Ice land Iceland

Well, iceland at this time of the year certainly suits the name. It's white everywhere, fresh snow, compressed snow and ice made the whole place look white, and I simply love it.

Even though it is not the best time for touring around, with some of the road being closed and bus services being reduced, I am not going to complain, cause I had specifically choose to come in winter to see iceland as it should be, at least it is what I think it should be, and I'm not disappointed!

The trip from Reykjavik to Akureyri passed through rows and rows of white hills and mountains with occasional farm houses in sight, other than that it's just the road, the bus and the white hills. Feels so good to be looking out of the window and being greeted by the "white view".Alright, think I'm a lil bit crazy about this white view of mine, haha...

Late nights and more late nights

Have not been getting my beauty sleep lately. ...sigh, not good not good. I am staying in this London hostel and there are so many fun people at the hostel that I always end up playing cards, chatting, laughing with them until 2-3am. Doubt that late night sleep gonna do any good top my skin, so I really must refuse to play the cards with them, haha....but it's so much fun!!

As for tonight, I will be doing some work to pay for my stay in the hostel, which starts at 10pm and finishes at 2am, so another late night I guess....

London oh London....

Have been in London for emmmmm.....10 days now, and every time I walk down the busy street crowded with people from all over the world, I can't help but wonder "what am I doing here???" 

I am not saying that London is a horrible place, I do enjoy walking along the Thames river, looking at the bridges, and familiar big ben, but somehow I just feel out of place when I'm surrounded by thousands of people and all the red buses and black cabs drive me mad instead of fascinates me. I want to be away, away and away......far far away from the crazy traffic, and the constant flow of "human river" around me. 

So I guess Iceland will be something completely different, or at least I hope it would be, I can't wait for Saturday to come when I shall leave London behind and go seek for my kind of world in Iceland. Iceland, here I come....but first I need to get the DSLR, which means I still have to spend some time going round the shops, erggghhhhh!!!

In London

So, am in London now after horrible midnight bus ride.So glad to be stepping off the bus at victoria station even thought it was still dark at that time. Struggling with my luggage, I managed to find the hostel and settled in.

And today, I am just roaming around London doing some shopping. Yes, me shopping!I need some stuff and wanted other stuff, so here I am trying to decide how much I should spend. First I need travel adaptor, then maybe a daysack, then camera, yes a DSLR I'm thinking about and lastly a portable hard disk. Not working but spending...hemn.....

So I decided

Yes, finally I had decided, after sitting in front of computer for 3 days trying to work out the itinerary for my final trip before going home. Pheww...not easy, especially when I have a long list of "must go, not to be missed, excellent spot" going round and round my semi-functional brain.

So this is what I will do.
1. London - Iceland - Oslo - London (sorry mother earth for the carbon foot print)
2. Apply for Russian visa in feb since they will not let me apply more than 90days in advance of my entry. (Why do they have to make it so difficult for everyone??Maybe because everyone make it so difficult for them?)
3. Italy ......... (yes, another flight, feel so bad and yet still doing it, what's the point??So weak, fuh!)

Alright, that's a good start, I have some firm date too, then "bang" I failed to book my iceland flight because iceland air will not accept my debit card and thanks for HSBC complete screw up I have not got my credit card after 2 months!!Grrrrr...I really feel like biting someone now!

Well, at least now I get some free time to just sit around and mumble away, and maybe I will read a bit more info about my destination. That should be good.

My travel plan and me

Being a "bum" means that people around me are constantly asking me these questions :

- where are you going next?
- when are you going home?
- when are you going to start traveling again?

The funny things is, I usually do not have any answers for them, not because I am not willing to share but is because I have not made up my mind yet. I always have a rough plan in my head which I made by looking at the map and which I usually wrote on a piece of recycle paper hidden somewhere. So I can usually tell my friend that I would like to see Italy and Iceland, and I would like to go on Trans-Siberia train, but I do not know when, or how, or the sequence of the occurence.

