- I will travel the world

Provoked when visiting Pearl Harbor

By idun | 27 October, 2012 - 1:00 pm | Being a foreigner, Hawaii, Oahu, USA

The attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 was, as far as I know, the last attack by a foreign country on American soil, and led to USA entering WWII. For Americans it seems to be a very serious thing, which is sort of understandable. It was very interesting to visit the place as a European, but it made me wonder what Americans actually are taught about WWII.

Yes, Pearl Harbor was attacked and around 2400 people were killed, and that is absolutely awful. They deserve to be remembered and honoured, just like anyone else who has died. Which is done quite well at Pearl Harbor today, there are boats like the U.S.S. Arizona, which still lies where it was hit, and you can see parts of it in the surface of the water. There is the little mandatory movie you are shown before you are allowed to get to the Arizona Memorial. There is the U.S.S. Missouri, the ship on which the peace documents were signed, you can visit and get a tour of, as well as a few other parts we didn’t have time to visit when we were there.

What I didn’t see or hear anything about however, was the Nazis or the war in Europe mentioned with more than a word or two. Everything was about this one attack by the Japanese and how USA fought back by bombing Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Of course that is understandable, as this is the actual site of the attack, but still, if I had not known better I would have thought this war against Japan was the whole WWII, based from what I saw and heard at Pearl Harbor

That made it very difficult for me to take the Pearl Harbor attack as seriously as Americans seems to do, of course it was horrible, but it’s WWII we’re talking about. 2400 military personnel killed and some 1800 people hurt in one attack at Pearl Harbor is nothing against the literally millions of people who were killed, tortured or put in concentration camps in Europe. Not to mention several countries, including my own, being invaded and ruled by the Nazis for years. Most people have grandparents who experienced the war, experienced having their country occupied by an enemy for years, food being rationed, the constant suspicion of which of your neighbours were actually spies for the enemy and would turn you in if they caught you doing anything against the Nazis. And that’s just in Norway, which was relatively well treated considering the state of the rest of Europe.

Countries involved in the Second World War Source

I’m sorry Americans, but the attack on Pearl Harbor is nothing in the big picture. Not compared to the atrocities committed in WWII as a whole. We’re talking about Holocaust, the systematic murder of 6 million Jews, about 1 million of them children, for no other reason than them believing in a religion. Concentration camps in Nazi-controlled parts of Europe, where anyone who disagreed or fought back, anyone who were Jews, homosexuals, disabled people and otherwise “undesirable” were placed. Many, many of them died. Most of the neighbouring countries to Germany were attacked, and in most cases occupied, by the Nazis for years. And that’s not even mentioning all the fighting going on in colonies or by troops from the rest of the world. That’s what we learn in Europe about WWII. The reason why WWII was so different and so much more serious than other wars. For us the attack on Pearl Harbor is just mentioned as the reason why USA joined the war actively and why they bombed Japan, as USA joining the Allies helped the war end sooner. While a few thousand people were killed, it’s just nothing compared to the big picture here.

I hope, even though I don’t find it very likely, that you learn more accurate information about WWII in school. It’s not “just another war between a few countries”, it is one of the absolutely most horrible things in human history and the majority of the world was involved. It’s called World War II for a reason.

Visiting Pearl Harbor ended up provoking me more than anything else. I get you want to honour your dead soldiers, but you can’t just ignore the context of when the attack happened. Not when it’s the largest war in the history of mankind.

Garden of the Gods

By idun | 16 October, 2012 - 2:26 pm | Awesome things, Hawaii, Travel, Uncategorized

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There is a place, on the small island of Lanai, called Keahiakawelo, or Garden of the Gods. Not much is there, it’s quite far from where people live and you have to drive on an uneven dirt road to get there…but the rock formations and colours are amazing. Red dirt, some green on the odd bush, and the clear, blue sea all around. Standing there, feeling like the only person in the world, just enjoying the view and the quiet, is wonderful.

To actually get there, part of the drive is through an area called the iron forest (if I remember correctly), which is almost as cool as the place itself. It’s unreal. A narrow dirt road, surrounded by tall, seemingly dead trees covered in red dust. I felt like I was in some kind of fairy tale.

If you’re ever on Lanai, go here, it’s an almost magical place, with no people around, away from all the other touristy stuff you most likely are doing in Hawaii. It’s definitely worth the drive to get there!

I’m in love..with sea turtles

By idun | 10 September, 2012 - 6:00 am | Awesome things, Big Island, Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, USA

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One of the coolest things I did in Hawaii was seeing sea turtles while snorkeling. They are just SO COOL. I don’t know why I’m suddenly so fascinated by them now that I’ve seen them less than a meter away, but they are just cool. I can’t describe why. And I didn’t even see the really huge ones. I just got this feeling of awe when seeing them swim.

