a hui hou kakou

Howdy all. Here is my travel log for my trip from Hawai'i to Iceland. I welcome comments and please forward this should the feeling grab you. Last, I know I'm supposed to send several post cards from Iceland. However I can't remember whom I promised to send them to. Could those people please remind me.

2003.09.12 14:34
The Kona airport was hot. But then it always is hot. I don't recall any time that it wasn't. I have once again submitted without a whimper to the violation of privacy that is airport security. Now citizens of this "free" land cannot even lock their things. On my last ride in an airplane, from Anchorage to Honolulu, the TSA was kind enough to not only take nothing of mine but even gave me some strangers cloths. I fear they may now remove something of mine so the universe will be in balance.

The plane sits here, in a humdrum sort of mood. Not in a hurry to go anywhere. But then I'm not in a hurry myself, and the air conditioning is pleasant. The plane is, the in flight safety pamphlet informs me, a 737-700. It's rather on the small side, feeling more suited for inter-island rather than mainland flight. My seat is thankfully in the exit row, seat 11F. It's one of those planes where the seat nearest the emergency exit is missing. So I really do have complete leg room.

Oh goody, there appears to be an electrical problem! I hope I arrive in Oakland in time to catch the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). I need to get to San Francisco to meet Shana. I will be at her place the next couple nights. That is if I'm not stuck in Oakland. Maybe the airline will put me in a hotel?

Another curse of airport security. I have a hang nail! Why couldn't I notice it before? But now I am helpless. No knife, no clippers to take the offending nail away! Maybe one of the flight attendants has something.

The pilot says "success" and we should still be in Oakland on time. Lunch was nice. Ben and I ate at the Vietnamese place, and I got bubble tea. How I miss the Montreal Chinatown. No one I know on the Big Island likes bubble tea. Hmm, I took off my big boots for the flight and now I see my socks are quite holey. One of these days I should throw out most of my old socks and underwear and get new ones. Some of my underwear is still from when I was in high school.

2003.09.12 22:00
Augh! It seems under cabin pressure this pen leaks. So my hand is very stained with it >:P.

2003.09.15 19:01
The cafe where Sabra works is nice. The root beer on tap is very good. I came to Sabra's place in Oakland this morning. After spending a few nice days with Shana in San Francisco near the Golden Gate Park. I followed Shana around while she worked on the various tasks surrounding her studies of photography. From the glittering high rise buildings of her university, to a low shop a bus ride away that carried a simply amazing variety of film types. More certainly than I was ever aware of. Me, Shana, and her roommates spent some time in Golden Gate Park itself on Sunday. It is amazing to me that such green spaces can be nestled into cities.

My plane from Kona arrived 1/2 hour late but my bags were quickly gathered and I took the bus connecting the airport to the BART trains. I was for some reason fatigued by the time I arrived at the nearest BART station. It took me an unreasonable amount of time to figure out how to buy my ticket, and then I got on the wrong train three times. Eventually I arrived at Montgomery station where Shana was still waiting, thankfully!

The BART trains are nice. Their design suggests the high style of the 1960s or 70s. A sort of rounded polygon flavor to it. The network compares favorably with others I've experienced, although it is not the best. A suggestion I would make is for the trains of the various lines have colored stripes to indicate what line they are. This is really essential given that multiple lines pass through the same platform and carry no indication on the vehicle itself of which line they are. The only indication is a sign telling how many minutes until the next train of whichever line will be arriving at that particular station. The line network does at least make sense, unlike Frankfurt. Also it connects quite well with the bus systems of Oakland and S.F. Another improvement I would suggest would be uniform pricing between all these transit systems with transfers and passes being interoperable. I realize this would be an expense to public coffers and require perhaps a complete reorganization. But the combined transit systems of the Bay Area have the potential to be one of the best in the world.

2003.09.17 07:48

Salt Lake City. Another city, nothing really flavors it for me sitting here in the Greyhound bus station. Yet I was here less than a year ago. It was another layover. Only that time it was at the airport. SLC is one of those cities bounded by mountains. They give a definition to the horizon. For the traveler with a heavy step and not a lot of cash there is one thing to be said for SLC, the municipal train passes right by the Greyhound station.

It is hard sometimes not to overhear the conversation around. A guy sitting nearby is trying to pick up a girl. The first come on I noticed was him telling that he was reading the bible "for guidance". Now he is trying to get contact information.

The station has some time zone clocks. Including one for Honolulu. Unfortunately the time they have for Honolulu is wrong. The front desk guy doesn't seem to care so much that it is wrong either.

The feeling of long-distance buses remain the same, cramped hardness, mystery bad smells coming and going. It could be I was on a bus in Africa or Europe. The slow move from day to night. The changing landscape. It is beautiful and ugly the way cities and towns swell over horizons, coming closer then running away on ribbons of asphalt.

