I was totally sold on this meal even before I went to Iceland. The part of this meal that I was most excited for was the puffin and the minke whale! I had never eaten them before! Puffin is supposed to have a bit of a fishy taste to it, but since it was smoked, that taste wasn’t very strong. It doesn’t really have a distinct flavour and was a bit chewy. It tastes a bit like minke whale, and minke whale tastes like really chewy red meat – without the strong flavours like beef, and not that fishy. The lobster tails were also amazing. I didn’t even know lobsters can be this tiny, or maybe it was a crayfish that was lost in translation?

Oh and it’s true what people say about Iceland being really windy. I was told to open a car door slowly and to hold on tight as I open it to prevent the damage to the car door from swinging wide open from the wind.

Another place I went was Cafe Loki, just outside the Hallgrimskirkja. Everything tastes like what you’d expect, EXCEPT the thing in the middle. That is Hákarl, whcih is fermetted shark meat. Some people say it’s rotten shark.

This isn’t shark fin like what Chinese people like to eat, but this is actual shark meat. It’s a bit chewy and has a slightly sour flavour to it. Would not eat again.

After the meal, I checked out the Hallgrimskirkja. It’s a church, but the architecture on the outside is quite unique! It isn’t like the old baroque/gothic/etc style churches in a lot of parts of Europe.

I got to try some craft beers as well. They were pretty good – not better or worse than the craft beers I’m used to drinking. I do live in Seattle, so that might speak highly of Icelandic craft beers!

As a little bonus, I saw a guy get his ass kicked at the bar. Story was that the guy who got his ass kicked was being creepy towards some women and was asked to leave, but instead attacked the employee who happened to train in MMA…

That concludes my trip to Iceland! Photos here.

Before my trip, I had no clue what there was to see in Toronto except the CN Tower, and Niagara Falls, which I had already been to. Luckily, this reddit post helped me find few places less traveled.

Royal Ontario Museum

It’s a museum that displays different elements of world culture, art, and natural history. Think British Museum, but much much smaller. One thing the ROM has that a lot of museums don’t are dinosaur fossils! There other exhibits showing world history and culture as well.

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library

Located on the University of Toronto campus, this library is Canada’s largest repository of publicly accessible rare books and manuscripts in Canada. Among its collection is a copy of Isaac Newton’s Principia from 1687.

Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada

This aquarium is exactly what you’d expect. Lots of different kinds of exotic sealife, sharks, manta rays, etc. The main exhibit is a giant water tank that contains these animals, and a giant conveyor belt takes guests all around. It’s a pretty good aquarium for those who are into that kind of thing

Casa Loma

This is one of the few “château”s in Canada. It was the largest private residence ever built in Canada and was the former residence of Sir Henry Pellatt, a former Major-General in the Canadian Forces. Now it has turned into a tourist attraction. The museum shows off similar things to what one would expect at a European castle: cool architecture, fancy decorations in just about every room, paintings and other art, antiques, and a garden.

And of course, a giant wine collection.

SkullStore Oddity Shop

This place is SUPER out there. This is a store that sells the skeletons of random animals, the skin of snakes, human remains (bones, preserved brain, etc.), taxidermy, preserved bugs, etc. All cruelty free and legally harvested apparently. Half of the store is an actual shop selling these strange items, and the other half is a free museum of even more weird things that aren’t for sale

The Half House

This half a house just sits on the side of the street like any other building. There isn’t a sign explaining why this is, what it’s doing there or anything like that. According to this site, it’s part of the remnants of the neighbourhood that once was here, where the owners at the time sold only half the house, and so the rest of the community developed around it.

St. Lawrence Market

This place felt similar to something like Granville Island in Vancouver, or Pike Place in Seattle – a farmer’s market positioning itself on selling fresh local meats, seafood, produce, etc. It’s a bit out of the way from the downtown core, and when I went, it was almost closing time, so it wasn’t very busy.

The one thing this place has over other farmer’s markets I’ve seen (at least in Seattle and Vancouver) is the variety. If you zoom in on that picture, below, you’ll see what I mean.

