Iceland is a Northern island in the middle of the
Atlantic Ocean, halfway between North America and Europe, that is home to about
330,000 people. Like other Scandinavian countries, Iceland is winning with education
and healthcare guaranteed to all citizens, paid for by taxes of course. They
also believe in gender equality and just passed an equal pay law that requires
businesses to show proof of equal pay between females and males. Iceland has an
extremely low crime rate averaging 1.5 murders a year. Not too sure how the
half murder works out. Because people aren’t out committing crimes, they have
very few police officers. Iceland PD is Instagram famous (@logreglan) with an
account detailing all of the things they do all day since they don’t have to
fight crime. Still not impressed? Police officers in Iceland do not carry handguns
on their hips. They use their batons and/or their words to deescalate
situations that occur. Now there’s a blue that we can back! To all you second
amendment lovers, Icelandic people love their guns and they have tons of them. However,
ownership is regulated by law and requires a medical examination and written
test. Let’s give Iceland the biggest round of applause for being so awesome.
Could other countries (*read: ones that think they’re great) take notes?
Okay, enough of the Iceland love fest. Everything about
the country is not all great. It is one of the MOST expensive countries that we
have ever traveled to. Yall, Cheerios cost $9! Eating out at restaurants was a
painful mix of being so dang hungry but so dang cheap at the same time. We ate
expensive pancakes, expensive hamburgers, and drank expensive soda. But guess
what? Tipping is not a thing in Iceland…which I just really love! After a few
days, we found a grocery store and bought expensive groceries that my mom proceeded
to cook on two hot plates in our Airbnb. Another crazy part of Iceland is that
they only have about 5 hours of daylight during the winter months. We actually arrived on their Winter Solstice which is the shortest day of the whole year. There is
nothing stranger than going to sleep and waking up to darkness. Okay…so not a
very long list of negatives.
After 17 hours of travel from Kuwait to Turkey to
Amsterdam to Iceland, we walked off the plane and were hit in the face with a
slushy mix of ice and rain. It was then that I knew that I wasn’t ready for 5
days of cold. The actual city of Reykjavik is about 45 minutes away from the
airport. We chose not to rent a car for this trip because let’s face it, what
do three Texans know about driving in real snow? Charter busses, equipped with USB
charging ports and free wifi, are standing by ready to take you into the city
for a pretty price. Sidenote: My mom arrived 11 hours earlier on WOW Air from
Dallas to Boston to Iceland. Check them out if you’re trying to find affordable
(*read: definitely not that comfortable) ways to travel. Our IKEA decorated Airbnb,
that I forgot to take pictures of, was perfectly located in the “downtown” area
in walking distance to the bus stop and restaurants. By the time AJ and I
arrived in Iceland, rode the bus to Reykjavik, dragged our luggage through the
ice from the bus stop to the house, we couldn’t do one more thing. Luckily my
mom froze tamales from home and packed them in her suitcase. You can’t tell me that
black people aren’t resourceful (*read: perhaps a little ghetto)! So, we spent
the first night catching up, warming up, and eating tamales.
The next morning we woke up and walked down the hill to
find a breakfast spot. We stumbled upon a place called The Laundromat Café.
Little did we know that we would return to this same restaurant another day
because they knew how to do breakfast: pancakes, hash browns, bacon, eggs, you
know regular non-European stuff. After breakfast, we found the nearest bus stop
and figured out our way to the mall. I think I have mentioned this in another
post, but public transportation in other countries has a way of making you feel
dumb. It could be that I can never pronounce the bus stop names or that I am
directionally challenged. Like just tell me which number bus I need to be on!
