From LAS to DTW to IAD to ADD to DTW to FLL but not back (yet)

Friends like to give me a hard time about traveling so much. I, honestly, don't know how all the travel happens, but I'm glad it does. If you really know me, you know I am the Queen of Cheap when it comes to travel. I have a certain price in mind whenever we book, and if I can't get that price, we don't go. We try to plan in advance, and, because of that, trips often collide when an opportunity comes up quickly. 

Two weeks ago, we enjoyed a free trip Las Vegas compliments of Hilton. We appreciated their offer and hotel and used the location to visit Red Rock Canyon, the Hoover Dam, and the Grand Canyon. Watching the expression on my engineering husband's face when he looked over the Dam was priceless... And that Canyon is still Grand. Deciding to stay on East Coast time meant we were awake later than usual and up before anyone else in Vegas except those still coming in from the previous night out.  We're just too old for that...

Our next scheduled trip was/is Oct. 11 to Florida. Canadians celebrate their Thanksgiving on Oct. 14, so we're taking advantage of the long weekend and Spirit Airlines dirt-cheap fares. Don't mock me; their pilots are amazing flyers, and their planes are new. If you don't carry luggage, it's a deal! (Best price we've gotten: $57 round-trip)

Last Tuesday, I left for Africa. Ethiopia, to be specific. This trip came about in a matter of weeks, so if you didn't know about it, don't feel left out. I'm not sure what time zone my body thinks I'm in, but it didn't matter once I 'started' my day in Addis Ababa at 11:30 PM EDT (body time) - or 6:30 AM local time. This Addis trip wedged itself right between the other 2 planned trips, so as of today, Oct. 15th, I have traveled 20 straight days.

Did someone mention Operation Christmas Child Collection Season? Yes, there's that, too! In 5 short weeks, we finish for this year, and, yet, I hate to see it go so quickly.

Time stands still for no one.

I'm up for the challenge!

*A special thanks to United Airlines' computer glitch for my $5 round-trip ticket to and from DC from Detroit. I love a deal but hadn't planned on one that good...

Random Thoughts from an Airplane

If the crackers on Ethiopian Airlines are shaped like little airplanes and are all broken when I open them, does this not bode well? They tasted good, but looking like little, mangled jets made me a little unsettled.

If my carry-on had to be checked because it was over 20 lbs., then why were there 200+ fully-packed, bursting-at-the-seams suitcases at the gate with me? Not that I'm complaining... Do you think the 7 lb. bag of candy I took for kids there threw it off?

If it's currently 2005 in Ethiopia, am I, as Jared said, arriving from the future? Also, was I really 7 years younger for one week? If so, yay!

If 11:30 PM EDT is 6:30AM GMT+3 and in Ethiopia local time starts at dawn, that means 7 AM international time is really 1:00AM with 10AM being 4:00AM. Got that? As Chicago asked us long ago, "Does anybody really know what time it is?"

If Ferenji mean 'foreigner' in Amharic, then Gene Roddenberry knew what he was doing all along. But we already knew that.

If my spell check changes "except" to "expat", have I been away from the U.S. too long?

What the heck are the Faroe Islands?

I know I asked myself that question. Please tell me I'm not the only one... The Faroe Islands are situated between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, halfway between Norway and Iceland. That last part explains how it landed on our itinerary as a cruise ship port. When you're going to Iceland, where else is "on the way", right?  It's right here...

Be honest. How many times have you noticed these islands on a map - or anywhere, for that matter?

Let's proceed into the Faroe Islands and on to Klaksvik, shall we? This was my first view of the islands. The little fishery circles fascinated me. 

As we got closer, you could see the fish jumping around in them.  

By this time on the cruise, we were becoming accustomed to mountains and fjords, but each country was unique in its topography. The Faroes allegedly have rain more than 260 days a year, and yet we had a clear day. Well, relatively clear. No rain - yay!

Klaksvik sits deep inside a sliver of waterway and is the largest city in the Faroes. It still affects me that people live in little places like this, but I can see the idyllic side of it. These residents of Denmark pay 50% income tax and have a 37% (!) HST (harmonized sales tax). That's the not-so-idyllic part.

As always, we spent a good part of the day walking the backstreets of town. I'll just share a few photos to give you a taste of life in the Faroes.

This gentleman, as many others we saw that day, was building a wind wall of hay. Hay is a huge crop in these islands. I loved walking among the locals and seeing how they really live. So often, when we visit, we're looking for "highlights", but, for me, the best things are the 'normal' things of the people and their country.

(note the roof of the house in the foreground...)

Some people like to be a little more remote. That's a hard concept for me in a place like this...

Around town, we found some interesting things. An odd statue, a war memorial with the Psalms (in Faroese), a business where one guy understands name recognition, and the fish hook...

 Ummm... I have nothing to say...

Psalm 103: 15-18

(Jordan said, "Bil had the right idea.")

(this one's for you, Michael Hatchell... You have always been a fisherman, and you hooked me long ago.)

The Christianschurch is a big draw here, because the church was the first one built in the old Norse Style. The high ceiling is excellent for acoustics (I, personally, like the little boat up there). It's dedicated to those who lost their lives in the Second World War. 

I would like to state, for the record, that I did not eat anything weird or wrong in this port. My ability to leave all my ethics behind has left, and I'm back on the straight and narrow. This is where I draw the line, friends. "Faroese Puffins are very common and part of the local cuisine". Nope! I hit up the grocery store and the bakery (as if  there wasn't any food on the cruise ship...).

Bye-bye, Faroe Islands.