Day 2 - First Day in Iceland, Friday, June 15

I wondered who would be the first to "lose it" on our journey, and Kelsey got the award. Since we were last to disembark the plane, there was a lot of waiting and it was quite stuffy in the back of the plane. Kelsey said she was feeling sick, tired, and that she was going to throw up. Luckily she perked up once we were in the airport.

To get into Reykjavik we had to take an airport bus, and we had a choice of two: the more expensive flybus+ that took you directly to hotels, and the regular flybus that just went to the downtown bus terminal. The man who owned the apartment we would be staying in offered to pick us up from a hotel, but we had to be there by 8:45am, so he could get to work in time. We decided to go for the bus that went direct to hotels, since the hotel we needed was on the way into the city, so theoretically it should have been faster. First mistake.

We bought our tickets and got on the flybus plus. After a few minutes we watched as the regular flybus that just went downtown departed. We waited. Apparently the regular bus leaves on a schedule, but the plus bus doesn't go until it is nearly full. Half an hour passed as the driver waited for more passengers to show up. Finally we took off for the 45 minute drive to Reykjavik.

Lupines were in bloom along the roadway, there were no trees, and the sun shone brightly. It was a beautiful day, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. Both girls fell asleep and I shut my eyes but kept my ears turned on so we wouldn't miss our stop. I felt the bus leave the highway and start a series of turns, so that told me we were nearing the city, and it was time for me to open my bloodshot eyes. Although I'd never been to Reykjavik before, I'd studied enough maps and Google Earth images to realize that we were passing the turn to the hotel and heading directly downtown. "Great," I thought, "He's going to hit the downtown hotels firsts, and deliver us on his way back to the airport."

We arrived at the main bus terminal, where half the passengers were told to catch a different bus to their hotels, while our bus would head back to the hotels on the outskirts (that we had just passed on the way into town). We were second to the last people off the bus, an hour and a half after getting on it for what was supposed to be a 45 minute trip. What a scam that plus bus was, we should have just taken the cheaper bus to the downtown station and then transferred.

It was almost 10am, which would be 3am back in Seattle. We called our host and he said he left an envelope for us at the hotel desk, with directions to the apartment. I picked that up and we started the walk. Spirits were not high, even though the walk was entirely flat and less than 15 minutes, and hey, it wasn't raining! My husband and I each wore our backpacks, and the girls pulled the two small rolling suitcases. I was grateful we had been so determined to pack lightly.

We arrived at the apartment which was the entire 2nd floor of a 3 story apartment house. In the photo above you can see there are actually 4 levels: ground, 1st (up the stairs), 2nd, and 3rd (under the eaves). It was a lovely place with modern Scandinavian decor, but all we could focus on was finding the beds and lying down. My husband lay down and was asleep in seconds, but it took me a little longer to get the girls settled, because they wanted something to eat (our host left us some bananas and skyr, a thick yogurt), and I wanted them to brush teeth and change out of their travel clothes first.

We woke 3 to 4 hours later, my husband first, then me, then Aubrietta. My husband went for a walk, and when he returned with 2 bottles of water from a nearby conveniece store, Kelsey was still sleeping, so he stayed in while Aubrietta and I went out to buy fixings for dinner. At the end of the street was a fish market, then a short distance on there was a butcher shop, a bakery, an ice cream shop, an organic "farm" market, and a conveniece store.

It was fun to explore all the different things for sale, especially the wide range of dairy products and licorice treats.

Licorice was available in many forms, from salted to chocolate covered. There was salty licorice gum, and even cake with licorice bits throughout.

Milk came in many forms as well. There was special milk for babies.

Thankfully the illustration makes it clear that this milk has walnuts, so we won't be buying that for Aubrietta! There was also pear milk, and carrot-apple milk, which we did get.

So far our favorite skyr flavor is pear. There was a huge variety of cream cheese spreads for open face sandwhiches, which are popular here. Cream cheese flavors we hope to try: bacon, orange, and shrimp.

I bought some salmon lox, a loaf of grainy bread, crackers, rykrisp flatbread, herb cream cheese, and some licorice and candy from the convenience store. At the organic farm market I bought tomatoes, a zucchini, eggs (sold in 10, not a dozen), and mushrooms, all grown locally.

