Iceland

I forgot keep track of the time change so I stayed awake the rest of the flight assuming that I could sleep at the apartment we were staying in. That was a horrible mistake. We arrived in Iceland at 5 in the morning and couldn't check into the apartment until 8. Needless to say, I wasn't very happy.

We rented a van here because it was the only thing that could fit my entire family and it is huge. I'm tempted to buy one when we get home.

The weather is really cold here, about 40 degrees is the highest in July, which makes me wonder what the highest temperature is in December. We stopped off at a bakery where we had sandwiches, paninis, and doughnuts. As we were eating, this cat showed up out of nowhere and started hanging out with us. It was pretty funny to see as the owner of the bakery (I'm assuming) just walked up and pet the cat, and walked off. I'm pretty sure that is a health code violation but she clearly didn't care.

We made it to the apartment where I crashed on a pullout couch and didn't wake up until two in the afternoon. When I did wake up, I looked and felt like I was hit by a train. I've never been so tired in my life.

My dad told us that day we were going to a pool that was thermal heated by volcanic activity, which sounded pretty cool so we all got into our swimsuits and headed out. Apparently in Iceland, they are very clean, so much so that you had to take a full blown shower before entering the pool. I figured this out as a naked, 50 year old man, came up and started telling me what to do. It was very uncomfortable. I just awkwardly nodded and quickly hopped in the shower, and got out of there as fast as I could.
I stepped into the pool and was it was very warm. Without thermal heating being so cheap, Iceland wouldn't have been able to have swimming pools. We swam for about 2 hours or so where we decided it was time to leave. I then had to go back into the locker room, and witness the horrors I previously experienced all over again.
We arrived home around 6 or 7 in the evening where we had chips and salsa and stir fry, the two most common dishes in Iceland (kidding).

I took another nap until 9 p.m. when my mom woke me up and told us we were going outside to tour the city. That sounded like fun so I got out of my sleeping bag, and hopped into our school bus for a van and headed down to Reykjavik.

The city here is beautiful. We parked off next to the water near a statue or monument of the Vikings. We toured around a while and I was able to pick up another keychain- an Icelandic Viking. It's not very big but it was 7 dollars for the stupid thing. We continued walking around, seeing new people and places when after an hour we headed back to the car. The sun was setting at this time and I was able to get a cool photo of that boat statue.

We got home at 11 in the evening and got situated for the night. My brothers got all ready and started playing their kindles. I figured this out when I walked in and saw all 3 of them, in their underwear, playing games, or watching a movie. I asked them what were they doing but got no response.

I Woke up the next morning, Saturday now, at 10 in the morning. We planned out before that we were going to tour the Golden Circle. We got on our way and stopped at where the American and European tectonic plates collided. It was awesome to see and I snapped a few photos here and there.

The next stop was these geysers. There were like 8 in one spot. We stopped off and watched tourists try to get crappy photos of the water shooting into the sky while my mom took my brother Zach to the bathroom. I guess while she was doing that, a girl slipped and fell and started rolling down a hill. An older man was hit by this girl, and the momentum was so strong that he flipped and started rolling too. My mom was watching all this and I guess she thought it was scary because she told us the story and made us feel like someone died. We later talked to the people and they all laughed about it so I guess it wasn't too bad.

We made one last stop at an incredible waterfall, Gullfoss Falls, where I took a few photos here and there before leaving.

We then turned around and headed back home, tired, and hungry. We stopped off at this little gas station where I tried to buy beer, thinking it was a soda. If only I could read Icelandic.

We got home at 8 p.m. and had some more stir fry, I'm starting to get sick of stir fry. I attached the key chains to my bag and my collection is starting to come along.

We headed down to the beach this evening. It was so peaceful until my siblings showed up. They put their feet into the water and threw rocks, trying to skip them. I threw in a few myself because why not? We also found crabs. My brother, Jacob, handed a crab to my dad who in turn put it down the back of my sister's shirt. I love family.