Pram Bam Thank You Ma'am

I've been doing my laundry in the shower and hanging it up in the closet on hangers to dry (which still isn't dry. My sister-in-law would tell me I should've packed more SmartWool. I'll listen next time Juliann, I swear.) Wash, rinse, repeat. Laundry has always been one of my least favorite chores. In case you were wondering, shower laundry is not more fun.

Oh, and this has nothing to do with anything, I just think it's kind of funny. Babies around here aren't pushed around in typical American strollers. You know, the ones that come equipped with cup holders and jogging capabilities. The strollers around here are prams. Like actual prams. Think Downton Abbey but with less lace. They bob and bounce over everything. It's pretty fantastic.

On Tuesday Josh and I went to a travel agency on the main downtown street in Reykjavik to book a bus tour taking us around the Golden Circle of Iceland. It's a big thing to do as a tourist. It hits three of the main scenic hotspots of Southern Iceland. When it was finally our turn at the travel agency Josh asked if any of the tours were accessible and she said 'Ummm nope'...Ummmm crap?  But she did give us the name of an agency that helped someone else in a wheelchair just last week. There's hope! We turned around and walked to the other end of the country (I'm not a city girl. In the country we drive everywhere, not walk. This is a new concept. One that makes my feet hurt.) Lo behold 'Iceland Unlimited' resides in a huge office building way off the normal walking area. It's in a more industrial/business park sort of place. Basically a place that you don't typically go without an appointment. It's on the sixth floor so we hop on the elevator and get to the correct floor. Once you step off the elevator you can go either way, neither of which is marked with signs. Josh looks at me and says, "which way do you think we should go?" I kid you not, no sooner had the words left his mouth, than a guy in a wheelchair comes rolling around the corner to the left. Maybe you had to be there but I pretty much thought that was the funniest thing ever. Turns out he's Jon (the 'j' is pronounced like a 'y'), the owner of the company. Jon is on his way out but his associates can help us if we just go through the doors. So we do and eight people in headsets and swivel chairs all turn simultaneously to look at us. Really, we should have made an appointment. But seriously, they turned out to be like the nicest people ever. They stopped what they were doing and got us set up with a rental car with hand controls (I'm so not driving) and booked us a tour. Perfection. Actually, it seems like all of Iceland is an incredibly friendly place. People aren't exactly approachable. Very stoic. And tall. But as soon as you ask them a question, they are so helpful and so nice!

We drove first out to Gulfoss, a gigantic waterfall. A GPS, named Kate, came with the car. If you ever need a laugh, have a British GPS robot voice try and pronounce Icelandic words. That was our entertainment for the ride. Kate's final direction to us as we neared Gulfoss was "In 300 meters, navigate off road". That was not a gravel or dirt road. Off road was the waterfall. Thanks Kate. We didn't listen though and stopped in the parking lot like good little tourists. We thought it was prettier than Niagara. Also, please note the rainbow!! And it was St. Patrick's Day. I'm pretty sure that means good luck or extra leprechaun magic or something, right?!

Rainbow Selfie :)

Here you can actually see the waterfall without our heads blocking the whole thing

Next we went to Geysir, a geothermal hot springs area home to Strokkur, a geyser that explodes every few minutes. Each blast isn't the same height as the last, so some of the spouts are just little things and sometimes they reach up to 40 meters! This was actually our favorite natural wonder we saw on our trip today.  Here's the progression of Stokkur:

The geyser is starting to explode...

In all its 'sploding glory

All of the water falls back into the pit and leaves a cloud of steam? water vapor? Not actually sure what it  would be, technically

It's all over.

Here you can see it from farther away. Some of the blasts were SO big! And some were itty bitty

It was pretty comical to watch the people watching Stokkur. Most of the people were trying to get a selfie with someone when it blasted. So all around were people with their cameras poised and ready in prime selfie position and smiles pasted on their faces. And then they waited that way. And waited. Sometimes it would bubble and burble and they'd be like "oooh get ready!" and nothing would happen. Gotta love when nature makes fools of us all.

We watched Stokkur for awhile and then headed to þingvellir (pronouced 'Thing-vell-ear"), a National Park of Iceland. It houses the area where to you can see two tectonic plates drifting apart, creating a canyon called Almannagja. It's huge. As in, they've built a walking path that you can meander through the great fissure.

