Wrap Up

Well, I’m on the plane back to Minnesota as I write this. I resisted the urge to stay in Iceland longer, or you know, permanently.

Iceland in "black and white"

Most of the snow that had fallen in the past day or so had been melted away by rain and wind by Thursday morning. It’s funny how quickly it can come and go along the coasts. I’m glad I got to see the east fjords (and Reykjavik) covered in snow. It’s a whole different landscape when everything is blanketed. Bogga said when I arrived, “You’ve seen Iceland in color, and now you get to see it in black and white.”

On Wednesday evening Bogga, Elvar, Stefan Alex and I ate at L’Abri, the restaurant in the Fosshótel in town. Bogga had been working there all day so we met her there and she was able to take a break from the reception desk to eat a delicious meal with us. Stefan wanted to do fireworks that night, as it was the final day of the Christmas season, Þrettándinn, but the weather and his parents’ schedule didn’t allow for it. It was too late on a school night by the time we were ready, and Bogga wanted to be considerate of neighbors with sleeping little kids. There was a sad teenager in the house that night.

Thursday I had another lazy morning and then Thorhildur picked me up around 1:30 and brought me over to her house for the day. We (she) made Christmas pudding, bean soup, and saltkjöt (salted lamb) and played card games all afternoon. 

"Christmas pudding"

Basically the game my family calls "Bitch Rummy"

It was very cozy, and Thorhildur is wonderful company. The bean soup and saltkjöt are traditional foods for a holiday coming up later this winter, Sprengidagur. It’s usually just a once a year sort of meal, but Thorhildur made it so I could experience it. It was amazing. The fart putty I had given to some of the cousins had established itself as quite a hit by this time, and combined with the consumption of the bean soup made for a darn good time. Beans, beans…

I had an 8pm “appointment” with Karen and her husband that evening after dinner. Karen is the one I rode horses with a few times when I was here last. I was to meet them out at their barn and spend a couple hours with the horses. I didn’t get to ride due to the darkness and generally crappy weather, but I got to see a horse get new winter shoes, do a little grooming, and pet some of the fuzzy horse faces. They are all extra hairy at this time of the year, and I think even cuter for it. The only bad part of this visit was the hestur likt (horse smell) that clings to my winter jacket even now as it sits in the overhead bin of the plane. I definitely brought some memories of the horses home with me.

Time for new shoes

The night wasn’t over after my visit to the stables. I got home to Bogga’s and talked to her on the phone (she was at her card playing club) and I was instructed to walk over to Stebbi and Lisa’s house for a little while. It is just down the hill, so I changed clothes and made the short walk there alone. They had prepared a great little late night kaffi time. Lisa and Stebbi both speak primarily Icelandic. Lisa especially speaks very little English, which is so good for me, really. It forces me to practice my oh so rusty language skills. Lisa speaks very clearly and slowly, choosing different, simpler words when I don’t know the ones she is using.  I was able to have a conversation with them for over an hour about our family, and retirement plans, and my plans for the future (not that I actually know what in the heck those plans might be). The Icelandic I do manage to speak is probably pretty horrible, but the fact that I can take part in a conversation and at least get my message across most of the time with minimal assistance from Google Translate is somewhat of a triumph. Lisa had knit me a gorgeous pair of mittens and also gave me a DVD on the history of Fáskrúðsfjörður as a Christmas gift.

Friday I had to actually get up early, by current standards. My alarm went off before 9.

Bogga and I left for Egilsstaðir around 10:30 so we could drive the 45 minutes to the airport. I had said most of my goodbyes Thursday evening, but Stefan Alex and Elvar I bid adieu to that morning. Erin’s cousin brought her to the airport too and we took off for Reykjavik on the noon flight. 

Erin

Back in the big city!

Selma picked us up at the airport and we went to the grocery store and a coffee shop to kill some time and hang out before we could check into the Airbnb that we had rented for the night. Did you know they make chocolate covered kleinur? Life changing. 