Restaurants

Toronto is Canada’s largest city, and therefore has a lot of offer in terms of food. Of all the places I ate at, these two places were definitely the best.

La Palette

This is a French style restaurant near the Kensington district of Toronto. It’s got an interesting selection of game meat, which was the reason why my buddy and I went. They’ve also got a good selection of wine and staff that are knowledgable about it.

For those wondering, horse doesn’t have a strong flavour like beef does, and it chews like super tender beef. Elk on the other hand, tastes kind of like steak with a bit of gaminess, and is actually quite hard to tell the difference unless you’re someone with really sensitive taste buds

Diana’s Seafood Delight

This place is known for their quality oysters and sea urchin, and also precisely the reason why we were there. They have a selection of different oysters from different areas, but if you gave me a blindfold and asked me which oyster was which, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.

Photo albums:

• Toronto
• Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada
• Casa Loma
• SkullStore Oddity Shop
• Royal Ontario Museum

STP 2017

In the summer of 2017, two friends and I rode STP over the course of two days (this was my first cycling event ever). At the time, I didn’t really know how to train other than just riding a lot of miles and I never really gave any conscious thought to hydration or nutrition. I clocked in about 1500 km over 70 hours of training from March till July (which was totally below what the official training plan called for).

On the event day, I ate whatever there was at the rest stops and drank the electrolyte drinks. I also ate this supplement called SportLegs that people were giving out. They supposedly improve muscle performance (however, sports dietitian thinks they’re more placebo than anything). I didn’t know anything at the time, and I just ate them anyway.

We were worried that our legs would be too sore to continue on the second day, but on the morning of the second day, we didn’t feel fresh, but nonetheless we made it through both days (with both legs still working!) and we were super happy with ourselves for having accomplished this. We joked that maybe it was the SportLegs (to this day we still don’t know). As we crossed the finish line, I said to my friends, “OK so we’re going to do STP in one day next year right?”. They thought I was joking, but I wasn’t.

The problems begin

The next event that summer was Obliteride 2017, a century ride to raise awareness and fundraise to fight cancer. I figured that since I had done STP, I’d be able to do this ride no problem. This is where problems for me started.

Around the 50 km mark, I started cramping up a little bit, and I still had 110 km to go. I started drinking much much more of the electrolyte drinks and eating, but the cramping just got worse and worse. It’s not that I didn’t have the strength – but each stroke I took, I felt the cramps. But the cramps weren’t SO bad that I couldn’t continue – I just had a terrible finish.

I went to see a physiotherapist to see what was happening, and she took a look, and she could only identify a slight pelvic rotation (my hips were leaning to one side of the bike), but she didn’t think that was the root cause. She couldn’t see anything wrong with the bike fit either, but thought it could have been a lack of training since Obliteride was much hillier than STP. I did the exercises she asked me to do and that was about it. I had also signed up for the Whistler GranFondo and Chilly Hilly as well, but I couldn’t even finish either of them. At one point, my entire right leg locked up on me and I couldn’t bend it for a couple of minutes. I began to worry if I could even continue cycling anymore.

Tackling the problem

I was so fed up with this problem, that I scheduled appointments with different doctors in sports medicine to get their advice. They all suspected that it was a nutrition problem and referred me to a sports dietitian. At my first appointment with the dietitian, she asked me about my lifestyle, how much I ate, exercised, etc. and immediately said, “you’re not eating enough for the exercise you’re doing” (I estimated that I was eating about 2200 calories/day). She wrote out on the whiteboard a high level guideline as to how I should eat.

I saw her for about a month and a half and after following her advice, my problems were solved! In a way, I got the OK from the nutritionist to eat as much as I want, even massive amounts of sodium and sugar, provided that I keep up my level of exercise. Knowing that eating more was the fix, I had no problem with that.

She also got me to measure my sweat rate, so I’d know how much water to replenish during big rides.

