Well, this was an ill-fated trip. It´s 1:27am here (9:27 to you EST people), and Viking and I are just waiting for 5am to roll around so we can catch our bus to Keflavik Airport and begin the journey home. There was a mess-up with the visas which ended in Viking not being able to register for classes until the end of October or so. Obviously, a little too late. So we´re heading back to Canada. Our plane from Iceland leaves at 10:30 am GMT, and we will land in Halifax, Nova Scotia at around 5pm...whatever time zone they´re in out there. (Google tells me it´s the Atlantic time zone, which is an hour ahead of EST) Then, Monday morning our plane to Hamilton leaves around 6am ADT, and we land in Hamilton, Ontario around 10:30, in good old Eastern Standard Time. It´ll be a long couple days, but SO worth it to get home again. I don´t think I´ve mentioned this, but Viking and I will be staying with my mom and 3 little sisters for a while, and I´m looking forward to spending time with them again.
Now, to dispel a few myths about Iceland before I leave.
1)Not so cold. The weather is strongly reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands-grey and rainy ALL THE TIME.
2)Smelly. It either smells of fish-which I can understand, what with it being an island, but it also REEKS of sulphur. Because the water is all geothermically heated, anything above room temperature positively STINKS. I´ve been obsessively smelling my hair for a week now-imagine having a hot, steamy shower that smells strongly of rotten eggs.
3)UGLY. Those of you that know my hometown, it´s GORGEOUS compared to Reykjavik. As the DH says, "early 1930s industrial town". The place looks like it´s falling apart.
4)this "midnight sun" thing? Crap. At least at this time of year. Sun sets just after nine, and rises about 5, 5:30 in the morning. That seems like regular summer to me.
5)I also didn´t see any sheep or ponies, but I guess that´s my fault, and not really a myth. :Þ
Okay, well, I guess that´s it. I´m going to go have a late dinner/waaay early breakfast and finish putting everything in my carry on. I do have some pics of Iceland to post, but this computer is older than I am, so I´ll upload them from Canada.
Bye Iceland! Can´t say I´ll miss you too much, but I´m not ruling out coming back some day!
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Okay. Iceland=*so* not awesome. I'm cold, and tired, and I've spend the better part of the last two days in tears. Let me recap.
Monday night: get to Iceland. Realize at airport that we have no way of contacting landlord and thus have to shell out over $100cdn (7500kr) to stay in a B&B for the night. Call home and cry to mom and sister about how much I miss them already.
Tuesday Morning: get a hold of landlord-things are looking up. He will meet us at Reykjavik bus terminal. Take bus from Keflavik (airport city) to Reykjavik. Iceland looks a LOT like the Highlands of Scotland, except with less mountain. Get picked up at bus terminal by landlord-shows us two apartments. First one-basement, very low ceilings, small and hot and cramped. Denied. Second one, ostensibly the one we were supposed to be getting in the first place-took it because anything was better than the first one. Turns out that the promised "3 bedroom apartment" is "an 8x10 room with 2 twin beds and a shared common area and kitchen with two old people".
Faery is NOT amused. Cry to Viking about how much I hate Iceland and how I want to go home NOW. Viking surprises Faery-he says that if that is what I really want, then we'll go. Have a 4-hour nap.
Tuesday Afternoon/Night:Pick up a few groceries at our local Bonus and come home. Meet Old Person #1-Jon (pronounced 'yawn'). Seems like a nice guy-is only here part time. Watch some TV. Talk on Skype. Blog. Cry about how much I miss home.
*sighs* This trip has gotta get better *fast*, or I'm gonna be back in Canada-with or without the DH-before the end of September.
Oh, and did I mention that we don't have our visa's yet?
Monday night: get to Iceland. Realize at airport that we have no way of contacting landlord and thus have to shell out over $100cdn (7500kr) to stay in a B&B for the night. Call home and cry to mom and sister about how much I miss them already.
Tuesday Morning: get a hold of landlord-things are looking up. He will meet us at Reykjavik bus terminal. Take bus from Keflavik (airport city) to Reykjavik. Iceland looks a LOT like the Highlands of Scotland, except with less mountain. Get picked up at bus terminal by landlord-shows us two apartments. First one-basement, very low ceilings, small and hot and cramped. Denied. Second one, ostensibly the one we were supposed to be getting in the first place-took it because anything was better than the first one. Turns out that the promised "3 bedroom apartment" is "an 8x10 room with 2 twin beds and a shared common area and kitchen with two old people".
Faery is NOT amused. Cry to Viking about how much I hate Iceland and how I want to go home NOW. Viking surprises Faery-he says that if that is what I really want, then we'll go. Have a 4-hour nap.
Tuesday Afternoon/Night:Pick up a few groceries at our local Bonus and come home. Meet Old Person #1-Jon (pronounced 'yawn'). Seems like a nice guy-is only here part time. Watch some TV. Talk on Skype. Blog. Cry about how much I miss home.