Thankfully, AJ is really good at navigating without internet. We walked through
the Kringlan Mall, very typical of a regular mall anywhere, looking for Santa
Claus to take my annual picture. Well…the 28th picture with Santa
didn’t happen. I ended up taking a picture in Gryla’s cauldron on the last day
of our trip. Gryla is a mythical giant troll that Icelandic people use to scare
their children into being good. If you’re bad during the year, she’ll come down
from the mountain, cook up the naughty kids in her pot, and eat them. And some
people think Santa is creepy…ha! After the mall, we relaxed at the house for a
few hours in preparation for a long night of Northern Lights chasing. Our tour
started at 8:30 pm and lasted until a little after midnight. In order to see
the Northern Lights, there has to be clear skies and complete darkness. An
oversized, jacked up diesel snow truck picked up our tour group of 8 people and
drove out of the city of Reykjavik into the mountains. The tour guide drove us
to several different locations, where we pulled over and waited, but the cloud
coverage never cleared up.
On day 3, my mom booked a twelve-hour tour of the Golden
Circle which consists of several different popular locations on the southside
of the island, about a two hour drive away. Our tour started in the darkness at
8 am when a green minibus picked us up and headed to the first stop,
Thingvellir National Park. This was the location of the first parliament in
Iceland and it is also where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates
are splitting apart from each other. Iceland is the only place in the world
where you can walk between the two plates, as they are above ground. The next
stop on our road trip tour was Haukadalur. This is a geothermal area where geysers
explode boiling hot water every few minutes. It was at this part of the day
when it started to snow and taking pictures became scarce because keeping your
hands warm was the priority. The next stop was the frozen 100-foot waterfall
called Gullfoss followed by Kerid Crater Lake, a collapsed volcano. Our evening
ended at our final stop, the Blue Lagoon. Goals! Only because I saw an episode
of Keeping Up with the Kardashians where Kim went to the Blue Lagoon…ha. Let me
just tell ya, the tickets aren’t that cheap! But it was definitely worth it and
the coolest part of the trip. Once you arrive, you store all five of your winter
gear layers in storage lockers and change into your swimsuit. Then you have to
hold your breath and walk out the door into the freezing cold for about 15 feet
until you reach the entrance to the lagoon. Once your feet hit the water, you
instantly feel better because the pool is 100 degrees. There is a swim up algae
mask station and bar inside the lagoon, but mostly just a bunch of people with
selfie sticks marveling at such a wonder. Hot, blue geothermal water that makes
your skin feel silky while snow is falling on your head. It is an experience
like none other.
Day 4 was Christmas Eve and we were three tired, cold
humans. We attempted to pull it together and venture out into the city to find
a Christmas market that we read about online. A trek to the bus stop and a 20
minute bus ride later to discover the market was not opening on Christmas Eve.
We figured it would be a good idea to get some essentials from the grocery
store since everything was closing. Then we went back to house and watched
Netflix all day and caught up on rest.
Our final day in Iceland was on Christmas Day, and like
most other European countries Christmas is celebrated in a big way. Everything
shuts down and it’s almost impossible to do anything or even to find an open restaurant.
I thought it would be a great idea to book one of the few tours available on Christmas
which just so happened to be a city walking tour of Reykjavik. 3 hours of
walking outside on what turned out to be the coldest day of our trip, not to
mention that it snowed 2-3 inches the night before. Despite the weather, we had
a great time learning about Icelandic cultures and customs from our tour guide
Erik who was very knowledgeable and equally as excited to learn about us. By
the end of the first hour I couldn’t feel my fingers, and by the end of the
second hour I was wincing in pain from frozen toes. Fortunately, by the time
everyone was at the max walking outside limit, Erik took us to a restaurant
where we had Christmas dinner (tomato soup and bread) and talked with everyone on
the tour. After the tour was over, we walked back to our house and opened
presents that Santa Mom brought for us. My favorite gift was Aunt Aggie De
pralines all the way from Sinton, Texas. Google it…they’re the best! Later that
night, we started packing up our stuff as we were all heading out the next
morning. Mom back to Texas for basketball practice. We were headed to
Amsterdam! < Post coming soon!
Wow! What wonderful photos! I have heard the same things you've mentioned re: Iceland. I would like to go someday, but boy, I'd better save up some $. LOL! It looks like your family and your mom had a nice adventure together. How special to share that time together. :-)
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