Iceland – Day 5 (Off to the States!)

Back to the States! Someone made an offer on my condo a while back and we’re closing soon, so I got a lot to do when I get home! For today, we woke up, drank coffee, packed our bags and went by Hard Rock Cafe so I could get my pin. Then we stopped in town near the airport and had some yummy middle eastern food. After gassing up the rental car we dropped it off and checked in at the airport.

Lucky me, I got selected for additional screening. It wasn’t too bad, we waited until shortly before our flight so I just got pulled into a room where my bags and socks and hands were swiped and tested for explosives, then after questioning I rejoined my mom at the gate. The flight home was uneventful, with a gorgeous sunset almost the entire way. I was so tired I didn’t think to get a picture! Oh well…

Photo of me being cooked by an Icelandic troll for attention šŸ¤£

Iceland – Day 2

After sleeping in and slowly getting up and moving while waiting for the ridiculous wind to slow down, we finally got up and moving around 1pm and headed into Reykjavik. Our first stop was the Icelandic Phallological Museum, which holds the largest collection of preserved penis samples in the world. It was actually really interesting, but I particularly liked the small room off to the side with the ā€œhidden peopleā€ penis specimensā€¦given that they donā€™t exist, they’re Icelandic/Norse legends so they just made it up. My favorite was the Hidden Man jar, whose penis apparently only the pure of heart can see just as the hidden man can only be seen by the pure of heart, HAHAHA. Clever. They also have a fully mature sperm whale penis sample too, almost 5 feet long. After spending an hour or so looking at preserved penis samples, we did a little shopping and got some fish and chips for a late lunch. Then we continued down the road to HallgrĆ­mskirkja Church and the Leifur EirĆ­ksson statue, then went down to the water to look at the mountains. It was way too cold and windy to stay down there long, so we ran back to the car and went back to the hotel to warm up a bit. Then we headed to Blue Lagoon, a natural hot spring, and did mud masks and floated in the hot water under the full moonlight for a couple hours. Afterwards we went back to the hotel and ate and showered. Tomorrow will be a road trip day!

Iceland – Day 1 (SNOWMAGEDDON!!!)

Mom and I left O’hare at 7:30pm and landed the next day in Iceland at 7:00am. As soon as we got off the plane we were greeted with red screens warning of an incoming hurricane force blizzard and told to get our rental car and head to our hotel ASAP before all the roads shut down. So instead of our plans for the day, we did exactly that, and opted for the additional $300 extra car upgrade and insurance as well. We got the rental car, and checked in early at the hotel (we were supposed to be in a cabin on a private peninsula but the weather forecast was so bad they moved us to their mainland hotel.) We made a quick stop at the bank to exchange money, then went to the grocery store to get food, then went back to the hotel just as it started snowing and watched TV and slept for 24 hours. The wind was indeed crazy, but instead of the rumored 6 feet of snow we only got like 3 inches. Looks like they exaggerate here just like in the states! What a fun Day 1! To be honest though, I REALLY needed that 20 hour nap. šŸ¤£