The first sea turtles I saw was on a snorkeling trip with some company, out to the tiny island of Molokini outside of Maui to look at colourful fishies and then to a spot where there’s usually turtles. And turtles there were, several of them. Some pretty big, but not the biggest ones I hear, but still, the ones I saw were pretty impressive. Just the way they swim is incredible, the shell is so big and the “fins” look so small in comparison. It looks unreal.

We snorkeled and saw more fishes and turtles on the other islands we were on as well, seems like they are relatively common, but the ones on the snorkeling trip were the biggest ones. Colourful and strange fishes are cool to, but they are really just fish, nothing compared to the majestic sea turtles. Just floating in the surface of the water, watching the turtle(s) a few meters away eat plants or play in the waves..it’s so much more interesting than looking on some silly fishes, no matter what colour or shape they have.

Unfortunately I don’t have a waterproof camera, so I don’t have a picture of any of these beauties, I wish I did, but next time perhaps. Because there will be a next time for me to see sea turtles. They are too cool not to see again.

Have you ever seen sea turtles?

Picture sources: 1, 2

Zip lining on Haleakala, Maui

By idun | 1 September, 2012 - 9:24 pm | Awesome things, Hawaii, Maui, Travel, USA

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I’m afraid of heights, it’s never been my thing. So naturally I went zip lining when I was on Maui. Hanging from a wire in a tiny harness high up in the air and speeding along at speeds around 50-60 km/h. Of course that’s what you do when you’re afraid of heights. And so I did, on Maui.

It was originally my sister’s idea I think, and although I really am afraid of heights, I also know the only way get less scared is to challenge myself and do scary things anyway. Or, you know, try anyway. So zip lining we decided to do, found a course, booked it and drove up the mountain.

We walked across this to get to some of the lines, funsies

We found our guides and after signing a release and waiver of liability, saying it’s not their fault if I get hurt or die for any reason on their trip (very reassuring when I’m already worried about the heights), we got on our way. And let me tell you, just stepping off a platform when there’s a 15 meter drop right in front of you is scary. I did it though (and screamed), and it was SO MUCH FUN! The first line wasn’t that long, but my legs were shaking afterwards. At the same time as it was one of the coolest things I’ve done. Ever.

We did 5 lines on this course, the lines getting progressively longer and higher up. I wish there were more and I want to do it again. Even though it continued to be rather scary to step out into the air and hope the harness and line would hold. The last line was especially scary, as the line was quite slack as well as the point where you landed was a lot lower than the starting point. Meaning you fell literally straight down for 5-10 meters when you first stepped off, as you had to get that far down for the line to hold you. That was pretty terrifying, even though it only lasted some few seconds. And I’d love to do it again. Logic? Not much.

I survived!

The guides we had were awesome by the way! Seriously, not only did they know their stuff well, they were really nice guys who actually seemed to care about their customers. So many places in Hawaii I felt like people, them being guides, waiters or others, were so forced with their politeness. What’s the point in saying things like “how are you?” in an uninterested tone and with a big fake smile when everyone knows you couldn’t care less and probably doesn’t even listen to the answer? I know I would rather they be quiet than this fake, forced friendliness all the time. But, thankfully, these two guides we had at Skyline Adventures were not like that, at all. It was absolutely wonderful! They talked with us of course, but they were actually interested, listening, coming with questions and joking with us. It felt more like they were doing it because they wanted to, not because we paid for it. And there were no pushing us to buy stuff, which was just about EVERYWHERE else, even though they sold pictures, sweaters and various other items at their store. They just said “there’s gonna be a photographer at the next line, you can buy the pictures if you want”, and that was it! No trying to convince us to buy it or anything. It made the whole experience so much better.

We did buy the pictures, but then, they were really good pictures and they weren’t that expensive.

Have you tried zip lining? Or would you like to?

Seahorses and sea dragons

By idun | 25 August, 2012 - 4:29 pm | Awesome things, Big Island, Hawaii, Kailua Kona, USA

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Seahorses are pretty incredible creatures, not only do they look cool, but they are also one of the few species on Earth where the male gets pregnant and carries the offspring. Problem is, because they are so cool, people want them in aquariums, which means they’re fished from the wild, so several types of seahorses are in danger of becoming extinct, and where there used to be many, they’ve become rare. What makes it worse is that sea horses are monogamous, so when one is taken from the sea, both it and its mate will quickly die from depression, they’ll just stop eating. To help stop this problem the Ocean Rider seahorse farm was started up, and it seems to have worked well so far. Because of them, a lot less seahorses are caught in the wild, and it also helps that sea horses no longer are monogamous when they have become domesticated, so they can live for years in captivity instead of just some weeks or months. They don’t get sad if they’re separated from their mate. To spread the word (and earn more money), it’s possible to visit the seahorse farm on guided tours, which we did, and it was sooo worth it.

