Tuesday, February 28, 2023
February Books
Monday, February 27, 2023
Itchy Boots Season 4 Notes
Sunday, February 26, 2023
Itchy Boots Season 3 Notes
Sunday, February 12, 2023
Itchy Boots Season 2 & The Netherlands Episodes
January 17, 2023
started with "Good News, Bad News" in which she talks about why she can't ride Basanti any more, and instead has a new bike which she named Dhanno
watched episodes 1-5 which were in The Netherlands, the UK (she loaded Dhanno to transport here as it was much cheaper to fly her bike from Heathrow than from The Netherlands), back to The Netherlands (where she flew from), and on to Argentina
watched episodes 6-11 which were in Argentina
January 20
watched episodes 12-16 which were in Argentina
she said she was 1.68 meters tall when she was standing near a petrified tree; I had wondered about her height since I heard that Dutch people were among the tallest in the world
watched episodes 17-21 which were in Argentina, Chile, and Argentina again
she got to the End of the Road where there was a small naval station; from then on, she was headed north to Alaska
watched episodes 22-25 which were in Argentina and Chile
I really enjoyed when she was showing us her errands in eps. 23 and we met Juan who chatted with her in the store. His questions and responses amused me.
Also, in eps. 24, I really enjoyed the Venezuelan guy who was living in Chile and working at the place where Noraly saw the condors.
She mentioned later that she saw the best wildlife during her travels in Argentina, and I really enjoyed seeing that as well. She took us on a couple of "tours" to places where we could see penguins and sea lions.
watched episodes 26-31 which were in Chile and Argentina (mostly)
watched episodes 32-35 which were in Argentina and Chile
January 28
watched episodes 36-41 which were in Chile and Argentina
in eps. 41, she said "welcome to 2020" although it wasn't quite 2020 when she recorded it since she has that built-in posting delay
watched episodes 42-46 which were in Argentina, Chile, and back to Argentina
watched episodes 47-50 which were in Argentina
Here she decided to take a few weeks off to rest and get some things straightened out. I checked her publishing dates from back then and it went from January 20, 2020, to February 11, 2020, when she posted again.
February 2
watched episodes 51-56 which were in Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia
February 3
watched episodes 57-61 which were in Bolivia
really enjoyed the tour of the silver mine here
February 5
watched episodes 62-66 which were in Bolivia
February 7
watched episodes 67-72 which were in Bolivia and Peru
She had planned to stay a week in La Paz, and even got a week's membership at the gym thinking working out at higher altitude would prepare her for upcoming weeks, but after a couple of days, she had a major change of plans when Bolivia decided to shut down the borders. Noraly had to quickly get to Peru where she hoped she would be able to continue traveling. Unfortunately in Peru, she got stuck in quarantine in a place where she, the blond-haired, blue-eyed European, was frowned upon for possibly bringing covid into their village. She kept a really interesting "diary" of her days while waiting to see what would happen next. She wanted to ride out quarantine in Peru until she felt her life was in danger. She said this was the first time she had ever experienced this in all her travels.
February 9
watched episodes 73-76 which were in Peru and the Netherlands
Interesting episodes about how she got to Lima from the small village she had been in for a couple of weeks; how she was repatriated to The Netherlands with hundreds of others; and her arrival at an airport she'd been in countless times - and it was so empty.
After Season 2 ended abruptly, Noraly did a few specials, a couple of which we'd watched before: some footage of times she'd fallen and had some other mishaps, and then some highlights of her travels since she'd ridden over 60,000 kilometers around the world. It was fun to see some of the folks from her Asia trip (Season 1) as well as highlights from Season 2.
February 9
We watched Special episodes 1 and 2 about The Netherlands; she rode a motorcycle she named Lima (this one is borrowed since she had to leave Dhanno in Peru)
February 10
We watched a live chat called "What's Next?" where she discussed some plans while waiting for things to open up again; we also watched eps. 3 about her country (tragic day that affected my family); her father joined her for a few minutes in this one.
In her live chat, Noraly was asked about languages she spoke, and she declared that she wasn't fluent in Spanish, but tried to improve it as she traveled. (In one of the videos, she mentioned living with a family in Guatemala, I believe, several years back where she took Spanish language classes.) She mentioned having taken six languages in high school: Dutch, English, German, French, some Spanish, Latin, and "old" Greek. She learned some Portuguese during her years of living in Brazil. She said she's lost a lot of that, but thinks it would come back if she ever went there again.
February 11
Finished watching the last two videos around the Netherlands plus another live chat "What's Happening?" -- since much of the world was in some form of lockdown, these live chats seemed popular
The episodes around the Netherlands, she said, took her about three days to prepare. She tried to read historical and interesting information to share, and these last two were really good. She took us to the highest point in the Netherlands which is actually where her country meets Germany and Belgium. She took a walk to all three points. Also, she showed us a limestone mine and had a brief tour of where the Dutch people stored paintings so they would be preserved during World War II. She walked into a vault where the temperature was controlled and where one painting that was too big to store properly, was rolled up and turned daily by workers so it would be preserved.
