The People's Palace

This is "The People's Palace" and was built by the last Romanian Communist Ruler Nicolae Ceausescu. It is the 2nd largest building in the world, second only to the Pentagon. The palace was inspired by Ceausescu's visit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il.

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Dinner in Bucharest

So my dinner was vegetable soup, polenta (on the far left) and cabbage (on the far right) and croutons (upper right). I ordered the soup and 2 sides (polenta and cabbage) and the croutons came with the soup. When I ordered it the waitress looked at me very strange. Then told Glad in Romanian that it didn't make sense. Glad had to explain again and she was adamant that it didn't make sense but she left with the order. Glad told me that the first answer in Romania is always "no". I didn't see anything wrong with my order, but I guess she thought my order was missing something because there was no entree and she let me know. So basically her response to my order was "no, that doesn't make sense".

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Street performer 2

Here is the ostrich costume. Pretty cool looking I thought.

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Bucharest street performers

As Glad and I were walking around old town Bucharest we came across a number of street performers on stilts. There were these 2 dinosaur like creatures that moved around on their stilts quite a bit. Their were also some people dressed up like ostriches on stilts and some fantasy like creatures.

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Mario Brothers?

So not sure if this is Mario or Luigi but I'm pretty sure that one of them is working at the Bucharest airport. Thought about asking him to help find my bag but he was too busy collecting coins and jumping on mushrooms.

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Happy birthday Nora

Hey my niece is 10 today and I was hoping to get a picture in front of some significant Bucharest landmark in "my niece is awesome" shirt. However that shirt was in my bag that got lost so I sent a picture of a map and somewhere on this map is my bag and Nora's "shirt". So sorry I don't have the bday pic but hopefully the bag turns up and I will still be able to get the Eiffel Tower photo in the shirt. Nevertheless, HAPPY BIRTHDAY NORA.

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Guess the dude

Landed in Bucharest and the Czech Volleyball team was in town. This was actually one of the shorter players on the team. Not long after this picture I found out airberlin lost my bag somewhere between Reykjavik and Bucharest. So looks like khaki shorts again. Hopefully my bag turns up tomorrow.

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Ich bin ein Berliner

Left Iceland at 1:00am on a 3 hour flight to Berlin. Slept maybe one or two hours and landed in Berlin at 600pm local time which felt like 4am to me. Had a 3 hour layover and then was off to Bucharest.

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Last Icelandic post

This photo was taken at the Keflavik airport at 10:00 pm. As you can tell it is still nowhere near getting dark. My flight leaves at 12:45 am for Berlin and I'm hoping to get a good view of Iceland. I've enjoyed my time in Iceland and now I'm ready for the Romanian part of my adventure. I meet up with an old coaching adversary of mine in Berlin and then we continue on to Bucharest.
BTW I'm assuming that's a dinosaur hatching in the picture but not exactly sure.

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Last stop before the bus station

Stefan showed me around a little more before he dropped me off at the bus station for the 40 min ride to the airport. We passed by this little soccer field that had water not very far away on 2 sides of the field. I know I have coached some teams in the past the would have become very good swimmers if we trained on this field.

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Most popular place to eat in Iceland

So after we left the Laundromat, we stopped by this hotdog stand that is supposedly the most popular place to eat in Iceland. Stefan said they used to have a picture of Bill Clinton eating a hotdog there while in town. I told Stefan he probably had them take it down now that he is vegan.

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Farewell Reykjavik

Met Stefan again for my last meal. We ate at a restaurant called the Laundromat, sitting next to a couple from Seattle, and Public Enemy playing in the background. An eclectic end to an eclectic city. My meal was vegan toast which was comprised of brown toast with hummus and tomatoes and eggplant with a beet-root chutney and cashews on top. Totally unique and delicious.

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Happy birthday Robin

I looked all over for an Icelandic Viking to wish you a happy birthday but this was the best I could do. So happy birthday from Reykjavík.

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Icelandic brekkie

Having Skyr for breakfast this morning. It is a yogurt-like dairy product (yes I know it's not vegan) that is a traditional Icelandic food. It has a thicker consistency than yogurt but a similar taste. This morning I'm having blueberry Skyr. Thanks Stefan for introducing me to Skyr.

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Almost forgot.

While Stefan and I were at the Blue Lagoon both the Finnish and Icelandic presidents stopped by. Totally serious! There was one police car out front and a couple of photographers when we showed up. Then while we were in the lagoon both presidents were on the observation deck. They had less security than David Allen Coe at a concert at Lincoln Theatre.