Training for STP 2018

I rode sporatically in the winter (I should have followed Rule #5 of the Velominati) and didn’t really start training seriously until June. From January to May, I clocked in only 848 km over 38 hours, which was only a bit less than year before at the same time, but I had started earlier in the year this time.

I made a plan for myself where I would do intervals twice a week with a big ride on the weekend (in June alone I clocked in 577 km over 25 hours). Two of the big training rides I had were century rides, where I got to work out the specifics in my nutrition and hydration plan. In total, I rode about 1600 km over 73 hours, not counting the intervals.

Three weeks before the event date, I started sleeping earlier and earlier (by about 15-30 minutes each day) to get myself used to waking up early since I would have to be on the road by 5:30am on event day.

Two days before the ride, I started carb loading (as per instructions from the dietitian).

My emotional state

I didn’t like the fact that training took so much time out of my week. I was already spending 10+ hours on the saddle, and I was beginning to feel mentally tired from all willpower required. The intervals drained me mentally even more because of the mental focus I needed to force myself to spin as hard as I could. It’s so easy to just stop when things get tough, and interval training was more mentally draining than any training ride I did.

As the event date drew closer, thoughts of my possible failure creeped into my mind, getting stronger day by day. I couldn’t think of anything else. I thought back to the wise words of Sun Tzu:

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

知彼知己，百戰不殆；不知彼而知己，一勝一負；不知彼，不知己，每戰必殆。

I even started meditating to calm my mind. My coworkers could tell that I was more distracted than usual and provided me with good encouragement.

Race day

My friend and I started the ride around 5:30 am, and because there were so many cyclists on the road, drafting propelled us quickly and we made it to the halfway point around 2:30 pm. I still felt pretty fresh at that time which was good.

I knew that most riders do the ride in 2 days, so I expected not to be able to draft behind other riders. By about 200 km, I started feeling tired, but I knew I had to keep going. There was still 120 km to go.

I wasn’t having fun anymore. At this point, it was just a grueling grind to the finish, where the finish line was hours away. I wanted the day to be over. and thought to myself, “this too shall pass”. Looking at my bike computer frequently to see how far we’ve gone made it worse – slowly watching the distance ticking upward while thinking “when will this end?”

The temperature that day went up to a max of around 38 degrees Celsius. We rode in the burning heat, slowly becoming more and more dehydrated. I wanted the sun to set faster, so that it’d be cooler.

Judging by the dozens of people we saw at rest areas, we figured our pace was pretty good. But as we went further along, there were less and less people at the rest stops. Either they bailed, or they were much faster than us.

The finish line would close at 9 pm, and there was no way I’d get to the finish line in time. I wish I had trained harder.

For most of the last third, we rode mainly on our own, occasionally seeing another rider, whom we’d ride behind just to get an extra bit of a boost.

At the last rest area, there was almost nobody, maybe like a dozen people at most, but we were only some 25 km away. We could do this.

My friend and I would swap taking the lead every five minutes so that we could balance out the wind load between the two of us. The fact that the two of us rode together allowed us to talk to each other and help lift each other up. I think that helped a greal deal mentally and emotionally.

At dusk, we finally entered Portland. We were now just 30 minutes away from the finish line. We joined a group of other riders and rode together till the end.

I called out to the other riders with encouraging words like, “yeah! We’re almost there wooo”, but looking back I think I sounded too happy (despite my true feelings of misery) and the people around me probably thought I was a jerk for being so happy while they felt miserable.

Finally we reached the finish line at 10:30 pm. People were still there and cheering us on as we arrived. I almost shed a tear. I was overjoyed having finally achieving this goal.

Other friends who drove to Portland met us at the finish line and could see our happiness despite how filthy we were. We weren’t even hungry nor thirsty. We were in no mood to do anything. We just wanted to sleep. My friend was told that he sounded brain dead because he replied with one word answers and lacked the concentrated gaze that he normally had, whereas I was still considered having a sound mind.

The next morning, I woke up with quite the hangover even though I drank no alcohol. I was just REALLY REALLY dehydrated from the bike ride in the blazing heat.

