Quicky Iceland Update

Just so that we’re all on the same page…

We landed on Wednesday evening as planned.  The trip was uneventful, and I will forever be grateful for Icelandair and their individualized tv-programming.  We squeezed a full 2 hours out of the children’s programming for Bjarki, he then had a rather wild/squirmy hour before falling asleep for the last two.   Anna was easy to deal with as before.

After landing, we had to endure a 30-40 minute wait while all the passengers were ground through a slow showing of security theater just after getting off the plane (= Unhappy Bjarki).  Another line greeted us at the passport control (= Unhappier Bjarki).  We were greeted at the exit by Steinunn and Einar who rode in in two cars, and so did not have to ride with the bags on our knees like when getting to the JFK airport.

Ohhh, the ride from the hotel in New York… That will go into the story books.  We happened to hail down a yellow cab driver from India, who drove like he was in India.  He did take us past Columbia University (very pretty) and also through Harlem (mostly harmless in daylight) but he got very frustrated with some nasty Harlem traffic snarl, and with the pedestrians crossing the street in Harlem away from the intersections.  In one case he rolled down the window and yelled out “You’re dumb!” to a pedestrian, which Bjarki immediately copied!

Oh, and the taxi was so small (I misjudged its luggage capacity severely, it looked like big SUV from a distance but turned out to be a small one) that Finnur sat in the tightly packed back with the kids, with a lot of  luggage on his knees, while I had the stroller in my lap in the front.  Oh, and the driver was driving so harshly that Anna got car sick, but thankfully she warned us, and we managed to produce a bag in time (we are such pros!).

Aaaanyway.  We got to our final destination around 1am local time, had some cheerios and went to bed.  The next day (Thursday) was spent doing laundry, getting groceries (Finnur’s parents had also been away on vacation), meeting family members and watching some World Cup soccer (of course!).

Today (Friday), I finally managed to unpack our bags so I at least feel much more at home.  We spent the majority of the day at my mom’s place, where we look forward to spending a whole lot more time.

The weather has been just lovely, very calm, with a tiny cool breeze, and some drizzling rain this afternoon.