ICReland

I wanted to do a trip in before year’s end.  Alex (Pancakes) had just gotten into grad school for behavioral analysis so I knew he’d want to travel before it started in September.  Eric said he was down and there we had our travel group.  We thought about going to Thailand and Southeast Asia but Cakes thought it’d be too hot during August.  Iceland apparently is the cool spot to go these days and it appealed to all of us – admittedly more to Cakes and Eric than to me.  Since the UK is only 2 hours east of Iceland, we decided to also swing by Ireland.  That’s how this all came to fruition.  And despite my initial hesitation about Iceland, I ended up really enjoying it.  It’s a beautiful country (read about that here).  Ireland, you’re alright too.

8/5/18 ~9:30PM
LAX, 1 hour 20 minutes from departure and I’m so terribly hungover.  What a way to start a trip.  Luckily, I think I’m turning the corner thanks to Pinkberry and a couple Advil.

Time difference in Iceland…they’re 7 hours ahead.  Iceland is 8.  It’ll take 9 hours to get get to Iceland and 2 more from Iceland to Ireland.

My friends think I’m OCD.

~11:30PM – airborne 
I’m convinced our flight attendant is a Targaryen.  Her hair is a white blonde I’ve only seen on Daenerys and her brother.

Yes, I felt like a major creeper taking this picture.

8/6/18 2:30PM – Keflavik Airport, Iceland
Our first hiccup of the trip.  Our rental car isn’t ready.  Should’ve been 2 hours ago so we’re passing time with Mario Kart on the Switch and Connect 4.

~5:00PM
Made it to our Airbnb!  For our troubles, AVIS gave us a map of Iceland. 🤦🏻‍♂️  I tried to convince them to give us free wifi and a tank of gas but they wouldn’t budge.  Oh, we also got a gas station card worth 10% off purchases and free coffee.  That’ll be somewhat nice.

Iceland feels barren.  The towns here are small, practical.  The roads are long with nothing but mountains, fields, and livestock along them.

10:26PM

Why does Europe make life so difficult for Americans?

Seljalandsfoss was neat but after seeing Iguazu Falls in Argentina, everything else pales in comparison.  I put Seljalandsfoss on my Instagram story and my co-worker said it looked like I just put a bunch of random letters together LOL.

Trying to get that perfect profile picture.

Wet walk behind the waterfall.

Iceland isn’t known for their food other than that it’s expensive.  $20 burger, $25 lamb soup.

We have a long hike to Þorsmork tomorrow. The “Þ” is pronounced like “th”, Thorsmork, which means Valley of Thor.  It’s almost 11PM and it’s time to sleep but the sun is still up.

Going through our fresh batch of bagels together.  This was hilarious and ended up being a nightly ritual.  Eric has terrible taste in women. 

8/7/18
Wow, Þorsmork.  It was a long, tiring, 6 hour hike with breathtaking views and windy as hell.  We’re on the way home in a coach bus fixed-up for off-roading and river crossings.  It’s a bumpy ride.  My vestibular system can’t handle this.  I’m going to sleep.

   

  

8/8/18 11:10AM
15 people jammed into this van for a bumpy off-road ride to an ice cave under Katla, one of Iceland’s active volcanos.  I don’t know how but I sleep well on these off-road treks.

1:18PM
So the volcano is actually under a glacier that I thought was a mountain until I saw parts of it dripping, melting away.  The glacier has been receding since the last Ice Age.  The biggest threat of a volcanic eruption is the massive amount of glacial water that will melt and flood nearby cities.  The last Katla eruption was 1918 and it erupts roughly every 80 years, so it’s due.

This is the glacier covering Katla, looks like a mountain right?!

  

  
Inside the glacial cave.

5:26PM
Cakes and I raced up Skogafoss.  I gave him a 30-second head start and lost by a second or two.  My lungs are dying.  Our next stop at the Secret Lagoon (a hot spring) is much needed.

It looked like I could beat him…

That night at the Secret Lagoon, we met a couple really cool people from Virginia, Kayla – the girl with the giraffe tattoo, and Matt – who couldn’t tell us what he did for a living, just that he worked for the government.  It innocently started with a few beers and bottles of wine at the lagoon but ended up as one of the wildest nights in my life.  All I can say is that it involved our two new friends, a lot of alcohol, and a lot of blood.  In true Hangover fashion, the night ended with Matt deleting Kayla’s phone.  He also told us that if we talked to the cops, he was never with us.

We’re calling it Hangover Iceland and from the words of my good friend Tom Hong…

“If they made Hangover 4 and based it on their story, it would be the BEST Hangover for sure.”

