Burning Man FAQ

I know I didn't finish the Iceland blogging, but then we moved across the country, and then we started prepping for Burning Man, and things got really crazy.  Sorry!  However, I've gotten so many questions about preparing for and going to the burn that I thought I'd write a FAQ in my copious spare time, the night before we leave for two weeks.  Weeeeee!  So, here goes.  Any burner friends reading this, keep any comments family-friendly, please. :)

Q: What is Burning Man?

A: This is the most frequent question and the hardest to answer!  There have been many essays written on the topic, and I'm not going to replicate them here.  The answer I usually give goes something like this: it's partially an experiment in temporary community, partially an art festival, and mostly a place where people are free to be who they are and do what they'd like.  Everyone is encouraged to contribute in whatever way is most meaningful to them, through art, teaching, volunteering, etc.  It's also a gifting economy, sustainable only by virtue of the fact that most people who attend have money to spare in their "default" lives.

Q: OK, so what do you do all day?

A: There are pretty much endless options.  I like to say that everyone can curate their own burn -- you can have the experience you want to have.  There are classes in everything from yoga to building hexayurts to tango to coffee making to circus.  There are parties and parades day and night.  There are workshops/activities such as creating a franken-stuffed animal (I made Mu a monkey-bear last year!), screen-printing, making masks, and tie-dye.  There is art everywhere, both registered and random.  There are people giving out food and beverages of all varieties on every block.  There are talks about science, spirituality, and everything in-between.  You can literally spend all your waking hours at a scheduled activity.  Mu and I specifically tend to spend a lot of time wandering about looking at art out on the playa, though we do go to some talks and activities.  We also spend time hanging out in our camp lounge, chatting with our burner friends at camp.  Also, we both volunteer.  Mu does random sampling with census and I do on-call shifts with the crisis intervention team (CIT).  CIT takes up a good bit of my time, but I don't mind -- it's fun and really rewarding most of the time.

Q: Does everyone stay at a camp?

A: No, though a lot of people do.  We stay with an Arizona-based camp that has 210 people this year, which is pretty massive.  Our camp has pretty amazing infrastructure thanks to the very talented organizer, and we like that we always have people to hang out with.  Others stay with smaller camps or just with groups of friends or even alone.  It's all a matter of personal preference.  Our camp does have the reputation of being the best-fed camp on the playa, though!

Q: Do you really have to bring everything you need with you?

A: Yes, you really do.  The only things for sale on playa are ice and coffee.  Porta potties are provided (and are, no lie, the cleanest porta potties I've ever experienced in my life.  They're far cleaner than a good proportion of the bathrooms in India, and you can always read further back in this blog if you need a reminder of what those were like).  You have to bring basically everything else: food, water, toilet paper, everything.  We tend to overpack and so we rent a U-haul van to take our stuff, though others don't bring as much as we do.  One benefit of staying with a camp like ours is we don't have to worry about food as much.  We still tend to bring a lot of backup food just in case, but meals are provided by the campers.  We commit to serving at least one meal (Mu and I usually do 3 -- 1 during early arrival and 2 during the week), and between everyone doing so, everyone gets fed.  But one of the 10 principles of Burning Man is radical self-reliance, so we have enough emergency food to last us a while. :)

Q: Where is Burning Man?  What's the city actually like?  How many people go?

A: The event takes place in the desert in Nevada.  It's actually a dried out lake bed, which is why it's called "the playa" -- that means a dried out desert.  The nearest big city is Reno, 2-3 hours away.  Black Rock City (BRC), which is what the city is officially called, is a huge pentagon.  The populated area is a semi-circle with the Man in the center.  The streets radiating out from the Man are named after clock times, since the layout is like a clock.  The circular streets are in alphabetical order and change names to fit the theme each year.  The population cap this year is 70,000 people, which is a huge city!  It gets pretty crowded -- even though the area itself is huge, the camping area is smaller and densely populated.

Q: How do you get around the city?

