Day 21: Second Day in Iceland

Friday, May 5th
          Today is our last day of international scavenging! Tonight we head back to the US! It's bittersweet. I loved Europe and I'm sad to leave, and it also means the trip is almost over. But at the same time I CANNOT WAIT to be home.
          Today we got an early start because we drove out to Hotel Budir, (which was apparently really fancy) and it was 2 1/2 hours away. Catherine slept for part of it, I slept for the WHOLE RIDE THERE. We had a really nice breakfast there, and after we all talked for a while we went to look at this church/graveyard place, and it was actually pretty cool. We looked around to try and find the oldest death date (which turned out to be the owner of the place).
          After that we came back to Reykjavik to do scavenges here. Some of which included sending postcards, we saw an indoor mini street market (European style I guess), and we got the most AMAZING HOT DOGS IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. I guess Iceland is known for hot dogs because they have their own name for it, and they deep fry it, put a ton of stuff on it, and it is just SO AMAZING. I think today was also National Costume Day or something (NOT Halloween) because everyone was in onesies, bee outfits, and all of the little kids were dressed up in expensive little kid outfits. We went to the tallest point you can get to in Reykjavik, (which is an 8 story church) and it was nice. We also went to see a couple different statues, which were kind of cool.
          The last thing we did was feed animals in the lake before we headed back to the airport. We had leftover pita bread from yesterday, so we used that. They were all so cute!! There were ducks and these weird seagulls, but they were all really cute.
          We headed back to the airport and it was sad for us to leave Iceland. We just loved it so much. We are definitely going back with our family. Getting off the plane tonight IN THE US was so great. I was so happy to be in my home country, and I got really happy when the signs said US customs, or US something. When we arrived, Bill told us that Trump was going to be at our hotel or near us, and we weren't too happy. He said our hotel might have some closed off areas. We were really tired when we got back but we were hungry so we went to go get sushi a couple blocks from the hotel. We came back and watched TV while eating sushi, it was nice. And we got to talk to Mommy on the phone. Tomorrow is our LAST DAY OF SCAVENGING, so until next time!! ;)

Daddy's View:

We did all the huge geological tourist attractions yesterday.  And when i say tourist attractions, i mean we saw like maybe six people at each place.  they're all way out in the sticks - the drives out to these places are just as amazing as the places themselves.

There was one place, Hotel Budir, something like that.  It's like a nice bed and breakfast on a remote bluff.  It's like someone closed up filming on a Game of Thrones episode and threw up a bed and breakfast there.  It's apparently the best place on the island to see the aurora borealis.  Have to come back.  You must go there to do nothing.  I am certain it does nothing better than anywhere else.


This is us in front of it.  there's nothing else around except a cliff, oceans, grass, a really remote cemetary.  It's weird that i'm talking about it like it was some attraction, but it was just so cool to be disconnected from the world there.

We ended up at the airport and skedaddled out to NYC.  It was a bumrush out of town - everyone was so drained from the whole trip.  The prospect of a familiar major urban area i think... it just felt like we were getting on a helicopter after we've been found in the middle of the ocean after being adrift for a month.  You just wanted to go back to see it, feel it, civilization.

That all being said, it was also like, man, i really don't want to go back.  Just a totally unique set of thoughts and emotions, this whole trip.

We left Iceland at 5pm, and landed in NYC at 5pm.  Debriefed, promptly fell asleep immediately.  Although I did get a diet coke upon landing.  that's very difficult to get around the world.


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