chapter 62: EUROPE IN 30 DAYS - ICELAND

We saved up all our pennies and just decided to do it. If we wait until we are perfectly financially secure and millionaires, we would never go. We decided against using a travel agent since they only gave overpriced suggestions and tour recommendations so that left.... just us. 

We planned the whole thing: 

6 flights

11 train rides

3 rental cars

1 hotel

1 bed and breakfast

4 times crashing with locals

7 day-trips

and innumerable metro/bus rides

We managed to pack everything for a month into two backpacks and even stuffed an extra smaller backpack inside for all the treats we would buy there. We left early early morning from Boise and arrived in Seattle with enough time to see the family and have some lunch. We then caught our long afternoon flight to Iceland. Neither of us got much sleep, but kept ourselves entertained by watching quite a few movies during our 7+ flight. There was also a woman who sat next to us; a frequent traveler of Iceland, who we asked a lot of questions. She was able to help us with "Tak" - thank you and a few other words that now have left my memory. She did advise us to try the butter-cheese though and the special Icelandic brown bread that is cooked in the earth. 

We were met at the airport by our rental company and picked up our super slick Suzki Splash. 0 to 60 with the pedal on the floor... about 10 minutes. Ben was a little disappointed by the power, but it got us where we needed to go. We found our address and I was dropped off out front while Ben circled to try and find a parking spot. He circled... and circled... and circled... Iceland apparently had lot of oneway streets that made actually arriving to our house a little difficult. In the meantime, while I waited, I met a very friendly Icelandic kitty.

We went in and met Daniel, who we arranged to stay with through airbnb.com and who had been very friendly and helpful thus far. We went up and unloaded our packs as Daniel gave us the rundown as to great places to eat and how to get around. We asked Daniel about the aforementioned "butter-cheese" and he responded with, "um.. sour milk? yes, that's sour milk I think." He made a disgusted face and moved on. We decided against sampling the butter-cheese. 

With only one day in Iceland, we headed out right away to drive along what is called the Golden Circle. I had left my well plotted directions in the apartment, so we just had to wing it. We meandered across the countryside for a little over an hour and quickly realized that we were pretty lost and more importantly, starving. We ducked in to the first town we came across and ordered the most delicious looking thing off the shelf. It might have been because we were so hungry, but those sandwiches were about the most delicious thing I had ever had. We also ordered a loaf of the brown Icelandic bread that is cooked in the hot earth. Ben actually downed his small bit, but I had to spit mine out. Super gross (ben is holding it in his hand). We did NOT finish it. Sorry Iceland.

 Happy and full after our sandwiches,  we drove around for a couple more hours, taking in the beautiful, cloudy, wet, rocky landscape until finally arriving at our first stop - Geyser. We were significantly unprepared for the rain, so with just our hoodies on, we trudged out into a field and witnessed a boiling hot bubbling earth spew hundreds of gallons of water high into the air. It took a few minutes, so by the time we finished, we were soaking wet. 

We ran back to the car and hit our next stop: Gulfoss. I think the pictures say enough. 

Waterfalls are defiantly my favorite things on earth. 

Soaking wet and tired of dodging in and out of the car, we drove back into Reykjavik to check out the downtown main street by our house. After walking a little ways down, we realized everything was closed and scheduled to reopen later in the evening (siesta?). We took that as a sign to head back out and experience the Blue Lagoon. The building itself was immensely cool. We walked in and paid an amount we have yet to figure out (the Krona is on a very different scale than anything else).They gave you these wrist bands that, by holding them up to the lockers, gave you a locker and keyed you in and out of the building. The locker room was also impressive: huge and clean with stations for you to do your hair and make-up with built in blowdryers. I was pretty excited and we hadn't even made it out to the water yet. The water was a milky white color and varied in temperature depending on how close you swam to the hot geysers. They also had a place where you could apply a mineral mask. Before entering the lagoon, however, we were given a cream and told to "Apply this to your face after soaking because your face will burn... ever so slightly." It didn't deter us. We got right in and swam for a couple hours - trying to get our unknown amount of money's worth.

What cut our soaking to a sudden stop was when we set the camera against the edge of a rock, started the timer, and swam away for a good picture of us together in the water. A light breeze and a sudden "plop" meant that picture wasn't going to turn out. Oh yea, and our camera was completely broken. On our first day. with 29 days in Europe to go. Needless to say, it was not a happy time and we ended up having to buy a new not-so-cleap Icelandic camera. 

A little low in spirits after our camera disaster, we drove back into town for dinner now that the town was open for business. We went into a restaurant that advertised the very two things we wanted to try: Ben got the puffin and I got the whale. Both very delicious.

The downtown was pretty small, but fun. We headed home relatively early and crashed after our long flight to get there and knowing we had to be up at 3AM to catch our next flight. it was a little challenging to fall asleep with the sun staying up until the wee hours of the morning, but we managed. 

We woke up early, showered, packed, left Daniel a 'thank you' note, grabbed our yogurts in the fridge (Skyr. Look it up - SUPER good!)

and headed back to Keflavik Airport. On our drive out at 4AM, we noticed all the locals wearily making their way out of bars and into the streets. Apparently, with the sun up so late, they feel the need to party just as late. 

All in all, loved Iceland immensely and had a wonderful time, but we felt our day there was sufficient and were excited to arrive finally in Paris. Below are my favorite landscape pictures.

chapter 58: THE MORMONS

We are Mormon

And in case you didn't know...

chapter 57 - HOLIDAYS FULL OF HAPPY

Ben and I get to spend the Christmas this year with the Park Family! Christmas Eve morning, we are hoping on a plane, presents packet away, and heading to Washington. We made the decision not to pack and lug our gifts to one another all the way there so we celebrated Christmas first in our own little way. Saturday morning started with a big Christmas breakfast and Christmas program at a family ward. Saturday night we had some dear friends over for games and Christmas Eve fun. I spend the middle bit (between breakfast and night games) baking a cooking an assortment of treats and goodies, while Ben spent the middle bit helping, being supportive, watching football and playing his video games. It was a magical fake Christmas Eve. We left all our Christmas twinkle lights up while we slept so that when we awoke dark and early to open our presents, our house would already be in the Christmas spirit. Ben and I crept out of bed around 6AM, turned on our record player for some classic crackly Christmas music and took turns opening each others gifts and taking pictures. This year, I am grateful this holiday season for family, pets to celebrate Christmas with, warmth in our Christmas decorated home, jobs and schooling.

Hope you all have a wonderfully special Holiday Season! With love, The Swensen Family. 

Kitty waking up Fake Christmas morning.

Santa's surprises for us!

Early morning picture (sorry for the poor quality - we kept the lights off except for the tree lights)

Can you find Desmond amongst the wrappings?

New bed spread and pillows! {one of my special Christmas presents}

Merry Christmas, Sweetheart.

chapter 56: OH CHRISTMAS TREE

Our newly established Christmas tree tradition is taking root. We trudged out again to the cabin to chop down our Christmas tree but this year we had a couple additions: Desmond and Cruiser.

There was a significantly less amount of snow on the ground, but seemed to be a lot colder than I remembered. Ben made a truly stellar fire that kept us toasty warm almost all through the night. We spent Saturday playing games, watching movies, going on walks in the snow and cozying up all snuggly on the couch and watching the fire pop. Sunday morning, "early", we headed out with our dog and truck, up the mountain side to fetch our perfect tree. It took a lot more searching this time for some reason, but right there at the end it stood. Our 2011 Christmas tree, ready to be plucked and taken home. Our house is perfectly decorated and began smelling like the holidays in seconds. 

{Ben was very very excited that he got to drive his new cruise up in the mountains. It transversed steep snowy "roads" with ease. Hooray for new truck making it so that we didn't have to walk too far in the cold to find our tree.}

{There she is! We knew it was the one after just getting a glimpse of it from far away.}

{Cozy snuggly Desmond in the cabin. He didn't much care for the cold.}

Desmond was cracking us up on our walks! The roads were ice-skating worthy slick. We both would run and slide on the ice in our boots and almost fell quite a few times. Desmond on the other hand, who can barely maintain balance on normal surfaces, was slipping and sliding all over. He was so excited to be outside and running around that he would book it so fast, then come to a sliding, falling, slipping stop. We tried to capture it on film... it didn't work quite as we were hoping

{Finished product!}

{We can't wait to head out again next year. We've already got our eye on one that just needs a little more growing until it's ready to be ours.}

One of the many great parts of traditions is that you can look at pictures of yourselves doing the exact same thing at the exact same time one-year ago and see how you've changed. This is us, with 1 month of marriage under our belt.

{married one year}

{married one month}

chapter 55: ONE YEAR

It's official. We have been in love, in married, and in happy for one year. November 27th 2011 marks our one year wedding anniversary - commemorating one year of total and utter bliss. Looking back over our first year of marriage, we have no regrets (that's not to say we didn't make some mistakes) and are constantly learning more and more about one another. We can not wait for a forever of years to come!

To celebrate, we took a trip to Hot Springs about 4-hours east of Boise. Ben booked us a room in the nicest B&B with the biggest room and the biggest jacuzzi tub {mmhm}.

{ONE WHOLE YEAR BABY!}

\

{standing outside the hot springs}

(our B&B)

{4 course meal made just for us! The bag in the back was Ben's present to me... pearl earrings and a tandem bicycle necklace! What an amazing husband I have.}

Oh, and here's a hilarious footnote...

We happen to come across the annual Christmas Dog Parade! You know... you MUST have heard about it... it's a pretty dig deal.