When Aubrietta and I returned home from our wandering Kelsey was up and everyone was hungry. We made our first meal in Iceland, a simple dinner of open face sandwhiches with lox, boiled egg, cream cheese, and sliced tomato and zucchini on the side.

This is Aubrietta's room, the bedroom of a girl just two weeks older than her, named Anna Gudrun. Here Aubrietta takes a moment to write in her journal.

Kelsey is staying in Vaka's bedroom. She just turned 7. The parents' bedroom, where my husband and I sleep, is the smallest of the 3 bedrooms, with just enough room for a double bed, the baby's crib, and a dresser.

Here's Kelsey at the dining table, eating some candy while looking over the mountain of tourist brochures. Iceland has more tourists each year than the entire population of the country, so things are pretty welcoming for foreign visitors like us.

The owner of our apartment stopped by to check on us, show us how to use the laundry machines in the basement, and make sure we were settled. His wife and 3 daughters were at their summer place in the countryside, and I guess he was staying with friends. We were the first people to rent from them through Airbnb.com, so it probably felt a little strange for him to come into his home and see other people living there.

After dinner the girls and I went out for a walk, while daddy rested. First the girls had a good jump on the trampoline in back garden of the apartment house.

After the girls jumped themselves silly, we walked to the ice cream shop, where Kelsey got hindber (raspberry) and Aubrietta got Kaffi (coffee). We walked over to check out the hostel and campground, the giant pool complex (one of 7 in the city), and then the local elementary and preschool. As we were out walking we noticed lots of children out on bicycles or playing, no adults in sight. Icelanders highly value children, and there is very little crime, so kids have a lot of freedom.

A child's sandbox in Iceland doesn't have sand, it has volcanic rock.

At the school the girls met two sisters, 9 and 11 years old. They struggled to communitcate, but did quite well. They played a number of games together, including hide & seek and freeze tag. The Icelandic girls counted out loud in Icelandic, Aubrietta and Kelsey in English.

After over an hour of active play, the 9 year old pulled out her cell phone and started bringing up songs, and asking Aubrietta and Kelsey which songs and artists they liked. "Justin Beiber? Adele?" Luckily Aubrietta had taken Chorus last year in school and one of the concerts they did covered pop songs, so she knew a few. Usually Aubrietta listens to Jazz and Celtic music, which doesn't really earn her any popularity points with her peers. Kelsey just kept silent, since her favorite music is the Sound of Music movie soundtrack, which she listens to repeatedly. At 10:00 at night the girls headed home, and we did as well.

On the first floor of our apartment house beautiful music was being played on a piano. A cat ran in the door with us, and followed us into the apartment as if it lived there. The tag on him had the apartment house address, but he lived on the lower floor. His name was "Megabite" and he was very friendly.

My husband took the cat downstairs and didn't come back. Just as I was thinking of getting the girls to bed, he came up and said we must all go downstairs and join him in visiting with the neighbors, an older couple, Vigfus Syavarsson and his wife Sigurlarg Hauksdottir, and their grown son Ymir Vigfusson, who is a professor of computer science at the University. Ymir was the one practicing the piano, and the whole family was getting ready for Sigurlarg's mother's 80th birthday celebration the next day. Even though it was 11:00 at night, they were more than happy to entertain us, pulling a photo album off a shelf to show us pictures of their extended family, and telling us about all the natural and cultural wonders of Iceland. Sigurlarg brought out cake, licorice, peanuts, and candy. Vigfus brought out the beer. The girls and I had a tradtional mixed drink that involved orange soda, malt beverage (nonalcoholic), and licorice extract. It was one of those spontanious experiences that make staying in a residential neighborhood with the locals more inspiring than staying in a hotel with a bunch of other tourists.

Towards midnight Kelsey was getting tired and wandered back upstairs to go to bed. She was back moments later, exclaiming, "You HAVE to see the sunset!" We all went out on the balcony, then decided a walk to the waterside was in order. Sigurlarg stayed behind while the rest of us skipped and strode a few blocks over toward the water, where a paved bike and pedestrian trail stretched from the Videy ferry terminal to the north, all the way along the shore around the city. Unlike back in Seattle where waterfront properties abound, and shorelines are fenced off and privately owned, here the shore belongs to all and is fully accessable.