A: The city is designed for bikes and pedestrians and driving is not allowed except in licensed (through the BRC DMV) art cars.  Because of the large area, it's often nicer to bike than walk.  However, I prefer to walk if I'm meandering rather than trying to get somewhere specific, since it's easier to stop and interact with people or art if I'm not on a bike.  Also, biking can get tough later in the week when the dust develops ruts.

Q: What's the living situation?

A: People stay in a variety of enclosures, including tents, RVs, hexa-yurts, and others.  We stay in a large (10-person) tent, so even though we're not in an RV, it feels relatively luxurious.  We also set up a shade structure above our tent (a costco carport) to provide some protection from the sun.  It allows us to sleep in a little more without baking!

Q: What's the weather and the environment like?

A:  It can be pretty harsh.  The area is high desert, so there is a lot of temperature variation between day and night.  It can get up into the 100s during the day, though it's more often in the 90s, and it can get into the 40s and even 30s at night, though it's more often in the 50s.  You have to be prepared for anything!  It tends to be pretty dry, but it'll sometime rain, and it's frequently windy and sometimes hard to see because of the dust.  The dust really is everywhere!  It gets into every nook and cranny and covers you from head to toe!  It's also alkali, which means it can destroy things -- I try to keep my electronics either at home or hidden well away!  People tend to carry around goggles and dust masks for storms, which can help.

Q: How do you deal with having asthma and wearing contacts if the dust is so bad?

A: My asthma has actually been fine there -- it's usually worse the first couple of days, but that's the case whenever I go to a new climate, and then it's OK again.  I always have my emergency inhaler, as well as a backup inhaler (and sometimes yet another backup).  Contacts can be hard.  I bring extra pairs, eye drops, and glasses if it gets really bad.

Q: What do you like best about the event?

A: Like the first question, this last question is really hard to answer.  There's just so much!  I love the art, and the fact that people go to such great lengths to make stuff that lasts for just week.  I love wandering about and randomly stumbling upon amazing things.  I love feeling like I can just start walking and run into something fun or entertaining to be involved with.  I really love that Mu and I like so many of the same things and choose to do them together!  It feels like every time we go, we discover all new cool stuff and meet all new cool people!

OK, you all may have more questions, but those are the ones I can think of for now.  We are off tomorrow and are unlikely to have internet for a while, but if there are more questions, I'll try to answer them on our return.  I'll also be keeping a journal of highlights (I've done that each year), and maybe I'll even post some of them, though I make no promises.      

Days 3, 4, and 5: There are clouds in the sky...

Replica of an early Icelandic house

Well, these last 3 days have been packed full of stuff! Mu took a ton of pictures and I'll post some of them here, and then he'll have more on Facebook.

On the road

On Monday (Day 3), we spent the morning in Reykjavik before setting out for the longest single drive of our trip.  We got a pretty late start since we were still on US time, but made it to the National Museum, which was really well done and informative.  It had a ton of artifacts ranging from when Iceland was first settled to the modern day, as well as a really neat aside about DNA analysis of a Viking woman found at a dig.  It was especially interesting to see all the changing religious art as Iceland transitioned from following the Norse gods into Christianity.  There was a little figure whose plaque read, "Thor or Christ?"  There were features of it that could be interpreted either way, and carbon dating didn't help because the religions were already co-existing at the time.

Stephen Stephensson

Eventually, we got on the road for our long drive to Akureyri, Iceland's second biggest city (of about 17000 people).  There's not much there, but it was a good overnight stop on our way to other things.  The drive itself was beautiful, and a bit intense.  The whole day was pretty overcast, and we had a 30ish minute stretch during which we were in a fog bank with minimal visibility.  I was glad to not be driving!  There was also a shortcut suggested by our GPS which was, in fact, a shortcut, but took us on an unsealed road (the first of several over the last couple of days, as it turned out).  We also stopped at a random statue that was a tribute to an Icelandic poet who moved to the US? I don't really know.  Anyways, we made it to our lovely guesthouse, got Indian takeout for dinner, and crashed out for the night.

