Tearing out a freeway without an earthquake – to my knowledge, it’s never been done. It would require an enormous amount of political capital. But there’s a group of Seattle citizens working on just that. They have a lot of logic and the tide of public opinion all pushing their way, and with the existing viaduct coming up for replacement, well – good luck!

• Alexandria, Egypt: 0.27 USD (1.5 EGP)
• Amazon.com, InternetLand: 0.95 USD (plus shipping… varies)
• Paris, France: 6.71 USD (4.90 EUR)

That gives a 2,385% markup for Paris over Alexandria.  Ouch.

The discounts are substantial too. For example, the Pyramids are pretty typical:

• Adult: 60 EGP
• Student: 30 EGP
• Egyptian: 2 EGP

That last one isn’t advertised in English. You need an Egyptian residency card to get it.

Wrong Way
one way street you say?
I don’t see any one coming
honk once, flash twice, go

There are a handful of traffic lights in Cairo. They are ignored by everybody including the traffic cops.

Red Light
I see it, it’s red
nobody in my way… why stop?
it must be broken

Lanes painted on the surface of the road have literally, nearly no meaning whatsoever. A small fender bender is not reason enough to actually stop and pull over.

Making Lanes
ou, can I squeeze in?
flash twice, ok let’s do it
ack opps tag! you’re it

There are no left turns in Egypt. I had no idea left turns were superfluous until traveling Egypt.

Left Turn
follow recipe
straight, then u-turn, then go right
or just make three rights

I don’t understand why, but people use their parking lights not their headlights at night. You use your headlights as a second horn – to flash them at other drivers or pedestrians when the honking isn’t working.

Headlights
from dusk till the dawn
it is dark and I can’t see
headlights? nah, I’m fine

Just like in Mexico, buses (along with mini-buses too – private vans that follow predefined routes but leave only once adequately full) are the de facto method of long-distance travel Egypt. Every time, me, and every other person (90% men, women are always either accompanied by children or men) on the bus are hoping to double our fun by getting a full half-row to ourselves. I got rejected six of seven times. Six random Egyptian men I got my shoulder snuggle on with for 3-10 hours. It’s kinda like getting your shoulder snuggle on with somebody on Muni or BART – but Egyptians don’t wiggle so much or get awkward about it. They’re old pros at the shoulder snuggle.

If you’re looking to get an Egyptian visa, bring 65 shekels with you, your passport, and a passport photo.  In the low season it takes about 30 minutes.  If you’ve got a good wireless card, you can catch some random free wireless from their outdoor waiting area.

(As of December 2008.)

And know that AT&T’s International data plans for smartphones do not cover txt’n.  I can’t seem to find any plan or feature from AT&T that covers txt’n while traveling… any of you guys know of one?  My google-fu has failed.

Verified in Iceland & Western Europe, September 2008.

I brought a friend with me:

Wallet included in the picture to give you a sense of scale… it’s fricking tiny!  It weighs about as much as the ‘Europe on a Shoestring’ Lonely Planet guide.

I am soooooooo glad I brought a mini-laptop with me.  Not only did it allow me to do stuff like:

• buy a cheap flight to Berlin from Reykjavík at the last minute.
• organize a 24 hour sprint from Amsterdam to Dublin involving two ferries, three trains, three bike connections – at rock-bottom price.
• stay in touch.  blog.

It also kept me sane when I got locked down in southern Iceland in a storm for three days during the bike tour part.

So, I really can’t recommend the idea of bringing a mini-laptop with you for traveling enough.  It really made a huge difference in my whole experience… then again I am one of those people who the internet is my ‘comfort food’.  Some people need chocolate or cheetos to feel good.  Others need to watch that special show to fall asleep at night.  I need my internet fix… and a vacation ain’t a vacation if you can’t get your fix.

Now, my Eee PC.  First off, best color ever:

Yes, it’s pink.  Yes, I’m comfortable with my manhood.  And yes, I bought it at the last minute and they only had pink left.

It’s the 2G Surf 701.  Linux-based (Xandros) with 512 MB ram, 900 MHz Celeron M processor, 2 GB hard drive – solid state, super fast.  It has 802.11b/g and an ethernet plug, and a few USB ports.  When it’s plugged in, the USB ports pump out enough power to charge an iPod/iPhone.  No CD/DVD drive (or any moving parts at all, for that matter).  Less to burn battery, less to break.

I only have two (make that three) complaints:

• It’s a little too tiny.  The keyboard is at 83% of the normal size.  That requires a few hours of learning curve to get used to.
• The standard gmail with it’s bazillion K of javascript is a little too much for the 900MHz Celeron M.  You can do it, but it’s slow as balls.  Switch to the HTML version.
• The screen (800×480) isn’t quite big enough to display all sites correctly.  Also, it doesn’t quite max out the form factor… those speakers on the side are taking up vauble real estate that could be used for more screen.

So, I think next time I’ll upgrade all the way up to the 1000.  The screen is substantially larger, the keyboard less compressed (92%), and the processor is almost twice as fast.  Of course, that one costs more than twice as much as this one which was only….

250 USD.  Which is exactly half what my phone cost.  Meaning – if my Eee PC grows legs and walks away at one of the hostels – that would suck, but it’s not the end of the world.  If I had brought a ‘real’ laptop with me, I would have had to practically sleep on top of it to relax.

So, final verdict:  It’s awesome.  And it’s for sale.  You know you want it.  Again, if you win and I know you, no shipping charges and we’ll grab lunch.

