At the time we went, Iceland was one of the few countries in the world that allowed vaccinated foreign visitors. All that was needed was proof of vaccination – not even a pre-entry COVID test. The fact that most people were vaccinated meant that most people were not wearing masks in the city, but this was before even the Delta variant – it seems like so long ago now.

I had been itching to go travel somewhere since the pandemic began, and this was a very welcome nudge towards normalcy. Flying with Icelandair was the same as before: the seat and leg room is pretty comfortable, but there’s no food included with the airfare. The only difference is the extra bureacracy related to COVID, which increased how long it took each person to get through immigration, resulting in long lines after the plane. It didn’t help that we arrived so early in the morning that the food places weren’t even open yet and we had to wait in line while hungry. Eventually, we picked up the rental car and drove into Reykjavik for breakfast. We took the day easy by just exploring Reykjavik on foot, and took a nap in the afternoon when the jet lag caught up to us.

That night, we had probably the most memorable meal we’ve ever had at Tapas Barinn. The great thing about tapas is that as tourists, we get to try a little bit of everything as opposed to ordering entrées.

I even got to try some Flóki single malt whiskey. The smokiness from the whiskey actually comes from the barley smoked using sheep dung, a traditional cooking method. I also got to try some more brennivin like my last trip to Iceland – it’s essentially a grain alcohol (40%) and flavoured with caraway seeds, which gives it a sweeter flavour than something like vodka.

I had visited Iceland a couple years ago, but it was in the winter where there was only 4 hours of light per day, and even then the sky looked like dusk.

This time, travelling there in the summer, I didn’t see the night sky the entire time I was there. I could more clearly see and appreciate the nature around me, like the endless fields of moss growing on the rocks, and sheep freely roaming the fields.

It is thought that the Icelandic sheep were introduced to Iceland by the Viking settlers. Farmers allow them to freely roam around in the summer months, and as winter comes, they round them all back up again.

Like my previous trip to Iceland, we travelled along the Ring Road to see the waterfalls, and the volcanic beaches.

This is what the view at Seljalandsfoss looks like in the summer versus the view I saw in the winter. I had no idea Iceland could be so green. In the summer, people can even walk behind the waterfall, between the rock and the falls itself, but in the winter, the trail is closed because of ice.

Skógafoss looks about the same between summer and winter, except the vegetation is greener in summer.

A kitty even came out to hang out with us! As we were walking, the cat just walked up to us and stopped, expecting pets as a payment to pass through. After that, off it went.

Unlike travelling to Iceland in the winter, there were no restrictions (4WD) to drive up to Dyrhólaey in the summer. As we drove up, I could see why. The road was a set of steep switchbacks on gravel roads that were only a little more than two cars width – and there were no guardrails.

From the top, one can see the endless mountains, or watch the waves crash against the beaches of volanic sand.

The next day, we took a Superjeep tour to see ice caves on an active volcano known as Katla. The reason why it’s called Superjeep is because it can deflate its tires (for icy roads), and inflate them back up again depending on the terrain, but otherwise it looks like your typical Ford Excursion but with big tires.

The ice caves were located a ways in from the glacier. In summer, a lot of the ice had melted, revealing the volanic sand and rock underneath.

Only just now as I was writing this, did I realize we were travelling on a literal volcano, but I suppose it’s safe.

As we headed up the volcano, the lush, green vegetation quickly disappeared, revealing a rocky landscape with a mix of ice and black volcanic rock. Grey clouds covered the sky and it began to rain.

Eventually, the tour guide parked the truck, and we began our volcano hike. He brought his ice pick with him and used it several times to cut steps in the ice.

Despite the summer season, the temperature still felt like a mild winter. But it still meant the ice caves would not be as fully developed as in the winter season, and this could clearly be seen when comparing the ice caves from this trip versus the previous one. In fact, the winter ice cave was really more of a tunnel, while the picture of the summer ice cave was taken from the end of the cave with the camera pointing out.

The ice on top of the volcanic rock looked so alien that several movies used this place as a location for another planet. Rogue One was filmed in the area for the opening scene where young Jyn Erso hides from the stormtroopers. The movie doesn’t show the whole cave, but the similiarity is clear. If the movie had shown the whole cave, one would see why people call it the “Yoda Cave”.

