Gavinbedford

This is a very hard blog to write. Firstly because I went to Iceland half a year ago and secondly because, as a country, it has some of the most intensely difficult place names to remember how to say let alone spell. Therefore, it shall be a summary rather than a detailed review! Nathan and I had wanted to go to Iceland for years but somehow Africa and Asia got in the way. It just seemed so random - so unique - so bizarre... A mere three hours away by plane would be a geological freak show protruding out of a split in the earth between the North American and European continents, isolated by thousands of miles of sea. Volcanic yet frozen, desolate yet rowdy, historic but new. We had to see it. Because of our ... read more

I couldn't risist another session of Alabama hospitality and Joey and I checked in with Brad for one night. Joey and Brad seemed to get on like a house on fire and we went to get 'Bama's finest ribs and then all trundled out to some Bars in Mobile's main street. The next day Joey and I returned to where it all began - New Orleans, and this time we had secured ourselves some floor space staying with Margaret and Jessie who we had met at India House two weeks earlier. They had found themselves a place to live and, in true New Orlean's style, it was a "shotgun house" where there are a series of rooms and no internal doors or coridoors! I've attached a video to show this but it's incredible how such a ... read more

A comedy of errors - our time in South Carolina only deserves to be blogged about for the comedic effect of our perpetual misfortune. The dream of Southern Belles in Columbia quickly faded when we began to realise vagabonds were certainly not deemed sexy and mysterious strangers, but rather filthy rogues not deserving of conversation. Indeed, unless you were a jock in full jock clothing or a frat-boy in a pink shirt, beige shorts/trousers and boating shoes you were an outcast in this dreary and pretentious grovel. At one stage I asked a girl outside a club why the queue was so long and whether it was worth it and she proceeded to mimic my accent in a condescending rather than the usual fascinated way before walking off, not answering my question. Joey struck up a ... read more

I met Brad through Couchsurfing three years ago when he stayed with me at the beginning of his adventures through Europe. He told me on that trip that he was the only person he knew in Mobile, Alabama, who had been to Europe and one of the few who even held a passport! I took to his relaxed southern style as soon as I met him and we've stayed in touch since. When I told him I'd come stay in Mobile so he could return the hosting favour he was sceptical, and, in truth, he is the only Couchsurfer who I have hosted and ended up subsequently visiting, but there was something about his description of the city of Mobile that appealed to me. He linked me to this rather bizarre video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nda_OSWeyn8 and told me ... read more

My blogs always start off with a flight… The last was a rather unusual affair in that I flew something rather special - a 22 hour business class flight to Sydney but the level of luxury of such a flight provides a perfect antithesis to the woeful inadequacy of the "service" provided by "Iceland Express" which I took to New York to start my USA road trip adventure. Ok, it was cheap. Super cheap when considering I booked my flight 2 weeks before departure. It was in the realms of half the price of any other options at just over £300 but as I first caught sight of the plane this price outlier was explained. From the windows of Gatwick I was able to see that the aircraft was not only dented and decrepit, but was ... read more