Iceland-bound

We began the month we got married. Every month for the next ten years we saved a chunk of change in a jar. $20 to be exact. Just $20. The jar slowly began to fill and we moved the money into an account. The "jar" continued each month. $20. $20. $20...those Andrew Jackson's slowly added up to what would become our ten year adventure. We knew the month we got married that we would want a ten year trip. Just the two of us. So we saved. As the ten year mark grew closer, we began to put some extra money into the "Jar" fund whenever possible. We wanted this trip so badly.

Ten years came around, and I found myself in the hospital after a miscarriage. Our ten year plans were put on hold until this summer. We didn't think we'd have baby sitting for a whole week, so we basically put the trip out of our minds. Then everything came together very last minute, and we found ourselves planning an out-of-the-country vacation within one month.

Gene's always wanted to go to Iceland. I was less enthused, until he showed me this picture.

Sold! Blue Lagoon here we come!

We left on a Sunday evening and (after a very uncomfortable night flight) arrived in Iceland at 5:30am Monday morning (they are 4 hours ahead of us). Here's the door to our apartment for the week:

We stayed at a place called Apartment K in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. It was a funky Ikea-styled mini apartment. The walls were paper thin, so we woke every morning to a very loud Asian woman who cooked her family a full breakfast in the loft above our apartment. Seriously. We could hear their forks hit their plates while they ate. Next time we would definitely opt to camp instead of stay in town.

The building across the street from our apartment. It used to be used for several various purposes (National History Museum, National Museum of Iceland, etc.).

Downtown Reykjaik harbor...

The Icelandic Opera House right on the water (at night the windows were lit up with various colors)...

This is a picture of the ceiling...

Tourist shops in town...

One night there was a band playing in the center of town. They grew quite a crowd and were pretty good!

Lots of cool graffiti on the sides of buildings throughout the town...

We realized (because of going to sleep for a few hours as soon as we got to our apartment) that by the time we took our first stroll around town it had been almost 24 hours since we last ate! Luckily we looked up and found this gem down the street from our apartment. We immediately thought of our good friend, Dave DeCarlo (haha...inside joke), and Gene walked right into the restaurant and said, "We're definitely eating here right now. This is awesome."

Our view of the water from our seats inside the restaurant!

MORE TO COME...