The final episode was on the day the Dutch were celebrating 75 years of freedom, and she took us to places important in the war against the Germans. There is a bridge named after an American who parachuted into that region. She also recommended the movie "A Bridge Too Far" which told about another place where Allied forces were unable to achieve their objectives. She said the reasons were too much to get into and suggested the movie. She showed a very well-kept cemetery where Dutch soldiers were buried. She said there were others in the Netherlands for Allied troops, but some were closed due to covid. She said the Dutch people adopted the graves to keep them looking nice and putting flowers on them. She said the waiting list was so long for people wanting to adopt a grave, that they no longer accepted names for the list!
If you want to watch Season 7 from the start, it should start soon! I wonder where she will go this time.
Tuesday, January 31, 2023
January Books
Sunday, January 15, 2023
Itchy Boots Intro and Season 1 Notes
Last year Andrew was watching a couple of his favorite YouTubers (usually fellows who mow or haul dirt and such), when YouTube gave him a suggestion for Itchy Boots which he watched and started following.
Itchy Boots is the YouTube channel for Noraly, a Dutch lady who decided she'd rather travel the world by motorcycle than write travel blogs or work in her former field (she trained in geology). She'd already traveled quite a lot in the world, and - if I remember the story correctly - started riding a motorbike in India and fell in love with this mode of travel.
Anyway, Andrew started watching her videos, and I would hear them while trying to read nearby. Over time, my listening turned into watching with him so that the two of us would bend our necks over his small phone three times a week when he'd get a notification that she's posted a new video.
Noraly was already well into Season 6 by the time I started watching. She was in Colorado or Nevada though Andrew had watched her in parts of Latin America and her crossing into the US. Her final destination this season was Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. This lovely movie (about 90 minutes) is a summary of her trip that she created once she was home in the Netherlands. Since I only watched the last part of Season 6, I found this a great way to see the parts I missed in South America, Central America, Mexico, and parts of the US. I especially enjoyed seeing the people she met along the way although the scenery and hardships she faced made it more interesting!
That was sometime last summer and we watched her final episode of Season 6 in mid-November, and then decided to start watching some of her earlier seasons.
On November 23, we started Season 1 which began with a short video, perhaps four or five minutes. I wonder if she was just starting out, seeing if people were interested in watching her videos. Over time, her videos became longer with most of them in the 15 to 20 minute range. She records such things as food she eats, places she stays, people she meets, scenery, good and bad roads, border crossings, stuff about her bike.
I just wanted to record my few notes from Season 1 which were mostly ridden on her Royal Enfield Himalayan bike, named Basanti.
November 23, 2022
watched episodes 1-10 which were in India
November 26
watched episodes 11-25 which were in India, Myanmar, and Thailand
She met "Roads Up" stars Peter and Claudia from Austria. She later stayed with them when she was in Vienna.
November 27
watched episodes 26-35 which were in Thailand and Malaysia
-- find review of motorbike after 10K miles; mentioned on episode 34
November 28
watched episodes 36-40 which were in Malaysia and Oman (she took a ferry to Oman)
December 1
watched episodes 41-45 which were in Oman
While waiting for Basanti to arrive in Oman, she used another bike and took off-roading lessons from someone
December 8
watched episodes 46-50 which were in Oman
December 9
watched episodes 51-57 which were in the UAE and Iran
I absolutely loved the hospitality and friendliness of so many people during her travels in this region and in several upcoming episodes.
December 15
watched episodes 58-66 which were in Iran and Turkmenistan
December 16
watched episodes 67-72 which were in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan
December 22
watched episodes 73-77 which were in Tajikistan and she pointed out the Afghan side across the river, but she didn't go into Afghanistan
December 24
watched episodes 78-80 which were in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan
December 26
watched episodes 81-84 which were in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan
December 27
watched episodes 85-88 which were in Kazakhstan and Turkestan
January 2, 2023
watched episodes 89-93 which were in Kazakhstan and Russia
January 3
watched episodes 94-98 which were in Russia, Georgia, and Armenia
She bought a drone from a hostel-mate Tony from Switzerland, and had Itchy Boots stickers designed by another hostel-mate
January 5
watched episodes 99-104 which were in Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia, Georgia, and Turkey
January 6
watched episodes 105-109 which were in Turkey
January 7
watched episodes 110-114 which were in Turkey, Greece, and Albania
January 13
watched episodes 115-119 which were in Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia, and Croatia
January 14
watched episodes 120-125 which were in Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands where we saw her mom, dad, and niece meet her; She said she had been gone from home for a year at that point.