Getting to Iceland, AKA The Water Bottle Incident

We got up and out by 7am. Our first stop was Katherine and Kristofor’s house to drop off the dog and pick up Kristofor, who will bring us to the airport for our 10:30 flight to Iceland. We arrived the requisite two hours early, got through security, got a cup of hot tea, and waited. At 10:30 nothing happened. Then the dreaded announcement – our connecting flight to Boston is cancelled. No other flights are available to get us on our 2:30 flight to Iceland. Ken gets in line and the US Airways guy puts him on a flight from Washington to New York then New York to Boston then Boston to Iceland. The new flight to Iceland will leave at 9:30pm - a 7 hour delay. I get back in line. Why the extra flight to New York? Is there no other flight from Washington to Boston in the next 5 hrs? US Airways guy has NOT got a talent for listening. Each time I try to tell him I think going to New York adds another chance for delay and why can’t I just …….….

”As I told your husband….this is all we have………you can cancel your entire flight and get a refund…………….all we have……………as I told your husband……….cancel your flight……refund….”

“JUST LET ME FINISH ONE ENTIRE SENTENCE! Why can’t we take a later flight out of Washington to Boston?”

“Well, if you want to take that chance, there is a 5:30 plane to Boston to connect you to the 9:30 flight to Iceland.”

“Good. I’ll take that.”

Then I go to customer relations to ask if we can get credited for the hotel we will no longer be sleeping in and complain about Listening –Deficient-Guy. The Men in Black track me down. Three men in suits. No credit for the hotel room – that’s what travel insurance is for, but they are very interested in Listening-Deficient-Guy. Seems he is not an ideal employee and I am offering another nail in the coffin.

So we hang around for 7 hours. We have a few movies on DVD to play on the computer. Black Swan. Not sure what to say about that movie except that it killed time. Newspaper, crossword puzzle, lots of Angry Birds, and then it’s off to Boston.

For some reason I am OK with all this. Everything is fine. We arrived in Boston and cleared all the security hurdles and found a place to eat. The waiter is running around like mad. Nobody has silverware or napkins or condiments. The British couple at the next table inform us that the “waiter” is actually the bus boy who is frantically covering for the waitress who has had a melt down and left the floor. I’m still OK. We got through the bus boy situation and left to wander some more before the 9:30 flight.

Then I lost my water bottle. I LOST MY WATER BOTTLE! That’s all it took. The last 12 hours, and it all came down to a lost water bottle. I buy more water and we board the plane. The first thing we see on the way through the plane door is a basket of water bottles for each traveler. Of course I snatched one right up because now my entire link to sanity revolves around securing, and then keeping, a water bottle.

IcelandAir is a pretty nice plane. The seats are comfortable and have good leg room. The two flight attendants are tall, young, thin and pretty. They have a cute uniform with high heels and a little hat. The seat between us empty – thank you Jesus – because I am under the delusion that I will get some sleep on that plane. Five minutes of sleep and five hours later, we land in beautiful Iceland. We still have our hotel room so I can get a few hours kip and then wander around the city.

Reykjavic

It may seem strange that a trip to Northern Ireland to search for my family history would take a side trip to Iceland, but it’s really not all that odd. From about 800-1000 AD, Vikings raided the coastal villages of Ireland. By the time Brian Boru defeated the Vikings in 999 and became High King of Ireland in 1002, many Vikings had taken a liking to the place, married some pretty Irish girls, and set up housekeeping. Where do you think all that red hair came from?

In fact, as I continue to research the path of my Y chromosome through history, it appears that it may have found its way to Ireland from Scandinavia. Interestingly, Iceland’s native language, Icelandic, is so close to the language of the Vikings that the people here can read ancient Viking literature. So, as I follow my Y chromosome DNA back through history, Iceland may be in its path.

Iceland is one of the geologically youngest places on earth--rising out of the Atlantic only 8 million years ago. As we flew in, Helen remarked it was like landing on Mars. Everywhere we looked there is evidence of a landscape that is constantly changing.

Today, after arriving at 6:30a.m. local time (2:30 a.m. for out internal clocks) we got about 4 hours sleep and then walked around Reykjavik—the capital city.

There are only about 300,000 people living on Iceland, and 2/3 of them live in and around Reykjavik. This time of year, the sun “sets” at midnight and “rises” again at 2:30 a.m. Thankfully, the hotel has blackout curtains. Even more thankfully, everyone here speaks some English.

This is the 200^th anniversary of the Republic of Iceland achieving some autonomy, although it was not a completely independent republic until 1944. We went to an exhibit about Jón Sigurðsson, leader of the Icelandic independence movement—the Icelandic equivalent of George Washington, Simon Bolivar, or General San Martin. I found it really cool that the exhibit was at Reykjavik Junior College which served as a meeting place for Iceland's "Founding Father." A young woman in period costume explained that June 17^th is the day they celebrate their independence—Sigurðsson’s birthday. She also explained that Icelanders begin to learn English at age 10; however, her 9-year-old brother is quite skilled in English already because English is the language of the Internet. I had not considered that before, but it makes sense. As there are only 300,000 Icelandic speakers, I doubt the lad will find much Internet content in his native tongue.

It’s kind of cold here, about 48F, but there are no annoying flying bugs. It's quite a change from what we left behind in Frederick yesterday. The Icelandic Kronur is about 114 to the dollar, so it is pretty easy to figure out what things cost. We have not been here long enough to compare many prices to US prices, but it seems a bit more expensive. Gasoline is about $8.00 a gallon and ground beef is about $6.70 a pound. Our hotel is $125 a night and that includes a nice breakfast with a lot of weird food I will be brave enough to try tomorrow.

Going Back

In June of 2011, I was in Boston for a work-related trip. While there, I visited some old family sites in preparation for my month-long stay in Belfast. I took lots of pictures and videos. Here is the first of the videos.