It was nice staying in the cave for a bit as a brief respite from the rain. We made the mistake of wearing jeans for a multi-hour hike in the rain, and our wet clothes just made us even colder. We also got the chance to chat a bit with others on the tour. We met an orthodonist who practised in Greece by the name of Thanos (I wonder if he was aware of the MCU), and another who claimed to be a “voodoo priestess”, whatever that means.

The next morning, the plan was whale and puffin watching. It turned out to be an incredibly bad idea because I apparently get seasick, and didn’t get to see a lot. Even those who did see whales could really only see a small fin barely capturable on camera. Only a small percentage of people get to see the whale flying out of the water and crashing back down. Good thing the puffin watching was on a separate tour so I got to recover from the seasickness, but we decided not to go and instead gave the tickets away to another group that we overheard looking for tickets to the same tour.

Instead, we went to go get some Icelandic hotdogs for lunch. The key things that set it apart are the condiments, and the sausage. In addition to ketchup, and sweet mustard, they also add “remoulade”, similar to mayo with added herbs. The sausage uses lamb, as opposed to chicken/pork/beef.

Next, we headed to the Reykjanes Peninsula and the Blue Lagoon. We reached the tip of the peninsula and stood on the cliff watching the waves crash against the shore. If there was such a thing as the end of the earth, this was it. Despite strong gusts of wind, thousands of birds nested on the side of the cliff. From far away they look like white specks, but one can see them clearly with a good set of binoculars.

Next, we went for a relaxing soak at the Blue Lagoon, a man-made spa fed by water used by a nearby geothermal plant.

The water forms a milky blue colour from the high silica mud, and is supposedly good for the skin. They even sell super overpriced skincare products at the gift shop.

The area is beautiful with all the steam slowly rising from the hot springs with the light cool breeze. It would have felt like a whipping biting wind if not for the hot spring. You just submerge yourself until you feel not too hot and not too cold, and then relax with their cleansing silica face masks and a drink.

After leaving Blue Lagoon, we’d learned there was an active eruption happening at the nearby Fagradalsfjall volcano, and was happening slow enough such that it was OK to go see it.

A short walk from the parking lot led us to the lava flow. The trail continued upstream of the lava flow to the mouth of the volcano.

There were warnings for people to not walk too close to the lava flow because of risks of toxic fumes, but many did it anyway (as did we). Many curious hikers threw rocks on it just to find out that the lava flow had already hardened, even though there were still visible fumes coming out.

The hike turned out to be really long, and we weren’t really prepared to do a multi-hour hike at 20:00 in the cold, wind, and rain. As we reluctantly turned around, we saw people pointing the other and when we looked, we managed to catch a glimpse of the volcano spewing lava from afar. It makes sense now why people call it the “land of ice and fire”

It was surprising to see how watery the lava looked. I expected molten rock to be more viscous. The lava just spewed out in a splash. I felt super lucky to have seen such a sight.

As we walked back, I noticed these hexagonal patterns in the ground. Maybe this is how basalt columns form? From what I’ve read, under certain conditions, the cooling magma can cool in a way that forms these hexagonal shapes.

By the time we reached the parking lot, we were wet and cold (seemed to be a recurring theme by this point). Luckily there was a food truck at the parking lot selling hot soup.

The next morning before heading out to the Golden Circle, we started the day off with a nice brunch at Sandholt.

The unexpected star of the breakfast was the bread. As an amateur baker myself, this is the bread I aspire to make – it’s soft, light and airy with a crisp crust.

Next step along the Golden Circle was Geysir. The geothermal heat creates pressure underground causing the water to explode upward every few minutes. The entire area is filled with geothermal pools, some of which are so hot they’re bubbling from the heat and pressure.

It’s cool just to just stand in anticipation of the eruption. From looking at it, there’s no indication that it’s going to explode at all, and then it just does. At one point, the wind carried the water toward us and got us all wet, but luckily by the time the water hits the ground, it’s cooled down.

From the Geysir, we drove to Gullfoss. Unlike other waterfalls, this one has a unique feature where the water does a zig zag before hitting the bottom.

There were attempts in the past to build a hydroelectric plant here, but those efforts have not succeeded, and since then, the waterfall is now under government protection.

