but_home_is_nowhere

"Tourists always labor under a time constraint and are the unwitting vistims of cost efficiency; so they stay together, travel with a narrow compass, and tend to stay put once they have arrived. This is the result of both accident and design, it is a favor and it is also a conspiracy. Tourists are contained, partly for their own benefit, partly for the benefit of locals. By being kept in one place, there is no risk of their interrupting the flow of local life." - Paul Theroux on Waikiki As always when one prepares to leave, a wave of fond nostalgia appears to sweep away the negative aspects of the experience; leaving behind mostly warm, rose-colored memories. Such is the case as I plan my last weeks in Hawaii. I find myself caught up in ... read more

"In many respects, the best way to visit Honolulu is to leave it - not simply to understand it from this new vantage point, but to enjoy the sort of life that up to now has mainly been a local secret." - Paul Theroux It’s been over seven months since Craig and I moved to Hawaii. Pictures and stories have piled up while we were busy with work and classes, so I have decided to divide our Oahu blogs, with the first (this one) dedicated to the beautiful island of O'ahu, and the second to the city of Honolulu itself. One of many advantages to living on a small Pacific island is that it doesn’t take very long to get places, even on the bus which bumbles along Oahu’s highways at a very leisurely pace. ... read more

Strong winds and choppy water had turned our snorkeling spot in Waikiki into a mire of murky water. The visibility was so terrible I could barely see Craig drifting just a few feet in front of me, let alone much in the way of marine life. After a couple of days of these less than ideal conditions, we decided to take advantage of the weather and head to the North Shore to watch some big waves. The surfing websites listed the conditions as “good to epic”, with swells predicted up to twenty feet expected in some areas. We took the bus to Haleiwa, home of the “triple crown” of surfing (hosted in November). Honolulu’s public transit system, TheBus!, runs all over Oahu. It is rated as one of the best bus systems in the nation for ... read more

Craig and I began our long, dusty drive east. Our final destination was to be the Steens Mountain Wilderness in Harney County, where we hoped to camp for several days. We drove through Bend and entered into the flat brown landscape stretching towards Burns, a far cry from the lush Willamette Valley. There wasn’t much around besides sage brush, and the “towns” marked on the map were only comprised of tiny gas stations/convenience stores. In total, the drive took us nearly seven hours, culminating in a 17 mile gravel stretch to reach our campsite at Fish Lake. Along the way the countryside had changed drastically, the flat, sage-brush spotted landscape giving way to lush pockets of green grass, naturally irrigated by shallow streams. These small oases were punctuated by impressive flat-topped buttes that formed vast ... read more

“By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show” -Samuel Johnson London is such an epic city that it provides an entirely different experience for each visitor. I suppose this can be said for many places, but it especially seems to hold true in the English capital. Our experience was a pleasant one from the moment we arrived in the Luton airport. Generally, passing through customs is an incredibly uncomfortable experience: large men in uniforms glowering at you over their high tech scanners. But the English politeness seems to extend to the most tedious civil tasks, as the soft-spoken woman inspecting our passports held up the entire line chatting congenially about Dorset (which we had hoped to visit), then wished us a pleasant stay. We were traveling on a budget, ... read more

“When first one catches sight of the sea, crosses the ocean and experiences cities and lands which for so long had been distant, unattainable things of desire-one feels oneself as a hero who has performed deeds of improbable greatness.” -Sigmund Freud The Hungarian man sitting across from me glances up from his crumbling loaf of bread and gives me a sympathetic look as I try in vain to disappear into my coat. I’m already bundled in practically every layer I brought, and it isn’t doing any good inside the frigid train car. We are roughly twenty hours into our trip, tired, jetlagged and numb with cold. Our flight from Seattle to Frankfurt was brisk but bumpy; as if you were thrown into a tin can and shaken…for ten hours. Thankfully, the alcohol was complimentary, and though ... read more