United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.)

Some great islander friends - sisters Leah and Laurie - are currently in the U.A.E. Leah has been teaching English for a couple years, and Laurie is visiting Leah for two months. I heard about some of the fun they were having in the U.A.E. and recalled an open invite to visit that was previously extended by Leah, so I sent  a message to ask Leah if I could come for a visit. I quickly received an enthusiastic yes, got approval for a 1 week vacation from work, and booked my flight. I'm always happy to take advantage of these opportunities when they present themselves!

Leah and Laurie picked me up at the Abu Dhabi airport around 9:30pm and we drove to Leah's place about 1.5 hours away in Al Ain. We spent a good couple hours out on Leah's porch overlooking the sand dunes; catching up and talking about some of the activity plans for the week. The next morning Laurie and I went into town to rent a car. It's the best way to get around here and costs about $160 for the week; with gas at $0.50/liter it's convenient and economical! The only downside is that some drivers are a bit crazy here, so we really need to watch out and drive defensively here. It helps having a navigator with you to say "wo, wo, WOOO" when a truck is about to hit you, and we quickly found out that Laurie is good at that job.

Laurie and I drove back to Leah's place, packed a bag, picked up Leah and headed for Dubai - approx 1.5 hours away. I found out on the way there that they had some big plans for the afternoon involving a wakeboarding boat! We arrived in Dubai, walked around for a bit, then met up with Leah's friends and boarded the boat in the port of Dubai. I pleasantly surprised to find a proper Malibu wakeboarding boat with all the gear, ready to ride! The boat ride along the Dubai waterfront was already more than enough to blow away any expectations that may have existed for a day in Dubai, when I found myself actually wakeboarding there I was overwhelmed with excitement about what was happening. Leah really set the bar high for my first day in Dubai!!

Once the sun started setting we wrapped up the wakeboarding, and the drivers asked if we wanted to go for a swim. It got dark fast, and we quickly found ourselves swimming in perfect temperature water with the lit up city of Dubai in the background. After swimming we headed to a restaurant patio in downtown Dubai for dinner. The patio was on the water with a beautiful fountain show with music and the tallest building in the world as the backdrop. I sat back and reflected on my first 24 hours in Dubai and was blown away by how much fun and smiles we managed to fit into 1 day!

Moscow, Russia

Coming...

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Since I was already in Russia for the North Pole voyage, I decided to take a trip to St. Petersburg & Moscow in July. After checking into my hostel in St. Petersburg, I wondered around the city to get my bearings. I liked watching boats drive through the rivers with nice buildings in the background.

I found a symphony orchestra warming up for an outdoor performance, so I stayed and listened for a little while.

The first night at my hostel I was quickly reminded of what makes hostels so good - the people you meet! I first met Paul, from the Netherlands and later on Dora, from Hungary. The three of us ended up making plans to go on a day trip the following morning to Peterov, the summer palace of Peter the Great.

The fountains in the backyard of Peterov

Backyard of Peterov

Frontyard of Peterov.

We observed that Russian women always make a special pose in their pictures, so this was my special pose.

There was talk at the hostel about the performance "White Swan." Everyone was shocked that I had never heard of it. Dora was really into ballet, and aparrently Russia is the best place to see it, so somehow I was convinced to go to the ballet. I didn't regret going...but I'll probably never go to the ballet again...

The next day I went to the Hermitage Museum with David, from Spain. It has an overwhelmingly large selection of peices from all over the world.

Voyage to 90° North: The North Pole!

On July 7, 2012, I had the privilege of being a part of the Expedition Team taking a group of 126 adventure seekers from Murmansk, Russia to the Geographic North Pole. My time was spent contributing to helicopter operations, zodiac operations and assisting the logistics team with various behind the scenes duties. I also spent a good deal of time looking out for wildlife such as polar bears, walrus, whales and birds, mingling with passengers on the bridge and around the ship, and attending presentations delivered by the incredibly experienced and knowledgeable lecturers. We also kept busy with fun events such as cocktails with the captain, ship tours, ping pong tournaments, BBQs, karaoke night, painting seminars, and celebrations, including the largest celebration - arriving at the top of the world - 90° North! Pictures and words truly cannot capture the degree of excitement of being on board. Just watching the ship - the most powerful nuclear icebreaker in the world - break through over 2 meters of ice at 12 knots was a spectacle on its own. The time flew by on this 11-day journey, and everyone on board helped to make it the voyage of a lifetime!