Almannagja

Almannagja, no heads

Other fissures. So crazy to think something so deeply separated could've been together at one point

One more fissure. With snow!

We made one last stop along the road for me to meet some Icelandic horses! It wasn't like an organized tour or anything. Just the side of the road where some horses were hanging out. Clearly they were waiting for me to pet them.

My new bff

Evidently some of Game of Thrones is filmed here and these are the horses used

Once we made it home, we drove out of the city to a really dark area that's supposed to be good for spotting the Northern Lights. Sadly, we didn't see any. Too much cloud cover :( It's still on our bucket list though. So maybe we'll find somewhere else to see them. Or maybe we'll be back to Iceland. I mean, with views like this...

All Other Hipsters Need Not Apply

Annnnnddd we're off! We said goodbye to our house. (And shameless plug because it STILL hasn't sold: tell your friends. It's a cute little rancher that needs a good home. Or rather, not home. Owner. It needs a good owner.)

We made it to Iceland! Not gonna lie, I had my doubts when our plane out of Lancaster wasn't sure they could take a guy in a wheelchair...Here's the plane:

I mean, that's a tiny plane. For sure. We checked in at the desk of the Lancaster Airport and sat down to wait. Next thing we know, out comes the pilot with a tape measure in hand and a grimace on his face. As it turns out, ADA doesn't require planes with fewer than 50 seats to be accessible in any way. And this one definitely had less than 50 seats. It was kind of like that moment in Office Space when the boss starts talking about TPS reports: "So, yeah....". But thankfully they were an adventurous sort of staff and let us go out to the plane and test if Josh could firstly, get in the plane and secondly, fit the chair in.

We were two of three passengers on the plane. The world's smallest plane.

The flight took all of 35 minutes and we landed in Dulles for a 7 hour layover. The flight to Iceland was just under six hours and we landed at 6:30am Iceland time. It probably would've been smart to sleep on the plane. But we're rookies. So we didn't. And jet lag is stupid.

Our first day was mostly spent getting to our little flat and sleeping. Getting from the airport proved slightly tricky. I guess accessibility means different things to different people. You'd think we'd know that by now, but alas. We talked to a bus company at the airport and they said we'd be fine. And we were. Josh just had to bump up the steps of the bus on his butt into the aisle and up the seat. And we put his chair in the luggage compartment of the bus. Which incidentally, fit in completely whole, without breaking any part of it down.

Yesterday, we explored downtown Reykjavik (oooh I finally spelled it without looking it up! Personal victory!) and our observation is that Icelandic men have nailed the hipster status. Their beards are just...perfect. They seriously look like the quintessential hipster.

Our first stop in our explorations took us The Phallological Museum of Iceland. Yes it is what you think it is. No, you can't un-see the things you've seen inside. But you should still probably Google it. Just for fun.

I had my first language barrier mishap. We stopped in at a cafe that had a 'chai special' posted on the door. I ordered it and it came to just over 2100 isk. That's like over $17. I was nearly in tears because everyone said Iceland was expensive but seriously we're going to be broke before the week is up. The guy comes over with my chai and a styrofoam container. I told him I only ordered a drink. He said no I didn't because that would be a very expensive drink (you're telling me!) Turns out, I ended up ordering a grilled cheese and tomato soup with my chai. *Facepalm*

We visited the modern cathedral, Hallsgrimskirkja (had to look that one up):

And The Sun Voyager:

There's a piece of the Berlin Wall that just came in October of last year:

 


And there is graffiti ALL over the city. Like seriously, everywhere. But it's amazing. It's as though it's a celebrated work of art, not a criminal act done in the dead of night. Some of the works are huge, like murals.

And we capped off the day trying a few of the Icelandic food traditions which believe it or not, includes hot dogs:

If your order it with "everything" on it, it includes: mustard, ketchup, cooked onions, raw onions and a mayo-relish combination. They're made with lamb in addition to the beef and pork that's common n the U.S. It's really kind of awful.

Iceland is very proud of its licorice and chocolate as well. The licorice is filled with coconut and is actually really awesome. Neither of us like black licorice but this was excellent. And the chocolate. Oh, the chocolate. I just want to eat all the chocolate. So smooth and creamy and delicate. All day, every day. Also there's a donut food truck literally a stone's throw away from our flat. So good, but so bad....

Tomorrow we're hunting for the Aurora Borealis. It's been cloudy every day so far. It looks like tomorrow will be our only chance so cross your fingers!