Stark Salt Lake City

Imagine a city with wide, empty streets and pretty buildings. The roads and sidewalks are well-maintained and the storefronts are aglow with neon signs advertising sales. The temperature is a little hot, but with a nice breeze to cool you right down. As you look around at this impressively well-maintained city, with its gorgeous mountains so close you feel like you can touch them, you realize these empty streets are more deserted. Ghost towns have a more lived-in feel. There are few cars on the road, most parked on the side of the street, owners absent. There are no people walking. Not one pedestrian. After a minute, a lone car parks, and its family gets out, rushing to their destination. The streets are empty again. 

This is Salt Lake City. I spent several days in the surrounding area. Every time I went downtown, I was struck by how my friend and I seemed to be the only people left in the city. The population is not quite 200,000, but I would have thought at least one of those 200,000 people might come out of wherever it was they were hiding. Salt Lake City would make a great filming location for the next zombie movie. Seriously. Wide roads, perfect for getting shots of hordes of angry zombies, stumbling (or dashing!) after their victims. The well-maintained city would be a stunning contrast to the undead in all their glory, ripping apart the poor people of Salt Lake City. There could even be a scene (am I getting a little ahead of myself?) where someone tries to throw all the zombies in the Great Salt Lake, and all the zombies just float back to the surface. I don't know if that is scientifically viable. Even the Mormon bit could come into play. Does the fancy underwear protect against zombies? Maybe the dead buried in their fancy underwear (does this happen?) would be protected from the bullets of their future victims? Maybe instead of writing a travel blog, I should start writing zombie screenplays. I see a future. 

The one exception to the isolation of downtown was Temple Square, the epicenter of the Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints. Here, the prettiest of Mormon young ladies smiled gently at every one. Their tasteful skirts all fell modestly below the knee, and their name tags declared the country from which they came. They weren't pushy- not one of them did more than smile or say, "Hello!" to my friend or me.

The Temple itself is gorgeous. I kept calling it Walt Disney's castle, and it really could be! Apparently it is a popular saying amongst little Mormon girls that "Every princess deserves her castle" to get married in, and I can see why. Of course, heathens like me aren't allowed in, but there is a very nice model in the visitor's center to show the parts the normal Mormon people get to see. 

Temple Square was really interesting to me. I like how open they are with their admittedly strange beliefs. The place was very pretty and well kept. If you're interested in learning about their faith, this would be a good place to go. And if, like me, you're just interested in wandering in wide-eyed amazement that places like this exist, it is good for that too! 

That's it; commit me to the looney bin!

Out of an act of desperation to get out of the funk I've been in for a while, I decided to set myself up with a challenge. Inspired by this amazing polyglot , I've decided to learn all of the most essential characters of Japanese in three months.

Again, please commit me to the looney bin.

Part of this challenge involves holding yourself to the goal in different ways. One of these is posting online somewhere what you're doing and how you're doing with it as you go. I didn't want to clog up my Facebook feed, so I've decided to post it here. I'll also be posting in this really supportive goal community on Reddit. Support's always good.

In addition to posting online and holding myself accountable, I've made a bet with Samuel. If I learn all of these Kanji, he's going to take me to Canlis to celebrate. If I don't, I have to take him. For those of you not in Seattle, Canlis is an expensive, fancy restaurant that I really can't afford to take myself to, let alone Sam. Talk about motivation!

I'm starting this Monday, which gives me a couple of days to prepare. This puts my learn-by date to Feburary 4, 2012. Wish me luck!

Malmo, Sweden

On Saturday, Samuel and I planned to go to Malmo, Sweden. It is directly across the Oresund from Copenhagen. There is a very large bridge to get across, and the train also goes over to Sweden, and all the way up to possibly Helsingborg. Pretty far into Sweden, either way. We took the train. It was really easy and comfortable.

Unfortunately, we didn't actually look up anything to do in Malmo before we went. So we found ourselves not knowing what to do or where to go. I almost wish we'd looked it up, but Malmo seemed like such a small city that I don't think we would have found much. We just grabbed a tour book from a tourist shop and wandered around.

The first thing we saw to do was go to Malmohaus, which is Malmo Castle. It was pretty cool, and not very expensive- 7 dollars or so. We were confused about the exchange rate the whole time. Once we got there, we decided to share a quick snack at the cafe and ordered pickled fried herring. Oh my goodness. It was amazing! It was served cold, which was strange (to us, at least) with potatoes and salad and creme fraiche. I wish I could eat it again. We took a picture, and everytime I see it, I start drooling.

