Kjell Olsen

Something about Big cities just kills me. I hate them. Stayed overnight in Boston on the way to my brothers wedding (he actually was wed in Vegas this january, this was just the family celebration) in Portland, ME.

Boston was hot, smelly, noisy and crowded. Didn’t go to any nice restaurants, took the T a few times (and it sure sucks compared to the new Minneapolis Lightrail in all aspects but that of coverage) and walked to all the historic sites along the Freedom Trail.

No fun.

What they’ve done to this place is despicable. You drive up to a parking lot (which is larger then sin), walk up a terrible mall (in both the antiquated, straight line sense of the word and the modern shopping mecca sense) that overshadows the monument with flags, shops, patriotisma, and at least two restaurants.

When you finally get a good look at the mountain, not one obscured by faux granite columns (ugly as sin) draped with all kinds of flags, a thousand seat amphitheater (poured concrete) sits at the base of the fucking mountain to sharpen the vista! after dusk they showed a film with as much substance (a quick vignette for each face carved in the rock, plus one for the construction) as new age patriotism – anthem thumping, flag waving, and eagle soaring.

The mountain is spectacular, but I can only hope to remember it as it was in the Hitchcock film North by Northwest, as a beautiful, quiet, wooded lee facing a monument to democracy. Because when I was there, it was little more then a kitschy riff asking you to love the war on terror and buy american flags. Yuck.

I live here, I’ve been all over.

I just hated all the bustle and noise. There had better be a goddamn lot of good stuff to do to justify living in such a hellish city. Maybe I should have spent a little more time there, but I just couldn’t stand it.

Fjords are incredible, friends of my family have a farm up in on the edge of one, it was an incredible place.

Probably the most incredible landscape I’ve ever experienced. Rugged cliffs, dropping hundreds of feet into the ocean, thousands and thousands of birds, beautiful greens and blues.

I stayed there for three or four days, and the weather was in the mid sixties, which is both spectacularly unusual for the climate and my favorite sort of temperature.

I’m really a wanna be geek – I’ll really have to grow up before I ever get to go somewhere like foo camp.

With a school trip, had a great time. Saw all the sights and had a few great nights… Stop me before I become a poet.

Flying Iceland Air you can give yourself a few day layover on your way to mainland europe, which my family took advantage of to drive about 40% of Iceland’s ring road. Amazing place, beautiful and wild – but Reykjavik is really quite hip and provides a great contrast to the rest of the country. Black sand beaches are amazing.