Mace/Pepper Spray

So I've recently moved to Brooklyn. While that sounds sound grand to quiet a few of you, let me tell you I haven't moved to Williamsburg, Park Slope, Fort Green or Brooklyn Heights. In fact I've moved to Prospect Heights.

So because of this my roommate and I decided to try out the "mace" (otherwise known as pepper spray because mace isn't actually legal. I hear it melts the eyeballs).

Anyway, we are a walking back from the local bar. As we crossed the "S" tracks, where we weren't supposed to go, my roommate (we will call her Parsnip) decided to try out her father given weapon.

After the initial spray something bad happened. It seems that there was some sort of wind in the air (or none at all as she might have simply walked into it), but Parsnip ended up with an eyeful of mace.

Guess what happened next. Pain. Redness. Need for water. And one call to the cop father. He was very helpful.

Don't worry guys, Parsnip is alright. I think we will have to find her a new weapon.

Camera

So during my travels in Iceland, I somehow broke my camera. Of course me, being me, and the amount of work it actually required to get it fixed, (finding the receipt, mailing it in, etc) I didn't do it until the end of December just a few weeks before the one year warranty ran out. Luckily I did get it in on time and then to my surprise it actually got fixed! So props to Nikon and their ability to fix my camera. Sadly you can't take pictures of your camera unless you use another one and it seems like they don't even make mine anymore. Trust me though, its a cutie!

AIM 6.0

My older sister dislikes AIM. She finds it ugly and I guess it is. I use it because that's what all my friends use and so I'm forced to use it. (That's a little thing called network externalities).

I'm fairly happy with it until this morning when it told me I should download AIM 6.0 because it was better and had less bugs. So I did. Much to my shock, as most AIM downloads modify the design just a teeny bit, the new AIM looked completely different. It was grayish, had weird away messages things and even weirder IM boxes. So I took it away and stuck with my old version. I'll keep the bugs thank you very much!

Plus I've discovered this great new site meebo.com that lets you sign onto AIM from any computer. It's way cuter I must admit then both AIM Express and normal AIM and it has this amazing feature that lets you sign onto 5 different messaging networks at once, such as MSN and Yahoo! It just made my day when I found out about it.

Back With A Vengeance

So I know that I haven't blogged since August and I really don't have an excuse other than I didn't have anything exciting to write about. So I've decided to take the word "travels" (as in Buttercup's) and use it in a more figurative way. Travels in its new sense, will not be limited to actually traveling through physical space, but traveling through the endless amount of info, things and life experiences around me. So my blog could now be called "Buttercup Explores Life and Random Things Around Her" but will remain "Buttercup's Travels."

Don't worry though, come March 8, 2007, I'm off to Hong Kong!

Home

I am once again back home enjoying the comforts of it. Living in upstate New York, in a very small town, that is what you have; comforts. Perhaps not wild excitement, but true down to earth comforts. So what are some of my comforts of home?

Driving! I love driving sooo, especially on the curvy roads around here, shifting gears and listening to music.

Bulk/Cheap Shopping. Things are upstate I feel are a lot cheaper than in New York. Facewash here can cost you $4. New York it is $6.99. Plus you can fit all those fun, cheaper things you buy into the back of your car.

Food. Sounds lame, but there is nothing like your mother cooking for you. (Though in some cases your sister cooking for you comes pretty close).

My Friends. My high school friends are one of my favorite reasons to come back. To see them, to drive with them, to shop with them, to eat with them, and just basically enjoy the comforts of home with them.

Well now that I'm back I'm loving it. But in one week I shall head out on another travel. This time it will be road trip summer 2K6. And me and two of my friends shall drive to Florida. Oh my.

Flying Home

As I flew towards home yesterday, I had 5 hours of absolutely nothing to do. So between bouts of reading “Independent People” by Halldór Laxness, talking to the people next to me and staring at the ceiling, I read through Icelandair’s magazine Atlantica. From this I learned quite a few bits of interesting information that I think everyone would be interested in. So it here is:

The Most Expensive Cities in the World are
1. Olso
2. Tokyo
3. Reykjavík

See More Here

There are just over 300,000 people in Iceland and 75% live in Reykjavík.

Of these 300,000, 88% belong to The National Church of Iceland, which is Evangelical Luthern. There is one Roman Catholic Catherdal in Reykjavík.

There is a pilot in Atlanta who will take you up in his private plane so you can join the mile high club and not have to worry about those pesky flight attendents yelling at you to get out of the bathroom.

Edda (my cousin's name) means very old.

There is a travel guide for the country Phaic Tan, which doesn't exist.
Sorry Melly, It's already been done.
See More Here

And that "There is nothing more Icelandic than the shape of Iceland." Or so says the Sage Boutique catalog trying to sell me "The Icelandic Icecube Mould."

Enjoy!

My OC Moment

During my trip out into the country this weekend I had a moment that could only be described as OC like. A band played in a little hut on the beach. While I've never seen this actually happen in The OC, it most definitely had that feeling. Sadly no Seth Cohen to be seen though....tear.

Icelandic Landscape

Just as the capital city offers a special something, the countryside offers something totally different to the visitor. The Icelandic landscape is the most alien landscape I’ve ever seen. Driving through countryside this weekend, I saw barely any trees, yet that was the least of it. Lava fields stretched for miles, covered in a thin layer of a moss that must have fought like hell to claim its spot on the hard rock. Mountains rose out of the ground all over, and hot springs just hung out on the side of the road. Caves litter the landscape, and if you come to the beach beware of one of the most amazing ocean scenes ever. I wish I could better explain the awesomeness that the Icelandic landscape fills you with. But I can’t. It’s too amazing, too beautiful, and too alien to even attempt past this. You must see it to believe it.

Reykjavík as the Top Summer Party Spot

As I was singing into my Hotmail account the other day, I noticed a link in the corner of the page where they have a selection of the articles offered on MSN that day. This one was entitled “Top 10 Summer Spots.” As I clinked on the link, I just knew that Reykjavík had to be one of them, I just knew it. And it was

“Of course, our list had to include Scandinavia's coolest summer capital, where midnight golf, mineral spas and hopping nightlife are just some of the season's
remarkable bounty.”

For those of you who haven’t wandered downtown Reykjavík in the wee hours of a weekend morning, it most certainly is a sight to be seen. Just as the light is just as bright at 3 AM as it was at 3 PM, there are just as many people out in the 3 AM timeslot as the 3 PM, if not more. The streets are crowed with Icelanders and visitors alike, wandering from bar, to café, to club, most of them with a certain about of alcohol in their bloodstreams, and everyone having a good time. In Reykjavík you can visit many places in one night. Most of the Reykjavik nightlife is enclosed in the downtown area, with your next stop being no more than a 5 minute walk away. As the clubs and bars overflow with people, the street almost become a new party place, with people drinking, walking to their next stop and all with music pouring out of several different places along the streets.

Reykjavík at night is most certainly a place to experience, and as one of the top summer party places, I certainly recommend it.