JJfromNJ

It’s been much too long since the last update, and thus much too long since the last trip. Although we did sneak out to the Pacific Northwest in May and climbed Mt. Rainier, I never got around to travel blogging. Maybe I need some international flavor to motivate me to write. Anyway… My girlfriend Kristen and I left lovely Newark and flew to Brussels. This was my second time flying this route with Continental (now it’s United, but it seems both are used interchangeably). Unfortunately though, I didn’t have a full row of three seats to myself like I did last time. Furthermore, two rows ahead of us, some French people sitting in an exit row couldn’t understand English, and the flight attendants were saying that they must move to a new seat to comply with ... read more

Whew, it's been a little while since the last update. Sorry for the delay, but I'm not wasting much time out here. So we left off when I arrived in Pretoria. The place seemingly looked safe due to the cleanliness and lack of graffiti, but the electric fences outside literally every building was a strong reminder of the realities of South Africa. On top of that, my South African friend Idali -- who was kind enough to pick me up at the airport and drive me into Pretoria -- said that she would never buy a house on the street and would rather live in a complex with a security gate. She also told me a smash-and-grab story when she was driving in Johannesburg once. Hearing things like this makes you keep your guard up more ... read more

My flight to South Africa gave me a layover in Cairo, so I figured I might as well stay a few days to break up my two red eye flights. Because I am so very punctual (sarcasm), I booked an airport pickup the night before I left and never got a confirmation email. And getting from Cairo's airport to the city isn't exactly hassle free, so when I arrived I didn't really know what to expect. But luck had it that the driver was waiting with my misspelled name on a sign. We made the 45 minute trip to my hostel in about 20 seat-gripping minutes. I was immediately reminded of how chaotic Cairo is. I've never seen any place in the world with so much garbage all over the place. I seriously don't think there ... read more

At $7 per hour, Iceland definitely has the most expensive internet I´ve seen anywhere in the world. For that matter, pretty much everything else is most expensive here too, except for heat, which is free. So we landed on time at 6:00 am and immediately met Bryce and Diu, two Canadians. The Blue Lagoon is right near the airport, so the four of us went there just after landing. It was awesome! And furthermore, I kept thinking that everyone at home who thinks it´s odd why anyone would want to travel to Iceland would LOVE it! It´s a huge naturally heated lake (like 90 degrees year round) with therapeutic minerals in it. They also have steam rooms and stuff like that. The only bad thing is the sulfur smell. We spent the whole day there because ... read more

I finished off New Zealand -- and all international travel -- in Auckland. Around New Zealand, it has a bad reputation and it gets unanimous negative reviews. But I didn't mind it at all. It had a lot more to do than Christchurch and the weather was a lot better. I hung out with Kirsten, a Dutch girl from one of my Stray buses. Then I took a free city tour, run by Stray. We stopped at the sky tower, the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. We also checked out some volcanoes and scenic outlooks. All in all, Auckland was a surprisingly good place to finish off NZ in my opinion. My Air Pacific flight was the most eventful flight of my life. Halfway to Fiji, a warning light came on, so we had to ... read more