Foss-cinating fjords.

Well, if I go off the grid, you can find me in Norway. Me telling you that may defeat the purpose of going off the grid, but hey, I might need company.

Heather and I left Reykjavik at 8:59 am (if you are a diligent blog follower, you will remember they charge for parking starting at 9). This was post last Te & Kaffi and using up the last of our krone at the market for snacks. We returned the rental car, had a lovely chat with the shuttle driver, and spent over an hour at the foosball table in the airport. So, news flash. ALL Poochigians are competitive, apparently. There were no mean words, but there was some removal of jackets to tie around our waists when things got heated.

A short two hour flight later and we landed in Bergen, Norway! The good? Perfect weather! The bad? NO PASSPORT STAMP GIVEN IN NORWAY. The ugly? Seriously, no passport stamp.

Gray picked us up in the rental car and drove us straight to the "sentrum" aka downtown of Bergen. I LOVE THIS CITY. I almost can't handle it. It is absolutely adorable and I want to live here... And, wait for it... This place is the inspiration for Arendale. As in, "we finish each other's sandwiches... jinx... jinx again" Arendale. The one and only Frozen.

We stayed in a perfect little apartment (unmanned, just take the key and leave it when you check out), had pulled pork nachos for dinner, wandered listlessly and happily, and called it a glorious day in Norway.

We headed out around 8 for the big fjord road trip 2016. I can't describe it. I wish I could... But the pictures don't do this place justice and neither do words. :) We drove through the quaintest villages, farmlands, fishing harbors, etc. One stretch of road had bowls of cherries and jams with a little tin box if you wanted to drop some krone in there and take a box. We fed a ram. We climbed a whole bunch of fosses. Most of us fell at a foss. We rode on a car ferry. We ate lots of fruit and candy and rice cakes with peanut butter. We made it back to Bergen for some more wandering, Thai food, and getting caught in a torrential downpour.

It has been a wonderful, wonderful adventure! Scandinavia for the win!

Rolling with extra Kronies.

Our last Icelandic adventure did not disappoint!! I don't know about you, but I like to start my days with a nice crisp walk... And by that I mean a scurry down the stairs due to the hotel fire alarm sounding at the break of dawn. We took our passports because I was NOT about to be stuck in a foreign country due to a burned passport. It was all for naught though... No fire, just rambunctious tourists ignoring the fire alarm completely and asking (yelling to be heard over the sirens) the front desk where to go for breakfast, and also, can they call their rental car company and change their time?

Despite the rocky start, we made it to the car before Reykjavik charges for parking. That would be 9 am. Don't judge us for a late start. No Te & Kaffi today (they probably wanted to send out a search party) but opted for free coffee from your favorite gas station and mine, Olis.

First on the agenda was Kedir Crater. Loved it. Next was a trip to Vík... Long way, but well worth it for the basalt columns at the beach, some cave exploring, and... Yes. PUFFINS. They were sighted. Today also involved some lava tubes and a rock archway or two. It was FREEZING at the archway and we had to hustle back to the car before turning into Poochsicles. It was a close one.

Alas, it was our last peanut butter and honey lunch with a side of cucumber. We went back to the noodle house (obviously) and had kroners to spare from skimping all week so we got to go big. As in, a crepe each for dessert. Strawberry and Nutella for Heather (although sometimes Icelanders like to write down her name as Ether... which I think has a nice ring to it) and apple and maple syrup for me. I'm not too proud to say I was the weakest link orderer. Our friend (I use that term loosely, but basically the crepe lady we remembered from us eyeing the menu yesterday) said, "See you girls tomorrow," and we didn't have the heart to say that would not be the case.

On to the next, friends!

This foss was boss.

Up and at it bright and early because that Te & Kaffi chai latte was not going to drink itself!  The Lagoon Car Rental shuttle picked us up at 10:00 to take us to the rental office and right off the bat, the driver asked where we were from. No biggie, right?  Heather and I were blown away. No one has asked us that once. Nor has a Lagoon Car Rental employee cracked a smile. Well, turns out that was all just bad luck before.  This was a different office and they were amazing.  We did, however, see our previous guy from the license plate debacle and he refused to make eye contact.  

Nice Lagoon Employee #1 gave us an idea of where to go "as long as we were up for a hike".  She meant it. Our road trip took us to Gylmur, although the GPS was taking us to the Gylmur Hotel. No worries, because we spotted a sign that said "foss" in it somewhere and every good Icelander knows you have to stop for each and every foss.  (Foss is waterfall, in case a non-Icelander is reading this.)

The little hike was quite treacherous, including a cable and a log to cross a river. That was fantastic. We wondered where we ranked on the wimpiness scale, but we saw enough people with hiking sticks to feel validated.  And that's what it's all about. 

One of us fell a little bit, one of us fell a little bit harder, but neither of us saw either fall, so Even Steven.  We had our peanut butter and honey sandwiches at the top of Gylmur with a nice view of the foss, and eventually started the trek back. 

Flash forward a couple hours to our return to the parking lot when LO AND BEHOLD GUESS WHO WAS THERE?!  Our old friend, the Subaru. Missing license plate and all, poor thing.  (Identity crisis and all that.) 

We made it back to Reykjavik right when parking is free (6 pm)... Not a coincidence.  We had the best dinner tonight. We spotted a noodle house yesterday and more importantly spotted the "Trip Advisor Winner" sticker in the window, so we wanted to try it out. You guys. It was amazing. Almost as amazing was the fact that there is a crepe house right next to it (that's on tomorrow's menu, so standby).

Our last full day in Iceland tomorrow, so it's time to find one more hot spring, maybe a foss or two, and spend some serious leftover Krone coins! 

