The Baltic Trip ! Off we gÖ !

DING DONG Cling Cling !!

Do you hear the adventure bells chiming ? Finally the time of music & adventure has come round !

HONK HONK !

The van is ready too - to take us on a bright and watery adventure around a special, historied Sea.

Well it’s a-balt time !

 

The van is filled with snacks and ukuleles and we are ready for drive-off !

But what would “exciting musical adventures and new beginnings” be, without a song about “exciting musical adventures and new beginnings” ?

It’s been an odd year or two for most of the world, you may have noticed too,

with not much to play from “the new” - a travel-less world does not inspire songwriting ! (not for a travelling bard anyway)

It all starts here anew, is what I’ve heard ring true, with something borrowed, something blue.

I did buy the van, thanks to those supporting my ukulele teaching, but isn’t everything in this world actually borrowed ?

The adventure and the soprano ukulele are definitely wedded to dark blue. It’s the COLOUR-THEEEEME !

An ad-VAN-tageous way to discover the Baltic isles. BLUUUUUUE !

ÖLAND !

Where?: Orion-Cygnus Arm of the Milky Way, Solar system, Planet Earth, Europe, off the coast of South-East Sweden

And so I land, on this island,

IT’s called Öland BY THE SWEDE

AND TOGETHER, from the I-land

of sedentary seclusion,

Now on to adventure and song !

And ahead lie roads, waves, and notes yet to be driven on, sailed over, and quivered.

Let this watery musical adventure, THE BALTIC TRIP, begin !

Support the adventure on my Patreon.

The magic landscape of Öland. More windmills coming soon

Going North, Reprise - Route 1, Southern Iceland

Going South: Deteriorate or decline. This expression is generally thought to allude to two dimensional maps where north is up and south is down. However, among some Native Americans, the term was a euphemism for dying, and possibly this sense led to the present usage.

All great stories are cycles. And a lot of average stories are cycles too actually. That’s why, this Going North adventure, slowly veering its way back to where it all started, has stepped out of the Kuku Van to record, by the graceful stillness of the Southern Icelandic shore, a Reprise of its flag-song, "'Going North”.

Stillness. Scroll down for music.

The sometimes-passionate songs, slightly chaotic travels and far-too-long sentences are leading these ukuleles back to the starting point of Reykjavik, capital of Iceland. The last steps of the wintry escapade are on a most majestic stretch of the Iceland Route 1.

So it is stopping to drink from little fresh-water streams by the sea, and stopping to record a reprise of Going North that Ukulele Road Trips drive this trip ‘home’.

Above the music, and below, the drink break.

Pictured: left: a bridge and a bit of fresh-water, middle: co-pilot and occasional camerawoman of the Icelandic adventure, top-right: the trusted steed and studio-kitchen, the Renault Master Kuku Camper Van

An adventure full of biting frost, snow, uncompromising winds, grey clouds and cheer draws to a close.

An adventure that has proven with great resolve, that even where the clouds are grey, even where the storms are harsh and everything around you is freezing… well, even there, it turns out, it’s really cold actually.

Closeup of a snow flake on my tenor uke drawn by an art student in Reykjavik.

This crazy driving singing cooking Going North adventure was made possible with the help of CloudMusic ukuleles (feature three times in the video above!) and the crazy (crazy nice) people from Kuku Campers. Thanks to them. And to you for following the adventure!

More Kuku Cooking On The Go - Iceland

It’s all very nice singing about overreacting half-giants and swimming trunks, but it will only get you so far.

What is the real fuel of an Icelandic Ukulele Adventure?

The more you endure the frost and harshness of Icelandic elements as you travel around the island, the more comfort you need to keep going. And that’s where Cornflakes with Filmjölk come in.

Technically Filmjölk is the Swedish word and the traditional icelandic milk-stuff is actually a yoghuty vikingy thing called skyr, but just roll with this one. I mean, sure, a traditional raw-milk skyr in the company of that half-giant would be more authentic; but it’s not like I met him anyway. And I didn’t see skyr when I was shopping at Netto in Reykjavík. So it’s Cornflakes with Filmjölk’ and it works just as well.

The Kuku Studios, parked.

And from the Kuku Studios (which are also the kitchen, living room, and the general relaxing ‘yay more than 5°C’ space of the adventure), here’s a proper recipe, with 1 map, 7 ingredients, and at least twice as many pixels. With this one, the “Kuku Cooking Show” is properly back, and also, properly gone, because it’s the final instalment. The Kuku Finale. Ready, steady, spill some egg!

It’s bean onion-cr-edible & egg-citing rye-de, but even weird cooking shows mustard-mit when time’s up.

As always with showbiz’, don’t entirely trust the glamour and perfectly filmed scenes of perfect omelettes. A Kuku Camper Van Road Trip in Iceland is not all 5 star meals and 1000 star skies . Behind the scenes, we just soldier through!

Driving back. Bean there, done that.

These Ukulele Road Trips are cooking, driving, and all round adventure-ing with Kuku Campers, the life saving exploring-enabling very nice people from Reykjavik., and playing and singing with CloudMusic ukes, perfect for praising Filmjölk. And cornflakes.