At one point or another, I will look at the crumpled plan of mine and told myself "that's it, this is how I'm going to do it!" and set it aside. The problem is, my so call "plan" always end up in dead alley because I did not take into consideration the transport, the weather etc etc, so which means after a few search online I realized that the "plan" need to be reorganize, so here we go again. Another look at the map, another add and remove, and I have my new plan which sometimes can be quite different from the original.

Then when a friend told me that she is planning to go to India for a month, I started to think again whether or not I should fly to India since now I have 2 friends who will be there. One is my old time friend who I would really love to go backpacking with before she become a mum and the other one is my crazy slovak friend who I think will certainly make my trip unbelievably interesting and exciting. Yet again, I sat down and staring at the computer screen trying to decide, and in the end I decided to sleep on it and will see how I feel about it tomorrow.

Maybe just maybe I have too much time, if I set a deadline, maybe it would have been easier???I really dunno..

Difficult decision...environment or time and money??

Today I finally sit down and start looking up the various possibility of transport for my upcoming trip which I decided to start in Italy, will then head east before heading north again and eventually make it to Russia. I told myself that I will avoid flying because after my recent road trip, I am sure that I had left so much carbon footprint then I had wished to, and I was hoping to stick to buses and train this time. I am not calling myself environmentalist, just thinking that I would love to help contribute to the well-being of the world as much as I can.

All these said, I started looking up for the buses and trains that will take me from London to Milan where I plan to start my tour of Italy. Due to the distance, the coach will takes at least 24hours and the train 19hours, and the prices shown is not really great. Out of curiousity, my room mate suggested that I had a look at the flight choices, and that must have been the worst thing I could have done, the flight search shown available flights that takes only one sixth of the time and half of the price compared to the bus!

First, I was screaming at the screen and then I was speechless, really do not know what to say or make of it. Ironically, the flight even offers the possibility to offset the carbon footprint! Now I'm torn between leaving as little carbon footprint as possible and saving my time and money! Is it a such a difficult decision?Yes, it is for me.

Aren't you suppose to get a better deal when you pay more??In this case, it seems unlikely. At the moment going by train is not a possibility as it costs a whooping £250! Going by bus means paying 50% more, spending 24hours on the road with a stranger strapped right next to me, arriving at my destination exhausted and possibly stinking, knowing that I put up with all these just so that I clocked 0.96 tonnes less CO2 then flying. Tossing carbon footprint issue aside, going by plane means I will save some money for good food and also arriving in my destination fresh and ready. At a glance, it seems like a such simple equation. Part of me is saying that I should just be selfish and forgo all the concern about the carbon footprint, the plane is flying even without me, save the money for some good pizzas in Naples and some extra time to look around ; another part of me is thinking that if I do really care about the carbon footprint, how can I be so easily swing???

At the moment, I still do not know. However, I have a strong feeling that I will finally be flying. Sad, isn't it?? I can't help but wonder why is it so hard for me to be less selfish? Why am I so weak? Where is my determination? Deep down, do I really care like I think I do? After all, I had always left a buffer in this issue, I always tell myself that I am doing every bit I can, trying is the word. This actually do not sounds like a committment. This certainly got me thinking...

Last day at work

It's my last day at work, AGAIN.....have had a few different jobs this year, so had a few "last day at work", I think it's really fun and it gives you something to look forward to. When we sent the last guest out this morning, we were so excited and keep repeating "last day, last day" to each other. And finally at 1500H, all jobs are done, the rooms are all cleaned and the lovely festive decorations are all down and stuffed in the boxes ready for the next season. Such a shame that it took us less than an hour to remove all the decos where as we had spent 2 days putting it up!!Isn't life is just funny???

So last day at work means I should be on the move again, the problem is I have not made the final decision as where I am heading to, gosh...me and my "not so final plan" is now facing the harsh reality. On Monday, the rest of the staffs will all be going home, and what am I going to do??I wonder....and wonder...and more wondering.....seems like "wondering" alone does not take me further, so I guess it's best that I stop mumbling and wondering away and do some serious planning. Planning planning, since when it had become so hard??Guess since I have no time constraint, sigh...that is suppose to be a good thing, is it not??