Crushing through the ice with 75,000 horsepower

The Russian Nuclear-Powered Icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy (50 Years of Victory) as observed breaking through the ice from the onboard helicopter

Pretty cool place to go on my first ever helicopter flight!

Throwing massive chunks out of the water like it's nothing

This particular pressure ridge took 13 rams to get through

(slamming into it at full speed, backing up, and doing it again)

Eventually I had to get out and help pull the ship the last couple meters to the North Pole!

Rubini Rock, Hooker Island, Franz Joseph Land

The skilled Captain brought the bow of the ship remarkably close

The remains of a windmill at an old meteorology station

Russian Base, Hooker Island, Franz Joseph Land 

Looking back as we depart Franz Joseph Land

Canada!

Upon my return from Iceland in September, I was talking to my good friend Laurie about her plans for the week. She works for a company that provides youth sailing opportunities working together as the crew on tall ships that sail around different parts of Lake Ontario and surrounding waters. One of their ships was at a tall ship festival in Montreal, and Laurie was on her way to Montreal to help sail it back to Toronto. This sounded really cool and naturally lead to a discussion about how much fun it would be for me to join in on the adventure. At this point I had over a month until my next season started in Antarctica, so when Laurie called me up the next morning to ask if I was still interested, I immediately agreed.

That evening I boarded an overnight bus, arriving in Montreal in the wee hours of the morning. I caught a couple hours of sleep in the Montreal bus terminal and then headed to the port to meet Laurie. I was able to pick out our ship, the STV Pathfinder, fairly easily because I had sailed on her before. After meeting the crew and settling in, we prepared the ship for departure. It was an exciting departure as our fleet of tall ships cruised out of the port of Montreal; with spectators waving goodbye from shore.

We cruised up the St. Lawrence River on engine power, and as soon as we hit the open waters of Lake Ontario the captain cut the engines and left them off for the remainder of the voyage. It was an incredible way to spend the week; I learned a good deal about sailing tall ships, spent some good quality time catching up with my friend that I hadn't seen in a while, and spent some time reflecting on where I was at and where I wanted to go. I really needed this reflection time, because just before our departure from Montreal I received a phone call encouraging me to apply for an office job. This was no ordinary office job to me, it was a position in expedition operations for the polar travel company that I had been working for on the ships in Antarctica and the Arctic.

I was very tempted to continue working in the field, but eventually decided I couldn't turn down this amazing opportunity to put my experience and education to work; especially since the position directly related to my Business Degree's concentration of Operations Management. So that's where I'm at now, 8 months later, working full time in Toronto for a polar travel company and really enjoying it! Luckily I still get to spend some time in the field; this past February I did 2 voyages in Antarctica working the position of Logistics Manager, and this summer I have the privilege of working as logistics staff on our voyage to the North Pole!

The STV Pathfinder

 Sailing out of Montreal Harbour

 Some of the crew

 Going through the locks in the St. Lawrence

 Laurie D!

So many ropes!

My reflection time

Iceland Conclusion

The next day we made our way back to Reykjavik and stopped at a glacier on the way. There were organized day-tour glacier walks that bused people in from Reykjavik; this made us feel all the more adventurous when we did some exploring on our own. We judged our limits and played it safe by not venturing all the way to the top of the glacier, despite temptation. This experience brought back great memories of the glacier walk I did with Kim in New Zealand.

We stopped for lunch at a place that we're pretty sure was a trucker's rest stop...so we classified it as a local experience. When we returned our car to the rental place in Reykjavik, we were delivered the very unpleasant message that we were being charged 1000 Euro for the damages to the 2 tires and the transportation costs of getting us the replacement vehicle. I insisted on speaking to the manager, and eventually sorted everything out and we weren't charged for the damages.

That night we enjoyed another random compilation of food that somehow ended up tasting really good, and then headed to the local pool that was close walking distance to the hostel. Like most pools in Iceland, it was an outdoor pool that's geothermicly heated. It had a huge slide that was lots of fun...I played some water basketball with a local Icelandic, and then back on the slide! Afterwords the three of us spent some time hanging out at the hostel, then called it a night.