The last destination of the Golden Circle was Kerið crater. It’s believed that the crater formed through volcanic activity. Once the magma chamber emptied, it collapsed, forming the crater. The accumulation of water is not formed by rainfall, but is actually ground water.

On our last day before we left, we got the chance to try more Icelandic dishes. This time we had some lamb soup, dried fish, fermented shark, and some Einstök white ale, a local craft brew.

It’s not often that I would rave about soup, but I liked it so much I’ve been trying to recreate the flavour at home. It’s savoury soup with vegetables, lamb, and herbs/spices. I can’t say I was a huge fan of the dried fish and fermented shark though. The dried fish is served with butter and its flavour reminds me of super tough beef jerky with a light fish flavour, while the fermented shark has a texture of a ham with a soury tang. Perhaps it’s an acquired taste. The beer was great though.

That’s pretty much it for Iceland. We got the chance to try all sorts of local delicacies, and see a piece of nature we wouldn’t normally see in our part of the world. At the airport duty free, I even got to pick up some Brennivin, and a bottle of the Flóki sheep dung whiskey!

See more pictures of my trip to Iceland here

Stockholm used to be just an island, and since Stockholm has expanded outside of the island, the island portion has become the old town, known as Gamla Stan.

Some buildings in the old town have fake windows, because glass was expensive back then (3rd floor middle window).

There’s a random piece of Viking runestone on the corner of a building. And it’s protected by a cannon barrel on the street corner…

The Scandanavian countries really like their royal guards…

H&M sells home products in Sweden! I haven’t seen that anywhere else.

At our hostel, we met some awesome people and went on a bike tour with some of them, guided by a local Swedish fellow. He took us to the top of a hill overlooking the river and Gamla Stan.

Welcome to Earth!!

Our guide showed us this cool snack. It’s herring with cucumber and onions on flatbread.

This is an indoor bike tunnel going under a bridge!!

This was part of the common area at our hostel. They did a good job with that antique look and they even made us take our shoes off when inside.

At the Stockholm Royal Armoury, they showed off a bunch of carriages. Since we are nerdy engineers, we spent a while analyzing how its suspensions worked.

I heard Swedish meatballs are famous.

The Vasa Museum was probably the most incredible attraction. The Vasa was a Swedish warship that sank on its maiden voyage. It was supposed to be a symbol of Swedish military might at the time, but it sank because it was too top-heavy due to the many cannons it had on board and not enough width to counter the tipping of the ship from its weight. It was later discovered that the ship was very well preserved and now it is on display.

What is more Swedish than going to Ikea and eating meatballs? There is a free shuttle that goes to Ikea too!

The best part of the trip was meeting a bunch of cool people in our hostel room! We had a room of 8 and every single person was fun to hang out with as opposed to normally I don’t get to talk to everybody. This time, the 8 of us got to chill in the room having beers and stuff. One of them was from Kentucky who was currently living in Alabama – of course all the America jokes were directed at her. Another was from Australia who had just finished his contract with the ANZAC navy after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq – he was quite open in talking about his experiences and I learned a ton from him! I also learned a nice trick to cooking pasta from one of the Italians: always salt the water before cooking the pasta! He even said that people thought he was crazy when they saw him salting the water. I also got some good hookups in Shanghai from our Chinese roommate – awesome when I decide to go there! It was amazing how well we all clicked and definitely an unforgettable experience in my travels.

That’s it for Stockholm!

Photo album: Stockholm

UPDATE: This set of instructions works for the Office 2010 Technical Preview as well.

Based on: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/trying-to-install-office-2010-but-getting-error/4a5e022f-13f1-42bb-ad66-f6dccfd44d40

To automatically uninstall the 2007 Microsoft Office suite, follow the steps in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971179/

How do I uninstall the 2007 Office suites if I cannot uninstall it by using the “Add or Remove Programs” feature?

The steps provided in the ‘More Information’ section of this article provide the details of the removal performed by the solution in 971179.

You may find it easier to follow the steps if you print this article first.

First, verify that you cannot uninstall the 2007 Microsoft Office system by using Add or Remove Programs (or Programs and Features)

To verify that you cannot uninstall the 2007 Microsoft Office system by using Add or Remove Programs (or Programs and Features in Windows Vista), follow these steps.

