It's hard to go where you plan

It's really really difficult to stay on schedule. It's not like there ever was a strict plan really, just a vague idea to hike some medium length vague trail. Which, apparantly, the idea is more than enough to leave a country with. But I'm saying it right now to get it out in the open. I have failed twice to hike El Camino de Santiago now, but it's no worries. Once, because Ireland is amazing. Then, again, because of a random assortment of various countries and people that I decided to see or meet along the way instead of making may way south to France. Anyways, it's not really that bad that I didn't make it again. Just means I'll have to try again next year. Which isn't exactly a burden if you know what I mean. So, even though I didn't really make it to El Camino de Santiago, here's how the rest of this trip to Europe ended up.

I remember waking up groggily after sleeping in the car at Metal Hammer Paradise. We'd decided to rent the car an extra day and drive it all the way to the southern part of Germany, about 7 hours away. In southern Germany lies a town called Spangdalem and in Spangdalem there is an airforce base. Stationed at that base is Ben, one of Kayzia's highschool friends. How can you come to Europe and not visit your friends?! So we were Spangdalem bound via the German autobahn. If you don't know what the autobahn is you're missing out because it's awesome. It's a highway with no speedlimit. Doesn't look any different than an American highway other than those famous signs that mark you're ability to go as fast as you damn well please. It was a blast, we only got the rental car up to aboout 180km per hour, but it was still awesome. The most enjoyable part was when we were driving 100mph in the slow lane and a BMW or Mercedes would whizz past in a blurr. Like really, there were times we were doing a hundred and got passed as if we were standing still. It was great and I would love for America to get their own form of this, especially in all of our middle of nowheres, but, other than getting passed by most everyone in Germany, there were plenty of cheesy pretzel stops along the way as we jammed out all the way through Germany's beautiful countryside. 

We arrrived in the south that night and were kind of starving despite our all day snack fest. We arrived at the visitor center and waited for Ben and his lovely wife, Mary Beth, to come sign us into the base. It didn't take long before we were caught in a blur of getting signed in and whisked away onto base. Now, we'd been in Europe for a while and, despite all the amazing hot dogs and other foods we'd been gorging our selves on, Taco Bell and Popeyes still hold a tender spot in our hearts and it was very exciting to see those two places agian. 

A huge box of fried chicken later we were bound for an airforce housewarming party somewhere off base and surprisingly, though it shouldn't have been, was exactly like any other party we would see in America. Kayzia and Ben wrecked some people at beer pong while me and Mary Beth played a little less effectively. All in all it was a fun night and really refreshing, as it always is, to be able to talk to everyone aound us. 

Our time spent in Spangdalem was awesome. We stayed with Ben and Mary Beth the whole time in theier huge house. Spent some time climbing and boulder which was actually a blast and possibly a new found hobby of mine. Plenty of time was spent playing foosball at some of the local bars and discotechs. Even more time was spent playing SuperSmash Bros Brawl on the Wii in the living room. Plenty of nights were spent playing spades and drinking wine as well. Needless to say it was pretty damn awesome and the continues cold weather made it harder and harder for us to leave. Turns out we spent nearly two weeks in Spangdalem ending our stay with a couple trips to Trier, the closest larger German city. It was all very common place things, except that it was in Germany, yet, somehow, it was an incredible experience to be a part of. I learned so much more about the military than I'd ever known previously and it was awesome. Ben was a hoot and so was Mary Beth. I loved meeting them both and I wish them both well in all of their endeavors! Maybe Kayzia and I will manage to come visit them when they move over to Italy!

In the end we had a blast and the insuing cold weather and an unbelievable airline ticket convinced us to return home to the United States for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was kind of sad saying goodbye to Europe, but getting over the Pyrenees mountains in the South of France would have been hell at this time of year. We flew nonstop Frankfurt to Vegas and spent Thanksgiving there before parting ways to our familes. It was a bittersweet departure, but, little did we know, we'd see each other agian quite soon when we were each on our own respective adventures. I miss you Kayzia, let's hit up the Galapagos this spring when all the snow melts and I'm back in the country. See you soon I hope. To everyoone else, I hope the holidays were wonderful and that this new year promises loads of new travel and adventure for you! You may not know it, but it's good for you and it really ain't that hard. So I hope to see you out of the country!!!