After this entire ordeal, I told myself, “I’m not going to do this again next year”. I didn’t get back on the bike until late August – I think STP scarred me a little bit. I definitely don’t regret having done this at all, and I’m still very proud of what I did.

This was the weather on the night I got there… Very pleasant…

The next morning we went on a nice scenic drive through the mountains to chill at the sulphur hot springs.

We spent a good couple hours just sitting in the outdoor hot springs. The water temperature was like hot tub temperature while it was lightly snowing outside.

We stayed overnight in a nearby town.

The next day we ate at a very hilariously named restaurant…

Went on a scenic drive and a light hike around some frozen lakes.

Then at night, because I like South Park so much, we went to Casa Bonita. South Park’s depiction of Casa Bonita was quite accurate.

The cliff divers are real!!

We even ate at the so-called “South Park table”, the same table that Cartman eats at when he is dreaming about going to Casa Bonita.

Classic American breakfast. 16 oz Steak and eggs.

Our last day in Denver is when we actually spent time IN Denver. Strolling down 16th street mall.

Then we wandered into the state capitol. One of the hallways had photos of every president of the United States. All but one. Since each portrait is funded by donation, it might be a while before the current asshat president will get his picture put up.

Managed to get a peek at an actual discussion between politicians. I saw a guy defending a climate bill while nobody listened. And then I wondered if that’s what it was like at the federal level too…

In the afternoon, we rented a GTR and zoomed around the mountains. My friend and I took turns driving this supercar.

I had trouble keeping the camera still in the turn. At one point, the car readout showed that we were pulling 0.5G’s of acceleration!

The rental company has a guy that drives a lead car while guests renting different super cars follow them on their route. Their route was quite well planned and took us on a nice windy mountain road that led up to a lake. Along with us for the ride was a Lamborghini.

The rental company’s garage has even more amazing cars.

Denver was quite a relaxing trip, which is quite different from my usual trips where I’m walking for the entire day. In a blink of an eye I was back on the plane headed back home.

Link to photos: here

Along the way, we passed by some iconic Portland scenery, such one of the many bridges in the city.

As an engineer, naturally I found this LEED Platinum certified building to be quite interesting. Despite having an entire roof filled with solar panels, it only provides 3% of the building’s electrical energy.

Our tour guide said that many people in Portland take part in what’s known as a “Zoobomb”, where one takes a bike (usually a children’s bike) and rides as fast as he/she can down a hill. This pile of children’s bicycles represents this popular activity.

And of course, the popular phrase…

Of course, when in Portland, I had to try some local brews. As always, I like the wheat beers best, and not the IPA’s, amber ales, or anything else.

Link to more photos: here

Woodland Park Zoo

The sign at the zoo was quite welcoming!  I don’t go to the zoo very often, but it’s always nice to see penguins, leopards, cheetahs, and other exotic animals. I wanted to throw meat into the pen, but I’d get kicked out.

This peacock was quite photogenic. The moment people came, he spread out his feathers for all to see.

This elephant is coming right for us! If this was South Park, the elephant would have been blown up by a bazooka or something.

This little guy was scraping the meat off of the bone.

Here is a godless killing machine staring us down.

Too bad I didn’t have my usual camera, and I had to use my phone camera for everything.

Feierabend

One of the few things that is guaranteed to pique my interest is a nice German pub.  The food I like to get is always the pork hock.  Super stereotypical, yet super delicious. The place had decorations that looks really stereotypically German, but the food and the beer were all very authentic.

This place also had 1-liter beers! The taste instantly reminded me of the time I spent in Germany and if I could hold my liquor better, I would have drank way more of these, purely for its taste.

I want more of that beer now. It was a good taste of a beer from my once home away from home.

Crabpot

The next day was another day for food. After a brief walk through Pike Market, we went to Crabpot for some seafood. I had heard many good things about this restaurant, namely how customers get a wooden mallet to smash open crab shells. We ordered the Crabpot seafeast and so when the food came, they took the bucket of food and poured it on the table for us to go at it. They also gave us a mallet and a bib (it gets really messy).

