Spring Break Series V: Nonicy Iceland...

Our trip to Norway concluded well.

Like I said earlier, we didn't do much beyond lots of relaxing. And we loved it. But we were ready to head off to another Scandinavian country. However, we first had to fly back to London. As part of the way in which we (poorly) planned our trip, all of our destination changes routed us through London, often times leaving us with overnight layovers. Normally I don't mind setting up shop in a hostel for a day or two. But, unfortunately, our hostel experience between Norway and Iceland left much to be desired. Perhaps we should have assumed the worst. Our search key on line was "cheapest hostel in London" and I think, in this case, the Internet delivered...with unnecessary vengeance. We arrived in London rather late in the evening ready for a meal and sleep. Both aspirations we difficult to materialize. Our meal consisted in 99 pence frozen pizza's from a local convenience store that were perhaps the worst collection of flour and sauce I've ever tasted. After we were (less than) satisfied, we left the crowded and muggy second floor kitchen and resolved to go to bed. This, as I said, was difficult. We were placed in a room of 16 other travelers (or "backpackers?"). The room smelled of mold and urine. My bunk was at the top. I climbed up after brushing my teeth and tried to sleep. But it turns out that I can't sleep through unbelievably loud snoring.

But I don't think I'm alone in that respect. I was kept up most of the night by a diabolical mixture of snoring and what I am assuming was some sort of mild sleep Apnea.

Fear not, it was all soon over. We were happy to leave. And, our silver lining was the beauty of a cheap room.

But more woes were secretly on our horizon. But here I'll turn to my travel partner for a description of what happened which, however unfortunate, was overshadowed by Iceland's charm:

"After withering away for two days in a horrible but cheap hostel in London, John and I discovered (really, it was my fault) a ridiculous and by far the most expensive mistake of our travel experiences thus far. We showed up at the airport a day after our scheduled flight, and had to pay a small fortune to make it to our rendezvous with Sean. But, we're here, and we are enjoying the city, the language, the people, but not so much the high prices. Thankfully, it's a bit more affordable than Norway, but that's not saying much. We've been eating cheap food from 7-11, 10-11, and 11-11, and Sean's been getting us cheap Skyr and bread from his friends that work at bakeries. We try to enjoy the free and affordable experiences, like browsing the records at 12 Tonar, sitting on coffee shop porches, and looking through galleries, boutiques, and of course, tourist shops."

Yes, Iceland is a delight. In fact, on our last day with our friend Sean we shared a coffee shop with hipster string quartet Amiina. Not much else was able to top my experience in Reykjavik....except maybe the geothermal pools...yes, they were wonderful.