I'm flying to Thailand the day after tomorrow, where things will continue on their natural path. I'm meeting Stumbles and Mr. Miller there! I'm stoked. Really really stoked. 

Be happy everyone, 

Beacon

Brussels to Metal Hammer Paradise in Germany

We left Amsterdam a little sooner than I would've liked but we were still trying to make it to El Camino before it got too cold and there were still a few other little errandswe needed to run. First we needed to see Kayzia's favourite band, a Swedish group called Truckfighters. They were playing way up in the middle of nowhere Northern Germany at Metal Hammer Paradise. We had some days before it was time to see them play so we directed our attention south to Brussels, Belgium. 

Literally the only thing I knew about Belgium was they have waffles named after their country. Other than that it could've literally been anything and I wouldn't have been surprised. We jumped a cheap bus there from Amsterdam and arrived late at night. I'd been in contact with a couchsurfer all day and she was fine with us showing up later, but we still didn't want to keep her up so we hopped on the metro right away in order to get uptown. And we were impressed by it. The handles on the subway were leather and each station was decorated spectacularly. Our first impressions were good ones, but we were very tired and simply on a mission to find our couchsurfer, which, sometimes, can be difficult. It wasn't actually that difficult though and we got a very warm welcome from a woman. She was wonderful. Super enthusiastic to host as she'd just gone on a couchsurfing vacation in Italy. After tea and some chitchat we were sleeping soundly on the futon in her living room. 

We woke up the next day and had a nice little breakfast with our host. We weren't planning to stay another night but she offered to lend us her scooters (push scooters that is) for the day so we could properly explore the city and we couldn't resist taking them for a ride. And so the day was spent, scootering all over Brussels, checking out parks, statues, and beers. But then, suddenly, I saw something. I saw something on the pavement! Oh my god I saw it! So, technichally, it kind of happened. We found El Camino de Santiago, just not where we thought we would. Through the middle of downtown Brussels there was a trail of golden shells. The sign of El Camino. We'd found it! At least I can say, though I plan to amend it ASAP, at least I can say I have set foot on El Camino de Santiago even if I haven't hiked it yet. 

Brussels, though short, was fun. We left the next morning via Flix bus for Hamburg Germany in order to get ready for the approach to Metal Hammer Paradise. We'd decided to splurge and rent a car the day we needed to make it to the concert location. A lot of the reasoning being there was no other way to get there. So we had two nights to spend in Hamburg . The first night was spent exploring the dockside and stealth camping under some brush in a public park. We spent a lot of time in the tent on this trip, but I loved it. What we ended up doing most nights was buying a bottle of wine and I would read to Kayzia. We were reading Name of the Wind which is one of my favourite books and I almost always seem to read it while I'm traveling. So even though we spent a lot of time in the tent, it was a lot of time well spent. 

The next day was also spent exploring and ended us up at a small bar across the street from a concert we were trying to get into. Chvrches were playing, but unfortunately we couldn't get tickets so we spent some time drinking cheap beer at the bar across the street. We had a wonderfully nice bartender named Inna whom we ended up becoming quite good friends with by the end of the night. After it got busy and she was swamped for a bit we went and got her some food and continued chilling trying to figure out our gameplan for the night. The only question is where to camp. Turns out we stayed around until Inna got off work and as kind as she is she offered to let us stay at her house for the night! The people you can meet while traveling are amazing.

So a few stops on the metro later and we were clambering into Inna's house with our packs. We spent the night hanging out, laughing a bit, talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger, and watching the video diaries that Inna had compiled while going to school for video. It was awesome. Inna was incedible and it seemed so random for this all to happen we couldn't believe it. We had such a good time with Inna and I know we both still talk to her on Facebook. The next morning she took us back into town with her where she went her way whilewe went ours. Next thing you know we have a rented car and we're driving on the autobahn to Metal Hammer Paradise!

The concert was being held at a beach resort which we found a little strange for a metal concert, but all the same the venue was huge and beautiful, though a little bit cold. One of the best parts of this trip for me was watching how excited Kayzia was to be there. How much she loves Truckfighters and watching her get in there and mosh. It was a fun night, a really really strangely beautiful night in the weirdest of ways.

Be happy,

Beacon.

