Advertisement
Published: October 29th 2012
Edit Blog Post
IcelandAir (Our Plane)
I made it...to Iceland at least! I have finally made it….well to Iceland at least. The joy of this part of my journey is that I am with my 18 year old son, my mom and my aunt. With my family I am discovering a piece of my heritage and a little hesitant that the stories of my heritage may not be as glorious as the stories that I may have made up over time for myself.
We arrived and the first thing of note is that the people of Iceland are very kind. Icelanders are very friendly. I have gone into countries with high expectations and have become very disappointed, so despite my love of this country I did come a bit guarded on what I would really experience (I will talk about Italy next week as it will be my third visit there and second visit to Rome). So far, Icelanders are extremely helpful, they wanted to direct us in the Keflavik airport and even the border officer and security guard had a sense of humour.
So what we did know is that in Iceland alcohol is very expensive. Of course myself, my mom and aunt thoroughly researched the best way to get
Keflavik Airport2
Airport Sculpture low cost alcohol (I come by it honestly). It is at the Keflavik airport, through duty free. So of course as soon as we were off the plane we were on the hunt for the Duty Free for my first buy(s), Rykja Vodka and Brennevin which is commonly referred to as Icelandic Scnapps (i.e. The Black Death).
Our plan for Iceland was to rent a vehicle for the six days we would be here and rent an apartment hotel with a kitchenette so we could make our own meals. This was the first time that I would be renting a vehicle from outside North America and since it was a local car rental and not an international company (note – renting a vehicle in Iceland can be extremely expensive so I highly recommend renting from a local Icelandic vehicle company). So after getting our luggage which was being retrieved by our stewardess, we walked through the arrival area. What you may be imaging – an area of people waiting with anticipation of their loved ones but disappointedly seeing a stranger (common we’ve all experienced a look of disappointment targeted at us in the arrival area). Yet, since we took
Brennivin & Reyka Vodka
Icelandic hard liquor :) so long in the Duty Free we found ourselves in an empty airport. Yes, empty and the car company rep had obviously given up on me.
So where am I supposed to find our car? We went with a local company and the car company booths at the airport were for international companies. I am not good with asking for directions. I am stubborn and determined to find my own way and will ask for help only at a last resort. Let’s just say I am ‘proud’. So we were the only ones in the airport, I found myself clueless on where to go so I finally asked the tourism rep on where I would find our vehicle company. She stated I needed to walk five minutes from the Keflavik airport to find the rental company (which was wrong – my rep was there). So as a man was walking around the airport for the last 45 minutes with my name on his card, I leave the airport and my family and walk to another area that looks like mecca for vehicle rental companies.
So I have stated over the years that I do not find Scandinavian men attractive. I entered the company that I thought I had the car rental with and the place was empty. I called out; I made some noise…nothing. I realized that like an idiot (I swear I am cursed) I was in the wrong area and left and went down to the next door. Again, no one was there, I called out, made some noise and there emerged a beautiful Icelandic man. My first thoughts were – oh my, could I have been wrong all this time? Can Scandinavian men, be truly this beautiful? Alas I have been wrong – they are. They are strong, they are beautiful beyond their pictures. They are sweet and attentive and despite being in the wrong place, he was determined to help me. He called the other car company to come and get me and then they came and oh my god, another beautiful Icelandic man. What were the odds? Could there really be only two strong beautiful Icelandic man in Iceland? Ummm no, however I will admit that I am coming from a city that lacks a volume of men, especially tall, employed, emotionally secure, single men. I digress.
So I got the car, went back to the airport (that was deserted) and picked up my family (son, mom and aunt). We had 6 hours to kill before we could check into our hotel so we decided to just be adventurous and drive. The plan was to be ‘spontaneous’ and to stop when something piqued our interest. We drove around Keflavik which was a very picturesque town. It has a beautiful harbour and the usual colourful houses – it reminded me of a postcard. We decided to head to the southern coast of the Rekjanes peninsula and what has struck me the most about this country is how much the landscape changes. At one moment you’re in the most green, lush environment with large hills surrounding you and then you are at the ocean with the Atlantic beating the shoreline. Lava rock is everywhere you go, and what is interesting is there are so many kinds. Each landscape has a different colour or type of lava rock. Then as we were driving five minutes later we are in the most desolate place where there was nothing but lava rock which appears to go on for miles. Nothing grows there, it’s just deserted and the silence is deafening with a wind that cuts through you.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.069s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 10; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0374s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb