WILLIAMSTOWN Two Williams College students, one an Adams native, circumnavigated the Northern Hemisphere in 16 days last month, spending $1,500 each in travel expenses and carrying little more than a change of shirt, bowls and packages of instant noodles from Wal-Mart. The duo of Henry "Ted" Kernan of Quito, Ecuador, and Christopher St. Cyr of Adams strung the cross-country road trip and a five-day Russian railroad ride together in an itinerary that fit into the time frame of spring break.
In the end, the pair believe that they have developed a new craze for travelers "Speed Tourism." "Chris knew he wanted to ride on the Trans-Siberian Railroad," said Kernan, The pair needed to make some money for the trip, said St. Cyr, an economics and psychology major.
"So we found someone who needed their car shipped to Los Angeles, and we found someone else who wanted their turtle shipped to L.A., too," he said.
The journey began Saturday, March 17, in New York City, where the pair loaded a 150-pound alligator snapping turtle into the back of a 1997 Mazda Protege with 180,000 miles, one hub cap, "a massive rattling problem" and a license plate cover that said "Yield to the Princess." The 100-year-old turtle, aggressive when cornered, head-butted the sides of its plastic container for most of the 44 hours it took to reach the opposite coast. The team had arranged the car and turtle shipment by looking at the online community message board Craigslist.
Kernan named the animal "Tortuga," but the travelers didn't grow attached. In L.A.
, they delivered the car and reptilian cargo, collected $400, spent the night, took a boat cruise off Venice Beach and caught the next flight to Beijing. "We tried to ask someone how to take a bus to go see the Great Wall of China," Kernan said. "But they said the buses weren't running and kept pointing up to the sky.
" "We thought they meant that the buses don't run when it's cloudy," St. Cyr said. "But we found out that it was because of mist, which really was very difficult to see through.
" conditions anyway, determined to complete a set of predetermined goals. One of their aspirations was to trade as much of their own clothing for indigenous garb as possible. Kernan said he cinched the best deal when he exchanged his synthetic fleece jacket and $20 for a calf-length, heavily insulated coat worn by a Mongolian nomad.
"Wasn't it made of yak skin?" St. Cyr joked.
"It still kind of smells," Kernan said. By Wednesday, the two settled into a four-man sleeping car on the Trans-Siberian Railroad. For the next 5 1/2 days, they played cards with the natives and even led a dance at a Mongolian birthday party by playing the song "Bahama Mama" by Boney M.
on a CD player. "We found out just how much you can communicate through hand motions," Kernan said. "It's hard to believe that there exists a place on Earth that is that huge," Kernan said.
was beautiful," St. Cyr added. In Moscow, the team boarded another train to Latvia.
From there, they took a bus through Lithuania, then a boat to Germany. A series of tractor-trailer truck drivers sped them through Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Eventually, they arrived in Amsterdam, spent time with Kernan's sister and her family, and flew to London, where St.
Cyr found a 40-pound bank note lying on the ground. "I wasn't even sure it was money at first," St. Cyr said.
"I'd never seen a pound before." He had just five hours to spend it. The two flew back to New York City and returned to Williams just a few hours before classes resumed on Monday, April 2.
"It took us a good week to recover," St. Cyr said. The two never once spent a night in a hostel, but opted for several all-nighters.
"I don't regret a thing," said Kernan. "You know, I'm not saying, 'Oh, I wish we could have spent more time there.' " "Because we were always moving, everything was always exciting," St.
Cyr said. St. Cyr said prior to entering Williams, he had only left the United States to go to Canada.
Over spring break, he saw 11 countries. "There's talk of Antarctica," he said, smiling, discussing future travel plans. "There will be another adventure.
News RSS