Amsterdam on accident

I didn't know what to expect when we arrived in Norway. I'd never really heard much about the place. I just assumed it was cold. Thankfully, compared to Iceland, it turned out to be an extremely pleasant temperature for this time of year. This was important because we arrived to Oslo airport late and decided to try our hand at stealth camping just outside the terminal. It wasn't hard to find a spot and it ended up being warmer than any of our nights in Iceland.

But, really, what is there to say about Norway? Or Sweden? Or Denmark for that matter? They were all quite nice, though expensive, and each of the countries had an oddly intense obsession with hot dogs that I found a little bit concerning. They were very clean and the architecture was fantastic but this is the part where I don't need to give a play by play of what I did every day because much of it was similar. We hitched our way down, starting in Oslo, and it wasn't awful. It wasn't the best hitching I've ever had either though. It just seems like the northern European countries are a little more reserved and a little more afraid of strangers standing on the side of the road. There were a couple memorable hitches that we got heading south though. One was from a young kid and the other a man from just outside of Amsterdam. We'll start with the kid.

It was early in the morning and we'd just been dropped off by our first ride at some outlet mall sort of thing right on the border of Norway and Sweden. We stopped for a chocolate and coffee break before walking a little bit away for a good hitching spot. Didn't take more than five minutes for a silver Mercedes to come to a stop for us. After a quick conversation with the driver we determined we were both headed in the same direction and I jumped up front while Kayzia got in the back. There wasn't much said in the first couple minutes but he broke the silence with some small talk questions like "where are you from?" and whatnot. It didn't take long before he started to tell us more and more interesting things. He told us he was only 16 and wasn't supposed to be driving the car really casually. Me and Kayzia were both burning to ask who owned the car then if he wasn't supposed to be driving it. He then proceeded to tell us about the wild night he'd had partying and how he had to run away from the cops yesterday for some odd reason or another. The story was very jumbled and it was difficult to discern what was true and what wasn't, as well as putting all the events he told us in chronological order. By the end of the car ride we'd learned that he also drives to Germany with his older brother and friends in cars of unknown origin and to buy carloads of liquor to smuggle back into Sweden and sell for profit which is certainly not legal. He told us all about these wild police chases and things him and his friends had to do to get the alcohol into the country. It was all hilarious. We didn't know whether to believe him or not. Maybe he was telling the truth and maybe he wasn't. No doubt he was at least telling some of the truth, we knew that, but he is also a 16 year old boy. Regardless, by then end we were a good 100km down the freeway and had a great story to tell for it. 

The next memorable ride comes from international waters. Yeah, that's right, we hitched while on a boat. We were taking the ferry from Denmark over to Germany because it was the quickest route to get out of these more expensive countries. But to say 'boat' would be a little bit misleading. It was more of a floating mall. It had an all inclusive buffet and a few other restaurants aboard as well as a liquor store and arcade. We spent the hour ride drinking cider and beer on the upper deck. As we neared Germany a voice came over the intercom asking all the drivers to return to their cars. That meant us as well even though we didn't have a car. We quickly gathered our things and went down to the car deck. All around us were people getting into their cars and starting their engines like it was the starting line for a racetrack they were all about to speed off from. Which, in fact, they were because autobahn! Anyways, we walked the lines of cars with our thumbs out and laughing about the ridiculousness of it all as everyone shook their head no or turned their eyes away. At the end of the last line, still, no one had shown any interest in picking us up. But that happens a lot, you have to give them a moment to think about it so we walked the lines again and at the end a man rolled down his window to ask where we were headed. We hopped in, explaining our destination and he was extremely welcoming. Jan was a great guy and we soon learned he was headed to Amsterdam the next day. After a short discussion, it turns out we were also headed to Amsterdam the next day. Germany could wait. 

Ah, Amsterdam. What is there to say about Amsterdam that you haven't heard about already other than it's all true. There are 'coffee shops' on most corners, but no one goes for the coffee. Psychedelic shops aren't hard to find either. And the red light district is nothing short of mesmerizing despite your motivations for checking it out. It really was quite an adventure and a great couple days spent in the city exploring museums and odd cultural peculiarities. I wish we could've spent more time wandering the canals and interacting with the locals, but it was exciting enough that we managed to end up there on accident in the first place. Next time I come around I'll be going back for a more in depth adventure of the city.  

