• Early in the morning, about 5am at the Ben-Gurion airport, we stood in a line to check in. After 20 minutes standing in the same place, we realized that we are behind a very large religious family, where the oldest person is about 70 years old and the youngest one is just born yesterday…. Some guy from that family, who took the business into his hands stood in front of the counter with a bunch of passports in his hands, trying to send the luggage, including baby chairs and more stuff that is not an ordinary luggage, while other members of his tribe trying to gain control over the children. We then turned to other counter and checked in before those guys! Nevertheless we did not had much time to spend in Duty-Free, we just popped in, took chocolates and whisky and popped out hurrying to the gate since the boarding already started.

• In Amsterdam, we were looking for a transfer counter. We walked along the airport seeing the signs T9, T8, T7… till we stopped at T1 and decided to ask there someone, where should we go. Well, that was easy, we got our gate and boarding time, but no seats, we were told we will get them at the gate. On the way to the gate, we had to pass passport control where we were asked where are we going. After we said “Iceland”, the police woman smiled us and told us she had been there, and that’s a beautiful place, she asked how much money do we have… I thought it was a joke, since Iceland is expensive, so I told here “I hope enough”, but she insisted to know how much money do we have… no kidding… We told her and seems like she was satisfied with the answer, letting us go on our way.

• When we came to the gate, we asked for our seats, we were told then to seat and wait. After couple of minutes the stewardess came to us, asking whether we are willing to cooperate with them… Hhmmm?…. First how much money do we have, and now cooperate?… What’s going on here?! But all she meant was whether it’s OK with us to seat in the plane near the emergency escape doors, fsheew…. OK, we agreed, plenty room for my legs!

• When we arrived to Keflavik airport in Iceland and for the first time we had to carry our backpacks, Lena indicated right away that her backpack is heavy.

• On our way to Reykjavik with the Reykjavik Excursion bus, while we are looking out of the window, amazed by what we see, we received a hot welcome by some local driver, passing us and showing his finger towards our bus, jeee, thanks!

• When we came to Reykjavik, we realized that the Hallgrimskirkaja church is all in scaffolds. Also the main shopping street was a bit of under construction. We had one day tomorrow to be there and one and half days at the end of the trip, so we hoped that when we’ll back at the end of the trip to Reykjavik, the church and the streets will be opened for visitors.

• At the BSI station we decided to buy right now tickets for tomorrow Golden Circle trip, to save some time,and  we almost bought a guided trip instead of the scheduled CD-guide trip. I’ve noticed that and it saved us not less then 2900 kronas…

• Near the BSI station was a gas station where we bought a bottle of soda water, no regular water in Iceland?…

• We decided to walk to the camp site from the BSI station, something like one hour walk, with our backpack’s on. We took the way along the shore, looking for a place to buy a gas cartridge. We didn’t find a gas cartridge on the way to campsite but, after we raised our tent somewhere in the campsite, we went to pay for two nights and we were very happy to find out that they sell gas cartridges at the camp site! We bought one cause we had a flight in about a week, from Isafjordur to Akureyri, considering that one cartridge will be fine.

• After such a long day, all we wanted was to eat and sleep. We prepared an instant creamy mushroom soup which is not much different from a chicken soup, ate it with kabanos sausage, drank soda (we couldn’t find regular water in super market) and finished with sandwiches we made back home night before.

• And yes, water in the shower smells like rotten eggs…

Hallgrimskirkaja

On our way to the camp site

On our way to the camp site

First night in Iceland

Tags: 2008, Amsterdam, August, Iceland, Reykjavik, Tel Aviv