Rounding out our epic adventure: a couple of days in Greenland (!). The coastline is stunning. We saw dozens of waterfalls and glaciers, and even an iceberg calving from a glacier.
Prince Christian Sound
Icebergs
Kent brought home a few beers from the local brewery, Qajaq. We learned how to say “Thank you” in Greenlandic (Qujanaq). We touched an itty bitty iceberg that had washed up on a beach. And yeah, that means that the last time we were at the beach was in Greenland. No bigs.
Open air museum in Nanortaliq, modern stone carvings in Qaqortoq, the thriving metropolis of Qaqortoq, adorable octopus seesaw
Our travels concluded, we returned home. Lady Marzipan and the Bandit Lord were very happy to see us. We had every intention of jumping straight into work on As-Yet-Untitled Ghost Novel #2, but that didn’t quite work out. Inertia is a thing, yo.
Just south of the Arctic Circle is Iceland, which is where our travels took us next. We spent about a week, and went the whole way around. The last big trip we took pre-Covid included Iceland, and it was nice to return and see some new parts of the country. Still no Northern Lights, though. There just wasn’t much darkness at night. We’ll have to go back in the winter and keep our fingers crossed.
Clockwise from upper left: Viking ship sculpture “Sun Voyager” in Reykjavik waterfront, Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik, fence made out of a whale skeleton in Djupivogur, a Thai food delivery hearse
Iceland is like another planet. They have volcanoes, glaciers, hot springs, boiling mud pots, geysers, ice caves, and black sand beaches. We can’t recommend it highly enough. The people are really nice, too. At a charity shop in the Westfjords we found a stash of used vinyl, which our younger son collects. Our Icelandic is severely lacking, so we’re not sure exactly what we bought for him. (We opted not to buy the one record with a title in English, a gospel group from Allentown PA.)
Godafoss waterfall, the surface of Mars (aka sulphur vents), black sand beach
We had one more epic stop before returning home. Read all about it next week.
Perhaps you haven’t heard of Svalbard. That’s understandable. It’s a lonely Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, far, far above the Arctic Circle. Longyearbyen, the town we visited on the island Spitsbergen, is the world’s northernmost settlement with a population over 1000 (it’s got about 1700). It’s located at 78° North latitude, a mere 813 miles from the North Pole. And take it from us, it’s a trip. Midnight sun! Polar bears! Santa’s abandoned coal mine home!
Longyearbyen is in the polar bear protection zone, so you’re allowed to wander around on your own. At the edge of town you encounter polar bear warning signs, and you’re not permitted beyond that point without some flash-bangs and a rifle (or a guide with those things). And you’re not allowed to carry a rifle without a Norwegian license.
If you have heard of Svalbard, it’s probably because it’s the home of the Global Seed Vault. We sort of got to see it. The day was extremely foggy, meaning our guide couldn’t guarantee there were no polar bears lurking nearby, meaning we weren’t allowed out of the vehicle.
Coal tramway support, explorer statue, You Are Now Leaving the Polar Bear Protection Zone
Jen got a nasty case of polar mania and waded barefoot in the Arctic Ocean. Kent was smart enough to keep his shoes on. Jen is proud to say she still has all her toes.
One of our novels takes place partially on Svalbard, so this part of the trip technically counted as research. Now that we’re home we need to go in and tweak some descriptions, enrich the prose with our lived experience.
Jen’s toes – a sundial that is accurate even when the sun never sets – the closest we got to a polar bear was this dog (named Tequila), at a cafe called Huskies – the bustling metropolis of Longyearbyen
The photo in the lower left has a lot going on. There’s the snowmobile trail sign (Scooterløype), a glacier hiding in the clouds between the two mountains, and, halfway up the mountain on the left, the abandoned coal mine (Mine 2B) where Svalbard’s children are told Santa lives. Yeah. It’s not a lot to look at, but in the winter they put lights in it, so there’s that.