Be happy,

Beacon 

Iceland comes to an end

We woke up after having spent a what can be described as chilly at best night in a bathhouse somewhere, not quite sure where, in Iceland with a stranger who'd picked us up while we were hitchhiking. It was still early but the night we'd spent huddled up inside a primitive house insured that we were ready to go in the morning. There wasn't much to the inside of the structure. There was a small wooden bench against a wall that you could sit on without you back being unnaturally straight and the floor was made of skinny wooden slats upon a concrete floor. The door leading out to the warm pool looked old and rickety, but it did the job we wanted it to do which was to keep the wind from blowing into what was our hope of a cozy night. Despite the undoubtedly dodgy sounding bathhouse we spent the night in it was all amazing as soon as we opened the door to the outside. The view was beautiful. Directly in front of the house was the warm pool and to the left was a river flowing toward the ocean. In the distance I could hear the waterfall that the river was coming from. It was kind of amazing. Kayzia, Ingrid, and I all got our things together around eight or so and, after soaking up our beautiful surroundings, we all walked downriver to where the car was parked to start our day off.

Ingrid was good company. She's a surfer and extremely fun to travel with. Our first stop was at a lighthouse on the top of some cliffs running up to beach. The lighthouse was beautiful, I will admit. The view was great as well. Beach stretching off forever in one direction and incredible rock arches off the the other with wonderful waterfalls and plateaus more inland. That was all cool, but it wasn't the thing that struck us most as we got out of the car. As soon as we opened the car door what stuck us was the wind. I used to think Northern Texas was windy, but it was nothing compared to what I was experiencing on the coastline of Iceland. Literally, I had to lean forward when I walked so that I could stay upright and continue moving forward. And I don't mean slightly forward either, I mean like at a hard angle. It was nuts. Looking over into the ocean the waves were going insane as well. I'm sure part of it was because of the lay of the land, but I could tell the ridiculous amount of wind was also having an effect on the massive waves. They were pounding relentlessly upon the beach. So much so that it made me afraid of the ocean for a moment. Just remember that while you're doing whatever it is you're doing the ocean is waging a war on all fronts.

After getting blown around a bit we went looking for an old army plane that'd crash landed somewhere on the beach. There was no address for the plane and no way for us to navigate to it other than to be like 'Eh, maybe this old farm road is where we need to be?' And that we did. It took us a pass or two before deciding on what we believed to be the right road down to the beach where the crash had been. Fifteen minutes down a sand road later we found the wreck. It was impressive.

After that all there really was for us to find were a bunch of waterfalls along the way. The drive was beautiful though, through some crazy strange environments. At one point we drove through a huge lava field that had been totally conquered by a thick layer of moss. For as far as the eye can see, all I could see was moss, moss, moss. It looked like another planet. After a bunch of driving and some goofing off we made it to the volcano glacier thing we meant to spend the night at. We didn't know where we were going to sleep yet, but we imagined we would do something similar to the night before and find a building to sleep in but it wasn't time for that. We all geared up and set off on a nice hike to a unique waterfall where the rocks surrounding it were all in the shape of hexagonal pillars. It was really cool and we got lucky enough so that it didn't rain on us the whole time. After the waterfall and we rounding the top of the climb there was a beautiful glacier lake was well. It was some beautiful hiking.

Ingrid and Kayzia

Where the three of us finally made it back down to the visitor center decided to all sleep together in one of the large private bathrooms. It's the kind that has a shower in it as well and so it was more than large enough for the three of us It was probably the warmest night we spent in Iceland.

The next morning we said our goodbyes to Ingrid. It'd been really nice getting to know her and not having to worry about finding a ride for a day or two, We wrote down names and became Facebook friends before she went off and we walked over to the main road. She'd offered for us to come visit her in Southern France when we got around that way and we were hoping to do so. That was in the future though and we were worried about hitching back to Reykjavik for our flight to Norway the next day. We made it to the ring road stuck our thumbs out. It was such that we could see cars coming at least five minutes before they finally made it around the long curve to us. Most of them were turning into the nature park we'd spent the night in, but the first car that was passing by us stopped and we met Natalie and Phillip. They were a cute young couple from Austria and we got along well with them. We did some exploring through some craters and the moss fields as well as watching the wind literally blow waterfalls upward. They took us all the way to Reykjavik and had a really good time doing it.