At Godafoss

Day 4 began with a short drive to a lovely waterfall, Godafoss (waterfall of the gods).  It was very beautiful, though not very large.  We got to walk around both sides of the fall and even get relatively close to the water above it.  It was a fair bit colder than anything thus far, so we also stopped by the gift shop/restaurant, where Mu and Michael got warm accessories and I ate a sandwich with smoked trout (a happy find).  After that, it was on to Lake Myvatn and the surrounding sites.

That one looks like a troll!

First of the lake-related sites on our agenda was Dimmuborgir, a lava field with incredible lava formations.  The whole landscape there is pretty nuts -- all rock and random vegetation, with strange-looking structures and cracks in the ground.  It was starting to mist by this time, but being tourists, we went on a 2.3km walk around the place anyways. On the loop, I played my favorite game -- deciding what the formations looked like.  There was a dragon and a bear and a person and a kitty, among other things.  The highlight of the walk was a cavern that they call the church, presumably due to its size and structure.  We got to climb around it a bit before moving on.

The Church

After the lava field, we drove to a little village at the northeast corner of the lake called Reykjalid.  The plan was to hike from there to a spring, then on to a crater, then back to the village to pick up our car.  This would've been a 10km round trip, and thus reasonably doable.  The beginning was pretty cool, with rocks and pools (that we couldn't go into but that were pretty) and generally cool surroundings.  However, as we went on, the rain picked up.  By the time we had reached the halfway point, it was starting to get a bit concerning.  We were also all more tired than expected, given the walking from before.

Crazy crater

We initially thought about going back for the car and driving to the crater, but eventually after some discussion, Mu offered to go back for the car and to meet Michael and I at the crater before all climbing up.  That worked out really well and made a shorter hike for all of us.  The crater itself was pretty nuts -- the "easy" path was not, but the view was really amazing.  We had the option of walking around the whole thing, but it was raining pretty hard and we were tired and hungry, so we didn't end up doing that.  Still, it was worth all the effort.

Our delicious dinner

Our delicious breakfast

By this point, all our stuff was pretty soaked through and we were really looking forward to being fed and warm.  We went to a restaurant recommended by all sources (and so popular that we had to wait 40 minutes on a Tuesday night for it), and it was amazing.  Super delicious fish and lamb, and a house specialty bread that I didn't care for (I didn't like the spices), but that Michael really enjoyed.  And then, as the crowning glory to this day, we went to the Myvatn Nature Baths!  These consist of some locker room and a humongous pool of thermal-spring-fed water!  The water was warm but not hot (though hotter in areas), and although it smelled very strongly of sulfur, it was super nice and relaxing.  Since we got there late, it wasn't very crowded.  We probably spent about an our and a half there, just soaking and relaxing after the long day.  We crashed out pretty soon upon going to our guesthouse, which is why I didn't blog.

Bubbling pool at Hverir

Then, this morning, we had a lovely breakfast (more smoked fish, yay! And waffles with homemade jam!) before setting out again.  First stop was Hverir, a mud/geyser field that we stumbled upon while actually on our way elsewhere.  It was a really odd landscape, with sulfurous-smelling bubbling pools,vents with rocks, and strange Martian-looking structures.  The ground was clay-like and annoying, and my shoes will probably never be the same, but it was really neat.

Dettifoss is amazing

The next stop was Dettifoss, a magnificent waterfall that's the biggest by volume in Europe.  It apparently dumps something like 193 cubic meters of water per second!  We got pretty damp with the spray, though, and it would've been nice to go to other side, but there wasn't a bridge and you could only drive to it with a 4WD.  Anyways, we took some photos and then decided to hike up to a smaller fall, Sellfoss, up the river.  The hike itself was pretty short and easy...and then we got there and decided to spend 2 hours pretending to be mountain goats and hopping across rocks in an attempt to get to a better view.  No one fell in the water, which I count as a success. :)

Having hopped across rocks at Sellfoss

At this point, we had another long drive ahead of us, this time to see puffins and a fjord!  We were told that we'd be getting more sunshine today, but that turned out to be a lie, so we drove for nearly 3 hours through mist and fog and over some concerning roads to Borgarfjordur Eystri, a tiny village (pop: 130) with a puffin breeding colony.  It was a little insane, but worth the drive.  Puffins are pretty awesome looking, we saw other birds including Eider geese and gulls of some kind with chicklets, and Slartibarfast would have approved of the fjords.  We also took a short detour to see Alfaborg, the house of the queen of the elves.  I don't know either, but it was awesome.


