Derby and Donuts: an Icelandic Tale

Clearly it's been a awhile since our last post. We're in England now. We've rented a...well, they call it a campervan but really it's a minivan with an itty-bitty mattress you can set up in the back on which to sleep while touring the countryside. But more on that in another post. I still have to finish up with Iceland! As you might imagine, internet is scarce while camping, hence the lack of posting. I've realized how spoiled I'd become with 4G internet access everywhere with a smartphone. You never have to be far from Google ever! But now our phones have switched to 2G internationally. That really shouldn't be a thing....

Anyway, Iceland. Seriously, it's an incredible place. We were actually pretty sad to leave. And our first week in England, we kept trying to say 'thank you' in Icelandic. Which wouldn't make a whole lot of sense here. Obvi.

We finished up our time in the Arctic with a visit to Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa located on a lava field outside of Reykjavik.  (I was totally going to impress you and write the name out in Icelandic, but Google isn't giving it to me to copy and paste. Just pretend you're amazed with the vast amount of Icelandic language that I picked up in our short time there.) It's a major tourist attraction but it's amazing! It's a gigantic natural hot-tub set against the incredibly gorgeous and mountainous landscape that's misty, eerie and kind of otherworldly. You buy a ticket and can pretty much just stay as long as you like, floating, swimming, relaxing, being an idiot tourist teenager (sometimes I'm not very patient with humans...). They give you two different face masks, mud and algae respectively. That makes it even creepier, what with white or green faced people emerging from the mist. It can be a little 'Night of the Living Dead'-ish. I think my mom (who watches too many zombie movies) would die of fright (love you mom).

I really need a haircut

This is only a very small part of it. It's quite large. And a camera phone doesn't really do it justice. The water is like a baby blue color.

On Friday and Saturday I went to CrossFit Reykjavik which is the home Box (CrossFitter's fancy term for Gym) of Annie Thorisdottir, who has been the Fittest Woman on Earth. Twice. *Fangirl squee!!* The coaches were all tall and blonde and fierce but I was quite relieved to realize that the people WODing alongside me were pretty normal. I got to do the 16.4 Open workout with a bunch of Icelanders. That felt like quite the privilege :)

CFReyk

Note that the post-WOD position is pretty universal

K-Starr is universal too!  His wise words are emblazoned on CFReyk in their stretching area :)

On our second day walking around the city, we stopped in at a cafe and saw a poster for a roller derby tournament taking place on Saturday so we decided to go to that over the weekend. We took  a taxi to get there (my first taxi ride!!!!!!!!!! Like a said, I'm a country girl and I've been waiting my whole life to take a taxi!) It was Finland's team, The Dirty River Roller Girls, versus Iceland's Ragnarok. We rooted hard for Iceland but they lost, rather abysmally. In their defense, they are a much newer team, circa 2011 than Finland's. It was pretty awesome to watch. Neither of us had been to a roller derby match before. The closest we came was watching Whip It (good movie by the way).

Iceland's team, Ragnarok

Set up and awaiting the whistle

The wolf is one of two of the Ragnarok's team mascots

The Ram. The other team mascot. Both mascots were teenage girls with spunk and cartwheels to spare. Please try to imagine  a ram doing a cartwheel. You won't regret it.

It was about 6:30pm when the derby ended and we didn't really know how to get back. Our taxi was obviously gone and it's far enough out of the city that there aren't taxi's waiting anywhere. Josh suggested walking until we found a taxi. We didn't find a taxi. And way past feeding time. It was three miles back. Three. No snacks. Clearly an end-of-the-world scenario for me. But wonder of wonders, I survived and we made it to dinner at around 8:30 or 9 that night. And actually, the walk back was along the coast which is simply stunning and once we got back into the city, we got to see even more murals and graffiti. So the walk was actually pretty nice. I just had to learn to control the hangry monster within.

An owl, I think. Really great rich color, whatever it is.

Ibiza of the North. That made me chuckle.

We originally thought this was a dracula-esq depiction but Josh looked it up later and discovered it's actually a reference to an Icelandic saga. It means something along the lines of "The one that I've treated the worst is the one I loved most". Truer words unfortunately sometimes...

This is my favorite piece. It spans three separate surfaces and angles of the same building. It's lovely and romantic. I imagine them as French...

An ancient boat up on blocks that has a great mural on the front corner that you can't really see in the picture. It's a woman-monster-thing clawing her way out of the boat. And then an underwater scene behind it.

It really is a fun-looking city. No beige and taupe to be found. It's all so colorful and vibrant!

We ended our time in Reykjavik with one last stroll through the city and a final trip to the donut truck. Serious foodgasm. 

This is mostly for my dad. The vanity plate reads ND4SPD. Excellent.

The sign on the gate isn't legible in the picture, but it says "Single Gloves" and then it has a whole lotta phone numbers on it. Guess it's kind of like a singles mixer? 

The donut truck that helpfully parks just outside our flat.