For Windows XP or Windows Server 2003:

1. Click Start, click Run, type control appwiz.cpl in the Open box, and then press ENTER.
2. Click to select the 2007 Office system product from the application list, and then click Remove.

For Windows Vista:

1. Click Start, type prgrams and features in the Search box, and then press ENTER.
2. Click to select the product to be uninstalled from the listing of installed products, and then click Uninstall/Change from the bar that displays the available tasks.

If you were able to uninstall the 2007 Microsoft Office system by using Add or Remove Programs, you are finished. If you were unable to uninstall the 2007 Microsoft Office system, you may have issues with the Add or Remove Programs dialog box, or some 2007 Microsoft Office components may not be uninstalled. In these cases, you may be unable to reinstall the 2007 Microsoft Office system. Go to the next section to uninstall the 2007 Microsoft Office system by using an alternative method.

If Add or Remove Programs does not uninstall the 2007 Microsoft Office system, use this alternative method to uninstall

Use this method only if the Add or Remove Programs method did not work for you. Using this method does not completely uninstall the 2007 Microsoft Office system. After you use this method, you can reinstall the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Note You must be logged on to Windows with a user account that is a computer administrator to complete this method. If this is your personal computer, you are likely already logged on with an administrator account. If this is a computer that is part of a network, you might have to ask the system administrator for help.

To uninstall the existing 2007 Microsoft Office system if you cannot uninstall it by using the Add or Remove Programs feature, follow these steps:
Step 1: Remove any remaining Windows Installer packages of the 2007 Microsoft Office system:

1. Click Start, click Run, type installer, and then click OK.
   This process opens the %windir%Installer folder.
2. On the View menu, click Details.
   Important To use the View menu in Windows Vista, you must press the ALT key first to display the menu bar, and then click the View menu.
3. On the View menu, click Choose Details.
4. Click to select the Subject check box, type 340 in the Width of selected column (in pixels) box, and then click OK.
   Note It may take several minutes for the subjects to appear next to each .msi file.
5. For Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, on the View menu, point to Arrange icons by, and then click Subject.
   For Windows Vista, on the View menu, point to Sort By, and then click Subject. In Windows Vista, a User Account Control dialog box may be displayed with the following warning:
   An unidentified program wants access to your computer

   Click Allow when you see this warning message.

6. For each .msi file where the subject is “Microsoft Office Product_Name 2007,” right-click the .msi file, and then click Uninstall.
   Note Product_Name is a placeholder for the name of the 2007 Microsoft Office product.

Step 2: Stop the Office Source Engine service:

1. For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, click Start, click Run, type services.msc in the Open box, and then click OK.
   For Windows Vista, click Start, click Start Search, type services.msc, and then press ENTER.
2. In the Services window, determine whether the Office Source Engine service is running. If this service is running, right-click Office Source Engine, and then click Stop.
3. Close the Services window.

Step 3: Remove any remaining 2007 Microsoft Office installation folders

1. For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, click Start, click Run, type %CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared in the Open box, and then click OK.
   For Windows Vista, click Start, click Start Search, type %CommonProgramFiles%\Microsoft Shared, and then press ENTER.
   Note On a computer that is running a 64-bit version of Windows Vista, type %CommonProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Shared, and then press ENTER.
2. If the following folders are present, delete them:
   • Office12
   • Source Engine
3. For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, click Start, click Run, type %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office, and then click OK.
   Note On a computer that is running a 64-bit version of Windows XP, type %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office, and then press ENTER.
   For Windows Vista, click Start, click Start Search, type %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office, and then press ENTER.
   Note On a computer that is running a 64-bit version of Windows Vista, type %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office, and then press ENTER.
4. On the root folder of each hard disk drive, locate and then open the MSOCache folder. If you cannot see the MSOCache folder, follow these steps:
   1. Open Windows Explorer, and then on the Tools menu click Folder Options.
   2. Click the View tab.
   3. In the Advanced settings pane under Hidden files and folders, click Show hidden files and folders.
   4. Click to clear the Hide protected operating system files check box, and then click OK.
5. Open the drive_letter:\MSOCache\All Users folder, and then delete every folder that has the following text in the folder name: 0FF1CE

   Note This text contains a zero and a one for the letters “O” and “I.”