They dropped us off downtown where we decided to find ourselves a hostel for the night. It was difficult and the hostel was nice. I'd become friends with Phillip on Facebook and they'd offered to take us to the Blue Lagoon with them before our flight. The Blue Lagoon is a famous spa/ hot springs in Iceland near the airport and we decided to go along with them. The place was beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous and the hot water was everything we needed. We easily spent all day there before Natalie and Phillip dropped us off at the airport. They were great people and hanging out with them had been awesome. They also left us with the offer to come visit them in Austria sometime. Hitchhiking in Iceland was fantastic. It was so awesomely wonderful and a the people we met, both the natives and the tourists, were fantastic. Unfortunately it was time for us to say our goodbyes to Iceland and move on to mainland Europe, beginning with Norway.

Be happy,

Beacon.

Hitching Iceland

It was Kayzia's first hand at hitchhiking and it was a little bit exciting. I don't always get to go hitchhiking with someone, but when I do it's a pleasure. It's nice to have someone to joke with on the side of the road and to share the pain of any exceptionally long wait times with. I'd never hitched in Iceland before but as far as I had heard and from everything I'd gleamed from the map of the country it wouldn't be too extremely difficult. Mostly because Iceland really only has one road, the ring road, and the island nature of a country typically insures good thumbing. 

We'd spent the previous night at a thermal pool with our couchsurfer host, Einar, and eating hotdogs (apparently the national food of Iceland? Well, that and fermented shark). I felt rejuvenated. From the hot water yes, but mostly because it was exiting to stretch my thumb again. It wasn't a long walk from where we'd been staying to where I thought we could get a ride out of town. I don't really know how I pick these spots to hitch from. Sometimes I look at hitchwiki, but usually I pan around google maps until my unnatural hitching sense tells me 'that's the spot for a ride'. 

I was feeling a little bit of pressure this morning though as I talk a big hitching game and I wanted this to be a great first experience for Kayzia. The first spot we stopped at would have worked, but we were standing in the shade of some frosted trees on the side of the road and it was damn cold. We moved up a little bit to sunnier hitching and ended up finding a pretty good piece of road. It was under a half hour before Thoran (I'm not pretending I spelt that name correctly) picked us up. 

I'm not saying it's uncommon to be picked up by a single woman, but it's never what I expect. Somehow, still, it happens frequently. Thoran was a nice girl who'd, judging by the arrangement of booster seats in the back, just dropped her kids off  somewhere. She wasn't going far but she got us out of Reykjavik and to the one highway, highway 1, which was all we needed to get a longer ride. 

It was about 15 or 20 minutes before Kester stopped for us. He was a professor of technical drawing at the trade school in Reykjavik. He was on his way back home to a village about an hour outside of the capitol. This was our first real look at what Iceland looked like as not 5 minutes into the ride we were driving across lava fields with a fresh blanket of snow laying on top. Kester pointed out the various volcanoes for us and pronounced all with their increasingly difficult names. We attempted a few of them and I admit my tongue was not made for Icelandic. He took us around a bit and gave us a tour of his small village with 600 residents before leaving us outside his town and next to the only long term prison in Iceland. 

Never fear, there're only a hundred people in the one prison for an entire country. Pretty docile place. The first car that drove by, maybe 2 minutes later, gave us a ride up to the next town of Selfoss. It was another single woman who happened to be named Thoran as well. We took a break at Subway to get out of the cold and the wind for a second and then walked out of the small town to stand on the side of the road with the Icelandic ponies. 

We waited a little longer for this ride and we were getting cold when a work truck pulled over for us. It was a woman who owns a plumbing business and was off to check out a job site. She took us a good chunk down the road and left us at a nice petrol station. We bought an extremely expensive bottle of Vodka (because it's ridiculously taxed in Iceland), for the cold of course and went out in hope of one more ride before the sun set around 5. 

We stood for a short time, but it appeared most of the traffic was local. Ingrid was the one who stopped for us. She was French, on vacation in Iceland for a little while. She was driving around seeing the sights and such. Without even much of a conversation about it we all took it that we were a team now, at least for a little while. We became the navigators and she the driver. It was a good match up I think as we went along the coast exploring the magical waterfalls Iceland has nearly everywhere. 

We had done zero research for our trip to Iceland so thank goodness Ingrid knew what she was doing and what to look for.  There was the normal smattering of conversation before we came upon the first waterfall. And it was incredible. 

Down the highway about twenty minutes next waterfall was notning shy of spectacular either.