8/9/18
Death day #2.  I spent the entire day so terribly hungover as we drove the Golden Circle and visited Þingvellir, Geysir, and Gulfoss.  It was beautiful and despite feeling like death, still a hilariously awesome time with Cakes and Eric.

Þingvellir

Silfra at Þingvellir, the only place in the world you can dive between two tectonic plates.  We didn’t do it though.  The water is around 35 degrees Fahrenheit.

Yep, the entire day.

   

This might’ve been the funniest moment of the trip.  We noticed the name of the geysir (lol) and when it erupted and blew this out, we laughed so hard.  The people around us must’ve thought we were crazy.

Gulfoss

8/10/18 6:00AM
I’m recovered.  And looking for a bottomless mimosa spot.  I would.

9:00PM

We went to the Blue Lagoon after meeting up with Kayla and Matt for brunch.  The Blue Lagoon is Iceland’s most famous tourist attraction but definitely a trap.  It looks like that picture but with probably 3x the amount of people.  The Blue Lagoon costs $100 to enter.  The Secret Lagoon, $30.  There is a 3 drink maximum at the Blue Lagoon.  There is no maximum at the Secret Lagoon and they sell bottles of wine.  The Secret Lagoon has pool noodles which sounds silly but was actually super clutch cause we were able to lay back and chill instead of standing/walking.  Don’t go to the Blue Lagoon.  Go to the Secret Lagoon.

8/11/18 4:00AM

9:37AM
Here we come, Ireland.  Strutting in like McGregor.

Actually, not really, none of us slept well last night and just passed out on the flight so we’re now half awake and will probably drag our feet into Iceland once this WOW plane lands in 10 minutes.

First stop, brunch and bottomless mimosas!  Perks of being in charge of the the itinerary.

11:47AM
“I know it’s English but y’all need to speak a little slower or I won’t be able to understand a thing you’re saying.” -Cakes about the Irish.

8/12/18 6:08PM
Just woke up from a disco nap.  It’s our last night in Dublin and we have 2 more in Ireland after tonight.  How did this trip pass so quickly?

We stumbled into a delicious Boojum yesterday, basically Ireland’s Chipotle, and picked it up again for dinner tonight.  We also found a Nando’s, apparently Kanye’s favorite grilled chicken spot.  Food in Dublin > food in Ireland.

   

At night, we explored Temple Bar, kinda like Ireland’s Bourbon Street.  It was poppin’.  We came across a hanging bar challenge – hang for 100 seconds and win 100 Euros.  The catch is that the bar isn’t fixed.  It’ll rotate as your hands rotate making it much more difficult.  Cakes and I had a sidebet of 60 seconds.  He failed miserably.

When in Ireland…

   

Eric went back to the hostel while Cakes and I found a club having its Latin night.  Perfect.  Until it wasn’t.  I don’t know what it was but Pancakes was on fire and it was just not happening for me.  I couldn’t even look at a girl without her slowly dancing away.  So Cakes is talking to another girl, this one from Latvia.  Luckily she’s with her male friend from Bolivia.  We think he’s gay.  I’m playing wingman, Cakes is doing well (we think) until he buys a round of drinks and I turn around and see the Latvian girl making out with her Bolivian friend.  We think it might’ve been on purpose to get rid of us.  If it was, it worked cause we called it a night after that.

We did the Guinness Storehouse this morning.  Tours are tough when you’re hungover.  Cakes and I walked through the majority of Guinness eager to get to the end while Eric complained that he felt rushed the entire time.  He’s never been on a tour hungover.  He doesn’t understand.

I have friends (Grace) who would dispute this fact.

Guinness penguins!!!

   
Pouring that perfect pint of Guinness.

We did Kilmainham Gaol afterwards, Ireland’s famous former prison.  Our tour guide was a little too enthusiastic and he spoke a little too much but it’s a tour so I guess I should expect that.  Kilmainham Gaol was one of the first reform prisons, one of the first to keep inmates in separate cells.  Most prisons at the time kept inmates in a common area which led to more crime and violence.  Kilmainham Gaol hoped that by separating prisoners and prohibiting them from talking to each other, the prisoners would reflect on their crimes and come out as better people.

   

We went to Jameson Distillery.  We were sick of listening to someone talk so we grabbed drinks at the bar instead.  There are some yummy whiskeys here that aren’t sold in the States.  I found one to bring home. 🙂

   

   

So we heard about the Gaelic football semi-finals game at Croke Park last night but by the time we get there, the game’s already started and we can’t buy tickets anymore.  There are a couple scalpers at a street corner who offer us premium seats for 60 euros each.  We haggle it down to 40 euros.  It was shady as hell.  We thought we got scammed.  One of the tickets was already ripped.  But they all worked, we all got in, and the match was a good one.  Gaelic football is weird but splendidly exciting.  It comes aspects of many different sports.  Every 5 steps you take, you have to dribble or kick or get rid of the ball.  You can only pass the ball with your hands by striking it like a volleyball.  There’s a goal like soccer and uprights like rugby.  A goal is 3 points, splitting the uprights is 1.  Just explaining the rules gives me a headache.  Imagine playing it.