Esja view from our apartment

Erin Jones beat us to the apartment where Selma dropped us off, and after a brief settling in period we headed out on the town. It was chilly, but wonderfully clear and sunny, pretty much the weather I had been hoping for the entire trip. We walked around for awhile to soak in the sights and then started our Friday plans with a happy hour at The Public House. 

"Partnership"

A piece of the Berlin wall

Small plates- on the right is basically a round kleinur stuffed with lamb. Delicious.

The Erins

Erin and Jón Andri

Erin and I

We ordered some small plates, emphasis on the small and had some beer. Our friend Jon Andri joined us and we moved over to Bunk Bar in Backpackers. Then my friend Stefan joined us, and Jon Andri headed home. We had a ton of fun, but it was the last night of the trip and therefore a little sad too. Our plan had been to go to a concert at Hurra, but we didn’t last too long there. There were way too many people getting way too far into my personal bubble. 

Awesome band, but horribly annoying and pushy crowd. We left.

I was getting a little testy, so we went to the Danish Bar, where we spent the remainder of the evening. We were joined by Jen, who the Erins and I originally met in Minnesota but is now living in Iceland and working on a degree, and also a guy named Matthew that the Erins know. It’s nice to know people in town and have others to add to the party. We called it a night fairly early (2am or so, but the bars on weekends are open until around 6am usually) and went home to eat kleinur and watch YouTube videos. Guys, there was one about a dog named Fritz who can’t catch the food that his people throw to him that everyone in the world should see. I was in absolute stitches. Highly recommended. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w2UxDdhZPk

This morning was also bright and beautiful. We had gotten very little sleep the night before and were a little slow moving. We managed to check out of our apartment by the required time and dragged our bags down the street to Asta Sol’s house. She volunteered to drive Erin Johnson and I to the bus station around 1:45pm so we could catch the FlyBus to the airport. In the meantime, we walked to Kolaportid, which is the weekend flea market, and to a few other stores to pick up some last minute gifts.

The time to leave came much too quickly. Soon enough we were saying farewell to Erin Jones, who as I’ve mentioned before, lives in Iceland now. It was very hard to say goodbye. The 3 of us had an absolutely awesome time together during our days in Reykjavik. The real world beckons. I have to go back to work, and both of the Erins have new semesters starting at their universities soon.

We managed to catch the 2pm FlyBus with the help of Asta Sol and got to the airport with no problem. I actually found myself dozing on the bus and hope I didn’t get too snuggly with the stranger in the seat next to me.  My head was definitely nodding towards the nearest available shoulder. It’s odd now being on the airplane (which is FULL of screaming babies and toddlers) headed south west and having the daylight stick with us. I won’t know what to think of all the sunlight in Minnesota once we get back, I just know it is the one part of being back that I’m actually looking forward to.

Both Erin Johnson and I have every intention of going back to Iceland again over the summer. There is a program I want to apply for, and if I’m lucky enough to be chosen I might get to spend my entire summer in Iceland. Fingers crossed.

That’s all for now. I'm home and about to fall into what will hopefully be a long, deep sleep. Thanks for sticking with me, readers.

First Day of School

Today was my first day of school in Iceland! I went with my 15 year old cousin to his afternoon classes at his school here in Fáskrúðsfjörður. Actually I went to one class...his English class...and he spent the rest of the time showing me around the school and introducing me to various staff, a fair amount of whom it turns out I was related to in one way or another. I didn't take any pictures, which was stupid, at least for blogging purposes, but there you have it.

It is a fairly large school building considering there are only 88 students in grades 0 (Kindergarten)-10 (15 year olds). There are another maybe 30-40 toddlers and preschool students in an attached building. They have plenty of room for more pupils, should any arrive in town. When I arrived I spoke with the headmistress/principal, a woman named Eyglo, while Stefan got permission from his teachers to miss his classes so he could show me around. I saw every nook and cranny of the school and was introduced to everyone as his frænka (cousin) that is a Vestur Íslendingur (Western Icelander- person of Icelandic heritage from North America). I actually knew a few of the people from previous visits to town, which was nice. Good to see some familiar faces. I'm pretty sure Stefan as not in any hurry to get back to class, so it was a nice, long tour.

