a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner to witness my friend's wedding (they let Americans do that!?!), go ice skating

find a map of Vermont while Christmas shopping,

watch some Gilmore Girls and run before my flight home. Overall read some good books and felt very loved visiting so many friends. 

Today I have almost 100% (waiting on one Airbnb confirmation) planned (in my incredibly anal pre-planning Ellen kind of way) eight weeks of travel starting in Montreal on January 4th at 8pm and finishing in Burlington on March 1st at 3pm. I am sure there will be bumps in the road, and I am sure there are more authentic ways to travel that would result in me finding/knowing/realizing/discovering more things, but for me and my anxieties this is the only way to go, and no matter what it's going to be an adventure. I am excited to see many friends and get my backpack good and christened with a whirlwind tour as only a Stanley is capable of! Upon arrival at home I anticipate sleeping for several weeks and starting to make some more concrete life plans. I will try the best I can to keep everyone updated here and hope for a smooth a trip as possible! Holiday love to one and all!

Travel Plans

Hello to all!

Wanted to update you on my plans for a crazy travel extravaganza Fall 2016 - Spring 2017. At least 25 friends and relatives, about 7 flights, 1 backpack, 1 Ellen, and 1 fabulous multi-part vacation.

In November, I am headed out for a road trip to Memphis to visit a friend, with multiple stops along the way to see others. I am very excited. Recently learned that this road trip will be punctuated with an after-Thanksgiving whirlwind voyage to London! So November 2016 is very booked!

Then in January 2017, I will head to my European Half-Marathon (working toward all the continents) in Tromso, Norway. After seeing some of Norway, it will be on to Scotland, England, Germany, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, West Coast USA, and then home. I am excited to (1) run at a more reasonable elevation (2) have my fortune told (3) see my friends (4) see new countries and continents (5) surf (6) do yoga on my 5th continent (7) drive through a redwood tree (8) go to Vancouver, Canada and generally have a great time. I think my jet lag will get so weird that I will just be back to normal again when I get home!

That's the excitement from here!

Dear Kinshasa

Dear Kinshasa,

Thank you.

Thank you for the innumerable safe drives and runs I have had here. I know I am very lucky, but I will not leave here with anything but fond memories of traffic and training.

Your sidewalks made sure my Kinshasa parkour skills were always on point (I did fall once! But only once)

The occasional smile and friendly (or disbelieving) comment made me happy to be out early.

The sunrises were amazing.

I will sincerely miss running at 5:30am in Kinshasa. It's about as peaceful as this place gets, I think.

Thank you for allowing me to safely exist here for two years, observing, learning and soaking it in. I consider myself very lucky to have spent time here, meeting remarkable people from all over the globe and teaching classes of students so surreal-ly diverse, I never could have imagined them if I had tried.

This thought occured to me while I was running several weeks ago. Forgive me if this is maudlin or patronizing, it is not meant to be either... At the end of the day, Kinshasa is what I hope I am: a colorful, gorgeous, chaotic, beautiful, resilient, remarkable, confusing, wonderful mess.

I am a lucky girl, to have been here.

Love,

Ellen

Horseback Riding

Hello there!

I had intended a horseback riding post way back in February, but some unexpected events caused me to wait until now. Last year I was very much interested in riding, but I never got the information on how and had heard a lot of rumors about the pricing being atrocious, so I was a bit turned off. This year, an intrepid friend and I managed to get through the hoops of the pricing introductory meeting to wrangle a deal for $150 each, which was supposed to only buy 5 rides, but we were given a 6th one for free (which turned out to be more than justified!)

Circle Hippique de Kinshasa

The riding ring, where the jumping competition is held every fall.

Our first horseback riding day dawned perfectly adequately and we headed over to get started.

