This is the end...

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

So maybe this isn't the best time to write this considering it is in part a reflection - and when I think about the start of the trip, it looked and sounded much like this...

Yes, he's up, in the corner of his crib and yelling, Dada, Dada, Dada...I didn't go up, so he's yelling Mama, but he doesn't know she is at the store.  Now he's back to Dada.

Jess says I am being soft because I will go up - but I know I will go up, realax him for a few minutes and then he will go back to sleep - or to sleep since he never really did in the first place.  Anyway, I like this time.  We get to relax and hang out and cuddle.

That's right, I said cuddle.

When I look back on this trip, I have to say, many of the concerns I had before we left were gone after we were there for a short time.  By a short time, I mean, after the horrible flight over, and then the first few nights when he couldn't find his sleep groove.  Though, we did get to cuddle a lot those first few nights.

The trip was a trip of firsts for the baby, first transatlantic flight, first football match, first boat ride, first time he used his passport, first taste of beer, first: lava field, whale watching, waterfalls, picking flowers for mom, hike on his own, castle, ruined abbey, spa visit, hidden beach, brewery tour, chick picked up in a bar...

This is starting to sound like this trip was full of debauchery and hardly appropriate for a 20 month old, but it was.

Sure Jess and I wanted to kill each other from time to time but we wouldn't have been in Europe if we didn't.

Advice - what's the advice for people thinking about doing this?  Just do it.  Make sure you have some stuff to make your kid feel like they are at home and comfortable - a few toys (that you can rotate), be sure that you have snacks, lots of snacks, especially pretzels.

Let your kid engage with people - sure I knew he had an awesome personality but seeing him with complete and total strangers (while supervised) was pretty cool.  He was confident, friendly and brought a smile to pretty much everyone's face he came in contact with.  Do things that might be out of your comfort zone - sure he's small but I'm sure there were many things he observed that will have an effect on him in years to come.  Not to mention, seeing an being exposed to completely different cultures will hopefully help him be open to new people and ideas as he gets older.  With any luck our next kid will have some of the same traits and get the same kind of exposure to different cultures.

I hope that he sees the pictures of the trip and wants to go back again to both places - both with us and on his own.

Maybe with his baby brother or sister?

That trip won't be next year though.  Next summer, after No. 2 arrives, I will be happy just to get a house on a lake somewhere and relax.  Two kids - the plan was for him to be potty trained by the end of this summer.  Mmmmm, this is going to be fun, double diaper duty.  So, one conceived somewhere in England, the second somewhere in Scotland, I'm pretty sure my boss won't allow me to go on vacation anymore.

Here's a few shots from our visit to the midwife today.

This kid is already causing a problem, from the womb.  Seeking attention and flipping over and whatnot.  The baby moved slightly at the start of the sono and then stopped, then started moving again when the tech pushed on it - and by move, I mean flip around like a maniac all crazy and doing flips.

If you're still actually reading after the big news, I would seriously consider moving to either of theses countries - for an extended time, even just a year.  There is something about both that is just a simpler way of living - even in the cities.  The pace is relaxed, the people seem cool and no one is outwardly being a dick, anywhere.  Even on the road, there was maybe one asshole the entire time.  I suppose I should start cleaning up the language with a second kid on the way, but to be honest, he has never repeated me, only Jess and I believe only shit and bullshit.  But that's another story.

Actually, what I should be doing is figuring out how I am going to get the rest of the house ready since I don't have time to wipe my own ass, let alone another two asses.  Anyway, in case you can't tell, I'm very excited for the arrival of No. 2 and I hope the baby (Neil says it is a sister), is just as awesome as he is, in its own way of course, and I am sure it will be. 

Well, this concludes the blog.  You know, the blog that I never finish.  Well, consider it done.  Even with a 22 month old and one on the way.  Perhaps we will try to blog about this pregnancy, though we have already missed 3 months, or maybe life after No. 2 gets here.  Probably not.  Who am I kidding?  

Thanks for reading - we hope you enjoyed it.  I'm really looking forward to Neil reading it.  Do we have to wait until he is 18?

Bye-bye!

Far too long...

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Just when you thought you were done hearing about this trip, here we are.