As we popped our heads in and out of classrooms and walked down the halls I got a variety of different reactions. Some of the kids looked at me in fascination. I got some gap-toothed smile greetings of "HÆ!" from some cute little girls. Some of the small ones watched me with with wide, fearful "stranger danger" eyes, and the rest with what seemed to be curiosity or some manner of indifference. I guess on a normal day there aren't a whole lot of people in their school that they haven't known all their lives.

After the very thorough tour we went back to the office of the headmistress. She is also the English teacher, and was about to go up to teach Stefan's class. She asked if I would be willing to tell the kids about myself in English and answer some questions for them. Sure! English public speaking I can handle. And after 5 years of working with junior high students, that age group hardly scares me at all. Hardly.

I introduced myself and talked a bit about the Snorri Program and how it was I came to have people to visit here in Iceland. Eyglo talked about why so many people left Iceland for Canada and America in the past. Another student in the class said he had some relatives from Canada come to visit them last summer. The second half of the class was interesting (at least to me). The kids listened to a recording of a man lecturing (in English, with an Irish accent) about the Irish Potato Famine and the history of Irish independence, battles with the Church of England, etc. while they followed along with the text in their workbook. The teacher then asked questions about vocabulary words, what the main idea of the story was, and asked them other questions about the recording/text. It was not at all what I was picturing from an English language learning class, but sort of a cool way to fit English and world history all into one subject.

Moving backwards a bit, the last few days have been quiet and cozy for the most part. We have found something to do outside the house during the dim daylight hours each day, even as the snow falls around us. 

On Monday we went for a long walk around town, stopping to see Elvar's sister's chickens, and the fancy new Fosshótel where Bogga now works. 

She showed me around the hotel, which had just reopened after being closed over Christmas. There were only a few guests, so I got to check out many of the rooms and admire the beautiful views of the fjord. The hotel has been so successful that they are currently in the process of building a second "house" next door which will have an addition 20+ guest rooms. We got a behind the scenes peek at the construction. 

 

Our walk ended with a stop at the shop for lunch. Stebbi gave me a really cool pen/stylus/flash drive, preloaded with several thousand of his pictures. He is a wonderful photographer and it was a very nice and thoughtful gift. Bogga calls it my James Bond pen.

Yesterday, Bogga and I went for a drive, heading north around the edge of the fjord, past Vattarnes and Bogga's (any mine I guess) family farm, Kolmúli. It was snowing when we left the house, but as we got closer to the tip of the land, it cleared and a lovely bit of watery sunshine provided the perfect light for some really nice photos. It was a breathtaking drive. We stopped often to admire the scenery, check out abandoned farm sites, and take pictures. I think this is one of my favorite things to do in Iceland. Just explore and take pictures and see what we can find. We ended up on Reyðarfjörður where Bogga bought us a nice kaffi and desserts before heading back home, this time through the tunnel. See a select group of the pictures below. I took about a million more.

Tunnel to Fásk.

Today was my school day and tonight we are going to have dinner at the Fosshótel restaurant. Bogga is working all day, so we will meet here there at 6pm.

Tomorrow (Thursday) I'm not sure what I will do during the day, but in the evening I guess I am having dinner with Thorhildur's family and then going out to see the horses that I got to ride last time I was here. I'm not sure I'll get to ride, what with the snow and ice and darkness. I'll be happy to just go out and pet some of them and take a few pictures.  That will be my last full day here. On Friday morning we will drive back to the airport in Egilsstadir where I will meet Erin and we will board the airplane back to Reykjavik. We will only have about 24 hours back there before we have to go back to Minnesota and real life. Sob.