We both had backpacks with our money in them, which no one ever wanted to take, so we proceeded to ride with our bags, which turned out to be a mistake. My friend's horse startled at the motion of her bag, and long story short we ended up in the Kinshasa-eqivalent-of-emergency-room-on-a-Sunday all day long. It was quite traumatic, I felt bad that I hadn't reacted more quickly to help her and felt bad that it had been her! SO, after a concussion, which she definitely had, she decided it was best to wait a few months to get back on the horse! We went back in April, she had the SAME HORSE! (as did I, a horse Massimiliano who was overly fond of dragging me under EVERY low hanging branch, but very calm) and we made it perfectly through the hour long trail ride.

The third time we went, Massimiliano was not feeling well so I got a different horse, Haiti, who had a lot more spring in her step than he did and was fun to ride, though she was smaller than he was and I was worried I was large for her the whole time!

Anyway, this $150 was money extremely well spent (if we consider the free ride the one that my friend was hurt) because the trail rides we went on were nothing short of African fairy tale amazing. The rides took us through immaculately well maintained paths through fairly dense jungle. At times we could see houses and people on the borders of the area, but for the most part it was just these gorgeous trees, little streams and tons of butterflies and birds all around us. It was like what I think of as walking in the English countryside (and a little bit like the paths behind my house where I lived in Sheldon) except the African version. It was insanely beautiful and so fun. By the third time my knees were slightly more used to the saddle pain and I had absolutely the best time (could also have been due to the shorter, less wide, nicer horse who was not intent on getting me covered with dew, twigs and leaves from the overhanging branches.)

This is just the way down to access the more wooded paths, but you can start to get the idea.

Horsies with their awards they've won at the jumping competition.

Overall, I am very happy I got to ride in Kinshasa, smell the perfect horse smell, and enjoy the gorgeous nature right next door to TASOK.

Everything I own is now pulled out of the desks, cupboards and drawers and waiting for me to pack it. I should get on that. :-)

Rwanda: Photo Edition

I tried to grab a photo of everything I wanted to mention, but first things first:

Rwanda, from what I saw, does not use plastic grocery bags. In Kinshasa, they are everywhere. In Rwanda I think I saw two. ALL grocery bags I was given were paper. SO cool. However, they seem to really like drinking straws in Rwanda, all drinks come with them (even cans/bottles)... so not sure what the net environmental impact is of fewer grocery bags and more straws, but I enjoyed the extremely clean atmosphere everywhere I went!

View from the hotel, 1,000 hills indeed:

Motorcycles and Bicycles (Tour de Rwanda! is actually a thing!) are VERY common. Motorcycles all have a helmet for the passenger and driver (many match, but not all... I was on the lookout for drivers whose passengers had to wear non-matching helmets!) Hilarious to watch the lady passengers (somewhat) try to get helmets over their hairstyles!

Bicycles carry EVERYTHING. Humans. (As in there is a seat behind the driver so the bike can be a taxi of sorts, remarkable with all the hills. Drivers earn their money!)

People stopping at stop lights! Novel!

Cauliflower. Doors. Couches. Squash. (Saw both couches and squash on the same bicycle!) Both motorcycles and bicycles are decorated and have fun mud flaps and guards under the pedals to keep mud from coming up that way. Nifty.

Gorgeous, incredibly well maintained road the whole way! View back into Kigali as we were departing:

Such beautifully painted buildings near the road: My favorite, for Crown Paint, "If you like it, Crown it!" All I could think of was "If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it"... I was just in awe that small towns on the side of the road have enough need for a paint store!

SOOOOOOOOOOOO MANY BANANAS!

Beans. Fields and fields and fields and fields of beans!

COWS! and sheep and goats, but I don't have the patience to load the photos!

Sooooooooooooo many people. Everywhere. Walking, chatting, out and about.

Cabbage Patch! How many did that doll lady have mom? Did they beat her?

Fields of tea, with more people out walking. You can see the terraced hills to the right.

The Scouts (scoots!) out on a Sunday afternoon stroll.

I have so many more pictures, but I can't wait for them to load. Sorry for the delay, I was doing report cards all weekend my internet hasn't been strong at my house. Have a great week!