My wife likes to point out that I am notorious for not finishing the blog whenever we go on a trip, and she's right.  I always manage to not write about the last few days.  Sometimes the trips are far too long and I get tired of writing, or sad that it is coming to an end, or I've just freaking had it.

This will not be the case with this one.  You get this post - sketchy as it may since it's been far to long since the end of the trip and five-million work related things later...I will attempt to piece together for you those last two days...it will be far more difficult and ONE of the reasons why it doesn't get done, Jess keeps talking to me.  I like quiet when I am trying to concentrate and she's talking about museums and a fucking dumpling festival tomorrow.

Oh yeah, I have to work with the union.  You have to live the people who tell you you shouldn't work on Saturdays because it is you time and then call you in.

So I'm pretty sure we did our usual routine of me carry all the luggage down to the car, packing it for the 700th time and then heading over to the main place to get some breakfast.  The plan for the day was to take the ride back to Reykjavik in a nice leisurely fashion and make a stop at Lýsuhóll, which was is a farm, resort kind of place.  I'd be lying if I could told you about the ride there or anything else that happened when we left Olafsvik.  I do know we got on that damn dirt road again to begin the first lef of the ride back.

I'm pretty sure he was getting a little cranky and then fell asleep before we go to the spa.  The Lýsuhóll spa is believed to have healing powers - we didn't have a lot of money on us, so we hoped that they would be taking credit cards for our entry.  I was looking forward to the swim and to hoping in what I hoped would be a mini Blue Lagoon...

We got to the place and Jess got out to scope it out.  I waited in the car with the baby so he could grab a few more minutes of sleep.  Jess came back out, gets in the car and says, "The pool looks like a Florida trailer park pool."  She's disgusted.

I don't know what the fuck that means.  I was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Nassau County.  I have an idea what it must look like but I sure as shit have never experienced one.  Of course, my mind is running now and I have no idea what we are going to be getting ourselves in to.

They take the credit card and we each head our separate way into the bathrooms to shower before heading in to the spa.  That's big here.  You must shower before you go in to the pool - big faux pas in Icelandic culture if you don't.  Ironic since this culture's national dish is putrified shark meat.

This place is not the Blue Lagoon.

It may not even be the Fort Myers Campground RV Resort.

The walls and the floors were as slimy as they look.  They were covered in algae - which, I'm assuming has the healing properties.  The little Viking quickly became obsessed with a few of the blow up balls - we're not sure if they were communal balls or if they belonged to someone.  

We swam around for a bit and I could tell that Jess was getting skeeved, so we headed back out and showered again, for no cultural reasons, simply to scrape the skeeve off of us.

The ride back was uneventful - but beautiful just as it was on the way here.  We made it back to Reykjavik after one or two minor issues with turns.  Amazingly, there was traffic (if I remember correctly - i could just remember the month of September and back to work).

After we settled in, Jess decided that she would return the rental car.  Me and baby were watching some tv and hanging out - he might have even napped, but I don't think so, he most likely slept in the car.  Anyway, Jess was gone for a while.  A long while.  So long, the Chief and I almost went looking for her - but she finally came back.  The rental place said there was a ding in the passenger side door.  They weren't sure if there was going to be a charge or not.  She said there was one and it was small but they couldn't do anything about it now.  If it's that small they should leave it.  I think they think they're gonna pull a fast one and we won't protest because we are in Iceland.  We'll see about that.

We spent the rest of the time walking around and exploring Reykjavik.  We found a few geocaches and headed into the hipster area of the city - an entire portion we missed when we were last there.  The area, just like home is being gentrified and sort of a mix of Williamsburg meets Christiania (in Copenhagen).  Seems that now that the economy is better there, people are building more high-rises (though I can't imagine the population increasing that much) and a younger generation is moving in.

We went and got dinner at I believe an organic place - I don't remember if it was veggie, but I think not because I'm pretty sure I had some type of chicken sandwich - maybe not.  As we're walking up to this place, I'm like - this is really familiar.  We push the stroller into a corner and head upstairs.  Yes, people leave their strollers wherever.  I suppose this is better than carrying it up the stairs.

Now that -we're going up, I thinking, this is REALLY familiar and it hits me, sure enough, we ate here the last time we were here, only then is was some macrobiotic place.

And quite frankly, it sucked ass.

