| March 26, 2005 - My Icelandic holiday |
| Dear Friends, I returned Monday from a four-day excursion to beautiful Iceland. And what a time I had! I had fabulous meals, went horseback riding, got drunky-wa-tunky, etc., etc., etc. But when I got back I had a nasty surprise waiting for me in my bank statement. For you see, dear Friends, I thought the Icelandic krona was about 80 to the dollar whereas it's really around 58 to the dollar. I can think of no other person to place the blame on except for Our Glorious Leader whose overall plans regarding anything are ill-conceived if not downright disastrous. Thank you Your Highness! I'm looking forward to the day when all but your Inner Circle are pennyless! But back to my trip; as you know from my other entries I know people in Iceland. One of them is my teacher from last summer in Sweden. She's originally from Iceland and had gone back to have her baby and to study at the University of Iceland. I got in contact with her and she said for me to call her as soon as I got to Reykjavik. I was travelling with my friend, James, who had originally wanted to go to Helsinki except that we had trouble finding a good deal and settled for Iceland instead. Gudjona, my teacher, invited him and me out to Kopavogur where she was cooking dinner at a friend's house. The food and booze were flowing! While we were there, they were all watching a show which featured the worst tryouts for the Icelandic version of "American Idol", which I guess would be "Icelandic Idol". So we were watching one bad clip after another when Gudjona suddenly screamed out, "Holy Shit! That's my brother!" Indeed, dear Friends, her brother had tried out for "Icelandic Idol" without telling anyone in the family. What a hoot! The next night we were getting ready to go to Siggi Hall, a fairly well-known and expensive restaurant in the Hotel Odinsve, when Gudjona called to invite us to a party after dinner. Of course, we said we'd love to come. Who wouldn't want to go to a party in Iceland? So off we trotted to Siggi Hall where we had an excellent meal with mucho vino and gino and tonico. The service was impeccable as well. Unfortunately, Siggi Hall himself didn't make the meal; he was in New York with Iceland's president for some event where he had to cook for a bazillion people. But the food was still scrumptious. After that, we rushed back to our hotel and called Gudjona, who came and picked us up. The party was at a film director's house, I don't remember his name. The director was actually away and his nephew was house sitting and had decided to throw a little soiree. My dears, this house was really wild. It had several little sauna rooms and in the sitting room there was a shower. I don't know if it worked or not; it consisted of a pipe and shower head running up one wall, but there was no basin to hold the water. And around it were various bookcases and chairs. My alcohol-befuddled brain could barely grasp what it was perceiving! Later we stood out on the deck and looked across the bay over at the lights of Reykjavik. What a sight! It was absolutely beautiful because we were right at the water's edge. In fact, one of the guests pointed out that we were so close to the water that some of the downstairs windows had cracks in them from when waves had pounded against them during winter storms. The whole experience was fantastic and I pointed out to James that, had we gone to Helsinki instead, we wouldn't have had nearly the wonderful time we had in Reykjavik due to the fact that I know no one in Finland. We really got to experience Iceland in a way that few Americans do and even though I know my pages often make me seem spoiled and with a sense of entitlement, I truly am grateful for the opportunities I've had. Unfortunately, I'm running a bit late this morning and will have to tell you more about the trip on another day. I'm trying to go to a yoga class to make up for the one I missed last week. I've been taking yoga since January, because I hope eventually to be able to comb my hair with one foot while playing a concerto with the other. Next entry Previous entry Go to diary entries Go back home |