Icelanders like to party!! Okay, just kidding... but they DO stay up really late, especially in the summer. Going to bed at 1am means I am not getting up until about 10 every morning. I hope I don´t become addicted to coffee after this trip. Even though I don´t think it affects me much, it does seem to open my eyes a little faster in the morning. ;)
We decided to enjoy the beautiful sunshine in Reyjavik and head to the city center again. But before we did that my dad made a pit stop at the Senior Living Center in town. My grandma remarried an American when my dad was young and moved to America. She lived in the south for the rest of her life and although she held me as a baby when I was younger, I unfortunately do not remember her. She was a beautiful woman (see picture below). One of her sisters, Mattia, is still alive and I was lucky enough to meet her yesterday. She was very excited to see me!! She was playing card games with her friends when we arrived, so she brought us back to her condo. The first thing she told my dad was how much I look like my grandma!
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| My grandma Sigurveig with her 2nd husband. My half~Aunt and half~Uncle with her. |
Much of the older population in Iceland does not speak English, so my dad had to translate between the two of us. But that did not make the visit uncomfortable whatsoever. Mattia showed us pictures of the family, and I saw a picture on her table I had to ask about~ this picture below if of my great~grandparents. Check out that hair flow on my great~grandpa!! She said he was born a complete toe~head and his hair eventually darkened up.
I noticed some cross~stitch work around the house and Mattia showed me some of her work. She had one particular sign over the door that said "God bless this house" in Icelandic. When she found out that I cross~stitch as well she gave me the pattern to do one myself. Once I get it made, I will think of her every time I see it.
Our visit was short but wonderful. I know much more about my grandpa´s side of the family, so it was really nice to meet my grandma´s sister. We exchanged hugs and kisses on our way out and Matthia teared up as we said our goodbyes.
After driving downtown we made our way to Harpa, which is the Icelandic Concert Hall in Reykjavik right on the water. It is a beautifully constructed building with souvenir shops and cafe´s at the bottom and restaurants and concert halls throughout. Iceland has LOTS of art throughout the downtown center, but my dad said that many Icelanders were upset over the construction of this concert hall. It cost the city lots of money and many citizens felt it could have been better spent on building a new hospital. Nonetheless, it was beautiful.
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| On the top floor of Harpa- enjoying views of the harbor. |
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| Brett and I outside Harpa. |
We walked along and found a building that had a topographical map of Iceland. My dad showed Brett around the country and shared some family history.
Walking the streets some more, we decided to head back to the Lutheran church and see the inside. Since I have seen dozens of European churches, I won´t lie when I say I was a little under~whelmed with this church. Not because it wasn´t beautiful, but it was just a little less "decorated" than most I have seen. That being said, this church had the BIGGEST pipe organ I´ve ever seen in my life. They had a concert playing later that night but we did not stay for this (I know my mom would have LOVED this). We payed a few hundred kronur (about 6 bucks) and took the elevator up to the top of the church tower to see the views. They were quite spectacular!! Lucky for us, we were at the top of the tower when the clock struck 4pm. Even though we knew the bells were about to ring, we still jumped a little when the clock went off. ;)
On a mission to find our crib/backgammon boards, we jumped in the car and headed toward a Toys R Us. This adventure was made more exciting by getting a flat tire and watching my dad race like a maniac through the mall parking lot looking for air pumps. Hahah. We found a backgammon board for 40 bucks... a REALLY cheap, crappy one at that! Haha. Out of luck with cribbage though. Oh well~ dad and I had a great time playing backgammon. I beat him 2~1... wonderful considering he had to remind me about the entire game!
Day 5-
Today was a LAZY day!!! My calves hurt, Brett´s feet are torn up from breaking in his new sandals.... so we took it a little easier today. Brett has still been getting up and working out while we´ve been here~ proud of him. I on the other hand do NOT have that kind of motivation on vacation.
As Brett was completing his run we crossed paths as I was walking to the store and he came with me to get some lunch/dinner food. The grocery stores here are SO much different than back home. I got my second bag of Kleinur today~yum!! We wanted some lunch meats for sandwiches and unfortunately for us, everything was in Icelandic. We did our best at playing "mystery meat" and took a gamble on a few good looking packs. ;)
Luckily, we found an online cribbage board to track scores, so we put in about 15 games today. It was a relaxing day!! Dad was out on the boat today mackerel fishing so we were on our own. We removed some cod from the freezer and Brett cooked up the fish on the BBQ.
Tomorrow we will visit the Golden Circle with my Aunt Debbie and cousin Andrew. Going later in the day which will be nice since the sun is out 24 hours and there will be less tourists!
Fun facts about Iceland:
~Gas here is $8.40 per gallon!!
~The sun does not set in the summer, does not hardly rise in the winter.
~The hot water in Reykjavik smells heavily of sulfer (rotten eggs). It is very odd to take a shower that smells like rotten eggs. Thankfully, the smell does not stick when you get out.
~Almost all of Iceland´s energy comes from green sources.
~The population of Iceland is around 320,000 people. THIS year alone, they will have over 1 million visitors.
~Iceland has a LOT of roundabouts. I once heard that the citizens call the President the "King of roundabouts".
~The European and North American plates meet in Iceland and are being pulled apart at the rate that our fingernail´s grow each year (we are visiting this area tomorrow... more pics to come then)
~Iceland has about 130 volcanic mountains.
Enough for now- goodnight all!!!
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| 12:30 in the morning |
Wow. Sounds like a great trip guys!
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