They're not known for their food here but that macrobiotic place cemented that.  Look, I'll eat veggies, just fucking cook them, ok?  Any place that beets are in every fucking dish, not for me.

I will say that the place it has become was better than the first place but still not a fine example of European cuisine.  As for the rest of the evening, my guess is that we walked around some more and hung out.  Not much to do as far as nightlife is concerned - well, for us anyway, traveling with a 20 month old. I'm pretty sure we headed back and relaxed for the rest of the night, our last night of the trip.

I got up early the next morning and headed out to go to the car rental to see if they made any decisions and to grab something that I left in the car - what that was, I can't remember.  I spoke with the guy at the place, luckily it was the same guy, not that I thought it would have mattered.  He said that they hadn't made a decision and was waiting for the people who assessed the damage to make a decision.  He said, they might not even do anything but he didn't know.

I walked from there down to the area we frequented regularly during our first visit.  It was a beautiful morning, nice and quiet, few people were out and the streets were empty.  I took the picture below because it exemplifies the changes that are happening in the city.

 I was headed out to find some breakfast but wasn't having much luck.  It was Sunday morning and as I said, the streets were pretty empty.  I found the street that headed back to the place where we stayed at when we were here the last time.  There was a crepes place and I figured - what the hell!  I got in and ordered my crepe and thought that I had found some for them too - but, it wasn't gluten free so, it was crepes for me only!

We ate some breakfast and then got all of our stuff together.  We locked our stuff up in one of the closets at the place and decided to head over to a place called the Laundromat.  Jess chose the place because it had an indoor area where kids could play.  We made our way down through the downtown area of Reykjavik and over to the place where they had this sign outside, jackpot!

So, we took our baby, and Jess' boobs and headed inside.

They had a large area in the basement, where you could do laundry.  In addition, by the machines, they had plexiglass windows so you could watch your kids while you threw in your laundry.  He started following a few older kids and eventually played ball with one, rolling it back and forth on the floor.  We sat and watched and made sure he didn't get himself in to any kind of trouble, which he didn't, he was pretty good and didn't take stuff from other kids.

They had cool little lofts where you could sit and read.

We hung out for a while and since we weren't eating, we headed outside and Jess decided to blow the bubbles she had brought and didn't feel like carrying back home.

We headed back to our place to get the luggage and waited for the van to pick us up for the airport.  Though we were a day behind, I realized that we hadn't taken any pictures of him each month since he was a year old, and since this was a special spot, I thought this would be a good spot to revive it.

Unfortunately, he wanted nothing to do with it.  At all.

He hated the sign.  He crumpled it.

He tried to push it away.

But he finally acquiesced, and put on the face I know we will see thousands of more times before he's a teenager.

We got to the airport and made it through everything without too many problems.  If there were any, I don't remember.  I headed to grab some food for us while Jess took him on to some car plaything.  There were a few douchy Icelandic kids who tried to push him off and wouldn't let him get in the driver's seat, though he was waiting patiently.  One of the parents said nothing to their kid and just let them do whatever they wanted.  Jess gave it to the kid and the parent eventually said something.

After some driving and some fries, the mayor was ready to get on the plane.

The flight went well.  There is probably a story there somewhere, but I don't remember.  I was able to finish up the Iron Man trilogy and the Avengers - both well done and I enjoyed them immensely.  We had a French high school girl next to us and her friend was across the isle with some horrible Russian people who tortured this girl the entire flight and then forced their way out of their seats and into the isle  to push to the front of the plane.  After the flight we just wanted to get the hell off the plane and head home.

When we got off, grandma and grandpa were there to pick us up and were in for their visit this summer.  I think we got food - I think but who knows.  Being the trooper that I am, I had to get myself ready for work the next day - yes work.  From Iceland to Brownsville in less than 12 hours.  How's that for reality slapping you in the face?

Better yet, kicking you in the balls.

At least someone was glad to be home, in the living room and with his toys.

*There will be one more post, a sort of reflection on the trip and traveling with a 20 month old...and our plans for next summer's trip...

The ghost festival, the playground, whales and a Stykki-dinner...

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Last night was kind of interesting in a bizarre way.  After putting the baby in to sleep, I ran over to Jess who was behind her bed hiding so he wouldn't see her, and she could use her iPad.  

