iceland

In case you don't have time or don't quite feel up to reading about my thoughts on Iceland, I'll summarize them for you now: Yes. Put it on your list. I beg.

And, to see a detailed list of all the places we visited (the idea of outlining & organizing it all oddly overwhelms me at the moment) please visit the Tauck Tours website. They do a much better job than I could of bullet pointing the highlights and route! Plus, their map will give you a perfect view of the area we covered.

We were beyond blessed with excellent weather during the entire adventure -- as was often pointed out to us by the locals. It was sunny, cool, relatively dry, and quite comfortable to be in sweaters & boots. Thanks to my 6 years of living in San Francisco (anniversary is this Labor Day!), I had the perfect "Fall/Slight Winter" wardrobe to bring along. All 48lbs of it, according to the airport luggage scale. Oops. One young lady, when asked about their climate, chuckled and said "Let's just say we pray for 'mild'...", if that gives you a better idea of the kind of possible weather :) So, we were lucky ducks to get so much sunshine and so little rain. 

We experienced the countryside primarily by sea, which, in my humble opinion, was a most excellent way to take in the spectacular landscapes and wildlife. I briefly wrote about the best nature experience in watching orca whales here, and loved many other highlights such as fresh waterfalls cascading into the sea, plethoras of puffins & other bird life, sunsets (it never fully goes dark in summer!), moonscapes, snowcapped mountains, tiny villages, stunning fjord entrances and just general untouched beauty. I admittedly had one morning of bad seasickness as we crossed near the Arctic Circle, but I believe this could have been prevented if I'd been more diligent with the ol' dramamine. So, don't let that deter any of you land lovers out there! Just be prepared to giggle at your fellow passengers as they bounced around the hallways like ping pong balls trying to find their balance.

We ate most of our meals on the ship (two thumbs up!), but were able to try some of the local fare a couple of times on shore. The seafood is excellent, which probably comes as no surprise. The hot dogs, however, were one the most delicious damn things I've ever eaten, and I'm not even embarrassed to admit that. We snagged them from a food-truck in Grundarfjordur, and per the recommendation of the server, tried a version that included freshly hand crumbled Doritos. Ha! I know, right? This was a deep fried hot dog, my friends, with cheese sauce, some kind of salsa sauce, Doritos chips, melted cheese and spice. After devouring this decadent snack B looked over at me and oh so sadly stated "I wished so badly you wouldn't like this, because I wanted to eat the whole thing myself!!" Sharing is not caring, when it comes to an Icelandic hot dog. We also tried the local delicacy on Grimsey Island.....puffin and minke whale. Both tasted mostly like the teriyaki style sauce they were prepared in, to be honest, and although there are something like over 4 million puffin around Iceland, I still feel a tad guilty about this! Please do us both a favor and not look up minke whales online, either. Guilt city.

Anyway, another highlight was watching B plummet himself into the glacier-esque water in Heimay. It was essentially a personal dare fueled on by my family, and quite the exhilarating 30 minutes of pep talk/dock prep by Frank followed by 2 seconds of splash + getmethehelloutofhere by Brandon. Kid has guts, I'll give him that.

Spending this kind of time with my sister & soon-to-be brother in law were particularly priceless aspects of the trip for me. Sharing cocktails in the ship lounge, smearing silica from the Blue Lagoon all over our faces, fighting off the giggles like a bunch of school children each time one tour guide pronounced volcanic "ash" like "ass"... it was all so meaningful simply because it was shared. Seeing the world with people you love is, to me, one of the best feelings in the world.

Listen, you should visit Iceland. There is much more to see and do than was possible in our time so the idea of returning has already been tossed around. The people were kind and, for us fortunate Americans, all spoke English extremely well. Icelandic was the craziest language to hear spoken fluently. I don't think my mouth could form so many consonants in a row if I studied for weeks. And, for what it's worth, I just saw this article a day ago and it sounds about right for the energy this culture gave off. 

So! Here we are. I took a zillion photos along the way, but only pulled out a handful to highlight. There were still too many to show off, so I grouped most of them into a gallery. Admittedly, they are out of travel order. But I hope you'll forgive my laziness and enjoy the images, regardless...

In Gratitude,

Trish