ROCK ON REYKI! - Friday the 18th Jan

OK, I must admit, I’m pretty impressed by the ACIS company. They’ve put together an impressive program for teachers (group leaders) who bring students, quite literally, all over the world. They have an impressive team of group guides and they are “on top of everything”.
Our tour got off on the wrong foot. After working myself to the bone all week trying to get the kids ready for midterms (seniors for the AP, sophs for the state regents test, and juniors to practice a few times for the eventual [and painful] final exam speaking-oral) I should have taken Thursday as a sick day, but I didn’t… I just worked through it, got my nephew’s newly setup MacBook in the mail to him in TX and then off to the airport for an 8 p.m. flight. But not so fast. It took 2.5 hours to get to JFK (what under good conditions is under 40 minutes if I cruise). A US Postal Service Mail Truck (the 18-wheel variety, not the little Grumman thing) t-boned a Firetruck a mile outside the airport. That and the rain and the snow shut down traffic all around the airport. I was so frustrated I got out of the car, walked to the site of the accident in the rain and snow (half the distance to the airport)… then back to the car which had only moved a hundred feet. The trip I had dreamed about was going up in smoke. I wept in frustration knowing there was nothing I could do about it. I tried to sleep a bit to get my head together since I hadn’t slept a good night all week but I was too wound up.
Eventually, a cop car forced traffic out of his way and pushed in front of us. It changed our 120 minute backup into a 90 minute backup and we made it to JFK Terminal 5 at 7:28 p.m. I ran to the counter (recreating a Hertz Commercial just to bleed off some angst and the Björk-looking [God bless them]) counter attendants for Icelandic Air looked at me and just said: GIVE US YOUR PASSPORTS!!! Of course, I was just looking to see if we could rebook for today (Friday) in case there was space in order to salvage something of the weekend. But no, the woman with the intense stare said: Just give me the passports and I’ll get you through!
So I ran back to the car at the curb and breathlessly said: Give me the tix and the passports! And good wifey handed them over and I dragged, or rather carried, our two check-ons, passports and tickets to the counter and let them know that a Japanese lady would be by shortly to finish check-in.
I went to the car, Mariko was sitting there with her jaw open (now it’s about 7:32 p.m.) like: wtf-bomb is going on?… but no time to explain, but rather, I just sent her to the last counter on the left and said: Talk to the nice ladies while I figure something to do with the car.
A Hail Mary (or several, no joke) and a few Knight Rider moves later (praise the Lord that sometimes the cops are also NOT there when you DON’T need them) I found a short-term-30-clams-a-day parking in front of T-5 and, by the time Mariko was ringing me I was already at the entrance of terminal, sprinting, dehydrated, but on the way. I figured, if we had a chance to get on this plane (amongst the announements of: Dr. Butler, Mariko and Björn Dragonsläyersson, please board, this is last boarding…) I had to book it… and not a moment too soon.
The I-Air women pointed us at the shortest security line (albeit the one with the 50 year old guy, nevermind our rush, couldn’t untie his shoes and gth out of our way) and the security guys turning the blind eye to the knife in my backpack that I forgot to remove and the fruit and food in Mariko’s bag, we cruised, preg wifey and all, to be the last to the plane, along with B. Dragonsläyersson.
Two vikings were in our seat, so I quizzingly asked the v-flight attendant, which row is ours (“it’s row 14, Ëlfersson”, her look told me) but she proceeded to unseat an unruly, and lesser, viking that had imperialized my window spot. The guy in the aisle seat lasted 5 minutes before he exploded upward and moved elsewhere. Guess he had something against Japanese, I thought.
But that was the last of my awkward Icelandic experiences (aside from the “no signs out of this airport” experience)… b/c everyone else has been nice and reserved just like a kiwi (New Zealander). Friggin’ love it here. People are lovely, eat well and seem to enjoy life a lot.
Alright, enough. Six p.m. est. 11 p.m. local. Got a two-hour nap today at hotel (awesome, best two hours of my life, tons of dreams, can’t remember what about, however). Went to see the neat church on the hill with Leifer Ericsson and fell asleep and started dreaming where I sat (Mariko said 10-15 minutes or so) but I’m prety tired. So, yeah, time for a shower, get clean clean, dressed, walk down to the harbor to see if the Northern Lights are out (they say since the sky cleared up we might see them tonight… excited much? heck yeah!). It’s close to the Harbor here at the Hotel Centrum (as nice as they say on their website), maybe two minutes from the bay. Looking forward to walking out there and hopefully the wind stays down. After that, wash hands and hit the bed. Breakfast buffet 7-9:30, then tomorrow to see the Blue Lagoon and then a tour of the Golden Circle. ACIS has their stuff together. Met some of their reps (4 of them) and they’re very personable, professional and nice. We had dinner in an old viking hall and met a lot of veteran guides. More decent folk. Pretty impressed. Dinner was great. Some very very tender shrimp in a sort of pumpkin or squash soup as appetizer, a bit of “rough” fish for us non-wild-lamb-eaters and flavored potato squares (almost like polenta) for main, and Icelandic yogurt/ice cream/raspberry sauce for dessert. Argentine red wine along with dinner (excellent) and, well, just an outstanding meal, compliments of ACIS. Wow
There’s so much to like about a visit to Reykjavik: the friendly guy at the hardware store who took us in to a back room to see his computer so he could show us the weather forecast for the next few days, the girl at the bakery who got out from behind the counter to explain the differences in the kinds of chocolate they sold, the girl at the coffee shop who talked our ears off after closing time to tell us about her studies in Denmark and her study of biology here at the University of Iceland and her family five hours away (by car) to the North (or 45 minutes by plane). The water is wild around here. There’s some body of water here in Reykjavik (not the Atlantic) and it’s filled with quacking ducks. Very cool. And the tap water is amazing. Comes in ICE COLD and is delicious…. better than anything. I’d love to bring back gallons of it and have it cold whenever. Love it.
Would I like to live here year-round? No, couldn’t handle it. The sun was “up” at around 10 a.m. and out until about 5 p.m., but as my late Manhattanite friend Janet Warnke said, it’s gemerclichheit (sp?) here. Nice. Cozy.
OK, now 11:15… there are a million more things to say, but can’t keep waifu up all night. We should be up by 8:30 in the morning tomorrow for breakfast before the Blue Lagoon. Sleep should be dreamy (no pun intended). I’m amazed I haven’t broken down into flu or something from lack of rest. Gettin’ by on natural high. Hope my peeps are well back at home. Can’t wait to get back to coffee bar tomorrow for internet access and delish Kaffellatte tomorrow after the grand tour. Pictures and more pictures forthcoming.