*sighs* This trip has gotta get better *fast*, or I'm gonna be back in Canada-with or without the DH-before the end of September.
Oh, and did I mention that we don't have our visa's yet?
Written on Monday, August 27th, 2007
So, here we are, in Logan International Airport. It's 1:15est, and we're waiting for our boarding call (around 1:55 for our 2:35 flight). I have to type this post in notepad, because even though the entire airport is a wi-fi hotspot, it costs $7.95USD per day to use it. And the only currency exchange place in the Departures area is closed, so the Viking and I can't even get a book or food or anything. We had to pool our last $3USD to buy a Snapple for the two of us to share.
The drive to Boston was . . . interesting, to say the least. We left Toronto at midnight Sunday night/Monday morning, and got to Boston at 12:30pm on Monday (today). I spent a lot of time asleep. Not as much as the Viking, who could sleep on the beach in Florida during a hurricane, but a lot for me. I'd planned on staying awake until we got to Iceland, but I am weak. :P I've got my DS, two books, and a magazine for the flight, and knitting of course-hopefully there will be an interesting movie on. If I have to sit through Eragon again, I don't know what I'll do. Viking's off wandering through the airport, trying to find a currency-exchange booth that's actually open.
I had so much I wanted to say here, but I can't remember any of it. Sleep deprivation will do that to you, I guess. Oh, I got a new phone. It's the same number, so anyone that has it feel free to text me, but don't be offended if I don't reply to every text-when we get to Iceland they will cost me 60 cents each to send (I can recieve unlimited for free). As soon as I get internet, though, I will be hooking up my 'puter and signing into Skype so I can talk to everyone. Also, email me whenever you want-remember, my year of free time starts when the plane lands, so I'll have time. I've also been taking some pictures-my photographer friend would LOVE this airport-it's all fancy. Once I can actually connect to the internet I'll upload my pictures to Flickr and link them here.
...
I don't see Viking. It's 1:26pm, and he's been gone for a while. Well, I guess as long as he remembers to come back to Gate E6 before 1:55, we'll be okay.
OOoh! I picked up a brochure about flying with pets, and I checked into it on the Icelandair website. I'd have to pay $72 for the puppy's 'ticket', but I'd SO be willing to do that. :D So I'm gonna look into getting a dog-maybe check out an animal shelter or something. I want a smallish dog-an Icelandic Sheepdog would be nice, but they're over $1000 a dog here (purebreds), so I'm not getting my hopes up.
Okay, I'm tired, and if I want to use my laptop on the plane at all, I'm gonna have to save this now and come back later.
The drive to Boston was . . . interesting, to say the least. We left Toronto at midnight Sunday night/Monday morning, and got to Boston at 12:30pm on Monday (today). I spent a lot of time asleep. Not as much as the Viking, who could sleep on the beach in Florida during a hurricane, but a lot for me. I'd planned on staying awake until we got to Iceland, but I am weak. :P I've got my DS, two books, and a magazine for the flight, and knitting of course-hopefully there will be an interesting movie on. If I have to sit through Eragon again, I don't know what I'll do. Viking's off wandering through the airport, trying to find a currency-exchange booth that's actually open.
I had so much I wanted to say here, but I can't remember any of it. Sleep deprivation will do that to you, I guess. Oh, I got a new phone. It's the same number, so anyone that has it feel free to text me, but don't be offended if I don't reply to every text-when we get to Iceland they will cost me 60 cents each to send (I can recieve unlimited for free). As soon as I get internet, though, I will be hooking up my 'puter and signing into Skype so I can talk to everyone. Also, email me whenever you want-remember, my year of free time starts when the plane lands, so I'll have time. I've also been taking some pictures-my photographer friend would LOVE this airport-it's all fancy. Once I can actually connect to the internet I'll upload my pictures to Flickr and link them here.
...
I don't see Viking. It's 1:26pm, and he's been gone for a while. Well, I guess as long as he remembers to come back to Gate E6 before 1:55, we'll be okay.
OOoh! I picked up a brochure about flying with pets, and I checked into it on the Icelandair website. I'd have to pay $72 for the puppy's 'ticket', but I'd SO be willing to do that. :D So I'm gonna look into getting a dog-maybe check out an animal shelter or something. I want a smallish dog-an Icelandic Sheepdog would be nice, but they're over $1000 a dog here (purebreds), so I'm not getting my hopes up.
Okay, I'm tired, and if I want to use my laptop on the plane at all, I'm gonna have to save this now and come back later.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
First Post!
This will be the place to find a running commentary about my impending move to Iceland with Viking, my husband, as he does his Master's program at the University of Iceland. Right now we're packing and getting ready to move all of our stuff into storage and deciding what comes with us and what we really don't need anymore. It's crazy stuff. I'll have more to say later-right now I've gotta get back to packing.
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