Supposedly it was going to be a “small” group, I’m not sure when 40+ people counts as a small group, but in this case it worked surprisingly well, even with that many people. We learned everything about the life of the seahorses. Starting with seeing the special dam they had made, down to an old lava tube, where a special kind of shrimp the seahorses love live, and catching some of them for feeding later, we all followed into the hatchery. In the tanks there were these tiny seahorses, 1-3 weeks old..they were about the length of the nail on your little finger, and so very thin, like a piece of straw, and at the same time tiny, perfect seahorses. The next part were the breeding seahorses, 4 in each tank, as they’re not monogamous in captivity. These were the ones who got the special, fresh caught shrimp from the lava tube, which we got to give the shrimp to them to see how they eat. The rest of seahorses are trained to eat frozen shrimp, which is another of the changes the Ocean Rider farm has made, as it makes it a lot easier to keep seahorses alive in captivity. Next came the tanks with seahorses ready for sale, about 30-40 of them in each huge tank, many holding each other with their tails, and we got to feed them again. That was cool to see, you just emptied this cup with some frozen shrimp into the water and the seahorses went wild to get them.

Then we saw the coolest creature of all, two sea dragons. I hadn’t even heard of these guys before, although they’re apparently in the same family as seahorses. Sea dragons are in some ways even more endangered, by collectors, pollution or to be used in alternative medicine, as well as they are difficult to keep alive in captivity. So far there has been no successful breeding in captivity, which makes them even more rare, as every sea dragon has to be taken from the wild. Unlike the seahorses, where a lot more of the wild ones are now left alone and populations are starting to rise again, the sea dragons are very much in danger, even though they are protected by law, as they look so unique. It really looks like a fairy tale creature, I actually had problems believing they were real when seeing them. According to the guide, just getting one sea dragon costs several thousand dollars. The reason these two sea dragons are on the seahorse farm is of course because the idea is to get them to breed in captivity as well, the same way seahorses are bred there, so the wild populations can be left (more) alone. So far it’s not working, but before the Ocean Rider started, there weren’t any seahorse breeding in captivity either, so perhaps they will succeed with this too. I hope so.

Source

Finally we got to the actual holding a seahorse. It was a strange experience. You hold your hands a certain way, lower them into the water, and one of the people on the farm carefully catches a seahorse and hold it so it curled its tail around your finger. And then the seahorse would just kinda relax there, hanging onto your finger, until it decided to swim onwards. You had to be calm though, and keep the hands deep enough down, or the seahorse would get nervous and swim away. We only got to hold one once, as there were a lot of people, but I wish I could have done it again, and spent more time with the different creatures there. It definitely made me a lot more interested in marine life than I have been before (despite growing up on an actual island..).

In general, I don’t like having animals in captivity, they deserve to be free and not just in a cage because someone wants to collect it or earn money from it. If, however, it is to try to save some species from extinction, by breeding and releasing some to the wild AND actually try to give the animals a good life even in captivity, I can agree with it. This is one of the reasons I don’t like going to zoos, sure the animals are cool to see, but in every zoo but one I’ve ever been in, they just look sad and have so little space. I just get really sad. On the positive side, Ocean Rider seems to be in the good category of keeping animals in captivity, not only have they succeeded when others failed, they even make buyers of seahorses go through a course before they are allowed to buy, to make sure the seahorses aren’t mistreated (out of ignorance at least) in their new homes. I really liked the visit, cool to see creatures without being sad, as well as it was really interesting to learn so much.

Do you like sea horses?

So I have a new blog name

By idun | 22 August, 2012 - 9:20 pm | Norway

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I left Scotland almost 3 months ago, and since I decided to continue writing here, I’ve been trying to come up with a new name. Which is awfully difficult. I guess this will be a kind of travel blog, but I don’t want a standard “your-name” travels/travelling/nomadic/similar travel-related word of your choice. Partly because I’m not actually traveling that much at the moment, and because it’s just a little boring. So eventually I went with this one, I will travel the world. Perhaps not the most imaginative, but it fits well, because being back in Norway have just strengthened my wish to travel. There are many good things about Norway, but right now I don’t really feel like living here. Don’t get me wrong, I live in a nice city, it’s great to see friends from uni again, as we’ve all been away on exchange different places, and I’m looking forward to my classes. There’s just the rest I don’t like so much, so then I will travel, even if it takes at least a year before I can travel for a longer time than a weekend or week at the time. Oh, and I also decided to get my own domain name, so my old one will redirect to this one, as well as I’m in the process of trying to find a different/better design.