Dinner consisted of, among other things, delicious fish soup at one of 2 restaurants in town, and then we had another long drive along amazing and scary roads to our guesthouse, which is in the middle of nowhere.  I don't know how people live in this kind of isolation, but it's fun for a day or two as a vacation.  Tomorrow, we're off to see a glacier!

Puffins!

Random waterfall along the road

Days 1 and 2: Museums, Vikings, and other adventures

It's a good name for a plane

We're here! And we've even slept, which was not the case yesterday.  The downside of a shorter flight (under 6 hours) is that it's really difficult to get any sleep.  As a result, we got to Iceland at 5:30ish am (1:30am my time, 10:30pm for the west coasters) and had to stumble around for half the day at the worst circadian time.  Ah, well.

Delicious Icelandic breakfast with the best sourdough bread

Anyways, to back up a bit, the flight itself was uneventful (our plane was named Odin, which I took to be a good sign), the passport control process was the quickest I've ever experienced (there was no line and the guy glanced at my picture and stamped, waving me on), the car rental process was annoying but manageable, and we were soon on our way into Reykjavik, through a totally surreal landscape of lava rock and greenery, looking like something from another planet.  We hoped to be able to check in to our AirBnB early and get a few hours of sleep, but that was apparently not to be -- first the keys were missing from the lockbox, then it turned out the cleaners hadn't gone through and changed the linens, then the cleaners still hadn't gotten there...oof.  In the meantime, we went exploring.

Super cool old book

Cathedral and statue

We started off with a wonderful Icelandic breakfast, with fruit and salad and an egg and skyr (a yogurt-like thing) and bread and butter and cheese.  Fortified, we meandered for a bit before trying to return to the AirBnB (to find that the cleaners hadn't arrived).  Michael decided to hang out and relax while Mu and I went off to see the Settlement Museum, which was on the site of an actual archaeological dig of a hall from the day of Iceland's initial settlements.  It was a really neat and informative museum, and my favorite part was that they had ancient scrolls and books!  Iceland is known for its literary output and the exhibit had a few of the original sagas, along with some more mundane (but still awesome) writings.  It's really too bad these were under glass -- I bet the old book smell would've been epic!

Great view from the tower

Context-free selfie (in the tower)

We made another attempt at the AirBnB after this, to find that the cleaners still hadn't arrived (they got there just as we were getting ready to head out again), and decided to check out the Hallgrimskirkja, the famous amazing cathedral that turned out to be a very short walk from our place.  It's super fancy and amazing!  There was a great statue of Leifur Ericsson outside (gifted to Iceland by the US, strangely), and the inside was really grand.  The coolest part was getting to go up to the top of the tower and seeing the amazing views of Reykjavik (and the fact that we didn't have to climb stairs to get there, we were worried).  The weather was pretty clear, so the visibility was really good.  There had been an organ concert just before we got there, but we were too late for it (and probably too tired to sit still without falling asleep).

Food from the street food festival

Third time was the charm for the AirBnB, so we settled in and napped briefly, then set back out to a street food festival that Mu and I had seen getting set up earlier in the day.  I don't know if this is a weekly thing or a special event, but it was a really great opportunity to have small bites of random stuff.  The thing that really stood out at me was how many ethnically diverse food options there were.  We had dim sum-ish buns, a pork "burger" (it looked like a pulled pork sandwich to me), and what turned out to be shrimp and crab balls (they were from a place called "Steakhouse," so I wasn't expecting seafood, but there we are), and other options included tapas, momos, tandoori, quinoa wraps, popcorn, and lamb.  So much goodness!  And then for entertainment, we went to a small lawn/park right next door that was having...a Viking festival? Something.  There were vendors and fighters and a bunch of people looking very Viking-ish, and we meandered and were generally amused.  It was like the SCA but a different culture.  People looked amazingly accurate, at least to my untrained eye.