It was huge

While climing to the top of this waterfall we saw someone ahead of us who looked a bit familiar. And behold, it happened the lads we'd met up with for the spinning of the wheel had found their way out of Reykjavik and to this waterfall as well! Just a little bonus 'small world' feeling.

We did some catching up with them and they told us about this hot spring around the corner. The sun was about to set at this point but Ingrid, Kayzia, and I all decided we'd camp at the springs for the night. So we said goodbye to the boys and made our way down the cliffside to the car and on our way to some springs.

It took us a little bit to find the dirt road leading up to the edge of the plateu. Once we found the parking area though it was easy for us to find our way to the springs. It was gorgeous and we'd arrived just as it was getting dark. We were all extremely excited because it was cold out and sitting in a hot spring was going to be amazing. Me and Kayzia set our tent up while Ingrid did the same with hers, then we changed in the small bathhouse that was next to the pool that'd been made to collect the hot water. We got in. I'm not gonna say it was cold, but it certainly wasn't hot! All three of us soon realized out mistake and bailed ASAP. Soon after that we abandoned the tents as well and all joined forces on the wooden slats in the bathhouse. It was still cold, but much warmer (the vodka helped). We stayed up talking that night hoping the norther lights would come out. We were dissappointed by the lights, but I think our first real day hitching was a success.

The 'hot' spring

Be happy,

Beacon

Reykjavik

More than a few people asked me why I was going to Iceland, but I didn't have an answer for them. Simply put my logic went like this: Iceland is on the way to Europe and I want to walk El Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. 

But really, it was on the way to Europe and who wouldn't want to take a nice dip in a few thermal pools on the way to hike El Camino de Santiago? Our plane left Boston around 7 and arrived at 4 in the morning. The airport security checking our passports looked about as enthusiastic as we did, which was not very due to the early morning and rough nights sleep. 

Hi. How long will you be staying? Next. 

It was too early to be enthusiastic about   hitchhiking so we decided to take the bus into Reykjavik instead which was a good 35 minute drive from the airport. It didn't much look like there'd be anyone to thumb a ride from anyways. 

We'd decided to try AirBnB for the first time and we'd landed upon Daniel. He'd offered to pick us up at the bus station in Reykjavik. I thought it astounding considering it would be 7:30 in the morning. What other hotel allows you to check in that early?! The message he had sent us was only one sentence long: "I will have a white dog on my shoulder." He was easy enough to find.

So there we were, sitting in the bus station, when a man with a small white dog on his shoulder stepped out of his car. Turns out chihuahuas made it to Iceland somehow. 

Kayzia enjoying Chichi

Daniel was great. He made us coffee as soon as we got to his place as well as some Icelandic pancakes with rhubarb jam. It was fantastic. Through our brief interactions with Daniel in the early morning we learned a few things about Iceland. Mostly, that polar bears float over on the polar ice and run free in Iceland. Daniel mentioned it mutliple times saying: In 1918, the year my great grandmother was born, nearly 70 polar bears crossed over to Iceland. There were no helicopters or firearms. Can you imagine fighting a polar bear with a pike axe? It was December 31st and my great grandmother was a triplet, if she had been born just 1 hour later she would have been born in a different year than her siblings. My great great grandfather was sharpening his axe at the door during labor in case any polar bears broke in during labor."

Apparently it was very important we know this.

The rest of the day was spent wandering around Reykjavik. 

Big Lebowski bar

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After hitting up a couple of the themed bars they had on the main strip, such as the Big Lebowski bar, we ended up in the English bar for a pint of Guiness. Looking up at the wall behind the bar there was a wheel similar to that on wheel of fortune expcept instead of dollar values there were things such as "One beer" or "Two beers". About half of the options were "SORRY" and the two best winnings were "Eight Beers" or "A meter of beer". We were discussing your odds at coming out ahead, because it cost nearly twenty dollars to spin it, and decided the odds weren't bad when a group of young boys came in hollering "Spin the wheel!!" The young girl bartending pulled the wheel back as far as she could and gave it a hard spin. The previously loud and chattering atmosphere in the bar was suddenly hushed a considerable amount as most the patrons turned to watch the the rapid ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ticking of the pointer as it the pegs lining the outside of the wheel spun. She'd given it a good push and it took a moment for it to start to slow down. As it slowed the bar got more and more interested in the wheel. Instead of getting quieter though shouts of encouragment to the wheel started coming out, a lot of "Come on!"s and such until it got really slow. Then evey time it passed something good like the 8 beers or the meter of beer there'd be a short increase in excitment as if it'd help the wheel stop. Until it finally landed upon  the "Spin again" and the suspense started all over again. T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tic-tick-tick-tick...tick (COMMON!!!)...tick (YES YES YES!!!)...... tick (WHOA YEAH!!!). And the whole bar let out a triumphent roar as the wheel landed on a meter of beer. The bartenders quickly got to work filling up 10 beers to make the full meter as the guys and everyone celebrated. We just happened to be the ones sitting next to them when they won and we just happened to be finishing our beers. They passed a few our way and so began a hell of a first night in Iceland.