2003.09.17 23:50
I was just talking with a girl, Terry, or Kerry maybe, who is also going to Europe. At least when she can save up enough. The Billings Montana bus station is nice; it has a water fountain. After Reno Nevada I was out. I bought an over priced Sobe, then water from a vending machine that turned out to be 237ml! But finally there was a convenience store in Idaho that had gallon jugs :), that's about 3700ml. So I've filled all my little containers with liquid and thirst shall be held at bay for this trip.

So much of the west is dry. But so much variety in all that dry. The snow first crept to the tops of hills perhaps in Idaho; maybe it was the north of Utah. There too were the first bright colors of fall, and here rain fell, onto a land looking like the shrubs of Kohala. I wonder how often rain falls in areas looking so dry. There are forests too, sometimes hugging hilltops above grass, sometimes thick. Sometimes short and poking from a stony landscape. The vegetation lost the variety of the coast that I saw had so many different trees. The forest that finally returned in full force in western Montana is all evergreens. I look forward to dawn over North Dakota to see what its landscape looks like.

2003.09.18 10:40

North Dakota is indeed flat, but not the flattest. It seems run down. The longer stops have been at some places well past their prime. Somehow the folks working at those places are not as friendly as Montana and points west.

The view from the bus indicates that the entire state runs on hay and sunflowers. Until an hour or so ago all I saw was hay, big rolls of it. Even the median of the freeway is harvested for hay. As of late there have been huge fields of sunflowers.

It's nice to know that in eight more hours this journey will be over. Not that it's been unpleasant. For most of the time I've had two seats in fact. Last night I had to share for a couple hours, first with Tony from Taiwan, who's moving to North Dakota, and then some Montana guy who seemed mildly retarded. Who follows state fairs around and is a laborer at them. One thing that puts a damper on the trip is my mp3 player. It suddenly wouldn't turn on at Sabra's. I suspect the batteries. It has been another year and that's how long the first set lasted. I'm hoping to pick up more rechargeable AA's in St. Cloud for my next ride on the Greyhound.

2003.09.21 15:27
My mp3 player works again :). It wasn't the batteries. Nothing seemed to work while the thing was still whole. So I took it apart and put it back together hoping on a bad connection, and that must be what it was because now it works great.

St. Cloud has been very nice. After I arrived Kate and Kasey made me dinner. Since then I've been mostly at Kate's where I have a bed of my own. Kate showed me the university campus, the highlight of which is a beautiful library with a stained glass theme, the Mississippi River, which here, a couple hours drive from its source, is not that large, then a beautiful botanical garden. Kasey took me to an apple orchard on Friday that wasn't so impressive, but the next day she took Kate and me to another one that was just lovely. The apples were all varieties I don't recall hearing of before. My favorite was the Sweet 16, simply delicious. Midwestern hospitality is impressive. It is bliss to see friends I haven't seen in so long, and to meet other new people.

2003.09.25 13:13

Massachusetts. It's greener than I remember it. I'm quite glad to see so many trees in New England. I always imagine that there are no spaces without masses of humanity in the east of North America. I see time and again that there really is escape from these masses, that quite green spaces remain, but the image of teeming hordes of people doesn't seem to leave my mind.

The trees that began to return to the landscape in Minnesota create a forest that to my eye looks somehow similar all the way to Massachusetts. It has few evergreens, mostly the trees are broad leafed, and some are beginning to lose their leaves in the orderly procession of seasons. Green remains the overwhelming color of choice but it is highlighted here and there with red and yellow. I imagine the landscape in another month, on fire with the colors of the sun. The air swirling with fallen leaves. I wonder if my mind's image of a temperate fall is close to reality. Some day that is a season I mean to witness.

It amazed me again how natural it is to see people I haven't seen in so very long. Robin, my oldest friend, has a different haircut, is clean shaven, but is the same person I last saw more than three years ago. I hope it is not so long until I see him again. But it is nice to know that the people that matter are so easy to recognize.

Yesterday Robin showed me the lake where he catches fish and lets them go. We went to a hilltop with a brick tower. There the vast distances of trees could be seen. The first glimpse was a surprise, so little of man too be seen. But the air of the east has a grey tinge to it. I do not recall coming to this part of the world and not seeing it. Also there could be seen roads through those trees, and in every direction towers of metal. So it is not the so very crowded world I always imagine, but it is a place that even in the rural country where I am now bears so many heavy booted footprints.

I hope that next time I see Robin I will smell no more tobacco. Now it has been over a week since I have not seen some of those who I hold dear fouling the air and themselves with this vicious plant. The disgusting odor sticks to all surfaces. During the journey here from California to Massachusetts strangers on the bus would issue forth in huddled groups, in any weather or surrounding, to foul themselves with poison. Returning with the odor of decay as a gift to those on the greyhound not so afflicted. I look forward to my life soon to begin in Iceland for the promise of clean air among the other wonders that await me there.