The we went through Malmo Castle. It was pretty cool, but hard to follow at times. Some exhibits were in English and Swedish, others had an English guide at the beginning you could carry around, and others were just in Swedish. Some exhibts would have some signs in both languages, and some in just Swedish. I didn't feel like I understood as much as I could have. For example, down in the dungeons,  there was a cool exhibit on the Black Plague. I didn't realize it was about the Black Plague, and not about people dying in the dungeons, until the end, when the signs started being in both languages again. I liked seeing it, and the castle itself was really cool. I know I shouldn't complain either, because I'm in their country, and I wish I was able to speak the language. The disparity between languages just seemed strange. Either way, I reall enjoyed it.

Samuel wanted to buy a sweater, so after we left the castle, we headed to an area the guidebook said had flea markets, shops, and international food. Sounds like a good place to find a sweater! Unfortunately, "flea markets" turned out to mean one farmer's market- no sweaters. No stores at all, really. Disappointing. We stopped at an Indian place for dinner. I had a dish that was really interesting. It was Butter Tikka Masala, but it was bright pink and sweet. It was strange, but very good.

Still on a sweater hunt, Samuel took us on a very roundabout way of getting to another place the guidebook described as having cute shops. It was a mall. Ugh. Malmo appears to exist solely for shopping. I'm pretty sure I saw more shops than people. Anyway, the mall wasn't bad. Sam found a really nice sweater, and I found a great thick wool scarf for really cheap. By this point, our feet started to hurt and we headed back to the train. They'd had a problem with the electric, and the people had been waiting for the train for almost an hour. We had good timing, though, because we only had to wait about 15 minutes. :)

Back and A and E's, we grabbed a pizza and settled in for the night. It was a good pizza. Felt just like home. :)

Biking through Copenhagen

The plan for the next day in Copenhagen was to get some bikes from A's work and ride them through the city to see some of the more popular sites. A and E already have bikes, as they don't have a car. We just needed to borrow some for Samuel and me.

A note about owning a car in Denmark: when you buy a car, you are charged a 200% tax. So if you buy a $15,000 car, you pay another $30,000 in taxes, making your car $45,000. That being sad, Copenhagen has a really nice public transportation system, with several rail lines and what seemed to be a pretty good bus system. They also have really nice bike lanes. Instead of being some puny little afterthought of a lane like in the US, they actually have their own lane, with a curb seperating it from the road, and another curb seperating the bikes from the sidewalk. Besides the obvious, another great benefit is that cars do not drive through the bike lane to park on the side of the road, so there is no danger to bicyclists! I was really impressed.

A has a regular bike, but E has this awesome contraption called a Christiana.

Theirs looks a little different than this one, but the same general idea is applied. The back looks like a bike, but the front has a big box and two big wheels. The box is big enough that two kids could sit side by side. These are so great for a place  where one mostly has to rely on public transportation. While looking for this picture, I saw pictures of people moving and even set up for the wheelchair!

We stopped for some quick drinks at a cafe by the canal, then headed out to Christiana, the place A and E most wanted to show us. Christiana (the cool bikes started here, hence the shared names) declared itself free from the state in 1971. Naturally, it became a haven for drugs of all kinds. Recently, they've cleaned up, and all I saw (and smelled) was pot. I wish I had pictures, because it was really cool. Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed (drugs, remember?) and if they catch you taking pictures, they'll destroy your camera.

Christiana was pretty much what one would expect from a lot of pot heads living in a commune. The neighborhood didn't seem that big. The funny part (I thought) was that it is in the city. When E and A told us about this, I was expecting it to be far out of the city in the middle of a field or something. Nope! The houses were really cute and interesting, and there were people selling the types of things one might expect along Pusher Street. In addition to all the stoners and hippies were a bunch of people who just looked out of places- people in Abercrombie sweatshirts, and a huge group of old businessmen in suits lazily meandering around the paths. Strange place.

After this, it was getting late, so we made a quick stop at the Little Mermaid staute before heading off. Apparently, this statue is what inspired Hans Christian Andersen to write the story of the Little Mermaid. It was okay- kind of small and nondescript. It is a little strange that it is such a big landmark in such an interesting city.