Skiffin'

There were a myriad of reasons for the way I was feeling.

1. I was alone

2. I was wearing a hat

3. What I was doing was a little bit crazy, not a lot, but just enough

4. It was beautiful

5. I was smitten, with a girl

1. I was alone. That may not seem like a big deal. It’s not uncommon to find one’s self alone after all. However, when I work on a boat for nearly three months I find that it is quite uncommon and come the end of the season, regardless the caliber of my crew, I find myself praying for some time spent in perfect solitude without one single chance of interruption. Would you like to know what my favourite feeling in the entire world is? The thing that beats anything and everything there’s ever been in all of creation? It’s when I finally get home, whether it’s from the boat or from traveling, and I can sit alone in my car with the radio turned up as high as it’ll go and I can sing my little heart out. I’m not a good singer and I don’t sing in front of people. Not even drunk. Not even karaoke. But, when I am alone in my car, as most do, I turn into a rock star and I can let loose the tension that naturally builds up in a person. It’s the best feeling in the world, especially after being unable to do so for so long. That’s why I was happy that I was alone. I was truly alone and I could yell and scream and sing and not give a damn because the only thing anyone would hear was, maybe, a faint echoing wail bouncing off the mountains. I was going on a skiff ride. For those of you who don’t know, a skiff is a small boat that we have with our larger boat. It’s the equivalent of going on a car ride for me because it was a long skiff ride and I was going it alone. I had my headphones and a playlist ready to go as well. It was going to be a two parter and I had at least 45 minutes of ‘me against the world’ ahead of me after I skiffed by the Hoonah scow, or the scow girls as their called. That was the first part of the skiff ride, I needed to get my hat.

2. The scow is like our ‘neighbor’. Normally I am anchored up in Mite cove on the Deer Harbor II. On a nice day when I look between the mainland and Mite Island there is this little floating house with a crane anchored in the next little bite over with the Fairweather mountains sloping down to Taylor glacier in the background. That little floating house is the scow. In the Crustliner it’s about a 10 minute skiff ride and I feel like I’m sinking the whole time. In the Bullfrog it takes 5 and I’m catching air if there’s a swell. I was in the Bullfrog, and I was catching air. I had on a flannel that the girl in #5 had given me and it made me feel special, almost like I had super powers and the small skiff wasn’t what was making me fly over the water like this. I was on my way there for one reason, and one reason only. They had a hat for me. But not just any hat, a hat the girl had made for me. It’s hard to know where I’m going to be and even harder for other people to know that same thing. So she’d sent the hat over to the scow in hopes that I’d stop by sometime and they could give it to me. I didn’t feel like stopping over there as it was in the opposite direction of my ultimate goal, but I wanted, no, I needed, that hat. I gunned it all the way up to their small dock, basically some aluminum bolted to two logs with some small pink cleats running along it. I tied the Bullfrog off by the bow and as soon as Megan saw me she went upstairs and brought me down a small bundle of fabric. Everyone there knew I was there for that hat and nothing else. She handed it over to me with a ‘I should have given you this a long time ago’ which kind of made my heart sink. I thanked her, made an excuse to everyone for not hanging around, which was promptly ignored, and I hopped back in the Bullfrog with my bounty. Off I went with the hat fighting to get out of my pocket. All I wanted to do was wear it, but I didn’t look at it immediately as I was savoring the suspense. I waited until I was out of sight of the scow, or at least far away enough to feel alone, until I couldn’t take it anymore, and I pulled the hat out of my back pocket to examine it. It was beautiful. Really, it was. It was layered in 5 colours. Starts out maroon on the bottom, one of my new favourtie colours, followed by a light light blue mixed with an almost grey, then a sky blue, a light gray, and a dark navy blue on top. The little tag on the side, which was made out of a piece of rubber glove, the kind all the fishermen wear, had the initials IQ on the outside and my name on the inside. It stands for Ice Queen. Not because she’s cold, but because she is damn good at what she does. She is who I was going to see in Pelican, the small boardwalk town, down the strait 7 or 8 nautical miles. I was ready to ride for an hour through anything the ocean/weather was willing to throw at me just so I could see the Ice Queen and it was all okay, because I had a hat.