Josh bid farewell to this lovely island with a bit of art. He took a 500 krona painted a cityscape on the back in watercolors. We bought our donuts with it so it's back in circulation.

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!

World's Largest Ball of Twine

We have arrived at our final destination (other than home) in Cawker City Kansas. What could possibly be there, you might ask? And for good reason too, because truly, there is nothing else in Kansas except for....THE WORLD'S BIGGEST BALL OF TWINE!!!!! How excited was I to finally get here? This was super exciting and I'm going to tell you right now that I'm following this post with a lot of pictures of the same thing so be prepared to be regaled by an array of twine pictures.

Cawker City: Home of the World's Largest Ball of Twine

Kinda looks like time has stood still here, doesn't it?

In 1988 it was pretty big.

In 2006, it was bigger!

And now....It's HUGE! The yellow squiggle line runs down the steps and up and down the sidewalks on both sides of the street. The words lining the yellow squiggle urge you to follow the lines to look at a series of paintings in the windows of the buildings along the main street and look for the ball of twine incorporated into each one.

It's SO BIG!!!

I'm so excited to be here!

One last stop and pose for the Wedding Glasses

The guest book. There were people there to visit only two days before us. People have come from Texas, California, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and now Pennsylvania! 

This is the souvenir shop that is open sometimes. The sign in front of it says 'Souvenirs from 50 cents to $25'. Gotta love the price range; then you know what you're getting yourself into.

The shop wasn't open, but luckily the owner posts her phone number and I called it and she sent me down the street a couple of blocks to her house where she keeps souvenirs also! She was pretty funny. 

The owner of the souvenir shop was a funny little old lady. She was the tiniest, most petite lady with dark gray hair piled atop her head and falling in messy ringlets around her face. She had huge bug-eye glasses and a flower patterned robe on when I arrived. She showed me the corner of goodies and I rifled through a bit and I asked her about adding twine to the ball. Excitement of all excitements, we were allowed to add twine! She walked out to the foyer and hauled out a huge spool of sisal twine, handed me one end and instructed me to walk outside to the mailbox then turn around and come back to her. Twice. She cut me two pieces, one for each of us and verbalized very precise instructions. "You make sure to go on back and tie that in because it's goin' in the book, now. You go on back now" she says. We did indeed "go on back" and had a grand old time tying our very own pieces of twine into the ball, which we have a video of but I can't figure out how to upload it so that's a bummer, but I guess there are a lot pictures.
 

And now, we're headed home. It's been quite a trip. There have certainly been some highs and lows but as we reflect on how lucky we are to have had the opportunity to do this trip, we are so thankful. What a wonderful blessing it has been to be able to spend this amount of time together, continuing to learn about one another and learning the art of communication and compromise (which I'm sure we will be learning about our entire lives). It has truly been a journey and it's been fun to have you all travel with us. Thanks for reading the blog--it really has been a blast to be able to share the highlights with you. Don't stop reading though; I know Josh has one more post he'd like to share with you all.

...til the next time!

Four Corners!!!! (and then some)

We made a detour after Las Vegas to Salt Lake City, Utah. One of our friends from college was in a skiing accident just before Christmas and broke his leg and tore his ACL and meniscus.  He just had surgery a couple of days ago and we decided that we were this close so we HAD to go see him. And we're glad we did. It was awesome to catch up with Matt and hear about his new job and his passion for his work. We had the privilege of meeting his mother and a few of his friends while there too.

After Utah, we drove down to FOUR CORNERS!!!  When my family and I made our trip out West back in '99, the one place I wanted to go was Four Corners and I got sick right when we got there and didn't make it onto the monument. So, I was pretty stoked to finally make it there.

Finally!

Josh was kinda excited too :)

Rockin' the wedding glasses

This is Ship Rock, which you can see from Four Corners. It's difficult to see from the picture but the  natives long  ago thought it looked like a ship and so they traveled to it hoping to find other people but it was in fact, just a rock but they ended up staying there and today the town is called Ship Rock.

Colorado!

We made it to  Colorado! We' were here to visit Josh's aunt and uncle who live in Colorado Springs, CO. The mountains here....well, I hadn't seen real mountains before, I guess. They are spectacular and magnificent. Almost more glorious to see than the Grand Canyon, in that awe-inspiring way. We stayed at an awesome little lodge with real hot springs! Hot springs are not uncommon in CO. The town we stayed in had a fitness center and outdoor pool that was fed by hot springs so it's hot year-round. It had lanes and everything! The place we had gave us a free hour in this little hot spring hot tub thing.

The mountains of Colorado. Glorious, aren't they?

Private little space with a snowy little hot spring. Awesome.

Funny little lodge at the base of a mountain in Ouray, CO

Like driving through Narnia.

We stopped for lunch the other day and found other really big structures...

World's largest pine cone?

World's largest rose?

Now we're in Kansas, heading for the World's Largest Ball of Twine. Pictures will follow.