Day One: Iceland

The Flight

BOI -> SLC -> JFK -> KEF, one two hour layover where I saw my dad, and Delta one! As this is my last chance to fly, I used an S2 priority when boarding Delta. I don’t have a very clear idea of what this means, but I do know that I got Delta One. Delta One was absolutely amazing and on the 5-6hr flight, I watched the movie, Argo, and slept for the rest with my legs stretched out and steak dinner to boot!

KEF

With COVID19 protocols in place, I was really hoping that my minor preparations for this trip were going to be enough. I had a negative COVID test (thank you Dottie), my J&J Vax card, and when I landed, I downloaded the Icelandic COVID19 contact tracing app.

At the International entrance, I had to show a barcode and my covid vax card, walked down the hallway, empty but for the other passengers of the plane, to another stop. This next stop was the same as the first, but with less people manning the station, where I once again was queued with the other passengers again, and again showed my vax card, passport, and barcode. We were then directed to a constructed wall, where five nurses were waiting to shove a COVID test in my throat and nose, then finally were lead to what would be the final stop, to show off my vax card, barcode and passport.

When I traveled alone to Alaska, after exiting the plane, I felt incredibly overwhelmed and anxious about what I was going to do next. Getting off at Iceland I wasn’t feeling this yet, there was of course some nervousness about my COVID materials being enough to get passed the boarder, but nowhere near the level I had previously. Feeling pretty good about things, I had a bit of a hard time finding my rental car. But after a quick call costing $0.25/minute, I found my way!

It was around noon when I got my car, a little four door car with an S brand I don’t recognize, and when I got in, that’s when I started feeling anxious. What was I going to do, where was I going to go? After spending 10 minutes trying to figure out how to fuel up the car, I just started driving towards Reykjavik. After 20-30 minutes I saw an ikea and figured I’d pull over there as my first stop in Iceland.

IKEA

IKEA is such an international business that it was actually kind of nice to get lost there for a little bit, I hustled around, found the (very nice) bathrooms, and grabbed a $1 hotdog that was about as good as it sounds.

I started feeling less anxious walking through the isles of perfectly decorated dining rooms and bedrooms and I started planning the rest of the day and what I want to do tomorrow.

One of the big appeals of Iceland is Blue Lagoon, a beautiful hot spring near an active volcano I got to see go off, and a some museums near Reykjavik. I opted to go see the Icelandic Maritime Museum because while a soak sounded nice, I didn’t want to end my first day to end being wet and cold, and I figured that at the end of my trip, it would be wonderful to have a day at the hot tub.

The Icelandic Maritime Museum

This place was pretty neat, lot of fishing and boat history, not my usual scene but it was interesting to walk around and get an idea of some of the history.

There were also a few dry docked ships that I got the chance to get close to!

The Campsite

After spending an hour or so at the Maritime Museum, I decided to drive to my campsite to the night. I found it empty, and I was the only one. This was a little spooky initially so I spent some time sitting in the car and reading to get mentally prepared for anyone I might encounter.

Didn’t encounter anyone though, ended up walking around and took some pictures of the landscape which is absolutely beautiful. With the sunset around 11pm, I had plently of sunlight to wander and see the terrain and get ready to settle down.

I opted to sleep in the car, it was incredibly windy, and as there is no one to collect the typical due of ~$15 I figured I would be more comfortable in the car, so I can update my blog and stay warm! I’m hoping when I find other travelers to be able to sleep under the star with those, but for now I’m going to stay in the car, with my Delta One eye-mask as the sun doesn’t really set until like 1am.

Also really enjoying Andy Weirs new book Project Hail Mary is really good.

• Gage Coprivnicar 16/05/21

Day 1 Sunset