Iceland Day 8 - July 2, 2011

Everyone was up and moving by around 8:30 today.  We had snacks for breakfast and packed up our gear.  In the 10 min. walk to the car, we were already pretty wet.  We originally thought about meeting Laur & Chris on the trail, but the rain was coming down more than yesterday so we decided to wait back at the car.  The hikers arrived soaking wet around 11:20 with reports of crazy wind at the top.  The hut was so full they had to sleep with the warden!  We hit the road right away and had to stop several times so Chris could move huge rocks out of our path along the way.  The drive towards Hveragerdi took longer than expected since we ended up on some dirt roads.  One annoying thing about the roads here is that they go from pavement to gravel without notice, making the drive longer.  Stopped in Selfoss for lunch, but once again found the same gross fast food that is all over this country.  I settled on pizza (edible, but not great), while Joe continued our tradition of having Subway in a foreign country.  

We had a little trouble finding Frumskogar Gistihus in Hveragerdi, but when we did it was pretty nice.  We had a small apartment with one bedroom and a living room/kitchenette, and plenty of space to lay out wet clothes to dry!  We thought we could get dinner anywhere on a Saturday night, but apparently places close at 9pm here.  We did manage to get served just before 9pm at Kjot & Kunst.  I finally got chicken and mashed potatoes from the buffet for a more reasonable price, and Joe got more fish and chips since he knows I won’t be cooking fish at home.  Not bad since the place was about to close.  Back at the guesthouse we recapped the trip while packing and celebrated the end of our joint vacation with Gull beer for the boys and ice cream bars for all, and a final “Valta, altna, fresh, fresh.

Iceland Day 3 -June 27, 2011

Looks like we made the right decision with yesterday’s itinerary.  Today’s weather was completely the opposite.  We woke up to fog, cold, and drizzle and scrambled to pack up our things and leave the cottage.  Made one last stop in Husavik to try the bakeri.  I was overally impressed with the pastries we picked up this morning.  Joe liked what tasted like rye bagels and a chocolate chip muffin top while I preferred only the bottom part of a chocolate covered cinnamon roll of sorts. 

Iceland - Day 1 - June 24-25, 2011

Crazy day to be at Logan.  Since many schools got out this week, tons of people were flying to international destinations tonight making Terminal E a zoo.  By the time we made it through check-in and security, we had only 10 minutes to spare to grab Sbarro pizza to go before boarding.  Despite the rainy and foggy weather in Boston all day, we had a smooth night flight on Icelandair.  We were greeted with a complimentary bottle of Glacial Water, and the friendly flight attendants came around with more water nearly every hour to keep everyone hydrated on the 4hr 50 min flight.  Overall we rate customer service high on Icelandair, but we do have to a few complaints.  The 757 was not nearly as comfortable as the A330 Aer Lingus flight.  Joe was all in my space width wise, our bags wouldn’t fit under the seat, and it was unbelievably hot in the cabin.  The seat-back screens also didn’t work a good part of the way and food was only available for purchase.  Think we’ll stick to Aer Lingus for any place besides Iceland....