icelandic escapades {an introduction and a sad car}

May 2013- This girl’s trip was epic.  It was the chance of a lifetime and one of the best places I’ve traveled thus far.  I’ve already shared the tale of why we went to Iceland.  Now you’ll get a rather lengthy recap of our escapades.  

First of all, the unofficial default language is Icelandic, and many speak Danish, but dare I say everyone in Iceland speaks English.  And speaks it very well.  The people are very friendly and eager to share their culture in this semi-isolated part of the world.  If you think Iceland is a frozen tundra you couldn’t be more wrong.  We visited in early May during the off season for tourism which is just after the winter rush of tourists seeking out the Northern Lights, and just prior to those enjoying the chilly but long summer days.  Although we didn’t experience the aurora borealis we did manage to hike a glacier, witness breathtaking waterfalls, tromp through ancient Viking ceremonial sites, stand in the shadow of volcanoes, traverse the continental divide, soak in healing geo-thermal waters, partake in Icelandic cuisine and become one with such an enchanting land.  My official statement: Iceland is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Let me introduce you to the cast of characters:

Jamie- she may be from a small town in West Texas but don’t let that fool you- she is very worldly, knows the latest on everything and has more stamps in her passport than a supermodel.  {I’m a tad bit jealous of that.}  Like it or not she’s our chauffeur pretty much anytime we travel.  Hey, if she can drive in D.C. traffic she should be able to drive anywhere on the globe, right?  She was my college roommate; she’s my oldest born’s godmother and she’s stuck with me for the rest of her life, yet still loves me anyway.  God Bless Her.

Laree- the planner, budgeter, location researcher, get the most out of your trip as you can traveler…and my roommate in Iceland.  She earns a gold star for that last one.  She’s also the navigator and has a crazy sense of direction that can get us anywhere we want to go…even if the map is Icelandic!

Julie- the comic relief, crazy as all get out, up for anything one of the bunch.  She’s a natural linguist  and spoke the most Icelandic by the time we left.  And she’ll drink champagne with me any time of the day or night.  Love her to pieces.  {She normally doesn’t go on girl’s trip with us but was our number one pick to stand in for Lora.}

Then there’s me- the photojournalist taking entirely too many pictures {like hundreds more than needed}, eager to stop at any and every sight along the way, over-packer, somewhat scattered and extremely ecstatic to be traveling anywhere they will take me {even if it’s not the beach}. 

Getting There:  Let’s begin with the departure.  It was admittedly a bit rough for me.  Aside from this being scheduled during a busy time of work for Casey, a quick freelance assignment for me during the time I should have been packing and organizing, a slew of spring activities at school for Pecos and some creative {and stressful for me!} juggling of everyone’s schedules to make sure the boys were taken care of while I was gone, I’d say it was perfect timing.  I left detailed notes, daily schedules, dinner ideas and instructions, and stocked the kitchen and pantry with enough groceries for the month {just in case my return was delayed due to the unpredictable eruption of an Icelandic volcano}.  I also laid out clothes for the boys for each day, all the while thinking in the back of my mind they’d end up wearing whatever they wanted and most likely eating corn dogs and pizza for a week.   {Yes, I’m crazy and obsessive just in case you had any doubt.  But I own it.}

As for me, I packed too much and too big of a suitcase…

But in my defense I had to pack for 7 days and three separate climates, one of them requiring layers of insulation and a bulky winter coat.  Plus, I’m accustomed to packing myself and the River Boys and I’m a bit out of practice when it comes to frequent flying.  So there I was- standing on the curb at Reagan National Airport with my over-sized baggage, my jumbo Consuela bag, and a backpack full of camera gear, wearing my neon pink Junk Gypsies t-shirt.  It gave Jamie a good laugh when she pulled up to get me.  She was justifiably concerned about fitting all of it in the trunk of her car just to get to her house, much less the flight to Iceland.  Luckily she had a spare smaller suitcase and helped me figure out how to consolidate and what to take on to Iceland.  {She's always taking care of me.} Problem solved.

I found this bottled water at the Dulles airport...it was meant to be.  

This was printed on the pillow on our Icelandair flight.

I was a bit concerned about sleeping on the flight…it was an overnight flight and we would arrive in Iceland mid-morning with the entire day ahead of us for exploring.  I didn’t want to be the jet lagged one to drag us down.  The prescription medicine I took was intended to be more effective than Tylenol PM but not as severe as Ambien.  Perfect for a six-hour flight, right? Wrong!  I fell asleep fine and woke up barely two hours later…same problem I have at home.  I couldn’t sleep the rest of the flight so I watched movies and then just before landing my body decided to metabolize the medication.  {Here's a thought: maybe if I hadn't entered into the trip completely exhausted and sleep deprived I wouldn't have had these issues.}  I was really groggy but since our rental car shuttle was no where to be found I grabbed a bit more shuteye right there in the airport while Jamie and Laree sorted out the snafu {then a bit more of a catnap en route to the hotel... and then we ALL took a quick power nap after we checked in…three naps later I was finally ready to go}.

Sunrise somewhere over the North Atlantic Ocean:

The airport in Iceland is about 45 minutes away from the main city, Reykjavik.  We opted for a rental car since we wanted to travel around on our own as much as possible.  Our budget friendly option was SadCars.  

Yes, that is the real name.  With a name like that what did we expect?  Not sure, but what we got was a couple of young college guys working in a kwanza hut renting ragged out Subaru station wagons to American female tourists.  Seriously.

Here’s our first class Icelandic transportation...the sun flare I captured in this image was an effort to make her look radiant.  {She needed all the help she could get.}

We referred to her as Sally the SadCar for the remainder of the trip. 

After we signed our paperwork the rental guy came out and proceeded to walk around our car looking for damage. We thought he was joking since there was basically a scratch, dent or missing decal on every side of her.  We told him to just put an ‘X’ on the entire car image on his clipboard.  Aside from a major collision there’d be no way to tell if we added any more dings to it.  When it came time to load our luggage into Sally we couldn’t get the lift gate open.  Perfect.  I thought this was a prank by the rental guys.  We sought their help and got a rather exasperated reaction when we told them we couldn’t get the car opened.  Their reply: “sometimes it sticks and you just have to bang on it a bit.”  After we loaded our luggage and slammed the back closed a piece of the taillight fell off.  It became our first souvenir.  Seriously, I couldn’t make this up if I tried. 

Just in case we thought our Subaru SadCar could take us up to a volcano they provided us with this map which assured us 90% of Iceland was indeed not suited for SadCars. 

 And with that we were off on a grand adventure of Icelandic Escapades!