http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/KMyshrall/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from KMyshrall en-us Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:14:48 +0000 Fri, 25 Dec 2009 21:14:48 +0000 Waiting for the flybus now to take a group of us to the airport. Yesterday was a relaxing day. I slept in and then went shopping. Decided I really had no desire to buy a sweater so I bought some gloves and a hat and then splurged on a gorgeous handmade silver necklace with a piece of smoothed volcanic rock in the center and a handmade glass candle holder. Much more my style then one of the sweater http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-418452.html I can now say that I have eaten at all of the best restaurants in Iceland. However I haven't eaten much at any of them. Just got back from one of the top restaurants and ate 2 carrot sticks the piece of potato and dessert. The rest Smoked salmon for appetizer and what else but lamb for dinner. Seriously I realize that the organizer of this course likes to eat well and doesn't like typical f http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-417932.html Today was great We continued our lab work starting at 830 running some geochemical analyses in the morning. My group finished early so we had over 4 hrs before our next lab session due to the 1 12 hour lunch break. I went back to the hotel and took a wonderful 2 hr nap and then stopped to get some quick lunch while walking back to campus. Our next lab session was not quite as successful since http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-417519.html It has been a long couple of days Yesterday we boarded the bus early to travel back to Reykjavik. We traveled north through a mountain pass another bumpy rocky road...I'm pretty sure my brain has dislodged by now and following the western coast stopping at various historical and cultural sites along the way. I'm exhausted right now and can barely remember half of the places so I really can't http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-417283.html Not a lot to write about tonight but I'm not sure I'll be able to post tomorrow so I thought I'd put a quick note up. Today was our last day in Hrauneyjar and we were able to sleep in a bit which was glorious I slept until 10 and then took a shower and made my way over to the main hotel. The manager here is so incredibly nice and even though breakfast ends at 9 they held it for all of us late ri http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Hrauneyjar/blog-416615.html Today we had a bunch of lectures in the morning on glaciers and the origins of life. After they were over we were having lunch and talking about how we were disappointed that we haven't had any time for real discussions. We've been lectured at but we're not talking So we began planning a meeting for this evening to have a round table discussion. Before we could do that we went on an excursion to http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Landmannalaugar/blog-416273.html Today was amazingFirst I was able to catch the midnight sunset last night which was beautiful right behind our building. We started early and had left the hotel area by 900. After driving about 30 minutes on paved roads we turn off of into the inland roads. These are only accessible 23 months out of the year and can be closed down at any time depending on volcanic tectonic glacial or weather http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/South/Vestmannaeyjar/blog-415965.html Today was actually a lot of fun even though we only had lectures. The bugs from hell got way worse and the hotel was incredibly smart and started selling us mosquito netting headcovers for 500 Krona. Totally worth the 4We had lectures throughout the day on glaciers volcanoes and climate change. It is so nice to have geology lectures and know what is going on. We were quite enjoying when the a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-415548.html I actually wrote this last night but am just getting a chance to upload itHi everyone Well today was a long fun and interesting day. After my last post we innoculated our samples. After the past week of feeling like an idiot it felt great to watch the astrophysicists have no clue what was going on during the microbiology lecture and lab and have to ask us questionsAfter that we had lunch and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-415327.html Feeling much better today. Not 100 but good enough to get moving this morning. I was sick until about 2PM yesterday and finally got smart and opened the windows to let some air in and then ran to the store to get some crackers and stuff packed and slept all afternoon and night. I vaguely remember waking up when my roommate got back around midnight fell back asleep and didnt wake up until it http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-415028.html Well I think the lack of sleep steamy sulfur filled rooms eating horribly and being crammed with 50 other people on a bus or lecture room every day finally caught up with me. I wasn't feeling that hot last night couldn't sleep and was in the bathroom constantly. This morning was even worse and I've been throwing up for the past 1 12 hrs. Since we were traveling to a location without any fac http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-414751.html Today was a LONG but good day. This morning we started early since we had so much to do. 4 hrs of programming which ended up not being too bad since I'm fairly comfortable with basic unix commands and perl script. We then loaded onto the greenest bus I have ever seen...seriously I have pictures the entire thing was green...and headed to the botanical gardens. We didn't have much time but I mana http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-414630.html Today was the day when my body decided it did not like the schedule we had. I couldn't fall asleep last night until almost 2 and when I had to wake up at 730 my body thought it was the middle of the night. I dragged myself out of bed and went to class though.The lectures this morning were much better. I think the instructors got the impression that more than half of us weren't following along at http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-414241.html So after the wonderful poster session and buffet dinner that's all dripping with sarcasm btw a group of us decided to go get some real food. We headed around the corner from our hotel which is smack in the middle of a busy area so there are a lot of options and grabbed some dinner. It's so strange to be sitting on a street corner at 1030 at night in bright sunshine with the place packed an http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-413876.html Not much exciting to report on today. It's our first day of lectures at the University of Iceland. 8 45 minutes lectures on astrophysics and astrochemistry. PainfulAt least they let us have a small break every other talk with coffee which was totally necessary We're just finishing up a poster session and a buffet dinner which consists of little annoying sandwiches that everyone is complainin http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-413798.html This site doesn't seem to want to upload my pictures so they're up in a reduced format on Flickr athttpwww.flickr.comphotoskristenmyshrallsets72157620733592520 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-413457.html Hi everyone I'm here in Iceland. I left last night out of Boston and we had a pretty uneventful flight. Icelandair is a pretty nice airline with entertainment systems in the back of all seats plus a USB charger to keep your iPodiPhone charged up. The plane was completely full mostly due to a group of soccer teams heading over to Sweden for the Gothia Cup. I really wished a had window seat beca http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-413422.html Hi everyone Just a quick note about my upcoming trip to Iceland. I'll be leaving Sunday June 28th from Boston and flying directly into Reykjavik getting in around 630AM local time. For the first part of the trip we'll be staying at Hotel Plaza in Reykjavik then on July 4th moving to Hotel Highland in Hrauneyjar. Finally we'll return back to Hotel Plaza on July 9th. It looks like we'll have in http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Connecticut/blog-412008.html Hola again Monday after my last update I took the subte to Chacarita cemetary the other major cemetary here. It's HUGE over 90 blocks Before going in I stopped and got some fruit and crackers at a supermercado and ate in the park across from the cemetary. I headed in and wandered for a few hours and was able to find Carlos Gardels tomb but not Juan Peron. It was incredibly hot and I forgot to http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-408890.html Hola I got into Buenos Aries yesterday and have been busy since. I took a short nap in the afternoon as I did not sleep well on the plane due to crying babies and annoying people such as the woman from Business class who couldnt sleep in her seat and instead wanted to lay across the 2 seats next to me. WTF I dont know if it was nerves airplane food lack of sleep of whatever else but I was s http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-408884.html