Thor does Iceland

Picture it. Reykjavik, 2016. Our minibus arrives promptly at 8:30 for our Golden Circle tour, led by our fearless leader... Thor.  Picture what you think Thor looks like. Then scratch that and imagine a friendly, old, Nordic grandpa. And there you have Thor. 

Pictures are going to speak a thousand words today!  Check out some of the exciting stops we made... Some waterfalls, a tectonic plate divergent boundary (ugh, being in two continents at once is so old news), the geysir, etc etc. We had peanut butter and honey sandwiches (THANK YOU TE & KAFFI FOR THE DONATED HONEY PACKETS) and an English cucumber for lunch. 

Thor's joke of the day: How do you get out of an Icelandic forest if you're lost?  Stand up. 

The bus of tourgoers laughed and laughed, since the shrubbery in the "forest" was about a foot high. Thor tolerated our laughing for a split second, then said, "Please do not make fun of our trees. We are very proud of our forests." 

We ended the day with a couple street chicken wraps!

Good night from Reykjavik!

City tour, by us.

Had a lovely Reykjavik day!  A DAYkjavik, some might say. 

Slept in a little bit (I'm not telling you the time, it's slightly embarrassing!) but got on our way in search of the world's best hot dog. It's here in Reykjavik!  Seriously!  At least, that's what they say.  It was delicious, so I believe them. 

Wandered the city today and saw some random sights while working on our selfie game and sipping on our Te & Kaffi lattes (that would be "tea and coffee" for you non-Icelanders)... A church with a performance of "Amazing Grace", the building where Reagan and Gorbachev had a summit, the prime minister's house, and the embassy. Not a security guard or a policeman to the seen at any of those, not even the last two.  I think we could have gotten ourselves invited in for a lunch of whale meat or lamb soup if we had the guts to ask. 

Finished off the day with a trip to the market and stocked up with sandwich supplies for the next couple days.  Big Golden Circle your day tomorrow, and we are pumped!  

blue lagoon bliss!

Up and at it bright and early to drop Gray off at the airport at 5 a.m.  Heather and I were in charge of returning the rental car, and you know when you're in a foreign country so you get every kind of insurance imaginable, including one called "off-road gravel scratches"?  Well, there is NOT one for missing license plates. It's true, somewhere between geysers and glaciers and and waterfalls and tomato farms, we lost our license plate.  Paying for that was ALMOST as difficult as giving back the rental car wifi hotspot. 

 So Icelanders are not the warmest of all people you have ever met. Maybe they like to match their climate. Who knows. Shuttle drivers will open the hatch for you, but they aren't getting anywhere near your luggage. The lady at the checkout counter at the market scanned our items, gave us our change, and walked away without a word... but it's all good, we managed to find the plastic bags ourselves. My point is we were not overly surprised when we got picked up from the airport for a transfer to the Blue Lagoon and met another warm-hearted local when two older ladies had printed out confirmation of the transfer, but not the specific voucher itself. Well. That was just not going to fly for the tourism lady in charge of checking tickets.  We had A. Bus driver yelling at tourism lady that we were going to be late and he needed to get on the road; B. Two ladies vehemently explaining they were told the paperwork would suffice; C. Tourism lady just as vehemently chastising for their lack of following protocol. The bus was to leave at 7:30. At exactly 7:33, the ladies were approved to enter, but not before the tourism checker stated oh-so-nicely, "The bus is now late and it is because of you."  I slouched down in my seat, tried to control my blood pressure, and prayed she wouldn't call on me to answer a question. 

We arrived at the Blue Lagoon right on time and felt like such experts since this was our second time (after being rejected entrance our first day).  We checked our luggage in (NOT FREE), got towels (NOT FREE), cashed in our prebooked tickets (SO NOT FREE), and headed out to the lagoon.  It was warm, the outside air was crisp, and there were silica masks... The equation for a perfect morning. 

Post-lagoon we got dropped off at our hotel. Our hotel is in the most perfect spot... But we thought we would be leaving the most perfect spot when they didn't have us listed for checking in.  That got all squared away but the room wasn't ready so we left to return our camping equipment to the rental store in town. When we returned, the receptionist said, "Are you ready for your cheaper room?" I thought I heard her wrong because nothing is cheap in this country, and turns out that's true. But I'll get to that... So we get to our room, marvel at this, marvel at that, etc etc etc. We set our alarms to wake us from a two hour nap. It was not our alarm that woke us, unfortunately. It was the same receptionist banging on the door, asking why we had accepted a three person room when that is not what we paid for.  Our faces looked like this: ???! (with a side of drowsiness). You know when she said "cheaper room"?  She actually said "three person room".  A failure to communicate, if you will.  They had the family downstairs wanting their cheaper/three person room and of course ours was the last one.  Luckily we didn't have to move after all, they felt a little bit bad, we got a voucher for the restaurant, and all are happy. 

Tonight we hung out with a couple thousand of our closest Icelandic friends watching the soccer finals of Portugal vs. France. I mean fútbol.  Don't tell our closest Icelandic friends I said that. Anyway, it was not easy to figure out who we, as a nation, were rooting for because why would they cheer when something good happens?  Or boo when something bad happens?  Why should they make any noise at all that would show they have joy in their hearts?  SO not the Icelandic way. (We decided they might be a tad cranky because they just can't sleep right in this country. They just want it to be dark for a little bit. Just enough for a snooze.)  We managed to figure out they are rooting for France, so we were concerned for a group of overzealous Portugal fans. No need for concern here, though. This isn't America... Or anywhere else, for that matter. No fights, no words, no... anything.  Portugal won, our French fan friends merely lifted an eyebrow or two, then dispersed. 

Staying up late tonight to watch the gymnastic trials... Who is with me?!  Stay tuned... :)