Such a bittersweet feeling on that last day of vacation, you know?
It's a big travel day, and thoughts naturally return to the thoughts you were having on your last big travel day – the day you got there. Ten days ago, we made our first drive across the barren landscape from the airport to Reykjavik, having no clue what to expect, no idea what was ahead of us. And today we made that same drive from Reykjavik back to the airport. Knowing.
We left you last at Hótel Hellnar on Snæfellsnes Peninsula which, now that all is said and done, was one of the big highlights of the trip. The cliffs and the rock formations were unforgettable, and so was our time at the hotel. The next morning we had a delicious breakfast in the dining room overlooking the ocean. The sky was much friendlier than it had been the day before – bright blue with a warm sun. We took advantage of it by spending a leisurely morning on the deck.
We bumped into a man and woman and Thayer said hi to them as if we were already acquainted. They looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place them in memory until Thayer reminded me that the woman approached me a few stops ago—at Gauksmýri Lodge in Hvammstangi—to tell me I had forgotten my jacket in the dining room. Now, in Hellnar, they were soaking up the sun on the deck, too, so we spent a couple of hours chatting with Natacha and Paul from Belgium about our trips (they were on their honeymoon), marriage, Belgian and American politics, languages, and anything else that popped up. We exchanged welcomes to Seattle and Belgium and intentions to keep in touch.
After check-out, we drove up a mountain road and frolicked about on Snæfellsjökull – or “Snow Mountain Glacier” – then continued the drive back to the mainland and down to square 1: Reykjavik. We checked in with Apartment K again and stayed in a different flat, yet equally awesome in décor. An egg-shaped toilet, a stone-walled bathroom, and a ceramic bird statue centerpiece were among the unique features. They really go all out with the adornments, which make it such a fun and interesting place to stay. I plan to write a very satisfactory review on Trip Advisor.
We had nommilicious sandwiches upstairs at Prikið, its old windows overlooking downtown, and then met up with Thayer's old college friend, Shauna for drinks at a bar called Boston, where she seemed to know probably 7 or 8 people who came in throughout the evening. “It's Reykjavik,” she said in explanation. Shauna has lived in Iceland for about two years. She came one summer, fell in love with the place (not hard to do), and did everything she could to come back. This is no easy feat. To apply for residency, you must first find a job and prove that you are the one most qualified individual for the position – out-qualifying all the applicants in the entire European Union. She found a loophole in the system, though, which was to create a business and then apply for license to hire herself. Totes brills. The system doesn't have that loophole anymore, so she skated by that one with some amazing luck. She, true to fairytale form, has met her Icelandic love in a man named Arnar Somethingsson, and they are getting married in a few weeks. Love in the Ice Lands!
At 1am we went back to Apt K, suited up in our eyemasks, and slept the sleep of world-weary travelers. This morning we enjoyed a fantastic breakfast and coffee and, of course, my Swiss Mocha on the patio at Tivoli and wrote out all our postcards in the sunshine. Then it was off to Keflavik and off the ground.
It feels good to be heading home. Vacation life is awesome but hard to maintain, and I miss my kitties. But I must say that I feel like I'm leaving with unfinished business in Iceland. I feel full, yet not quite satisfied. I think that means we'll go back again someday, so knowing that will have to do for now.
Before we left Seattle, we got a lot of confused looks and questions of, “Iceland? Really?” The answer is: Iceland, really. Because it's both firmly settled and virtually untouched. Because it's both monochromatically brown and fantastically colorful. Because it's covered in both the highest cliffs and the flattest plains you've ever seen. Because it's like the edge of the earth, or the middle of the moon, or just the most impossibly beautiful fantasy world you could dream up.
