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| Abby and Kyndall |
We all met up at Kyndall's house with our bags packed and our suitcases over filled. Abby could barely carry her bag down the entry way steps. She waddled down the stairs with several scarves swaying back and forth with her. Abby’s mom gave us a ride into DC. For the whole six hour car ride we dramatically sang along to the frozen soundtrack to get pumped for Iceland. Bless Mrs. Welch's heart for putting up with us singing--or rather screaming-- along at the top of our lungs along to “Let it Go” on repeat.
Somehow Alissa managed to fall asleep, despite the chaos. It was Kyndall's first time in a plane, so we expected her to be a bit nervous. Of course she wasn't, because she's an adrenaline junkie. When we got off the ground she grinned so widely, she looked like a mad scientist, with an almost frightening look in her eyes. Sometimes Kyndall's love for heights scares me because I don't think I'll ever be truly able to trust someone whose idea of fun is possible death. Abby, Taylor, and I are firm lovers of the ground, and none of us are embarrassed to share it. In that moment, looking into Kyndall's crazed blue eyes, I knew she was going to get us into some trouble on this trip. Abby and I exchanged a knowing glance, as if to say, "here we go again."
The plane was a bit hot and Kyndall suffered silently in her big parka for the whole ride--Taylor suffered not-so-silently sitting next to her because she was being crushed. I'm not sure why she was already wearing it, but she kept it on even when we were at the airport--which airport security wasn't so happy about.
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| A map of the US and Iceland for perspective |
We got on our fight at 8:35 PM. We had to be very diligent when looking for a good price for our tickets. The best deal was $3,030.30 USD for all of our flights, but the going rate is around $1400 round trip per person! It was surprising how expensive it would be, considering that Iceland isn't all that far from the US from a global standpoint.
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| The Black Pearl Hotel |
We were lucky enough to all get to sit together, but this time Taylor refused to sit next to Kyndall and her enormous coat. We all fell asleep, exhausted from our passionate 176 renditions of “Let It Go”. We woke up around 6:30 am to get off the plane in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. It was a bit brisk, earning a few "I told you guys" from Kyndall as we all shivered.
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Bye bye America! Kyndall, Alissa, Taylor, me,
and Abby at the airport |
We tried to get our bags from the baggage carousel but Taylor kept shoving Kyndall as she reached for her bag, which would make her miss it and go back through the cycle again. She got really frustrated and her cheeks turned even pinker than they already were from the abrupt change from overheating to cold. Soon we all joined Taylor. It ended up being an everybody against Kyndall thing, honestly because we were all pretty done with her coat at this point. After ten minutes we gave up and all got a little taxi. In Iceland they don't have the classic yellow cabs that we do in the states, they just have normal cars sent by the company. We rode to the rental car place and picked up our car. It was a Citroin Berlingo, a gray five seater with a roomy trunk. It wasn't a particularly attractive car, but it did it's job.
The weather reminded me of Oregon's pleasant dreariness as we drove to the hotel where we would be staying for the next four nights. It drizzled a little on the drive to our hotel. It was a bit difficult figuring out how to work the windshield wipers, but we were lucky that Taylor had thought to read the instruction manual. When we arrived at the Black Pearl, a modern looking building with floor to wall windows,we were super excited.
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| Taylor in the living room |
It was weird walking into our small apartment. It was all white with dark purple accents, and looked very futuristic. The entire apartment was barely furnished, but in a fashionable way, which did prove to be a little cumbersome when we all sat in the living room. All of the rooms were immaculately clean, which I suppose is ideal with hotels, but I was a little scared to make a mess. I think we all were as we carefully unpacked, hanging up our huge coats by the entryway. Taylor and Alissa roomed together and so did Abby and Kyndall. Their rooms were across the halls from each other and I floated from room to room each night. On the first night we went down to a little family owned corner store and got all the fixings for a stir-fry. Turns out Abby is allergic to shrimp, so we had to make a second batch. Good thing she remembered before she took a bite because she would've gone into anaphylaxis. She kept saying, "I can't believe ya'll tried to kill me! I thought we were friends!" Alissa looked at her, straight faced, and said, "That's what we wanted you to think," but couldn't stop from laughing. Alissa made some perfect home baked bread and gooey chocolate chip cookies. We all ate on the balcony overlooking the Reykjavik skyline.
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| Not pictured: Chocolate milk squirting from Abby's nose |
It got colder--the high of the day was only 55 degrees--so we had to go inside. The highs in Iceland, even in summer are around 20–25 °C (68–77 °F). Even Kyndall, still in her big coat, complained. Making fun of her for her stupid coat not even doing its job, we went inside for the night.
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| Us watching terrible commercials |
We watched weird Icelandic commercials and made up what they were saying. Even commercials for banks and grocery stores became sham-wow commercials, and we all tried to pronounce Icelandic words in the Billy Mays voice. Abby pretty much died laughing and told us to stop. We didn't. We watched some really terrible Icelandic reality shows, but out of homesickness started watching some really terrible American reality shows. Of course, we also had to watch Frozen, just listening to the soundtrack wasn't enough. Unsurprisingly, Abby knew all the words to every song. Alissa kept throwing pillows at her to try and mess her up, but Abby still sang it perfectly. We got so fired up singing our first "Let It Go" in Iceland that Kyndall finally took off her coat and threw it at the wall for a dramatic finish, landing in Alissa's freshly baked cookies. Not going to lie, the chocolate was a little bit linty thanks to Kyndall, but they were still the perfect finish to our first night.
Itinerary ●
Iceland Trip Itinerary
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