I’d be cool to go here for example, here being Greenland and this being a view from the plane to USA this summer.

Kilauea, an active volcano

By idun | 16 August, 2012 - 12:37 am | Big Island, Hawaii, Travel, USA

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Craterception, a crater within a crater. The outer crater being where the fence is, with the other side of the distance somewhere barely visible in the distance.

The Hawaiian islands are, if you didn’t know already, volcanoes. Huge ones which started forming at the bottom of the sea many thousand years ago (if not longer). Most are inactive today and have been for a long time, especially on the most northern islands like Oahu where you can see the mountains are very different from, say, the Big Island, as the mountains on Oahu has eroded over a long time since the island was formed, while Big Island still has volcanic activity and is a lot more flat. On Big Island there is still an active volcano, Kilauea, which actually is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth. Fortunately that doesn’t mean it has huge eruptions that brings death and destruction to the island, but it does have smaller eruptions regularly, and it’s possible to see the light from the lava in the distance at night. As the area close by is closed, so you have to watch from a distance. Which I’m quite ok with, I have no great wish of going all close and personal with molten rock.

I did however experience the wonderful smell of sulfur and various other volcanic gases, as there is a trail you can walk through some sulfur fields. Which is a completely natural thing to want to do. Who doesn’t want to go through an area of foul-smelling gases which could potentially make you feel ill if you inhale too much of it? It was cool though, to see how the gases had crystallized and the rifts were covered in these yellowish crystals.

It’s seriously huge, the inner crater is to the right of this picture, and the space on the other side of the inner crater was even bigger.

The crater for the original volcano is HUGE…it’s not very high up anymore, like the other volcanoes on the island (4000+ meters/14000+ feet high), as the top collapsed when the amount of lava decreased, but the crater is still seriously huge. In the middle there’s a “small” one where there is continuous smoke and gases coming up, which is the still active part of the volcano. The size of it is incredible though, trying to comprehend just how large this volcano was before it collapsed is difficult, it’s simply enormous. Standing on the edge of the larger crater, I couldn’t see the other side, partly because of smoke from the smaller crater in the centre, but also because the opposite edge of the large crater was so far away I probably wouldn’t have seen much of it even if there weren’t any smoke and fog in the way.

Entrance to a lava tube

In another area of the Hawaii national volcanoes park, where Kilauea is, there are also some old lava tunnels, which you can walk through as the lava is long gone. We went there, but I got really claustrophobic even if I could still see the entrance and it was a rather large tunnel. But just the thought of having so much stone and earth over me freaked me out and I ended up going back to the car instead. I wish I’d pushed through anyway, as I don’t like being cowardly, but hey, I tried.

Have you ever been near or on a volcano?

The most famous dead tree in Hawaii

By idun | 9 August, 2012 - 9:45 pm | Hawaii, Kualoa ranch, Oahu, Travel

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Does it look familiar? Without looking at the signpost

The most famous dead tree in Hawaii, also known as the dead tree in Jurassic Park, which Dr. Grant and the two children hide behind when all those dinosaurs come running down the hill. It looks a bit different there than the movie now, but then, it’s almost 20 years since that movie was made. This is on Kualoa ranch by the way, on Oahu, you know, the island which Honolulu is on. We went there on a movie tour, as lot of movies and series has filmed scenes here. Like Jurassic Park, 50 first dates, Pearl Harbor, Godzilla (the American version of course), Lost and a bunch of others. Including one called Tyrannosaurus Azteca, which, according to our guide, is so bad it’s funny. I haven’t seen it so I can’t judge, but the name doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Fun fact about the Godzilla footprints: when they were originally made they were a lot deeper than now, but as the ranch also have cows, the cows kept falling into the footprints and died, so they had to fill them in and make them shallower.

Godzilla was here.. Although it’s a while ago since it’s growing grass in the footprint

The tour was pretty interesting, even though I’ve only seen some of the movies filmed there. Good guide with interesting stories and beautiful nature. Definitely worth going on if you like movies and series and such, but the rest of the ranch didn’t look that interesting. They boast of horse riding and ATV driving, but that’s really only riding/driving in a line the same route, seeing the same things we did from the bus, so really not worth paying 2-3 times as much for. Oh, and in the bay just by the ranch scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean 4 was filmed, and parts of 5 and 6 might be filmed there as well. Or so the rumour goes. Anyway, it was a nice experience. It’s just lacking a tyrannosaurs rex and few velociraptors for it to be great.