Day 1

A good thing about a travel destination within Europe is the short flight and the convenient flight schedule; leaving and arriving at decent times. We were told that checking in online was not possible, which later turned out not to be true, but as a result Willem and I could not sit next to each other anymore, despite being at the airport very early. The anticipated queues at the security check at Schiphol, that had been in the news for months, were practically non-existent, leaving us with enough time for an over-priced airport lunch. We thought it would prepare us for Iceland, but as we found out later, nothing can prepare you for that kind of over-pricing.
I was sitting towards the front of the airplane, enjoying the inflight entertainment system, that was showing footage of Iceland, a glad reminder of all the reasons why I decided to book a trip to this destination. From my window seat I could even see the Icelandic landscape bathing in sunshine. Willems seat was more towards the back in the vicinity of a number of our group members. When asked if he was on this trip alone he apparently answered he was traveling with an acquaintance. I KID YOU NOT! Acquaintance, that’s what he said. Because, as he told me that night, that is easiest to describe our situation. If I didn’t know any better, it would have made me wonder about the meaning of the past 17(!) years. Needless to say he’s still hearing about this (and will be for a while).
Next to the luggage belt at the airport in Reykjavik was a big liquor store. While waiting for our luggage it was being advertised that all Icelanders buy their alcoholic beverages there, as it is much cheaper, but we thought we could wait and buy some drinks in the regular store later, not the most economic decision we made during this trip. When we had been waiting for our luggage for a while, it was announced that if our luggage could not be found on the announced belt, we should also check the other belts. Luckily there were not too many, but it did make me doubt my believe-system that suggests that the further north you move in Europe the more organized the people get. Once we got our luggage (from the announced belt) we moved to the arrivals hall and met our group members. Later I was told by one of them, that I was clearly sizing everybody up, trying to decide who I would like and who not. Of course this is exactly what I did, but I did think I was hiding it better.
After a small tour around Reykjavik (including a stroll through the small unguarded garden of the parliament), we had our first dinner with the group in a crowded restaurant right next to the guy playing / freestyling the piano. They had fin whale on the menu, so I gave that a try. As this was casually offered as one of the dinner options in not in extremely fancy or exclusive restaurant, I did not think that it would not be okay, but after googling what it is exactly and finding out this animal is endangered, I’m fairly sure it was not so okay. Anyway, it was served as thin slices and tasted more like beef than fish. Since I don’t like to spent time thinking about money when I’m on vacation, I did not convert the price of the dishes on the menu to Euro’s and paid the bill without thinking twice. When later that evening I did however thought that second time I was quite shocked at what a dinner with a beer had cost and was glad that during the camping part, dinner would be provided.
Since nobody probably expects vague acquaintances to book a trip together, we had a tiny hostel room that was equipped with a table and chair, a luggage rack, 1 square meter of floor space, a minuscule night stand and a double bed that was closer to being one-and-a-half than double. Before joining Willem, I topped my sexiest winter pajamas in combinations with socks up with a fresh layer of purol that I know he likes. Since there was nothing better to do, we kick-started our trip with bad jokes and a then enjoyed the comfort of warmth and a bed (and in my case a night stand for the limb that did not make it into the bed) one last time before camping would start.