3. It’s not super crazy to skiff from Mite cove to Pelican, but most people don’t do it. It’s just that the strait is a very large body of water and the skiff is very small vessel. If I were to hit anything, a floating log or some of the other debris that frequents the straights, I could easily fall out of skiff and be lost to the cold water. And visibility isn’t always the best as fog and pouring rain can be a factor. I was lucky in the sense that it wasn’t foggy when I left. I was also lucky that the seas were nice enough for me to make the ride and it was slow enough for me to take the night off. I was not so lucky in the factor of pouring rain, but that was only to be expected. I had the Bullfrog, an extra gas can, and a warm hat. I’d bundled my raingear in the bow with a roadie and a life jacket I never planned to use. It was going to be a bit of a skiff ride, but I was more than stoked about it. A lot because of that alone feeling I was looking for, but more of it because I was off to see the Ice Queen. It wasn’t super crazy, I mean it was a little bit, skiffing to Pelican to see this girl, but it wasn’t totally nuts.

4. It was beautiful. Fucking beautiful. Behind me huge cumulous clouds were billowing above the Fairweather mountain range. They were glowing a soft pink as the setting sun spilled itself upon them from somewhere across the Gulf of Alaska. Since I was headed towards Pelican the swell was with me and it was smooth riding with the wind in my beard and cold water v-ing out behind the skiff. There were two ranges of mountains, one on either side of me, which created the inlet I was in and each mountain that was further than the next in the distance was just a little bit hazier and bluer in colour as happens with distances of a grander natures. They started out a dark green and faded to gray-blue shapes near the limits of my vision. I was singing away, more a screech than anything, and ecstatically thankful for my good fortune on the skiff ride when a dark gray wall appeared across the inlet in front of me. It’d come from nowhere, but I had expected nothing less. I throttled down and let the little skiff sit at an idle with the wake catching up and lapping against the stern. I left it in gear and took my hand off the tiller. Without my hand to hold it straight the outboard flopped to the side and, since I was still idling in forward, started driving the skiff in small circles. I stood up and put on my bibs. I put on my rain jacket as well and whipped the hood over my hat. I opened my roadie and drank it down swiftly as I watched the wall get closer and closer to me while the skiff turned itself in shallow circles. It was a heavy rain. I finished my beer and, doing like the natives, ripped the can in half and threw it over. Sat back down and throttled straight into the downpour as only a man on a mission can. It wasn’t bad at first, but soon it really started coming down and I could hardly see in front of me. It was a feat just to keep my hood from flying back and I could only look ahead with one eye as the other was being brutally battered by the sky. I passed what they call the ‘lollipop’, a marker for a shallow spot, and I could see the small island that signified a little over half way not too far off. The skiff wouldn’t go any faster, but that’s probably good because the heavy raindrops already stung my skin as I buzzed over the salt water. The coldness was dripping down the sleeve of my rain jacket as I tried to keep my hood from flying off. I was determined to keep that hat dry. My throttle hand was going numb, but I wasn’t about to slow down. I wanted to be there because it was cold and because I had butterflies in my stomach. The closer I got the more they went into a tizzy. I was determined. I was going to Pelican and I didn’t care how much it was raining and I didn’t care how cold it was. Then, suddenly, I broke out of it. I’d punctured the wall of rain and found myself on the other side of it. I could see the edge of the ice plant and the three islands they call first, second, and third (real original Alaska). I was almost there, I was going to make it to Pelican. And it was beautiful.

5. It’s that silly giddy feeling you get in high school when your crush looks at you. That’s how I felt. She’s the Ice Queen because she makes the ice at the plant in Pelican. I’m fairly smitten with her. And by fairly I mean entirely. Really, there’s not too much more I want to divulge about it. Just know I was extremely elated.

Be happy,

Beacon