Fighting Vikings.  Note the beaten ones in the field.

After spending some time at the tourist center and getting a whole bunch of brochures, we went walking around and sort of accidentally stumbled onto the Harpa, a very new and shiny concert hall.  We were trying to kill time at this point before it was late enough to sleep, so we got tickets to a one-man show called, "How to Become 100% Icelandic in 60 Minutes."  It was...somewhat amusing, and we didn't fall asleep (or at least I didn't), and it was something to do.  We learned some random factoids/stereotypes about Icelanders, so there's that.

Mu with an engine that required the wall behind it to be torn down

After all that, we walked around a bit more, then got back to our place and crashed out.  It was still light out, which was confusing.  I woke up briefly at around 3:30am and had a moment of panic that I should be getting up because it was light enough to be 7 or 8am!  In the end, I actually ended up sleeping 'till after 9, which I guess makes sense, given the all-nighter the night before.

Wax Viking settlers

Today, Mu and I had a very efficient travel morning while Michael went on a whale and puffin watching tour (we didn't go because we really don't do well on boats).  Instead, we went to the Maritime museum (small but really informative, with cool exhibits and a little section about Icelandic Seawomen), the flea market (not as exciting as I had hoped, mostly due to the fact that all the bookstores had books in Icelandic and I had no urge to purchase scratchy woolen sweaters, and also we're right at our weight allowance to begin with), the Saga museum (with an interesting and informative audio tour and life-like exhibits of people settling Iceland), and delicious fish and chips for lunch.  I think we managed to walk 5 miles just in the course of the morning!  We then met back up with Michael for more walking (cool public art, yay!) and an excursion to the Icelandic Phalological Society, aka the Penis Museum.  It was about as entertaining and puzzling as you might expect, with lots of random art, objects, and different mammalian penises preserved in formalin.  Fun!  And now, we're back at our place, relaxing and getting ready for dinner.  Plan for the evening is to do a haunted walk after dinner, which will hopefully be at least entertaining.

Somewhat burner-looking art

Elaine and a poet

Deliciousness

A very small portion of random penis-shaped items

On the road again

Time to dust off the travel blog, because we're about to go on a short adventure to Iceland!  Mu and I, along with our friend Michael, are about to head to the airport to take a relatively short flight (only 6 hours instead of the usual 12!) to Reykjavik.  We'll be there for a couple of days, and then we'll be driving around the country for a week before a final day in Reykjavik.  It's a shorter trip than our previous jaunts, but we're excited to take advantage of a good flight deal and a less intense trip.  Me, I'm excited that I won't have to be driving -- we rented a stick shift because it's cheaper, but I don't drive stick, so it'll be the boys taking turns.  I can do directions. :)

Some things we're looking forward to on the trip:
-No darkness!  Or, at least, no full dark.  The sun will be setting between 11 and midnight and rising between 3 and 4am, and while it'll get dark-ish, it'll never be really truly night.  I don't think it's the best thing for sleeping, but certainly nice for seeing all the things
-Cooler temperatures than the east coast! It should be in the 40s to 60s the entire time we're there, which I'm pretty excited about after the crazy heat and humidity of the last couple of weeks.
-Waterfalls and other beautiful nature.  Iceland is known for stunning views and we have a number of waterfalls on our agenda, along with an iceberg and volcano.
-Puffins!  Self-explanatory. :)
-Hot springs.  Iceland is also known for geothermal activity, resulting in many hot spring opportunities.  We're bringing swim suits.
-General relaxation.  It'll be nice to have a bit of time to chill and recharge, and to celebrate the fact that I'm done with school, hopefully forever!

The goal for the blog is to post daily, with photos, but that will depend on wifi. We shall see how it goes!