Step 4: Remove any remaining 2007 Microsoft Office installation files

1. For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, click Start, click Run, type %appdata%\microsoft\templates, and then click OK.
   For Windows Vista, click Start, click Start Search, type %appdata%\microsoft\templates, and then press ENTER.
2. Delete the following files:
   • Normal.dotm
   • Normalemail.dotm
3. For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, click Start, click Run, type %appdata%\microsoft\document building blocks\Language_ID, and then click OK.
   For Windows Vista, click Start, click Start Search, type %appdata%\microsoft\document building blocks\Language ID, and then press ENTER.
   Notes
   • If you cannot open this folder because the folder does not exist, go to step 6.
   • Language_ID is a placeholder for the four-digit number that represents the language of the 2007 Microsoft Office system. For example, if you use the English version of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, the Language_ID value is 1033. If the Language_ID is not known, type %appdata%microsoftdocument building blocks, and then open the subfolder in that location.
4. Delete the Building blocks.dotx file.
5. For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, click Start, click Run, type %temp%, and then click OK.
   For Windows Vista, click Start, click Start Search, type %temp%, and then press ENTER.
6. On the Edit menu, click Select All.
7. On the File menu, click Delete.
8. For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, click Start, click Run, type %AllUsersprofile%\Application Data\MicrosoftOfficeData, and then click OK.
   For Windows Vista, click Start, click Start Search, type %AllUsersprofile%\Application DataMicrosoftOfficeData, and then press ENTER.
9. Delete only the Opa12.dat file.

Step 5: Remove the registry subkeys of the 2007 Microsoft Office system

Important: This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/

1. Locate and then delete the registry subkeys of the 2007 Microsoft Office system if they are present. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
      For Windows Vista, click Start, click Start Search, type regedit, and then click OK.
   2. Click the following subkey:
      HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0
   3. On the File menu, click Export, type DeletedKey01, and then click Save.
   4. On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click Yes to confirm the deletion.
   5. For each registry subkey in the following list, repeat steps 1a through 1d. Change the name of the exported key by one for each subkey.
      For example, type DeletedKey02 for the second key, type DeletedKey03 for the third key, and so on.
      Note In the following registry keys, the asterisk character (*) represents one or more characters in the subkey name.
      32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows:
      • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0
      • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\12.0
      • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\Delivery\SourceEngine\Downloads\*0FF1CE}-*
      • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*0FF1CE*
      • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UpgradeCodes\*F01FEC
      • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\*F01FEC
      • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ose
      • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Features\*F01FEC
      • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\*F01FEC
      • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\UpgradeCodes\*F01FEC
      • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Win32Assemblies\*Office12*

        64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows:

      • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0
      • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\12.0
      • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Office\DeliverySourceEngineDownloads\*0FF1CE}-*
      • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*0FF1CE*
      • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UpgradeCodes\*F01FEC
      • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products\*F01FEC
      • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ose
      • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Features\*F01FEC
      • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Products\*F01FEC
      • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\UpgradeCodes\*F01FEC
      • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Installer\Win32Assemblies\*Office12*
2. Locate the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall

   Note On a computer that is running a 64-bit version of Windows, locate the following registry subkey instead:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
3. On the File menu, click Export, type UninstallKey01, and then click Save.
4. Under the Uninstall subkey that you located in step 2, click each subkey, and then determine whether the subkey has the following value assigned to it:
   • Name: UninstallString
   • Data: file_name path\Office Setup Controller\Setup.exe path
     Note In this example, file_name is a placeholder for the name of an installation program, and path is a placeholder for the file path.
5. If the subkey contains the name and the data that are described in step 4, click Delete on the Edit menu. Otherwise, go to step 4.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you locate and then delete every subkey that matches the name and the data that are described in step 4.
7. Close Registry Editor.

Step 6: Restart the computer

Restart the computer. If the uninstall was successful, you are finished and can now reinstall the 2007 Microsoft Office system if you want. If the uninstall was not successful, go to the “Next Steps” section.

Additional registry information

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Common\UserInfo

Shadow subkeys for Windows Server 2003 and for earlier versions of Windows Server:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\Install\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0

Shadow subkeys for Windows Server 2008:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Terminal Server\Install\Software

Source: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/928218