Year: 2017

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Frida and Diego

As we tour Mexico City, the day weaves through Frida and Diego’s lives, their homes, their communist beliefs, and their tumultuous, unfaithful marriages.  Marriages is plural because they were in fact married twice.  In the morning, we visit their dual houses in San Angel – Kahlo’s blue and Rivera’s pink connecting houses.  The houses look functional not comfortable, connected only by a high, narrow bridge.  There might be some analogy to their marriages.

Later in the day, after strolling through a couple more city neighborhoods, we visit Casa Azul, the Blue House in Coyoacan, which has been made into the Frida Kahlo Museum.  It is both her birthplace and now the home of her ashes in an urn.  There’s undoubtedly some circle-of-life reference to draw here.  Parts of Frida’s life seemed to repeat constantly, so this just feels fitting.

Part of the fascination with today is that their lives are like a great telenovela including their relationship together, their internal conflicts with themselves, and their battles with the outside world.  Rivera painted the injustices to the indigenous people and the commoner.  Kahlo painted more personal problems like her constant pain, miscarriages, and infidelity.  Together, they were very much in the public eye, including a fun jaunt to NYC for a time.  Had “Us Weekly” been around, they would’ve had lots of juicy material.

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Teotihuacans, Mayans and Aztecs

The Mayans and the Aztecs were little more than a seventh grade history lesson before visiting the National Archeology Museum in Mexico City. Here, the civilizations came alive through the remains of long dead rock, carved into stories both intentional and functional.

We arrived at the Museum after dark, greeted by the sounds of the wind and pounding rain from the fountain in the outdoor plaza. The fountain introduced us to the story of Mexico, using images to give homage to an Aztec legend that is now represented on the Mexican flag. In this legend, a god in a dream visited the leader of a nomadic tribe. The god told the leader that when the tribe saw an eagle, perched on a cactus, eating a snake, they were to settle there. This, of course, happened in Mexico City, then known as Tenochtitlan.

Inside, we were captivated by the richness of the beliefs that led their lives. The gods drove almost all of their actions, as they believed they had the power to control everything, including the rising and falling of the sun. In fact, they played a game to represent the battle between day and night to keep the gods happy, often ending in sacrifice of a player or even the whole team, though it is unclear whether the winning or losing team would be killed as sacrifice was an honor.

From drawings on walls and in scrolls we see that they believed heaven to be underground, and didn’t have a concept of good and bad. No action on earth would be punished, per say, you just died one way or another, and that would determine your experience in the afterlife. For example, warriors who died in battle would have a pleasant afterlife, while people who died of natural causes may have a less pleasant afterlife.

We travel often, and rarely see things that are truly foreign. Everyone we meet is driven by love. Everyone we meet has a desire to protect his or her family. Everyone we meet wants to be happy. But this, this was foreign. It seemed irrational at best, stupid at worst, and it took some time for us to remove judgment and listen. Perhaps the thing we have most in common is that we’re all looking for meaning, and long ago that meaning was found in the building of incredible pyramids, one stone at a time.

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The taste of a grasshopper

Grasshoppers, or chapulines in Spanish, are more of a texture than a taste.  Crispy like a corn nut balanced by a bit of chewiness with pieces that stick between teeth like Milk Duds.  For the rest of the day, I’m picking out imaginary or not so imaginary grasshopper legs from between my teeth.  The taste of this insect is up to the chef’s discretion.  We try one cooked with salt and citrus, and another with garlic and spice.

Along with my parents, we try these little treats in Mexico City at the Mercado de San Juan as part of a historical/food tour.  I’m not sure I’ll be buying a bag of these creatures anytime soon, but maybe I’ll try the salt made from their remains.

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Cousin wedding

It is a beautiful weekend celebrating cousin Ben & Emily in Puerto Vallarta.  Aside from all the activities – snorkeling, boating, dancing, singing, pool lounging, zip lining, and a bit of clubbing – the best part of the weekend is simply being together.  It reminds me of how lucky I am to be surrounded by such a loving family with so many role models starting with the oldest generations.  Within eyeshot of my seat during the wedding reception is a black and white photograph of Grandma Trudy and Poppy Gerry when they were younger.  Their legacy rings loudly at this wedding.  Their four children, so many of their grandchildren, and even a handful of their great grandchildren dance around the hora.  And although they aren’t physically at this wedding, their presence is as strong as ever.

The beautiful color of the ocean, the salty smell of the beach, the overflowing guacamole and totopos, and the oversized margaritas make this occasion both a true wedding celebration and a tropical vacation.  Then, listening to the bride and groom share their vows next to a setting sun with the soft interruption of waves feels like something out of a movie.  How lucky I am to be transported to another world while still surrounded by the people I love.

Mazel tov, Ben and Emily #vivabemily!

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The Golden Circle in Iceland

Iceland’s landscapes are spectacular, but equally interesting to the views is the audiobook we’re listening to.  As entertainment in the car while we drive from geyser to waterfall to museum to hot spring, we listen to Meltdown Iceland: How the Global Financial Crisis Bankrupted an Entire Country.  We learn how the 2008 world financial crisis began in Iceland, with its population of only 300k.  And then we go on to see manifestations of that in many of the sites we visit.

