Ending Point: N55°40 E37°19
Distance Traveled: 0.0 miles
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Still unaware that we had crossed into another time zone, we had quite a full night’s sleep and woke up to go downstairs to a full breakfast with the girls and Valentina. Shortly after breakfast, we began our day tour with Jenya that the Ganzas had organized. We were more than used to driving our little Panda around cities, but it was quite a treat to be driven around Moscow not only by someone who actually knew where he was going but also by someone driving a nice clean BMW. Valentina put a few sites on the must-see list, and so we went to those places first. As we drove into the city, we passed the Kremlin and headed straight to Red Square. After walking around Red Square and taking the typical tourist photos in front of Saint Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin, we went to Gum, one of the largest and nicest shopping malls in the city. From there, we jumped back in the car with Jenya and headed to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior to admire its architecture as well as its great view of the city. Because the Cathedral is located on the bank of the Moskva River, walking from the beautiful church across the bridge nearby (a bridge decorated with love lockets) allowed us to see a lot of the city. Back with Jenya, we cruised around for a while, as he pointed out notable streets and buildings of Moscow. After the driving tour, we decided to go back to the Kremlin to walk around the park and fountains outside, including a countdown clock for the upcoming winter Olympics in Sochi. We ended our day with Jenya at Moscow State University, also located on the river and offering a great view of the city. Our stop was a popular one, as many just-married couples and wedding parties cruised by. From there, we left the heart of the city and went back to the Ganzas for dinner and playtime in the garden. Starting Point: N55°40 E37°19
Ending Point: N55°40 E37°19 Distance Traveled: 0.0 miles
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We had been thinking about this day for months, maybe even years: the start of the Mongol Rally! It was really happening! The morning was a blur of packing up, stickering, networking, and eating breakfast sandwiches. Then, everyone came together for a series of announcements and an awards ceremony. There were the expected awards like for best-outfitted car and most money raised for charity. The most memorable award was for the over-prepared car; the prize was a large golden TV to take with them on their roof rack. Following the ceremony, there was the traditional joust in front of the castle with two men on horseback and then a less traditional joust with one man on horseback and one on top of a car. The knight on horseback won… Perhaps an omen for the Rally? We hope not. After the ceremony and much anticipation, we finally rolled up the starting platform. No one could forget our start. We were the only team to stall three times getting up the ramp! We lived up to British stereotypes of Americans in that moment, but at least we were memorable, though perhaps less so than the team that had a mother get on the microphone to say goodbye. Leaving Bodiam, we followed Scarlett and Tom to Dover—a short hour-long drive full of Rally cars. At the ferry terminal, we accidentally separated from our navigators as we tried to pick up our tickets at the wrong building. The day changed from there, as we couldn’t possibly meet up with them in Frankfurt, Germany, at a pub whose name we didn’t know. We were lucky, however, to get on an earlier ferry to Calais with lots of other Ralliers. In the waiting lanes for the boat, we met Duncan and Jared from New Zealand and decided to aim for Luxembourg for the night. On board, we solidified our plans as we watched the white cliffs of Dover disappear into the distance. Just before leaving the ferry, we met Dick (we individually commented on his nice car) and he gave us better direction for the afternoon. We landed in France and met the Kiwis at the Calais Wine Superstore just outside the dock. The drive through France was beautiful and easy, until we were stopped in traffic for an hour, and then the drive through Belgium was almost as nice despite the change in road surface quality. Our delay in traffic put us behind in our plan for Luxembourg, so we found a camping spot in Belgium for the night and made some dinner while enjoying Belgian beers. Starting Point: N50°49 W00°18
Ending Point: N50°10 E05°22 Distance Traveled: 254.1 miles We left Trieste a little too early in the morning. Luckily, our hotel packed us breakfast to go—the enjoyable part of our journey to the airport after the bus driver freaked out about us not having tickets in advance. Charla’s Italian got us by and earned a stop at a roadside café where she ran inside to buy tickets after the fact from a kind older lady. The journey from Trieste to Milano was short and sweet. There, we met up with Charla’s friend Patrick for coffee and second breakfast. Charla and Patrick met while they were studying together at the University of Bologna in 2007 as students of the Eastern College Consortium between Vassar, Wesleyan, and Wellesley, and they have stayed in touch across the continents, as neither one seems to stay put for too long. Patrick had just made it back to Italy some four months before and had lots to say about the city. Breakfast in Milano felt close to breakfast in Bologna—cappuccini, pastries, and lots of catching up (this time, we had a year and a half to discuss; it used to be the events of the night before at the Cassero). As Patrick left for work, we went for a walk around the city that took us by the Duomo, La Scala opera house, a few notable statues, and the oh-so-not Italian but rather Irish O’Connell’s Country Pub before heading back to the airport. Our last flight until Mongolia! After flying from Milan to London City, we decided the best idea would be to avoid the actual city of London. Tomorrow we’ll be picking up our car in the eastern suburbs, so we decided to head there tonight. After navigating London’s public transit lines (airport to Stratford, Stratford to West Ham, West Ham to Purfleet), we finally walked up to The Royal, our hotel for the evening. We arrived right as it was getting dark, and immediately grabbed some ciders from the Riverbay, the bar in the hotel, to enjoy on the banks of the River Thames with a view of the London skyline as the last bits of daylight were fading from the sky. Once it got completely dark we went back inside the bar and met two of the funniest people we’ve met along the entire trip. There was Wes, the bartender who met his American lady playing Call of Duty, and there was Jake, who had to explain to his wife how he innocently lost two pairs of pants within days of each other. The two of them kept us rolling with laughter late into the evening until we climbed up a couple flights of stairs to collapse into bed and dream about getting a car tomorrow.