Only she was on all fours.  I ran over and had no place to go, other than into a compromising position behind her.  Now the both of us are there on all fours, trying not to laugh.  I assure you, there were no shennanigans going on but if anyone walked in or if he could see us from his crib, he and they might be very confused.

What can I say?  I like it cold.  High 40s in the AM is the perfect weather, especially when it gets up to about 70 and you are going for a hike.  Well, it wasn't getting to 70 and we weren't hiking but I love a cold morning.  We headed to breakfast and had our plan ready.  Grundarfjörður is the next town over.  Jess spoke with the woman in the tourist center and she told us that there was a festival happening there.  So we decided to head to the town then back to Olafsvik for some whale watching.

The town, which was to the east, was further than we anticipated, or better yet, were told.  The scenery was awesome, the usual for around here.  When we got to Grundarfjörður the town was broken up into different colors:  red, blue, yellow and green.  The houses in each were decorated with random decorations that matched their color and there were flags on the street lights denoting the different sections.  If this were Brooklyn, there would be gun shots.

There was no one on the street.  There is a "festival" and there is no one there.  It was kind of like a Twilight Zone episode.  We parked at the docks and then headed in to the town.  We went to the tourist center and spoke with the girl to get some more information about the festival and see what was happening for the day.

Apparently, the festival is to welcome home people who moved elsewhere.  The girl said the festival didn't "celebrate anything."  So, I am guessing it is a homecoming?  About 1000 people live in the town, she said 4-5k people come to the town for the weekend.

So, where the fuck are they?  There is no one on the street.  No one anywhere but in this place, it's the girls working the tourist place and the two DJs outside.  Since the festival had no events until the football match at 8 and the ball at 11, (both PM) we decided to walk around down by the water.  

Welcome Home!!!  There's no one here!!!

We stopped to play in the park - I know, you're surprised.

He's been oddly shy of slides lately and we are not sure why.  He used to always go down on his own but now he seems to always need someone to go with him. 

Of course, he pooped, so we changed him on the Icelandic changing table provided in the playground. 

He liked the tunnels - he just wished he had some other kids to play with but, like I said, the town was eerily empty for one about to have a festival for five-thousand people.

He started to line-up the rocks on the boat - which by the way, is a staple of every playground in Iceland.

Above, is the "Kirkjufell" or Church Rock.  It was pretty large and awesome looking, I wish we could have hiked it but we did not have time with all the fascinating activities happening during the festival.

After completely exhausting ourselves with the festival activities, we stopped to do a cache near the side of the road with good views of the Kirkjufell.

We made it back to Olasvik and the baby was asleep.  We had some time, so we left him in the car, I meditated and apparently, Jess left.  When I woke up, I mean finished meditating, she was no where to be found.  The baby woke up as well and I ran upstairs to the hotel room to find her.  She wasn't there. Then I went across the street to the technology oasis, she wasn't there.  This normally wouldn't be a problem except that it is about 1:30 and we need to be at the boat for the whale tour at 1:45.  Oh yeah, I need to change some clothes and whatnot too.  Finally, she comes sauntering out of the Farmers' Market, which in small towns in Iceland is where people make shit and sell it.  Not like the ones at home, but sorta similar.  

We got on the boat and Jess and the baby bundled up and got ready for the tour.  Most everyone (about 20 or so people) were on the front of the boat.  We ate our PB&Js as the boat set sail.  

The captain announced that they would be using a very complex system for identifying where to look.  The front of the boat would be 12 o'clock and then the other spots would follow as normal on a clock.  Very clever indeed.  He also announced that on yesterday's tour, they saw 4 out of the 5 species that are normally in this area.  In other words this was a disclaimer in case we saw shit.

We did see this jellyfish - and there were a ton swimming about in the area.

After about an hours worth of sailing we caught our first glimpse of the ever disappearing "Sea whale."  We don't know what species it was but Jess determined that the captain said it was a sea whale.  Really, Jess?  I know they said we might see Minke (which I ate the last time I was here), Orca and Sperm but not the Sea whale.  Whatever the hell it was, we saw it off in the distance.  Pretty cool.

Fuck Shark Week.