To get to the school to get the bikes, Samuel and I had gone on the bus, and met E and A, who rode their bikes. Going home, E was tired from peddling the Christiana (I don't blame her whatsoever!) and we needed to start dinner, so E, Baby, and I rode the bus back while Samuel and A rode the bikes back to the house. On the way home, we stopped at the grocery.

I feel like grocery stores in foreign countries are a great way to get a sense of the culture, or at least the food culture. IN Denmark, grocery stores are small. In this neighborhood, there is a wine shop, a cheese shop, and a vegetable stand all seperate from the grocery store. I think it is nice that a company just pays attention to one thing and does it very well. E says every single time she goes to the grocery, there is at least one thing that she just can't find or they don't carry. That's the downfall of the cute little stores, I guess- no selection. The produce section was a small corner- a far cry from the sprawl of produce in the US. One really cool thing- herbs are sold in plant form. I love this idea! There is no sense in chopping off a huge amount of a plant to have half of it go to waste anyway. This way, it just stays alive until you can use it again!

That was the end of our sight-seeing for the day. It was really nice to just have the evenings to hang out with E and A and get to know them.  Copenhagen was really nice because I feel like I got a really good feel of the city, but I also got to relax a lot. Plus, A and E were so welcoming. I felt like I was hanging out with old friends.

Copenhagen, Denmark- Day 1

Day six of Glorious Europe Extravaganza began tiredly. There's no better word. After 2 hours and 45 minutes of sleep, navigating the public transit of a foreign city in a foreign language was nothing short of daunting. Fortunately, as we were staying with Sam's cousin, A, he had written us amazingly detailed directions on Copenhagen's public transportation system. Despite getting on the wrong train, we managed to make it to A's house with the help of some very nice locals. We also walked past his street several times. But it all became worth it when we were welcomed with open arms and given breakfast burritos and cappucinos. Sam's family are the most wonderful group of people on Earth. Never have I met a family where every member loves the others and there is no drama, no annoying family shit, just love and get-togethers. A, and his wife, E are no exception. After staying with strangers in Iceland, it was really nice to stay with family strangers. :)

Our sleep space was to be in the living room, so in an effort not to take that over, plus with desire to stay awake and stay on a normal schedule, we decided to go out on the town. Plus, A and E have a two-year old, E-Bear and a four-month old, so sleeping probably wouldn't have been too much of an option! Sam, A, E-bear and I packed up a stroller and set off. We saw some really old houses still around from the (possible) 1500s. The architecture is gorgeous. A later showed us a video from the 1930s, and Copenhagen looks exactly the same. The only difference was the clothes and the cars! This city is so pretty. It looks exactly how I thought it would, with brightly colored little houses in rows and intricately designed buildings.

We stopped by Nyhavn, which is a gorgeous harbor with lots of little shops. Sam bought some apples from a local apple grower. They were so good we ate them all up almost right away and raved about them for the next couple of days. Apparently they're grown on a little island in South Denmark.

We also walked down Stroget, a pedestrian street full of shopping. None of us really wanted to shop, but it was one of those "must-sees". It was okay- about what you'd expect from a street of stores. Clothes (and everything else!) are expensive in Denmark. Apparently Copenhagen is in the top 5 most expensive cities to live in the world.

We stopped at a big square, where E-bear ran around and chased pigeons (and stepped on a sleeping one, whoops!), then headed off to Rosenburg Castle in the King's Garden. It was gorgeous and ridiculous- a huge castle in a huge park in the middle of the city. Room after room of fancy stuff, including this incredible clock E-bear couldn't get enough of. This clock would have sold for millions of dollars, easily. It was the most intricate clock I've ever seen in my life. In the basement are the Crown Jewels, which are about as ridiculous, extravagant, and over-the-top as you might expect. Two armed guards were outside, with two more in the basement.

After all that, we needed some food, so A took us to a great smorrebrod place. Smorrebrod is a Danish food that is really just meats and cheeses on top of food bread. As you can imagine, that can be done a plethora of different ways. This place was fancy- Sam had one with eel and one with gorgonzola, A had one with chicken salad and one with gorgonzola, and I had one with beef tartar. They were all delicious. E-bear had a hot dog. Europe is in love with hotdogs- kinda weird.

Came back to the house, E had made us delicious dinner, and we crashed pretty quickly.

Iceland, Day Five- The Final Day.