Once again while Charla was attending her morning lectures, Chase sought out the unique museums of Trieste. The first one he found was the Museo Ferroviario di Campo Marzio, the museum about the railroad in Trieste. Housed in an old train station, the museum housed four tracks worth of old and interesting trains in the railyard. After spending time in the sun poking around the unique trains, Chase ended up at the Civico Museo del Mare, or the museum of the sea. This museum was focused on Trieste’s maritime history, but was surprising in that it told the entire story using intricately detailed model ships. Following the afternoon Ulysses seminar, Charla met up with Chase to go on a walking tour of Joyce’s Trieste that included the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Nicholas, the Berlitz School (where both James and Stanislaus worked as English teachers), and one of the many apartments where James Joyce lived with Nora Barnacle in the city. Joyce’s Trieste was surely different from the one we experienced, but a cosmopolitan air persists in this city whose nationality used to change frequently. The windy backstreets of the city seem unchanged from the turn of the century aside from some of the shops and restaurants that populate them. We returned down the alley of Osteria da Marino to find piadine at La Piadíneria. As a student in Bologna, Charla adored these flat bread sandwiches stuffed with veggies and cheese (and meat for those so inclined), and after finding piadine nearby, we made this café a favorite stop in the city.
After piadine, Chase went for a twilight run along the sea wall while Charla attended Michael Longley’s reading at Civico Museo Teatrale “Carlo Schmidl.” The Museo is located right along the small Grand Canal, so the barge bar at Caffé Rossi was an ideal choice for an evening social beverage. The Trieste Joyce School was our reason for coming to this amazing city that inspired the writer some hundred years ago as he lived and worked here as an English teacher. Organized by a group of dedicated professors, the School’s daily program featured two lectures (and a coffee break at Bar alla Motonave!) in the morning session and seminar groups on different texts in the afternoon. Most nights included some kind of evening program, which we will get to later in the blog. While Charla went to the lectures, Chase went exploring in the beautiful city of Trieste. He wandered out along the seawall to the lighthouse in the port, and then came back to meet Charla for a picnic lunch of Nutella sandwiches in the Piazza dell’Unità d’Italia. After lunch Charla went back to her seminar, and Chase explored the ruins of the Roman Theater in Trieste. The School arranged for an evening visiting the Santuario di Monrupino in the hills surrounding the city and practically in Slovenia. Reaching the church took us on a short walk further up a hill that granted us amazing views of the city and the sea, as it appeared to be one of the highest points in the area. While walking around the church area, we got to know some of the other students and lecturers at the School. From the church the entire group traveled to Milič, a local osmica that participates in the trendy agriturismo method of farm-to-table food. Osmicas are farms that are found in this local region, and they specialize in ham, salami, cheese, and red wine. While the entire group was at Milič for dinner, Mark Axelrod gave a reading from his book Borges’ Travel, Hemingway’s Garage. We really enjoyed our evening of good food and new friends.
At the bright and early hour of 6AM local time, we got our first glimpses of Iceland as our flight descended into Keflavik. An hour later our bus was dropping us off on Laugavegur, a nice area of Reykavik, where we found our hostel. After getting set up for the night at Reykjavik Backpackers, we started wandering around town. The first thing we found was the biggest landmark in the city, Hallgrímskirkja Church. The church is the tallest building in the city with a gigantic interior space, as well as a giant organ with over 5,000 pipes! We also wandered down to the harbor where we found the new Harpa performing arts center. Saving the best for last of our morning wander, we explored the Iceland Phallological Museum. Yes, you read that right: we found possibly the world's only penis museum! All our wandering made us hungry, and at that point eating Iceland's signature hot dog wasn't a great idea! One of the only affordable dining options in Rejkavik is the ever-present noodle house, and we found a great option at Noodle Station near our hostel. Maybe it was the noodle soup, the grey skies, or we thought it might be the jetlag, but after lunch we passed out and slept the afternoon away.
Luckily, we awoke in time for Alaskan adventures! We met up with our friend Laura and her friend Caleb, both from Anchorage, in the bar below our hostel for our first taste of Icelandic beer! Unfortunately, Viking beer really doesn't live up to its name. Always the frugal travelers, we soon moved to Micro Bar in time for happy hour and found a tasty beverage: Gæðingur! Now that is a beer worthy of the Vikings! Laura and Caleb had been in Iceland for a couple weeks, so after a dinner of noodles, their local knowledge brought us to Ölsmiðjan Café-Bar for one last Polar Beer to end the night. Between the recent half-marathon, a late night in Alaska, and the time zones, we slept like babies on our first night in Iceland! |