The next morning Chantal & I headed to the Blue Lagoon on our way to the airport. It was fun & relaxing, and they had a swim-up bar! Very nice end to the trip. Now I'm flying home and really excited to see family & friends back in Canada. Hussain remains in Iceland for another week, I'm looking forward to hearing about all the adventures he gets up to during his first time traveling on his own!

Iceland 4

We asked our Belgium host for suggestions on where to go next. She suggested several spots, and we stopped at most of them. The first was an outdoor collection of eggs from all different types of birds. They were made out of stone and were all about the same size – the purpose of the collection seemed to be to show the difference in shapes of eggs from different birds. For example, guillemots' eggs are pointy because they nest on cliffs and if the egg were to roll the shape would make it spin in a circle rather than roll straight off the ledge.

Moving on, we ended up at Petra's house, a collection of rocks gathered by an old lady over a span of approx. 80 years. A bit touristy, but still pretty interesting to see so many different rocks that someone chose to devote their entire life to collecting. After this we drove by a nice beach that I decided to drive the car along – this helped to make up for the lack of off-roading we'd done with our 4x4. After parking the car we walked the beach for a bit and then carried on. While driving along, we suddenly spotted a huge collection of icebergs floating in a lagoon. It was a beautiful sight and complimented by seals randomly popping their heads up and checking us out. It reminded me a lot of what I had enjoyed on several occasions over my past 3 months in the Arctic, and it brought me great joy to see Hussain & Chantal experiencing this awesome sight. That night we stayed at a hostel in the middle of nowhere...we were planning on buying some groceries or dinner at a restaurant that night, but quickly found out that neither of those were options. Luckily we had a random assortment of leftover veggies, rice & pasta sauce that we combined together in the hostel kitchen and were pleasantly surprised with how tasty it ended up being!

PICTURES TO COME WHEN I GET HOME FROM THE COTTAGE

Iceland 3

The next night we stayed in a fairly large town at a hostel that was pretty busy. We went out to a local pub in town to enjoy some Icelandic draft and had a nice time reflecting at our half-way point of the trip. After this I had some laughs calling some friends back home, and later on ended up in the hostel kitchen eating french fries with some guys from Czech Republic. They were hitch-hikers, so the next morning we gave them a ride.

We passed through a town that had signs for a hot bath, so we checked it out. While we waited for the place to re-open for the afternoon, we walked around near the ocean and I found some fun looking rocks that I climbed. The hot bath had a really nice view over the ocean, and it was only $4 to enter which was a bonus! Later on we ended up at a place that's famous in Iceland for being home to several brothers that look like Santa Claus...pretty random, but it offered us some nice nature walks that we took advantage of, despite the rain that was falling at this point.

Carrying on, we stopped at a place that had mud boiling up out of the ground...yet another natural wonder of Iceland! Driving along a bit more, we found some caves. There was water inside the caves that was just a bit too warm to swim in...I was tempted to jump in but Hussain convinced me it was not a good idea.

Later we found a volcano creator that looked fun to climb. We weren't sure how long it would take, but figured we could use a little exercise, so we went for it! It was a decent hike and really didn't take too long to get to the top. That night we stayed in a hostel/B&B which ended up being my favourite accommodation in Iceland. It was a classic old house that had several living rooms we could hang out in and a beautiful upper deck that looked out over the water. There were also some old National Geographic magazines, including one from the month & year I was born, which I found very entertaining to read! It felt like a great deal to have access to all of this for $30/night each. The place was owned by a former geologist from Belgium whose fascination with rocks brought her to Iceland several years ago.

At this point we were supposed to be returning the car to Iceland the next evening, but we were having such a great time that we decided to extend our adventure by 1 more day.

Iceland Day 2

On Sunday morning we were unsuccessful at finding an open shop to get a replacement tire. We decided to carry on North; avoiding all gravel roads to minimize the risk of blowing another tire. The guy running the hostel recommended checking out a nearby volcano, which ended up being a really nice hike about 1½ hours long. Following the hike we had some sandwiches and headed for a national park. The park featured a big lake with two tectonic plates that separate Europe & North America. We stopped at a couple nice viewpoints around the lake and then carried on with our loop around Iceland.