Update:

Upon further procrastination – ur, consideration – I think next time I travel I’ll get the 901.  Same screen resolution, processor and battery as the 1000, and with the same tiny form factor as the 700 series.  Awesome.  And a good chunk cheaper than the 1000.  But… how can I get that in pink?

Iceland isn’t much for paved roads. Past about 100km south of Reykjavík, there is a whole one paved road for the next ~500km. Then that too turns into gravel. If you were leave that one paved road and head straight north cross-country across the icecap(s), you would not hit another paved road until you had crossed the entire island and were sitting on the north coast.

Because of this, most people cycle Iceland on mountain bikes, or at least road bikes with urban or mountain tires on there. However, if you’re a Roadie and you kinda just threw your bike in a box the night before your flight, you might have racing tires on there. This means you’re sticking to the paved road. And thus, you’ll see most the same raw, stark, strong, breathtaking sights pictured here.

From Reykjavík I headed to the northeast to the Althing, following this guide (search for ‘In and out of Reykjavik’) to get out of town. The Althing’s big claim to fame is that was the world’s first democratic parliament – 930AD, a bunch of Icelandic Vikings. As historical sites in Iceland go, this is the big one. The Icelandic people pull most of their proud self-identity from their Viking ancestry, even if it has been shown that genetically that they’re also Scottish and Irish. Even if not completely in body, at least in mind, culture, language and spirit, they are the Viking people.

Modern Icelanders have marked their best-guess of where the Althing was held with an Icelandic flag.

Against these cliffs, the speaker’s voice would resonate and project out to the envoys that came from across the island.

From above the cliffs of the Althing:

The Althing was held at the head of lake Thingvallavatn.

From the Althing, I cut down to Selfoss. The road was completely empty for the first hour or so… beyond the half dozen vehicles or so that roared by, I saw no sign nor heard no sound of mankind beyond the growling of my tires spinning swiftly on the worn pavement below. Zen factor: extremely high.

Cycling from Selfoss down towards Vík (at the southern tip), your trip is dominated by the approaching Icelandic bluffs.

As they approach, you’ll notice thin white lines cutting down from the top to the flats below. Those are waterfalls.

Heading around Vík up toward Skaftafell National Park and the huge Vatnajökull Icecap, the grasslands move away. You begin cutting across huge wastelands, created by the icecap dumping rocky sediment down over and over for a few millennia.

The glaciers coming down off the icecaps are intense. I’ve seen glaciers before in California and Canada, but this was something else.

The largest dump of the Vatnajökull actually makes it all the way out to the sea, throwing small icebergs out into the Atlantic where they quickly melt. You get to ride across a steel bridge with icebergs underneath. What is this, Narnia?

Having a waffle next to a glacier and a few icebergs. That was one damn good waffle.

As you approach Höfn, the wasteland changes back over to farmland, still backed by glaciers coming down from the icecap.

Unfortunately, I (actually, more like Stanford to pass the buck) timed my trip to miss summer by about a week. I got rained on everyday and faced strong headwinds about half the time. As the storm got worse, I bunkered down in Höfn for a few days to wait it out. This is the best (and coincidentally, the only) coffee shop in Höfn. Free wifi included! Highly recommended.

After three days of waiting, the weather prediction was ‘bad’ for the next five… so I bailed. Back to Reykjavík. As a student, my flight on Eagle Air was just under 10k Krona (~100 USD), which is like 10% more expensive than the bus and about 8 times faster. They are bike-friendly… no extra charge if you’re under 20 kilos.

Hello, small plane flying in bad weather.

I spent several more days (and nights – great nightlife, no need to sleep) in Reykjavík bouncing around. They have a nice network of separated bike trails that rings the city several times over.

Finally, I rode out to the international airport in Keflavík for a flight to Berlin via Iceland Express – also relatively bike-friendly. No bike box or bag required. Once you get out of Reykjavík, the ride to the airport is on the freeway shoulder. The entrances/exits are a little intimidating but they’re pretty empty of traffic cause everyone’s going to the airport. It’s really a pretty fast and efficient ride. When I first arrived in Iceland, I didn’t ride from Keflavík to Reykjavík… but if I do it again, I will. It’s a fat 10 foot shoulder the whole way. Pray for tailwinds!

Kinda.

As is common in captive-audience no-competition environments, (read: airports) wireless goes for outrageous prices. But even given that peer set, this is ridiculous. The only logical justification I’ve been able to come up with for charging this much for access is to purposely limit the number of users so that the satellite link doesn’t get clogged. But I doubt that’s the case. I’m willing to bet 100 bucks (and my pride) that they’re off the ‘maximum profit peak’ (I dunno econ) by at least a factor of two.

As an end-user, you have two choices:

• One device, one hour: 6 euro (~8.50 USD)
• One device, three hours: 9 euro (~13 USD)

I have two devices (a phone/camera and a laptop) I need to both be connected to the internet to publish content effectively. I want to be connected the whole trip. It’s a 6.5 hour ride. I arrived an hour early. So for internet access, I need:

Two devices, three three hour segments each, for a total cost of… 2×3x9 = 54 euro (~77 USD). Are you on crack?! I paid 33 euro for this trip! I have a sneaking suspicion that the person/people making the decisions here know about as much about the internet and computing as John McCain…

So, hello VIP lounge!

Only 16 euro, and for the whole trip I get as much bandwidth as a I can drain, free drinks, plush seats, and no screaming kids and drunk guys. Except maybe me. Rock n’ roll. This could get addicting…