Our fifth day in Iceland was kind of a mixed bag. On one hand, we'd been in Iceland for five days, the country was awesome, we'd loved every minute and every thing we'd done, and it had been a completely unique and interesting vacation. Not only those things, but now we were getting to drive around the rest of the country, a goal we didn't think we'd be able to achieve!

On the other hand, we had to leave.

Though neither of us wanted to leave (expect so maybe we could stop hemorrhaging money) we did make our last day there as long as possible. We had left Husavik by 8 AM to make sure we had plenty of time. Since the weather on the ocean was so bad that we couldn't go whale watching, the weather on land was pretty terrible too. Cold, arctic rain was pouring down, and the temperature outside was maybe 38. Coupled with the rain, it was damn cold and we were both glad we were in the car and not on a boat in the Arctic Ocean.

The first place we stopped was Detifoss, the largest waterfall in Europe. Did I mention earlier it was almost freezing and raining buckets? Yeah, that didn't stop at Detifoss. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was worse due to the mist coming off the waterfall. It was really pretty, but I'm not much of a waterfall person. I can't swim, so water is just kind of a deadly asshole to me. I'm not normally awestruck, just annoyed that if I get too close, it'll kill me. By the time we got to the waterfall, we were quite literally dripping wet and freezing cold.The path, made of rocks, was more of a creek, and I slipped on the rocks a couple of times.  Detifoss is probably really pretty, and maybe I'll see pictures and realize what I missed, but that experience was downright terrible!

 Our second stop was a town called Egilssadir. We mailed some postcards and grabbed some food and coffee. One of our hosts in Husavik told Sam about a great shortcut that was not only incredibly gorgeous, but would save us 90 kilometers! Unfortunately, we had some issuses finding it, but it still saved us plenty of time and was really incredible. The road is called 939, and while it isn't the nicest road you'll ever drive on, it is too pretty for words to explain.

We didn't stop again until we got to Southern Iceland. That sounds like a long time, but Iceland is so small that it didn't take that long. We stopped in Hofn to grab some lunch. The Guidebook recommended Kaffi Hornid, saying it had "great character" and good food. Eh. I wouldn't say it was bad, but it certainly wasn't the glowing recommendation the guidebook bestowed upon it. We walked in to some French girls arguing with the waitress about being overcharged. I don't know what character the guidebook was talking about. It was an okay restaurant, but nothing that stands out. I had tomato soup and bread- the bread was great, the tomato soup was unlimited, and I had my fill. Sam had an $18 cheeseburger- pretty common price for Iceland- and said it was really good.

Our next problem was the car. A clause in our rental agreement said that we couldn't take the car off-roading, or on any "F" roads, which are the roads in Iceland that mean you need a four-wheel drive to go on them. While we definitely didn't, the car looked like we'd been driving it through every mud puddle in Iceland- and the handle had fallen off one of the doors. Uh oh. We figured if we returned it clean, it might look better, and we also really needed to wash the windows. Iceland doesn't have windshield wiper fluid and squeegees at every gas pump like the US does, so we were at a bit of a loss. Then we looked across the parking lot and saw the coolest invention for hand-washing a car ever invented. I'm probably way behind the times on this, but I'm going to ghetto-rig this for the next time I wash my car. This thing was pretty much a deck brush with the soap and water coming out of the handle in between the bristles. I know this is a really lame thing to talk about on a travel blog, and these things are probably everywhere, but I have never seen them and I am completely amazed. Okay, enough about car brushes.

Besides the cool factor of saying that I drove all the way around Iceland, Jokulsarlon, the next place we stopped, was the reason I am really glad we got to see the southern part of the country. Jokulsarlon is this place where pieces of a glacier are breaking off, slowly melting, and moving out to the ocean. The glacier pieces/icebergs are either this gorgeous blue color or striped with sediment from when the glacier froze. The wind was incredible- it almost knocked me over a couple of times. My one regret is that we didn't take a boat ride among the glaciers. It is supposed to be great, although freezing, and not very expensive. Unfortunately, we just didn't have time. That can also go on the list of things to do next time- or the list of reasons to return to Iceland!

Sadly, our next stop was Keplavik, the airport. What looked like a barren, empty landscape at touchdown now looked like a bustling metropolis compared to the rest of Iceland. Our plane left at 1 AM and took 2 hours and 45 minutes. With the time change, we arrived in Copenhagen a little after 6 AM, completely exhausted.