We saw many of the world’s northernmost things. Northernmost sundial: see photo above. Northernmost car dealer: Toyota. Northernmost gas station: Circle K (seriously). Northernmost brewery: Svalbard Bryggeri (Kent recommends the Spitsbergen Stout).
Since we’d pretty much run out of North, we concluded our visit to Svalbard and headed south.
Upon Kent’s retirement we took a big ol’ trip, partially to celebrate, partially to break Kent of his “check work email every 10 minutes around the clock” habit.
Our first stop was Norway. We’d been there once, briefly, about a decade ago, and it was great to be able to spend more time exploring. We started in Oslo and worked our way north.
Frogner Park in Oslo features about a million sculptures by Gustav Vigeland, all of them weird.
We visited small cities and tiny fishing villages, an aquarium north of the Arctic Circle, and a nature park where we got to go inside the wolf pen and pet real life actual wolves. Somehow Jen was able to convince Kent to leave his new lupine clan behind so we could continue our explorations.
Norwegian scenery: dramatic fjords, gorgeous vistas as seen from the train, and a mountain with a hole through it.
Eventually we made it all the way to Nordkapp, the North Cape, where the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans meet. We had gorgeous weather, which is apparently a rarity, but it was hella windy up on the plateau. We ran back and forth a lot to get pictures of each other with the globe statue. The visitor’s center goes deep underground, with a movie theater, a museum dedicated to a visit from the King of Thailand, a light show, and access to the King’s View, a lookout area built into the face of the cliff where it is considerably less windy.
Nordkapp
What do you do when you reach the northernmost point of continental Europe? If you’re Rune Skelley, you keep going north, of course! More on that next week.
A few months ago we went on a trip with Jen’s sister and brother-in-law. The four of us booked passage on the Chandrila Starcruiser the Halcyon, and traveled to Black Spire Outpost on Batuu.* It was a very eventful trip!
We got to visit the bridge, and we had lightsaber training. The intergalactic superstar Gaya even performed several shows! Planetside on Batuu, we had a few scrapes with smugglers and the First Order, but we managed to make it out safely.
During all the excitement, the Halcyon was boarded by the First Order, and we had to choose whether to align ourselves with them or with the Rebels. Not a difficult choice, but some of our fellow passengers got it wrong. It all ended with a climactic lightsaber duel right in front of us.
Stormtrooper!, Hoth Icebreaker, the bunks in our cabinOn the bridge, the Halcyon’s registry, surprise visit from ChewbaccaMillennium Falcon, Batuu street scene, Mando!Lightsaber action!
* We actually went to DisneyWorld, and stayed in the Galactic Starcruiser hotel. It’s a couple days of live action roleplaying with other Star Wars fans. There’s a storyline, and the entire staff stay in character the whole time. It’s pricey, but it’s a total blast. And it’s closing soon, so if you’re interested, make your reservation today.
Last stop Prague! A beautiful city we’d visited once before, but we had our son with us last time and there are certain sites that aren’t the sort of things you want to visit with your child (see the red photo below).
Between Budapest and Prague we drove through Slovakia. Sadly the only stop we made was at the border. We saw Bratislava from a distance, and hope to visit for real some day in the future.
Our trip was quite long, and we didn’t even pretend that we were going to do any writing while we were gone. We didn’t even take our laptops. We’ve been writing As Yet Untitled Ghost Novel #1 for about a year now, and it was really nice to look away. We came back refreshed and ready to put fingers to keyboards. As writers, we use the world around us as inspiration for our stories. Travel is a magnificent way to broaden our scope and add novelty to the idea bank. A certain location in the Ghost Series is in Eastern Europe, so if the IRS asks, this was a research trip. Our location is made up, but being able to see the landscape in person was a great help.
A good writing partner is someone you enjoy sharing a hotel room and every meal with, and someone who loves to look at your vacation photos.