I liked the food, but my only complaint is that there wasn’t enough of it! After the meal, we chilled for a bit longer at our friend’s flat before going back to Vancouver. It was a nice weekend getaway. Honestly I feel that I should do more of these – it somewhat satisifes my constant urge to travel. Luckily, I’ll be going to Japan soon so that’ll be fun!

More photos here

It was quite quiet in the car on the way there as the two girls in the back slept while the guys in the front didn’t talk much (I was busy finishing up my homework for a course because I forgot to plan my time accordingly). We departed Vancouver at about 8 PM and arrived at my friend’s flat at about 10:30 PM. We spent the rest of the night having some beers and playing Pandemic on its hardest difficulty (it started out pretty mild, but the plague escalated quickly and went out of control).

Space Needle

The Space Needle is probably about the most iconic building in the entire city.

Around the vicinity, there are a lot other tourist attractions such as the Pacific Science Center, the EMP Museum (formerly known as the Science Fiction Museum), and plenty of green space.

We also visited the Amazon campus, which is where our friend was working at. What surprised me is that there wasn’t any huge signage that Amazon was there. The only Amazon sign I could was by staring really hard through the glass into the building lobby.

Just Chilling

We stopped to rest a bit at the lobby of a nearby apartment complex. While we rested, I learned how to play Shuffleboard (albeit badly) and played a game or two.

Seattle Underground

Our next destination was a tour of the underground portions of Seattle. To get to the tour location, we walked through a neighbourhood full of hobos that I would have otherwise avoided at night (it’s relatively mild compared to what East Hastings in Vancouver is like). On one occasion, a hobo asked me if I was ready for the Seahawks game where I promptly replied, “very readys”.

The tour guide told us that where we were in Seattle used to be a lot lower in terms of elevation. After a fire that destroyed the city, the city regraded the land and so all the buildings that used to be above ground were now underground. The tour took us around the underground sections to show the history of the area.

The picture below shows what people use the space for now – storage.

Because of the regrade, sidewalks had to be rebuilt one story higher than before, so city engineers added skylights onto the new sidewalks in order to illuminate the underground areas. On the surface of the sidwalks, one would be able to see the skylights from the other side at ground level.

In the past, the underground area was used for a lot of questionable activities, such as organized crime, speakeasies, prostitution, etc. Because of its history, this area of town is still considered by many locals as the sketchy part of town.

Pike Market

Pike Market feels like the market in Granville Island in Vancouver, but is a lot bigger. I can’t explain it, but for some reason I greatly enjoyed staring at all the seafood.

Sooo much fooood

By the water near the market, one can get a good view of the water. The Ferris Wheel adds a nice touch as well.

We happen to visit Seattle on the weekend where there was a football game between the Seahawks and the 49ers to see which team would go to the Superbowl and because of that all over the city, people put up flags with the number 12 in support of the team. This building must’ve been full of Seahawks fans.

Shiro’s

This restaurant is so popular that when we tried to walk in at 7, to get a spot, the waitress told us to come back at 9. We had heard really good things about this place, so we actually starved ourselves until 9.

My friends encouraged me to try and order in Japanese, so I did. I started by saying to the waitress that I’d try to speak Japanese (私は日本語を話してみます), and then I listed off the food one by one and then success! While it was nothing complicated to do, it was cool doing that anyways.

I’d say the food was definitely worth the wait. I’d definitely recommend this place to people who really like seafood and sushi.

Morning Walk

The next day, we woke up early to go to Pike Market to buy some groceries to make breakfast. We walked along the pier and got quite a nice view of it.

Serious Pie

For lunch, we went to a pizza place that also came highly recommended. When I looked at the menu, every item had at least one word that I didn’t know. I had no idea what I was ordering, but the pizza was really delicious!  I also recommend this place.

Back to Vancouver

After lunch, we stayed for a bit longer at our friend’s flat before heading back to Vancouver. Seattle was a much welcome change in scenery and it has further enforced my desire to travel around to different places.

Album link here