Iceland, Day Four- Myvatn and Husavik

Our fourth day in Iceland was one of the coolest days by far. I'd thought the landscape was pretty cool, neat museums and things to see, and nice people. Our fourth day was mind-blowing.

Close to Husavik is a lake called Lake Myvatn. Besid'es the Golden Circle (Gulfoss, Geysir, and Thingvellir), this is what people come to Iceland to see. If you ever go to Iceland, make it happen that you go see this area, and I promise you won't regret it. It isn't very easy to get there- if we'd driven straight there, it would have taken at least six hours. There aren't trains and I'm pretty sure there's not a bus. There is an airport. No matter how you get here, it was totally worth it.

Our guidebook took us in a circle around Myvatn, starting in Reykjahlid, and I feel like this was a really good way to see it. Each sight was awesome, but they seemed to get more and more fantastic as the circle went on.

The first thing we saw was Hverfell. Some of the signs we saw also said Hverfjall, and I think the story behind this is too funny not to share. 'Fell' in Icelandic means "small hill", whereas "fjall" means "mountain". It used to be called Hverfjall, but an Icelandic citizen went to court over the name. Apparently, it is more of a small hill than a mountain. I don't know why it upset him so much, but he won the case, and now the name is Hverfell. Mountain or small hill, the thing is pretty impressive. It looms up, black and ominous, in the background of Lake Myvatn. It was a volcano that erupted a couple of thousand years ago, but it doesn't resemble erupted volcanoes one might think of. Instead, it looks like a gigantic pile of black rocks. It is almost surreal. There is a path up to the top, and once there, we saw the gigantic crater in the middle. It was crazy! In the middle of the crater, there was a raised circle. I have no idea how it happened, but it was really cool to see.

Our next stop in the circle was Dimmuborgir. Apparently the terrible band actually got their name from somewhere. If I was Iceland, I would have sued for taking the name of someplace amazing and applying it to something shitty. I mean, the name "Shitty Band" was still available. They could have called themselves that. :)
I kid, I kid. But really, Dimmuborgir was really cool. The name means "dark castles" in Icelandic. I wouldn't want to be here at night; this place would be way too creepy. As it was in the middle of the day, well, it was over run with the same old people on buses that flocked to Thingvellir. I understand everyone wanting to see it, but part of our reason for going to Europe in September is that it is the off season, and we didn't want to be surrounded by people. I really would have enjoyed Dimmuborgir a lot more had I not been surrounded by old people talking about how bad the flies were (they weren't that bad, but what do you expect from a place essentially called Fly Lake?), how cold it was (it wasn't that cold, and I'm always cold), and walking really slowly in every possible spot to walk. We broke away for a bit, but by that time, we were frustrated and left. I recommend if you go to go really early in the morning, or maybe later in the day. It would be positively creepy at dusk or later, so maybe not then, but definitely try to avoid the crowds!

The next cool thing to see around Myvatn are the pseudocraters. These look like the craters that are formed from lava explosions, but lava come out there. They are made when hot lava flows over a wet place, like a lake or swamp, and the steam explodes. The pseudocraters are all found in a place called Skutustadagigar, on the southern part of the lake. They're not super cool to look at up close- they just look like grassy bowls- but they're neat to see from the road. Our guidebook recommended walking around on a path, but it took about an hour and we were on a bit of a time crunch, so it is on our list of things to do next time we go! Oh, and the other place pseudocraters are found is Mars. After this visit, I am convinced Iceland is a portal to Mars, so that doesn't surprise me whatsoever!

The western part of the lake is very pretty, but there isn't much to see landmark-wise. There are some mountains, and probably some goregous views from on top of them.

The next place we stopped is no longer on the lake, but off to the east. These next two places are why /u am convinced Iceland is Mars. At least, I now feel like I have a good idea what Mars is like. :)

Hverir. This place was mind-blowing, awesome, and made me want to barf. No, really. Hverir is made up of sulfur vents. The ground is red and there are white deposits everywhere, and steam is literally pouring out of the ground. It smells so awful that I could only stay for a couple of minutes. I don't know if we went on an exceptionally bad day, because the guidebook said nothing about the smell. Perhaps I am just sensitive, because there were other people out among the steam vents, taking pictures and looking around. I really wanted to see it closer, but I just couldn't handle it. We snapped a couple of pictures, including one of Sam pretending to barf, and jumped back in the car. I was really disappointed. Maybe those other people were Icelandic, and used to the smell. Since all the water in Iceland is geothermal, it all smells like sulfur. People wash their dishes and take showers in sulfur smelling water. Maybe due to that, they were able to handle it more than my sensitive nose. Maybe the wind was acting up. Or maybe I am just a wimp! Either way, it was really gorgeous in a creepy, out-of-this-world way, but foul.