Prague Astronomical Clock, St Vitus cathedral, Good King Wenceslas atop his dead horseTwo views of Prague TV tower covered with giant babies, the Museum of Sex Machines, Tyn ChurchFranz Kafka’s head performs a 15-minute choreographed dance every hour
The penultimate stop on our whirlwind tour of Eastern Europe was Hungary. Our Budapest hotel was centrally located on the Pest side of the river, and if the Chain Bridge had been open it would have been perfect. Alas, the Chain Bridge was closed for construction, which meant a lot of added walking for us when we wanted to check out the Buda side. Ah well, it keeps us fit.
Buda is the hilly side. We rode the funicular to the top and explored the Castle District at ground level, underground in the labyrinth (complete with subterranean fog), and high up in the towers of Fisherman’s Bastion (with a cup of mulled wine).
Budapest has tons of thermal hot springs. We visited Gellert Baths, a classic that opened in 1918. It has co-ed changing rooms, about a dozen pools, inside and outside, at various temperatures, and gorgeous architecture. We don’t have pictures of it because we didn’t want to dunk our phones, but you can do an image search if you’re curious.
Don’t fret. We have pictures of other things.
Hungarian parliament by night, Buda Castle as seen from our hotel roomWar tubas, Fisherman’s BastionRun!! aka an amusing construction site, stained glass Lenin at the Museum of Communism, women’s restroom at the Museum of Communism, Monkey Bistro advertising truck, outrageous meat concoction, the horse that stole Kent’s heart
In an attempt to stay dry, we hit up a grocery store in Vukovar and raided the snack aisle. Unfamiliar foods make great holiday gifts, just ask our family!
We visited Osijek Fortress, and walked around the old town where many buildings have bullet damage from the war in the 1990s. It was a sobering reminder of the current atrocities in Ukraine.
It was very interesting and educational to experience this different side of Croatia (literally). Previously, we’ve been to Dubrovnik and Split, which are full of palm trees and Adriatic zephyrs. We did see some bullet holes on that trip too, though.
To end on a lighter note, we met an orange chonker of a cat named Garfield. He was very sweet.
Sexxy church dude, pagan-looking straw rabbits and dragon, the scariest doorway in Croatiawar memorial in Vukovar, bullet damage in Osijek, Vukovar plazaOsijek sports complex, Osijek window detail, Osijek Fortress
Our tour through Eastern Europe continued in Serbia. We hiked through Djerdap national park to take in a view of the Danube (and Romania across the river). At an art commune we met a dog who fell madly in love with Jen, and we enjoyed some homemade honey rakia, a traditional Balkan spirit. (We may have also bought a couple of bottles to bring home.) Golubac Fortress is in the process of being restored. One of the first things they did was reroute the highway so that it no longer goes through the castle gates. We got there fairly late, and it was too dark to scale the rocky interior and walk along the walls, but we did climb a few of the towers.
In Belgrade we walked around in the rain, and had some delicious treats at the Hotel Moskva. Belgrade’s trams are fairly old, but their heaters really mean it, so we got nice and toasty on our way to the incredibly ornate Church of Saint Sava.
Karl Malden in Belgrade, border crossing, treats at the Hotel Moskva
Golubac Fortress, Church of St Sava, the face of Decebalus, view of the Danube and Romania
After Romania, we were off to Bulgaria. We’ve been trying to learn Russian for a while now, and our knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet came it quite handy on this whole trip.
Entering Bulgaria
As you can tell from the architecture, the Soviet Union left their thumbprints all over the region.
Our guide insisted that Bulgarian yogurt is the best in the world, but we were more impressed with the rose liqueur. There was also some rose brandy, which was hella intense, but it was the liqueur that we bought to bring home. We think it’ll be great over ice cream.
Obviously the USSR isn’t responsible for the awesome Wile E Coyote landscape.
Rounding out our epic adventure: a couple of days in Greenland (!). The coastline is stunning. We saw dozens of waterfalls and glaciers, and even an iceberg calving from a glacier.