At the geothermal energy center where we learn how Iceland uses geothermal energy to heat its cities, we also learn that the center was built just before the financial crisis.  As a result, the center is beautiful, but unfortunately, they can’t afford to replace the expensive Italian light bulbs so the building isn’t shining quite as brightly as it used to.  Also, when we visit Reykjavik’s concert hall Harpa, it was designed along with a hotel just before the crisis, but it wasn’t started until many years after the crisis.  As we tour around, we learn of all the compromises that needed to be made because the original private donors could no longer support it.

Today, we enjoy the tourist hub that Iceland has become partly because of this mammoth financial explosion.  But whatever the reason, there is no denying this beautiful country.

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Swinging by Oslo

To end our adventures in Norway, we spend time exploring Oslo.  We try several coffee shops to keep our caffeine levels high.  Our favorite is easily Tim Wendleboe – great coffee, great atmosphere, not so great prices, but that’s Oslo.

We walk through much of the city, some of the time along the river, which even has a couple waterfalls. We pause at Vulcanfisk for lunch, and enjoy some very fresh seafood.  Afterwards, we walk around an inside market, where we’re convinced to try some smoked minke whale.  Delicious.  We learn that historically whale was an undesirable food choice; however, that is because if stored incorrectly, it is not very good.  The gentleman behind the counter also answers many of our questions around salmon farming, and we get a much better sense of how the salmon that we’ve been eating every day here in Norway is raised.

After lunch and another cup of coffee, we walk back through the city to the Vigeland museum and nearby Frogner Park.  The museum and park hold the statues of Gustav Vigeland, who was both prolific in terms of his productivity and very creative.

Although Norway is not known for its alcohol scene, partly because the prices and taxes on alcohol are so high, we do find a microbrewery Schouskjelleren Mikrobryggeri to taste a couple local brews, and at the end of the night we find a nice cocktail bar named Fulgen.  At both, we toast to our Norwegian adventure.

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Activity-filled Alesund

After our bike trip, we take an early ferry back to Bergen, rent a car, and hit the road towards Alesund.  The journey is far, but the weather is perfect, and the fjords are shining.  We stop early and often for food, photographs and viewpoints. An amazing part of Norway’s highway infrastructure is its tunnels.  We go in tunnels that are 5 to 6 kilometers long, and apparently there is one that is more than 20.  Instead of going around every mountain, we go straight through some of them – I love the efficiency and the breathtaking landscape just waits for us on the other side of the tunnel. (We also learn that Norway is working on a tunnel for boats big enough to fit cruise ships.)

The next day, we explore Alesund.  Alesund’s history is bittersweet.  Because of a fire in 1904 that burned down the entire city, everything was rebuilt in the art nouveau style.  And today, the city just seems to fit together. After our typical breakfast of fresh bread, smoked salmon, yogurt and granola, we climb to the top of Sukkertoppen, overlooking the city.  This is actually the second time we get this type of vantage point as we climbed the 418 steps just next to the city for sunset (~11:15pm) last night.

For our next vantage point, we walk through the old city enjoying shops, food stands, and its many boats.  Later, to give our legs a little break, we rent kayaks and circle the city by paddle.  Turns out that when we get a little outside of the protected waters in the center, there are some decent waves that give us a salty splash now and again.

Finally, to round out the day, we drive out to Runde, an island known for its Puffins.  The bridges along the drive are stunning and slightly scary.  They are very steep, one-lane bridges.  As a result, we can’t always tell if another car is coming up the other direction, and if it were, we would have to negotiate how to best pass each other.

Runde ends up being a highlight of the whole trip.  The sky is big with layers of clouds but enough sun to give us lots of energy.  The landscape is as vast as we’ve seen it, and in every direction.  The lighting is warm, the trail we take keeps providing us with new surprising views, and the puffins (although from a distance) are as cute and playful as the stuffed animals of their likeness made us believe.  Runde was a bit of a drive outside of Alesund, but completely worth it.

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Folgefonna

On our day off from cycling, we visit Folgefonna, a nearby glacier.  Not knowing what to expect because we booked the trip through the ferry website, we first ferry, then bus, then arrive at a ski resort 1000s of meters above the fjord. Although a small ski resort, the athletes here are legit – we learn that many Olympians and x-gamers come here to train and we could quickly tell by watching them.  The weather is brisk, the sun is peaking behind the clouds, and the landscape is stark – adventure must be near.

We gear up with a harness, crampons, an ice pick, waterproofs, and the stiffest hiking books we’ve ever worn.  The first half-mile is all steeply up hill in the snow.  Every two steps forward is accompanied by one step sliding backwards.  Although chilly out, we reach the top of the hill in a full sweat.  From here, we traverse for about an hour and then scramble down some rocks until we reach the blue ice of the glacier.

After a couple energy bars, we tie our crampons to the bottom of our boots and ready our ice picks for the next adventure.  All connected by a blue rope with about 5 feet of slack between each of us, we set off into the white abyss (the cloud cover has really come in).  Careful not to fall in any crevices or to sink too far into snow above the ice, we carefully make our way around the glacier stopping now and then for a picture.  The clouds come in and out exposing and then hiding our surroundings keeping us always alert.

The terrain is so desolate and different and seemingly dangerous, that we can only embrace the adrenaline rush that comes with it.