2003.09.25 16:05
In this country there is a program to produce coins representing the 50 states of the union. This program is to take 10 years with five new quarter coins being produced each year in the order in which the states were admitted to the union. So far 24 have been produced and before I began this journey I was quite behind in my effort to collect them. They seem to take a while in getting to Hawai'i and Alaska. After about a week into being on the mainland I had all the ones formally missing from my collection though :). Though with the help of looking through friends change in California and Minnesota.

2003.09.26 14:13
License plates. Yes I know some people find this such a boring subject, so I will be brief. Unfortunately I forgot to collect plate photos until I was in Utah. So I've none from California and Nevada. From there on I got quite a few from the middle states but then on the bus ride from Minnesota to Massachusetts I was feeling a bit sick and didn't take any more. So now I'm trying to collect New England states while I'm in the area. I've far to go to get to all 50. I'm not even sure I got around to getting any Hawai'i plates last time I was home >:P.

2003.10.05 14:44

A few days after I arrived at Robin's my little sister Alice came down from Vermont for a visit. She stayed two nights and then we brought her back to her university at Marlboro. She hadn't seen Robin in four years. It is amazing, the Chiltons were family when we were growing up, but now none of us ever really see them. Robin's sister Irin called while I was there in Belchertown, and I got to talk to her and Robin's parents. I have their phone number and address in Missouri, but I never contact them. Marlboro is a tiny school. It is in a forest, beautiful and comfortable. I could imagine it is a wonderful place to study. An ivory tower away from distraction. Although it is the individual that decides to learn and this can happen almost anywhere or nowhere at all depending on the mind that learns. Either feeding the hunger or allowing the mind to wither and decay.

Iceland. It is so wonderful to be here at last. The slow journey is the one for me. I would take the ocean by surface if that were still an option. In my life as it is right now there is no reason to hurry. This is yet something I must remind myself of, that there is no hurry to get from here to there. So much more is seen on the slow path. Even if the bus provides only a glimpse of the landscape this view is still more complete than that provided from 30,000 feet.

Seltjarnarnes. I'm in what is basically a suburb of Reykjavik. A small peninsula surrounded by the sea on three sides and the forth side meeting the sprawl of growing Reykjavik. Ásta is playing the piano in the other room as I write. It is a nice relaxing Sunday. Seltjarnarnes I would consider to be part of Reykjavik as there is no gap in between but I often feel this way about adjoining settled areas. The fall towards winter has begun in this part of the world. Since I arrived on Tuesday the weather has been for the most part windy, wet and cold. There is no snow on the ground here, but yesterday we took a short drive to the site of the old Alþing and on the way there was here and there a sprinkling of snow mixed into the dismal landscape. It is a beautiful dismal land. It seems more foreign now that I am here with no plans to leave any time soon, before I was only stopping here on the way to somewhere else. But now I feel it more that I don't speak the language, that it is somewhere else. Being finished with my degree also makes the whole world a different place. Now I need to find not just work, but real work, a real job that earns income. Even now I am protected, living with Ásta's family, and not on my own in this foreign land. I want to work, I dream it will not take so long as the search for employment this summer took, and that the results will be more rewarding than the dish washing that was my last career.

I have now left the United States behind, left Hawai'i behind once again, my country and my homeland. I feel some sadness. I stand for the national anthem and I feel it in my chest. I have left a country that is so beautiful but is ruled with such a supreme lack of wisdom, such incredible lack of any insight into the results of actions. Ruled by minds little developed since they first began to crawl. Minds with no understanding, no compassion. I must be sure to vote, as is the duty of citizens. I am glad that the next job I acquire will not be paying any taxes to the U.S. government. I won't be continuing in the financial support of such cruel insanity. I am glad I saw a thin ribbon of the beautiful land that is the body of the U.S. Once again, smelled the air of myriad towns and heard the speech, the birds, the cars, of a dozen and more states.

Having looked once again at the U.S., once again seen this major center of wealth and power in the world. I wonder again what is so different from the first world and the third. Even the most wealthy lands are in many places rife with signs of decay. There is certainly more things, more buildings, more roads. But what makes these places so different? Are they really different? I wonder why they are. The are endless explanations that seem to be rational. The simple classifications seem to fall so very short when they are looked at closely. What is so rational at times seems to be less than helpful. Clouding everything rather than making things clearer. But then the simplification is needed because there is too much for any one mind to hold. The data of all industry, all sociology, science, maths, everything that can be known is so very vast. It is both a wonder and a curse. Both reassuring and scary, how very little anyone can possibly know of this very small world of ours in the longest of lifetimes.

Appendix I: Exchange Rates (2003.10.01) Code USD/1 Unit Units/1 USD Currency EUR 1.16670 0.85730 Euro GBP 1.66440 0.60100 British Pound ISK 0.01307 76.55900 Iceland Krona

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