Monday marked the beginning of our trip overseas. We said our goodbyes and our see you laters and headed off to the airport. We were a bit concerned about our luggage weight but were pretty sure we would be okay. As we got up to the counter though we saw one lady actually weighing carry on!! This was an issue for me as the computer alone weighs 6 lbs. I stashed my backpack with dad quickly as of course we ended up with this woman. Turned out she was really nice if you talked to her nicely which apparently we did because we got 6th row seats in business class style seating. Our seats were huge!! It was pretty light out the whole flight though which made sleeping difficult. I probably only got 1-2 hours on our almost 5 hour flight.

When we arrived I laughed at the fact that they had 2 passport control people at the airport. They didn’t even ask me how long I was staying. Just stamped my passport and away we went ! They didn’t even look at bryce since he flashed his Irish passport. First thing I noticed about Iceland was the smell. It just smelled clean! Even the airport. The air here is amazingly fresh. They put us on a bus to get our luggage which made me laugh because the walk to immigration at Pearson is waay longer.

We made our way into town after exchanging our Canadian money for icelandic krona. We exchanged $87 and got 10,000 krona! We thought that we were rich until we figured out that our bus into Reykjavik cost 7,000. We quickly found out that everything is expensive. Especially food.

Our hotel was nice enough to check us in at 9am which was great. We took a nap which we needed and then went exploring around noon. We found a guidebook that had a walking tour in it and so followed that about. It was a lovely afternoon. We even stopped to have an Icelandic beer aptly named Viking. They are big on Vikings as they were the first settlers here. They keep a lot of traditions. For instance they don’t have family names here. Your last name is related to your fathers first name and is rarely used and never changes, even if you marry. They have a special food here which is fermented shark. Don’t think we will be trying that one!! On the whole Reykjavik reminds me a little of Victoria but with a scandanavian twist. We went to bed yesterday very early! I think we both slept for over 8 hours. I did wake up at 3:30 am though and checked - daylight still there! So strange that there are places in the world that just don’t get dark. ( and in winter barely get light)

Today we are on a bus tour which took us to blue lagoon hot springs. It was very interesting. The water appears a silky blue due to the silica mud, which they also recommend using as a mask. Made me itchy though!! We also visited gullfoss falls which was beautiful.

All in all a great couple days. Have really enjoyed Iceland and was a good transition to London. We leave for there tomorrow afternoon

Hope all is well in the t dot. Happy Canada day. Enjoy the present of HST the government has bestowed upon you!!