   

Okay. Boojum, Jameson, party.

8/13/18 – sometime in the morning
Hangover – 2, Andre – 2.  I’m getting the hang of this thing.  I just gotta eat and drink a ton of water before I pass out.  I still feel it today and I felt it yesterday too, but it’s definitely not the death it was at LAX or after Hangover Iceland.

We took a train to Galway and we’re now waiting for our bus to Doolin.  None of us slept very much last night, maybe 4 hours.  We met a few dudes at our hostel: Stas – Singaporean DJ of Rave Republic born in Australia, Good John from Reykjavík (his name is Icelandic and sounds like Good John, no one could pronounce his actual name), Matt – neuroscientist from Canada who I nerded out with, and Henrick from Germany who danced like a robot to EDM.  We drank a ton before going out.  Cakes and I were tired so we gave them the Irish goodbye (leaving without saying bye) and snuck off to a Papa Johns/burger spot before turning in.  I got into a bit of trouble, nothing serious.  Just got angry because a worker there wouldn’t refill my Sprite.  He swiped my cup to the floor when I snuck behind the counter to do it myself so I drunkenly and angrily swiped napkin dispensers off tables as I left the restaurant.  He should’ve refilled my Sprite.  That’s free in the States.

   

   
Hehe, Pancakes saw me.

11:04PM
Okay, I spoke too soon.  Hangover – 3, Andre – 1.  The bus from Galway to Doolin was windy as hell and I didn’t handle it well.  I was dying.  I must’ve spent 3-4 days of this trip feeling like death. 🤦🏻‍♂️

We hiked to the Cliffs of Moher.  The fresh air helped.  It was beautiful.  Harry Potter fans, this was where the horcrux cave was filmed.

I’m finally feeling alive again.  Looking forward to a good night sleep.

The bus driver pulled over for a view point.  I ran outside, puked, and took this picture.

Small town of Doolin.

8/14/18 ~10:30AM
We nearly missed our ferry this morning because we all took a Xanax last night and thought someone had set their alarm when no one actually did.  Slept for over 9 hours.  The only reason we made our ferry was cause we asked a fisherman to take us to the pier a mile away in his van.  He laughed at us and agreed.  Thank goodness for the kindness of the Irish.

12:38AM
Made it to Inishmore of the Aran Islands.

Fuck winding drives, fuck choppy ferry rides.  I could do without either for the rest of my life.  My vestibular system hates me right now.  I need Dramamine.

It was really coming down earlier.  We’re all dryer and feeling better.  I miss my cats, I miss my bed, and I miss 90 degree weather in SoCal.

4:51PM
We’re on the ferry to Rossveal.  It’s a 45-minute ferry followed by a 45-minute bus ride to Galway.  This ferry is faster.  We saw it on the way here, looked less choppy.  Eric’s death day came today.  He got woozy from the ferry, surprising considering he never gets motion sick.  Then the bike ride almost killed him, not as surprising considering it was his first time really riding a bike.  He made it but his legs were shot by the end of it.

Our bike ride went to Dun Aonghasa (Aengus), a prehistoric fort and that’s really all I remember about it.  It was pretty but we were really bad about learning the history behind it – at least Cakes and I were.  Eric probably did better.

Don’t push me down, okay?

8/15/18 12:18AM
The ferry back was okay.  The bus to Galway, also okay.  Even got some sleep on both trips.  Galway, it’s a busy little town.  Feels like walking down 3rd St. Santa Monica minus the bougee-ness and with a lot more pubs.

We’re packed.  The bus station is 2 minutes away from our hostel.  We all have our alarms set.  We’re ready to go home.

11:34AM
We’re on the way to Reykjavík.  Going to pick up a bottle of Brennivin for the boys during our 2-3? hour layover.  Brennivin is Iceland’s signature liquor, a 37.5% schnapps that tastes like a mixture of gin and soju.  It’s nickname is Black Death and it’s really good.

Almost home.

2:29PM PST
5 1/2 hours into this 8-9 hour flight and my ass is starting to feel it.  Eric is deep into his nap.  He’s taking up both armrests, falling everywhere.  The stranger to his right hates him.  He’s so terrible to sit next to.

5:03PM
We’re close to landing.  We’re going to be home early.  I have a weeks worth of music to catch up to.  Looking forward to that, unpacking, and cleaning tomorrow.