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Dinner time in Iceland

So after the a long day of sightseeing we stopped off at Subway for dinner. Don't think I have ever seen the "reggae reggae" sandwich offered in the USA but it does sound tasty. I actually had the "grænmetis" or as we call it the "veggie delite." I'm back in bed now and it's 1:20 am and I'm beat, it's still light outside, but I'm going to sleep. One more day in Iceland and then it's off to Romania.


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Þróttur vs íbv 1-5

Of course it wouldn't be a "real" European vacation if I didn't attend a professional soccer game. This was a Cup match between a first division and a premier division team. David James (google him if you are not a soccer fan) is actually the GK and asst coach for IBV, but didn't play this game. The score was 1-1 when we arrived in the 70th min and finished 5-1, needless to say we got to see the most excited 20 min of the match. Also forgot to mention that earlier in the day we had to stop on the highway to let 50 goats cross. Didn't get a picture with my iPhone so no blog proof. But needless to say that was pretty funny.

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Blue Lagoon part 2

Maybe the only thing more relaxing than the beer is sporting the silica mud mask while at the Blue Lagoon. You can see the steam behind us. Also one by-product of the lagoon is sulphur gas which smells like rotten eggs. But it was still an unbelievable experience.

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The Blue Lagoon

So we left Gullfoss and drove to the Blue Lagoon which is a major tourist destination in Iceland. The water is a cloudy blue tint from the minerals in the water, it is also naturally heated from hot springs. When we first arrived you could barely see 10 feet in front of you from all the steam. It was very relaxing and the even had a bar you could swim up to. I told Stefan while drinking my Gull (Icelandic beer) "there probably isn't anything more relaxing than drinking a cold beer while kicking back in the hot waters of the Blue Lagoon".

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Gullfoss

Gullfoss is a beautiful 3 tiered waterfall that while not quite as large as Niagara Falls is still quite impressive. This picture doesn't really do the falls justice, but I wanted to post this one because I'm smiling.

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Geysir

This is a picture of me in front of Geysir which is a geyser that can shoot BOILING water up to 70 meters in the air. It has been relatively inactive recently but we did see Strokkur, another geyser very close by shoot boiling water 10-20 meters in the air quite a few times. Very scary the first time it happened and Stefan and I were scrambling to get away from the falling water.

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Kerið (not súre why my pic descriptions aren't attached)

Kerið is a volcanic crater lake located outside Reykjavík. It was my first stop of many with Stefan. I wish I had the time to type more but unfortunately I've been sightseeing all day with no wifi access so I have alot of catching up to do, so google Kerid and read all about it.

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Geysir

Kerið-volcanic crater lake

American Embassy

This is a picture of the back side of the American Embassy from the balcony of the apt I'm staying at in Reykjavik. I just found out from Stefan last night where it was located. The family I am staying with is Russian so my Dad would have a field day with all kinds of Russians spying on the American embassy theories haha.

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Blockhead?

Can you pick out the blockhead in this photo? You all get 2 guesses.

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Iceland National Soccer Stadium

This is a photo in front of Icelands national soccer stadium. There is actually a soccer ball as part of the statue but it didn't make it into the photo. My former teammate from Methodist University, Stefan Stefansson took the photo. He is taking me out in the country tomorrow so standby for more photos of Iceland. Right now it's almost 11:00 pm and just as bright out as it was at 5:00 pm.

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Hallgrimskirkja Church

Cost $5, yes that's 5 US dollars to take an elevator to the top. Great view of Reykjavik, best money I've spent so far. Met a couple in the elevator from NJ, husband is retired and the wife teaches marketing at Rider Univ. They are also on a month long European vacation.

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Venus de Milo

Can't help but think that this is what the Venus de Milo would look like if she played soccer.

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Soccer statue

So I landed in Keflavik and exchanged $60 for over 7000 Icelandic kronur. I thought "wow I could live like a king in Iceland" then I bought a bus ticket and it cost me almost 2000 kronur, and a sandwich cost about 1800 kronur. So much for living like a king.

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Reykjavik, Iceland

Welcome to Canada

So started the first leg of my journey today. 12 flights. 10 countries. 30 days. The previous picture is of Niagara Falls on the way to Toronto. Short layover and then off to Iceland. I arrive at 630 am Iceland time which will be 230 am my time. Needless to say I will be in bed early tomorrow night. 

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European vaca begins.

Test 2

Beezy at the door.

Test