Our last stop around Myvatn was Leirhjukur, which really looked like Mars. Leirhjukur is part of the Krafla volcano system, which is still active. As I don't really see the world changing so much, I forget what the Earth is really capable of. This really shook that impression. Iceland reminded me that the Earth is changing and very powerful. This sounds like such a cliche, I know, but it is really awe inspiring to be next to volcanic lava fields, with sulfur steam streaming out of the Earth.

That pretty much ended the most important things to see around Myvatn, so we headed back to Husavik to get lunch and hit some museums we were interested in.

We found Salka, which our guidebook mentioned as having smoked puffin. Fortunately, this restaurant was open, so we finally got to try! It was really good! The restaurant was a little expensive, but then again, most food in Iceland was astronomical. The service wasn't that great- the 5-top who came in after us got their food before we did- but I'd recommend it for the puffin. Cute and delicious; what more could you want from a bird?

Next was the thing I had been looking forward to the most for the entire trip- the Iceland Phallological Museum. Yeah, that's right. A penis museum. This museum was started by this one guy thanks to a pratical joke. When he was a school teacher, one of his students brought him a penis or a whale or seal or some other Icelandic animal. The teacher thought it was interesting, rather than repulsive, and preserved it. Word got around, and people started bringing this guy more and more samples of penises from different animals that would get caught. This museum now has over 270 penises from 46 different species. It is incredible! There's even a human penis from this guy who pledged to donate him when he died. They just got it in July. There are several other men who have pledged their penises as well. It was really really interesting. They didn't go into much more detail than the species, year caught, and sometimes how they got it/ life of the animal. Nothing about different functions or anything like that. I almost felt like I was looking at some guy's penis collection, and, essentially, I was. There were even several stuffed whale penises on plaques on the walls. Absolutely fascinating! Hands down my most favorite museum I've ever been to.

After the penis museum, we headed over to the Whale Museum, which was just down the street. Husavik is tiny- around 3,000 people live there- but they have a good selection of museums. The great thing about Iceland is that although their cities are tiny, they manage to make them feel quite big, with lots of attractions and entertainment. There was no point in Iceland where I felt bored or like there was nothing to do that interested me.

The Whale Museum was pretty interesting, and very comprehensive. They had this really interesting exhibit on display about whaling in Alaska. This photographer followed this group of whalers and showed the whole process. I like it because he did a great job of presenting the thing so that it was objective- one could really take their own opinion if they agreed with it or not. That's really hard to do with such a controversial subject.

While waiting for our hosts to get off work, we went up to a little lake called Botnsvatn behind Husavik. It was really small and cute- a really cute place to take a picnic lunch in the summer.

Our delightful host works for a whale watching company, and she offered to take us on a tour. We were planning that for our last morning in Husavik before driving back down to Reykjavik. Unfortunately, when we arrived back at their house, they had watched the news and found that the weather was probably going to be awful the next morning, and whale watching wouldn't be possible. As we watched the news throughout the night, it was confirmed- no whale watching for Kristen and Sam. We were really disappointed and kind of at a loss for what to do now with our last day in Iceland. We wanted to do something awesome, and really use the best of our day, but what?

Sam has been talking about driving around Iceland since I've met him. I'm pretty sure he mentioned it one of the first times we hung out. I don't know how long he's wanted to do this, but it is a long time, and probably his number one travel goal. Unfortunately, we figured that with only four days and seeing the West Fjords, we wouldn't be able to make the loop- until our whale watching plans we canceled. Sam, never being the person to give up on a dream, quickly jumped on Google Maps and figured that driving the rest of the way around Iceland would only take about 10 hours. Factoring in time to stop for gas, lunch, and a couple crucial sites, we would have more than enough time to drive all the way around and make it back in Reykjavik in time for our 1 AM flight to Copenhagen! Needless to say we were stoked, especially Sam.