The wind was whipping pretty good and the baby was not hearing any noise about taking a nap in the backpack though I wish he had.  He also refused to put his hands inside to keep them warm and he wanted to take his hat off.  He was starting to get a bit cranky but otherwise he was very, very good. 

Next up, we got to see Orca, killer whales.  This is when it got real for me.  It was pretty sweet.  We mainly saw one swimming around but he/she was good about resurfacing and taking dives so that all of the tourists could get some good shots of him.

Jess decided that she and the baby had had enough for a while and would head inside to the cabin below to warm up and hang out a bit. Apparently, for a few minutes, His Highness resigned from the crown and took the helm, guiding us towards the whales.

The big excitement came when far off in the distance, we saw a big spout blow.  The captain announced in at 1 o'clock - to look, that wasn't the time for those of you who may be confused and we headed over to the area.

It really doesn't look like much, but it was huge and it was a sperm whale.

Sperm.

Unfortunately, he didn't do any jumps but when he dove for the last time, you could see his tail as the last thing going down, just as you would see in a movie or an artists depiction.  It was pretty cool.  Of course, this is the same whale of Moby Dick fame.

Dick.

On the way back in to shore, we caught a glimpse of a family or school (pod?) of Orca.  There were at least four of them swimming around and often, two would surface and dive together.  It was pretty cool to see.

I had to take the obligatory shot of the glacier from the boat.

All in all, very successful and I was able to work sperm and dick into the blog without being disgusting.  Not something you thought would happen since I started the post off with the two of us on all fours.

We headed up to Stykkishólmur for dinner.  I also looked up the caches that were there to ensure that I had them in the GPS and there was one that I definitely wanted to do and that did not disappoint.  Stykkishólmur was another quaint little town, larger than the others and one clearly looking to take advantage of the tourism situation.  The town was clearly heavily into the fishing industry at some point (still probably is to some degree).  We had a reservation at Narfeyrarstofa, which was recommended to us by the woman at the tourism center in Olafsvik.

It was a bit of an upscale place, and the baby had fallen asleep on the ride over.  He woke up, rather unhappily when we parked and we had to take a few minutes to calm him down before walking in. 

He was not happy.

They took us to the second floor, it was a house, as were a number of other restaurants in the area.  It was very cool and probably turn of the century.  Last one, not this one.

We sat and ordered some food.  His highness was very happy with the bread and fries that came out first - and the ketchup that came with them so that he could dip.

He loves to dip.  He'll dip anything in ketchup and eat it.  He'd dip ketchup in ketchup if you'd let him.  As we are getting ready to order, I pull his plate away from him before he knocks the ketchup all over the place.  Like a true champ, I manage to grab it just hard enough so the pyrex slides off the plate and land right on my crotch.

I look like an eleven year old girl who didn't know what to expect.

The fish soup was highly recommended, so I got that for a starter and then I got a lamb dish.  I think the venison was the night before.  Who knows.  Either way I am traveling with two vegans (one a sort of vegan), so Bambi and Lambchop it is.  There must be balance in the universe.  When I ordered, I told the waiter that I would like to get the fish soup so I could pour it in my crotch for the next course.

Don't they have any coniglio in this country?

I am sure there were a bunch of other things that happened at dinner but I am old now and it is over a week ago and I don't remember.  He was getting antsy so they were finished and they left while I waited for the bill with my ketchup stains.

We headed to the little area at the top of the town where the cache was.  It was a brief walk a bunch of steps to some of the best views we got to see.  The views of Stykkishólmur from here were top notch.  There were one of the tiny safety orange lighthouses and they were doing a bunch of work on the summit - clearly sprucing it up for the tourists who, if they're lucky enough, find out about this spot and take a walk over after an excellent dinner.  We grabbed a few shots from the top and then dropped off just below to find the geocache, which we did after his highness was done picking some weeds and turning over as many rocks as he could, helping to search for the cache.  The views were awesome in all directions - clear open skies, ocean, town, and green.  If it was there, you could see it, nothing to block your view for tens if not possibly hundreds of miles.  Do you think they need any principals in Iceland?

We headed back down and to the car, for the ride home.  We stopped to grab a cache or two.  The scenery again was otherworldly, adding that final exclamation point to our last full day on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula.