Where Is My Mind?

I have always hated getting up in the morning, but high school was especially difficult for me. Our school started at 7:20 a.m., and that start time combined with me being a lazy teenager and the fact that I hated school already made for a difficult four years. I didn't use an alarm clock. Instead, I was awakened every morning by the sound of my mom screeching at the top of her lungs, "Adele! Get up! Time to get up! You have to get up!" Every single morning. Flash forward to the present - I have to get up at around the same time for work and I still don't like waking up. I've gotten into the terrible habit of sleeping in and only leaving myself 20 minutes to get up and get out the door. Some things have to fall by the wayside with just 20 minutes. Like makeup. Using a hairdryer. Packing a lunch. Maybe toothbrushing? So it's accurate to say that my mornings are rushed. Yesterday after dinner, I was putting away a bag of chips in the cupboard where I keep my cereal. I opened the door, and sitting on the bottom shelf was a gallon of milk. That is so not the refrigerator. It was a brand new gallon of fancy organic milk too. The humanity!

Dogsledding in Iceland

We checked off goal after goal for this trip - pet horses on the side of the road? Done. Dogsledding? Done.

I had visions of gliding through the snow on some glacier, but it turns out that by September, all the snow has melted and it's already too icy and dangerous for the dogs to go up on the glacier. So instead we drove to the Southwest coast and went dog "sledding" on gravel in a cart. Close enough for me.

When we arrived, the dogs were barking like crazy. They were ready to run. We got to help put on their harnesses and get them ready to pull the cart.

What I learned from this experience - it is very difficult to get 10 dogs to all do the same thing. There were a lot of stops and starts in the beginning. One of the dogs was a seven-month-old puppy and it was his first run with the cart. He would run for a little bit, then get tripped up and fall on the ground, the other dogs dragging his prostrate body. His first day on the job, poor little thing. This happened multiple times and was upsetting, but the dog trainer gave him a longer lead and he got the hang of it.

Some pictures from the "Photo and Petting" segment of the tour. Ten dogs pulled a cart and four people, which is pretty amazing.

Here's a video of Julie getting a lesson on how to drive a dogsled. As you can see, it's a bumpy ride. I was scared to drive because I always assume I will crash whatever I drive, but I was able to clear the mailbox to the barn and coast in smoothly. Yah! Mush!

Stretch it out!

After the ride, we got to coo over two-week puppies. The trainer popped the top off the dog house, to the pups' mother's chagrin.

Mini Horses in Snaefellnes

Our Icelandic roadtrip took us to to the Snaefellnes Peninsula countryside, where the landscape was as dramatic as it was deserted.

Sometimes our little VW Golf seemed like the only vehicle for miles...

But we found some friends along the way.

Julie's friend had told her that the Icelandic horses in paddocks along the road were so friendly that you could go up and pet them. The whole trip, Julie had wanted to pull over and test out this theory, but we were concerned that the Golf would get stuck in a ditch. Finally, we found gravel patch near the highway, parked the car and made a beeline for a horse hanging out near the fence. Sure enough, he let us pet him, even though we didn't have any food to share. Some other horses even came over to meet us too and see what was up.

The sheep wanted no part of it, however. They walked off into the sunset.

We took the hiking trail from Arnarstapi to Hellnar along the gorgeous coastline, with jagged rocks and natural arches. These pictures don't capture how pretty it was there.

At the end of the 1.5 mile trail, I rewarded myself with a Swiss mocha at the adorable little cafe, with an Ikea-chic interior.

We thought this was the church on the cover of our guidebook, but no, it's just another picturesque Icelandic church.

The next day was set aside for horseback riding on the beach, but the weather did not cooperate. How moody are these clouds?

Bummer! But if it hadn't rained, we wouldn't have seen so many beautiful rainbows. Silver lining, as they say.

PS - Julie bought some Icelandic donuts to fortify us for our hike. How did they taste? Eh, I must say I like American donuts better. USA! USA!

The Long and Winding Road... In Iceland

Justin Bieber, Come to Iceland!

On our very first day in Iceland, fresh from a red-eye flight and unsatisfying naps on hostel couches, we ventured out to explore downtown Reykjavik. After walking around for a bit near a deserted square, Julie and I ducked into a shop to buy some groceries for dinner. When we came out of the store no more than 10 minutes later, this is what we saw:

Three hundred tweens, flash mob style. This square was empty only minutes before! Now it was full of singing tweens, and what did they want? Justin Bieber to visit Iceland.

At first I didn't understand what was going on, and thought perhaps Justin was in the crowd and it was a Beatles-style freakout. But no, this was a highly organized rally to bring him here for a concert. Icelandic tweens, I tip my hat to you. You clearly thought this out.

I love that there was not one but two news cameras covering this event. Oh, to live in a country where there is so little violence and crime that this probably makes the top of the news hour.

Julie realizes that she is wearing purple, Bieber's favorite color.

She gets in the spirit.

I get into the spirit too! The number of Bieber songs playing on the loud speakers that I recognized actually surprised me (ok, scared me). How is that possible? They don't even play his songs on Top 40 radio, do they? Yet somehow they've seeped into my subconscious. "Never say never... Shorty is an eenie, meenie, miny, mo lover... There's going to be one less lonely girl." Did I just ruin all my indie cred there? I don't know how this happened, I swear.

It was all pretty cute. Look at this little moppet. Her friend is rightly skeptical of us. Non-tween intruders!

After this experience, I noticed Bieber's angelic face plastered on merchandise all over Iceland. He is popular.

Justin, dear, if you are out there reading this, get on your private jet and fly to Iceland. It's the least you can do! You have some loyal, loyal fans there. You could probably take over the country if you wanted to.

OK, if you have any interest left in Icelandic Bieber, you need to watch the short video I made of the rally! So you can get the full effect. Icelandic tweens are too cute.

Reykjavic Travel Photos: For Sigur Rós Fans Only

For our Iceland week, we spent two days in Reykjavik when we first arrived and about 3 days at the end of the trip. That was a perfect ratio of city to countryside. Hopefully these pictures will give you a good idea of how charming it is in the land of Sigur Rós.

Lookout point towards the harbor

I tried to look Icelandic with Viking/Heidi-inspired braids. One cashier spoke to me first in Icelandic, then switched to English after seeing my "Uh, wuh..." expression. Yes, success!

Julie's Viking accessories were less subtle.

Let's be European and sit outside a cafe for 8 hours.

The cuteness just won't quit.

We went to the giant Kolaportið Flea Market and I thought about buying an Icelandic sweater, but my heart just wasn't in it. Instead, I bought a cool 1960s era postcard at the flea market and later, dozens of spools of Icelandic yarn for future knitting projects. It was around $4 a skein, very affordable compared to knitting shops here. I had so much yarn, I was shoving it into every pocket of my suitcase and then the zipper kept getting tangled in yarn, oy vey.

I went a little crazy with the shopping at the end of the trip, and I actually bought a bowtie similar to this one at an awesome vintage shop. Only it is tie-dye. A tie-dye bowtie. OH YES. This is happening.

I was able to resist buying this charming flask though. Girliest flask ever!

Some letters are tragically missing here.

If you go to Reyjkavik, you can not leave without going to the Sea Baron, a little hole in the wall restaurant with lobster soup so good that it's been written up by Mark Bittman in the NY Times. We got ourselves a smorgasbord with the freshest grilled fish ever, and the fisherman owner kept giving us freebies too, like this little waffle.

Struggling to finish our feast.

We didn't end up trying any scary Icelandic food, like rotten shark, puffin, whale or these sheep heads. I just gawked and took pictures. This photo was taken at a cafe, but I saw the same shrink-wrapped split-in-half lamb faces sold at a convenience store.