Sassafrazzled

SITREP

Wow, wow, wow. I just wrote a really long email to my mom and dad, so I'm just going to copy and paste it right here for everyone to read.

I got back to a humid and warm London last night after an a-m-a-z-i-n-g time in Iceland. Here are some highlights, broken down into stages:

My time alone in Reyjkavik
- the whale watching: saw minke whales, a school of ten dolphins, some puffins, a basking shark (the captain said he had been fishing for 20 years in that bay, and had never seen a basking shark so close in the bay, so we were lucky), and hundreds of gannets (it felt like it was hailing, there were so many). It was a five hour boat trip, and I was stupid enough not to be wearing socks, so my feet were freeeeezing!
- the Laugardalar pool: this was a geothermal pool right next to the hostel where I was staying. I went there every day and just sat in the "hot pots"
- museums & galleries: I actually enjoyed most of them. I bought a 3-day tourist card, which gave me free admission into all of the tourist attractions, including free travel on the city buses, and free entrance into all of the pools. I went to every single museum and gallery in the city. And of course, a couple of libraries too.

Christopher, Andrew & Damon's homecoming ( Friday & Saturday night)- wow. what a couple of days
- on Friday night, they wanted to find a steakhouse because they had been eating freeze dried meals for the past week (and I had been eating bagels and bananas), so we found a place called Argentina's in our Lonely Planet. We just thought it would be an average steakhouse, but we were so wrong!!! When we got there there were people dressed to the nines, in cocktail dresses and suits, and there we were in jeans and t-shirts. We decided to stay, and boy, it could be quite possibly the best food I have ever eaten. I had scallops covered in chocolate sauce and the best salmon I have ever eaten. The guys ate lamb, steak,lobster tails, kangaroo, and chocolate tortes. We had a couple of bottles of red wine, I had a couple of the best martinis ever, and they were drinking whiskey sours. It was an amazing night!!! All for the meagre cost of 40,000 icelandic kronur!!!!! I won't do the conversion, but the car we rented for 4 days was less than that dinner. When we told people afterwards where we went they said that was the finest restaurant in Iceland. Who knew???

- Saturday we went to the Blue Lagoon all day, which was incredible.

- Saturday night we went to a place called the Grand Rokk, which was a bar/chess club. Christopher & Andrew ended up playing these two guys who were Chess Grandmasters. And then the two grandmasters started playing against each other (apparantly for the first time in 2 years, so it was very tense). It was the most incredible thing to watch. I can't explain it properly.

- Then later that night we went to my friend Salame's house for a few drinks, and then she took us to a party that was happening at a martial arts centre. The whole bottom floor was covered in mats. Basically, we arrived, Christopher, Andrew and Damon beat the crap out of each other, and then we left. It was hilarious!!! We were supposed to stay out all night and join the 'runtur' (Saturday night pub crawl), but we were all pretty exhausted

Our road trip

- Sunday we got up early to get the car. Sundays in Reyjavik are a mess! The streets are completley covered in broken glass, beer bottles, hot dog wrappers and vomit. A sign of the chaos that happens on a Saturday night. Our car was a Kia 4-wheel drive.

- we drove to see all of the tourist sites, like Geiser and the waterfall where I saw the best rainbow I have ever seen. And then we cut through the centre of the country, driving from south to north, all through the back country on dirt and gravel roads. The landscape in Iceland is so weird - one minute it feels like you're on the moon because there are so many rocks and craters, and then 200 meters down the road there are lush grass and waterfalls. There were lots of sheep blocking the road, and at one point we were driving through the clouds. It was very cool. We stayed Sunday night in a small town and had a great night there.

- Monday we drove east to Lake Myvtan, which still has an active volcano. It also has a blue lagoon, but this time we were the only ones in it! It felt like it was our own little oasis. We stayed the night in Akeyuri (the 2nd largest city in Iceland). Apparantly, the thing to do in Akeyuri is drive around the main drag with music blaring - it was amazing how many cars were doing this on a Monday night. We went out for dinner and someone (I'm not saying who) ate whale. We were right up near the arctic circle, but I think it was too cloudy to see the northern lights.

- Tuesday we headed back towards Reyjkavik with a few stops along the way, and stayed in Keflavik, which is near the airport. On our way there we went through a really cool tunnel. I tried to stay up late enought to watch Rockstar Supernova, but couldn't do it. Magni (from Rockstar) is a national hero in Iceland!!! Everyone talks about him, and the phone companies are cutting their prices, just so people will call in and vote.

Whew, that was long. I had an amazing, amazing, time. I got up this morning and went for my first run in about six months - it was pretty slow-going, but I did better than I thought. I have another job interview tomorrow at noon, and am really hoping I get this one!!! I'll call later on today, xoxoxox

posted by Stephanie @ 7:27 a.m.