As we were rounding a curve in the road, Chantal suddenly found the car very hard to control. I suggested that we had blown another tire, to which she replied, “Noway, not again!” Very shortly after that we all felt the unfortunately familiar vibration that confirmed we had another flat tire. With our spare tire already used up, we had no choice but to call the rental company in need of help. Luckily I got in touch with the same guy to whom I reported our first flat, and re-iterated what I had said the day before – the tires are crap – and now the only solution is either five new tires or a replacement vehicle. He agreed to send a new vehicle. The good news was he had one available, the bad news was it was in Reykjavik; over two hours away from our current location.

For the next couple hours we sat at the side of the road, chatting amongst ourselves, telling stories,laughing and wondering around outside. The locals were very nice with stopping to see if we needed help, but we just waited for the rental company to come with the replacement car. The time passed pretty fast and before we knew it two guys arrived with a replacement vehicle.We signed some papers, transferred our belongings and were once again on our way. The consensus was to carry on to our planned destination,despite the fact that this meant arriving at our hostel after 10pm.

That ended up being a really good decision because the hostel was a cool old farmhouse in a fairy deserted area, and we were the only ones staying there. Upon arrival we quickly got started on making dinner; a stir fry with lamb and lots of vegetables, and by the time we sat down for dinner it was nearly 11pm. After dinner & dishes we all felt pretty exhausted and ready for bed. Hussain spotted some Northern Lights through the window and we all enjoyed the sights before dosing off to sleep. I popped up and remembered I should charge my cell phone; a rather handy device to have when there's car trouble. When I went out to the car to grab it, I saw amazing Northern Lights all around the farmhouse – enough to warrant running back to the room to wake up Hussain & Chantal. After playing around with shutter speed on my camera, I managed to get some pretty cool pictures of the Auroraborealis.

I can't upload my volcano pictures at the moment because they were on my point-n-shoot and I don't have the cord, but here's what I got on my other camera.

Iceland Tour Begins

A couple weeks ago I put the word out that I was looking for someone interested in joining me on a self-guided tour of Iceland. This sparked the interest of Hussain, a friend from university who recently left his job and was keen for some adventure travel. Yesterday morning I disembarked the ship in the port of Reykjavik and headed to a hostel to meet up with Hussain. At the hostel Hussain introduced me to Chantal, a French-Canadian who was on the same flight as him to Iceland. After checking into the hostel, the three of us wondered around Reykjavik and discussed ideas for the week. Hussain and I decided we should rent a car and drive around for 5 days, and after a bit of contemplation Chantal canceled some plans she had made and joined our convoy. We spent some time searching online for the best vehicle/price combination; I wanted a big diesel 4x4 so we could go off-roading, Hussain wanted a Subaru wagon, and Chantal just wanted us to make a decision, so we settled for a Honda CRV.

That night we met up with some of my co-workers from the ship to have one last salute to the Arctic season. We caught the last bus back to our hostel (shortly after 10pm), discussed our plans for the next day, chatted with some other people at the hostel, and called it a night. The next morning after breakfast Chantal & I walked to the rental place to pick up our vehicle. By about 11:45am we were on our way, and by about noon we had managed to get lost. Luckily my job was just to drive, so navigation was up to Hussain & Chantal. Since we were now back in Reykjavik city center, we decided to have some P.B. & J. sandwiches. After this, the real adventure started...

We ended up at the largest Geiser in Iceland (2^nd largest in the world) that shoots water 70 – 90 meters in the air. If you're like me and didn't know what a geiser was until today, it is basically a natural water fountain that shoots water up from the ground. It was an incredible natural awe, but I am a bit concerned that maybe we started the trip with the coolest thing to see here! We also visited some really nice water falls and a national park, all of which are part of the “Golden Circle” which is one of the big things to do in Iceland.

Later on we were cruising along a gravel road en route to our next destination, when we suddenly realized we had a flat tire...luckily the rental car had a full size spare and all the necessary tools, so it was a pretty quick fix up and we were back on our way. Before we knew it the time was approaching 10pm, so we picked up some groceries, checked into a hostel in Borganes, and fixed up a nice big pasta dinner. And now it's off to bed, looking forward to seeing what tomorrow will bring!