Arriving in Iceland

Well, I am happy to report that our flight to Iceland, although long and exhausting, was uneventful.  Until the landing at Keflavik airport.  

As our plane approached the island, our pilot informed us that it was stormy and rainy with a 55 mph headwind(!)--"In other words, it's Iceland," he joked.  The turbulence rocked the plane violently.  The pilot approached really low and then performed a low-altitude 180 degree turn.  The passengers were noticeably concerned as we dropped in on the runway, the plane still bouncing up and down like a basketball.  We could feel the wind blowing the plane around like you can feel it blow your car in a bad storm.

It was a feat of admirable competence that the pilot got us down as smoothly as he did, and when we had safely decelerated, the passengers burst into enthusiastic applause.  

Well, it was Monday, 9:30am local time but still 2:30 in the morning back home, and after the 13 hour journey we were severely jet lagged.   The drive to our guesthouse was excruciatingly long, and we could not have been happier to finally arrive at Alfholl and meet our host Kristjan.  Alfholl is located right around the corner from 101 Reykjavic, which is the touristy downtown area. 

Alfholl means "House of the friendly elves" or some-such.  And Kristjan who is courteous (though not strictly-speaking "friendly"), pronounces it with the typical Icelandic flutter all over the consonants, wide open vowels, and a subtle suggestion of a "-ck" sound at the end.   Like:"Ow-lfth-cOAtl-(ck)"

We share a bathroom, but have our own sink, and the complementary breakfast is good: full of the mundane (toast, marmalade, and corn flakes) and the strange (Gouda, sandwich-meat ham, chocolate-covered-but-still-somehow-tasteless cookie...actually these last ones were called "digestive biscuits").

And also, we can escape an emergency (apparently) by jumping out the window.

Well, we spent the day checking out the city, taking a nap, going to a concert (see the next entry) and then going to bed very early.

We started off with big plans, but we were just too tired.