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.
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.
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.
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.
