Ending Point: N46°52 E103°25
Distance Traveled: 216.9 miles
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We had not been having the greatest luck with the Panda since crossing the Mongolian border, but our Panda is a trooper. She can do anything, and we had seen her fix herself a couple times already. So, when she wouldn’t start in the morning, we didn’t panic but instead reached into the backseat for the trusty Haynes manual, which suggested that we check and clean our air filter (something we had known we needed to do for about…um…two weeks at this point?). Markus even helped us out with a little compressed air—much better than just banging it on a rock—and soon we were on the road again. After a slow start, the rest of the day went swimmingly; ironically, it was the only day in Mongolia we didn’t have some sort of water crossing. The water crossing, however, was replaced with a mud crossing, which caught both Daniel and the Skoda in its grips. A little pushing and a lot of improved route-finding got us through the tricky area and to a beautiful camping spot for the night. We stopped early, as it could be our last night camping in Mongolia, and we explored the beautiful landscape around us, which made for some great photo opportunities. Stopping early also gave us time for an epic game of catch and some sunset/moonrise beers. Truly, it was convoy magic. Starting Point: N46°01 E100°25
Ending Point: N46°52 E103°25 Distance Traveled: 216.9 miles
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We started out our day by stopping in Scolfe’s Tea Room in Boreham Street. Charla had been hoping for a proper English cream tea for days, and we had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to enjoy it. Finally, on the last day before the Rally, we found the pleasant little tea room, dating to 1392; we were the youngest people in the tea room by decades, and the chatter around the room was how these two young Americans wandered into this village team room. Oh, and the cream tea was delicious! After tea, it was time to hit the road. The website for our camp spot had said they were 8 kilometers from Bodiam Castle, and the man in the pub had told us we were 12 kilometers from Bodiam, but in reality it took about an hour of driving to get from Boreham Street to Bodiam; from what people tell us, this is a pretty typical experience for driving in the Mongol Rally. When we finally arrived at Bodiam Castle and drove under the giant Mongol Rally arch, reality began to set in: here we are with a couple hundred other small cars, about to drive from this castle in rural England all the way to urban Mongolia. After all the months of dreaming and planning and hard work, here we were with hundreds of other people equally nervous and excited about this grand adventure. First we checked out the registration tent and started stickering our Panda with the official Mongol Rally stickers; from there, it was off to explore, check out the cars, and meet the other teams! We were introduced to so many people the day was a blur of names and faces. There was the big American team from Arkansas in a tinier car than us, there was the Norwegian Mongol Kart team, the two Scottish guys riding on motorbikes, the man dressed as a chicken, the team wearing only Speedos, and tons more. As the day stretched into evening we actually began to connect with other teams, and realized that we were partaking on this adventure with some pretty cool people! Though the dinner was less than exciting, the post dinner shenanigans proved to be fun. We had spent all afternoon parked in a staging area below Bodiam Castle, built in 1385. By the evening time, the organizers moved us all into the castle for an evening of medieval revelry. The castle was full of wenches pouring cups of mead for all who desired, and there were knights running around the castle sword-fighting whenever they could get the crowds’ attention. Juxtaposed to the medieval chaos, an orchestra was also performing lovely music throughout the evening for us in the castle courtyard. By climbing up the turrets, one could get both an amazing view of the surrounding English countryside and a hilarious bird’s-eye view of the party below. We met back up with Team Innocents Abroad from last night, and also met the girls from Team Long Time No Sea; we loved hanging out with the kilt-wearing Scottish brothers from Ulaanbaatartan, and the B-Team seemed to have it all together with a mechanic and a nurse on the team. The Launch Party was a great introduction to the Mongol Rally, and a great way to see what kind of craziness we were about to embark upon!
This morning we were delighted to wake up and experience the bora, or the strong winds that Trieste is famous for. The bora is strongest and most common in the winter, so we were lucky to experience it at all! When the bora is really ripping, seawater has actually been known to wash completely over the Molo Audace (the seawall we were on), and in the winter when it freezes it creates incredible wind-blown ice sculptures. We had noticed that all through town the sidewalks are lined with metal chains; it turns out the chains are there so that when the wind is blowing the pedestrians have something to hold on to! We didn’t get the full strength of Trieste’s bora, but our taste of it was pretty exciting. The wind died down later in the day, which worked well with our plans to go running along the sea wall as we had been most days of the week. At the end of our run, we discovered the Molo Audace partially blocked off and a crowd gathered in the Piazza. That evening was one of the launches for Dona Sangue Coast to Coast, a blood donation drive across the country that involved nightly music, a sailboat, and some talented drummers and flagthrowers. We joined the crowd in the Piazza for the performance, which led us back to the sea wall to hear Mike Sponza in concert at sunset. We stuck around after sunset for fireworks over the sea, a perfect next-to-last night farewell to the city.
Today we spent the afternoon taking in some of Trieste’s history by visiting the Civico Museo del Castello di San Giusto, or the Castle of San Giusto. The castle is built on one of the highest points in the city, not far from the water, and was a strategic point for defending the port. With such a location the walk up and down through the steep hills certainly counted for our cardio for the day. Built over the remains of a previous castle, construction on this castle was started in the 1400s. The views from the castle were amazing looking over the city, and its use as a defensive post was very clear. Furthermore, the castle’s armory was filled with centuries-old swords, guns, and assorted weapons that were fascinating to examine. Our evening began with a look into Trieste’s more recent history, as we attended a performance at the Teatro Verdi--1913 Trieste a Teatro, put on to celebrate a hundred years of opera in Trieste and the opening of the theater’s exhibit at the Civico Museo Teatrale “Carlo Schmidl.” The Teatro Verdi is like a small version of La Scala in Milan, and we were lucky to have great seats with other Joyce School students. After the opera, we met up with everyone involved with the Joyce School for a farewell dinner at L’Antico Panada hosted by Irish ambassador Patrick Hennessy. It was a full Italian dinner of many courses, which provided lots of time for great conversation with our friends from the week.
Fourth of July? Oops. We didn't exactly celebrate Independence Day this year (in fact, Charla hasn't for a while now), but we did enjoy another wonderful day in Trieste. As usual, Charla went to lectures and her seminar during the day while Chase explored the city. When Charla and Chase met back up after the afternoon seminar, it was time for dinner and we checked out the neighborhood by the Grand Canal. We found Fratelli di Bufala, which turned out to be a real treat. The food was great, and the view along the canal at sunset was not too shabby. Charla loved her margherita pizza, and Chase had a bit of a culinary adventure. The server pointed to an item on the menu that looked good, and was priced reasonably, so Chase just went for it. It turned out to be some amazing meat dish that defies explanation! A calzone filled with mozzarella and topped by strips of meat with shredded parmesan, it was a delicious meat feast! After dinner, Charla went down the street to a performance given by Irish tenor Noel O'Grady, whom we'd heard earlier in the week at our Irish sing-a-long. Following the concert, we were hopeful for another spectacular night at Barge Bar with Joyce School friends in tow. Unfortunately, the barge was closed. We moved closer to the Piazza Unità d'Italia to Bar Unità, where we shared Peroni and pelinkovac (a Croatian liquor that tastes remarkably like a bar of Ivory Spring soap) with the group.
While Charla was in her morning lectures, Chase visited the Museo Postale e Telegrafico della Mitteleuropa, or the Trieste postal museum. This museum was a pretty obvious choice, because Chase is fascinated with the world’s postal services. The museum was not geared to non-Italian speakers, but luckily one of the museum employees was very excited that Chase had traveled all the way from Alaska so she gave him a personal tour. Unfortunately, she didn’t speak English and Chase didn’t speak Italian, but they made it all the way through the museum together. This evening was one of our favorite moments with the Joyce School. We gathered at the Osteria da Marino for dinner and music led by Gerry Smyth. The osteria’s main room, which we filled beyond capacity, featured a piano and was decorated with old rugby uniforms for the team it sponsors, photographs, and sailing paraphernalia. Gerry performed several selections from Joyce’s “Chamber Music” as well as some traditional Irish ballads to get the crowd involved. We picked up one of his CD’s to listen to on our drive as well!
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! |