Iceland – Higman Travels

Doppleganger

We were sitting getting ready to listen to Greta Salome. She’s an Icelandic musician, mostly known for her fiery violin skills. We have to get to most events an hour before the start time in order to get a seat. I think the average age of the guests is about 75, maybe even 80. They like to get to events early!

So, we are sitting there and a woman comes up to me and says “there’s a beautiful picture of you and your daughter out there in the gallery. Have you seen it? It’s gorgeous.” I’m thinking, Jayden (she was pointing to Jayden) and I didn’t have a picture taken anywhere by the ship’s photographers. The only pictures were when we disembark at the ports and it’s always of the entire family. So, I’m thinking what is she talking about? Did they maybe take a candid shot that I didn’t see? I go out to the gallery after the show and it dawned on me what she was talking about. There’s a photo that the photographer brought on board from her studio as a sample and the old lady thought it was me and Jayden. Looks nothing like us except they are Asian. See blow. We laughed our asses off when we realized that this was the picture she was talking about. Apparently, all Asians still look alike to senior citizens 🙂

Iceland and Lava Rocks

Day 2 got us out of Reykjavik and into beautiful landscapes. We drove around the south west of the island through some interesting landscape. It’s basically all lava fields. We went to some hot springs and I wish I could have jumped in because it was really cold outside. We ended the tour with a “taste of Iceland” of what they call lobster but I think it was too small to be lobster. The gentleman next to me thought they were crawfish. “Lobsters” were thrown away until very recently. They used to get caught in the fish nets and the fishermen though they were such a nuisance. It wasn’t until recently they started eating it. But, it’s really not everyday food…more for special occasions. It was good but there was no dessert!!!

Jev up on lava rocks

Hot springs

Restaurant where we ate lunch

The yurt room

Jevy had the lamb

lagostas!

Church of Mary

Little houses built into the ground for elves (I made that up)

Sea outside the church

Cold outside

Pretty landscape near the hot springs

The Blue Lagoon of Iceland

We finally arrived in a big port — Reykjavik. This is a very interesting country. There are no indigenous people on this island. The first settlers were the Norse but there are some documents that say that the Irish had discovered the island before the Norse. They speak the original Norse language so if someone time traveled from 1000 years ago to present day Iceland, they can communicate with modern folks. That’s so cool! Interesting fact, beer was illegal here until 1989. There are no McDonald’s but we saw Pizza Hut, Domino’s, KFC, and Subway.

We visited the Blue Lagoon on day 1. I enjoyed it because it was very warm water and the weather wasn’t great, though we did see the sun. It was very busy but I never felt this was unbearably crowded. There is plenty of room for everyone…except at the walk up bar. I finally had a green juice after weeks of unhealthy foods. They also gave us masks full of nutrients. We were supposed to come out of there 10 years younger. I don’t think it worked for us.

The kids were also a little nervous about the changing room. They were supposed to shower with soap, naked, before entering the pool. The thought of being naked in front of people freaked them out. I’m used to this as I grew up going to public baths. Jayden reported that it wasn’t as bad as she thought.

The family

Masks

Dad and the girls

Kids

Walk up bar

We then spent the afternoon walking around the center of town looking for wifi to fix Jayden’s phone. So so cute. Justin and I keep commenting on how clean all the cities/towns we visited have been. Most people spoke English very well. Our tour guide was hilarious. “They say we are one of the happiest countries in the world, but that’s crap! With three months of the year without sun it’s really depressing!” He had lines like that all day. “They also say we’re one of the most religious countries in the world, that’s bull shit! We have a lot of churches but they’re all empty unless there’s a special event!” Seriously, it’s the people that really make it fun. General population didn’t seem very happy, though. Just chugging along. The Church of Hallgrimar was amazing. It’s a Lutheran parish church and the largest church in Iceland.