Monthly Archives: October 2025

Oct11

New Year’s Eve in Dublin

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Tuesday and Wednesday, 31-Dec-2024 and 01-Jan-2025



I don’t have any pictures for the blog from New Year’s Eve.

I’m very okay with that.

It wasn’t really an evening that lent itself to photography – Andrea and I hosted a small New Years Eve shindig at my apartment; a small shindig with a few friends and our only neighbors in attendance. A few classmates joined in for the beginning, before heading out onto the town for a bit of clubbing, but by the end it was just three couples – Ourselves, our neighbors, and two friends from the executive side of the MBA program.

We took it easy and enjoyed ourselves and the pleasant company – Good sparkling wine was had (not Champagne, but a variant that was easily as good while avoiding the price tag), stories were shared, and fireworks were watched from the windows of our 7th floor nest.

We did a cursory photoshoot with Anduril, just for fun, though I’ll leave those photos in the inboxes of the friends who modeled for them – They came out well, but it feels a bit strange publishing photos of other people in the context of a silly night in together.

It was a simple evening, and a lovely evening. A celebration of a life being built across the pond, in a new world.

Oct9

A visit to Germany for the Christmas Markets

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Friday, 27-Dec-2024 through Sunday, 29-Dec-2024


After the cold and snow of Iceland, I headed East to an incredibly warm welcome – Andrea, meeting me at the airport in Dusseldorf!

With Christmas over, and my energy being nicely regenerated by the solitude and snow of Iceland, I’d hopped on a plane to Germany to meet Andrea and her family for some lovely post-Christmas adventure. The flights were smooth, and reunion was just as glorious and full of happy hugs and excited exclamations as one would expect. Really, it was a beautiful extension of the break that I’d been on – but with good company and slightly warmer weather.


The Christmas markets were winding down, as one would expect from the days following Christmas itself, but they weren’t quite done yet. We had a lovely time wandering through the stalls, finding a super cool little pop-pop boat that I sent to a friend and his son, alongside a super cute mug of cocoa where I got to keep the mug!

It was lovely – not a adventure, per-se, but more of a relaxation and chance to spend some time together away from Dublin, in preparation for the semester to come.



Quick fun link for pop-pop boats, for those curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_pop_boat

Oct7

An accident at the end of the world. Or, Icelandic roads are icy, and winds treacherous.

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Thursday, 26-Dec-2024


There was an incident driving back to the airport in Iceland.

Now, let’s be clear here. I was safe, I was uninjured, and I wasn’t in a rush. This happened a day before my flight – I knew there was a risk while driving on the icy roads of the North, and so I planned in quite a bit of extra time. I was FAR below the recommended speed on those roads, doing 30kph vs. the official 80kph… or the 70kph of the people passing my plodding van. I had studded tires, an emergency beacon, and plenty of food and water.

All I didn’t have was a level horizon.


With that out of the way, let’s begin at the beginning – I had packed up camp and hit the road a day before my flight was due to take off from Reykjavik, planning on taking 3hrs to do the 1hr drive from Thingvellir back to Blue Lagoon, before heading the 20min to my campsite for the evening.

I made breakfast, had coffee, and locked everything down before heading onto the icy highway… carefully testing the road and the brakes before leaving the national park. The road conditions looked good on the Icelandic website that tracks those things, and I was feeling optimistic that I’d be sitting in a hot spring within 2hrs… maybe 2.5hrs.

Unfortunately, an errant wind gust (or possibly a surprise break in the wind) sent the van slowly and steadily sliding off the road and into the fluffy embankment of snow off the side.


A call to the rental agency.
A call to the towing agency.
Calls to Andrea, and my folks, to keep them in the loop.
Waiting. Lots of waiting.

2 hours later, a wrecker truck appears through the drifting snow… and an hour after that, the van is back on the main road.

Then, I’m on the path again… but this time, with the wrecker behind me just in case. And a rather hefty sum of money no longer in my account… but, I’m back on the road.