S and J's beach bum bonanza

What we did while the world went mad...

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Dénouement

We just took our mandatory Day 2 COVID test. It was our 21st COVID test and it was self-administered. Like the last 20, guess what – it was negative.

S is still wearing Hawaiian shirts, shorts and sandals and has no plans to cut his hair. J is still working. A lot. We miss our trip and all the lovely people we met along the way. But we are happy to see our friends in London again.

Signing off (for now....)

The Beachbums

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Day 190 – Fini

We woke up at the ungodly hour of 4:20am to finish packing and head to the airport. However, waking up was easier than we expected as it was perfectly light outside. Checkout was smooth, and the front desk guy let us take some food and drinks from the Hilton market as a substitute for our breakfast. Our taxi driver was a young, petite Icelandic lady. She actually managed to lift the Beast with J’s assistance. The ride to the airport was quick.

Check-in at the airport was fairly quick. We ended up having enough time for S to go to the lounge and for J to visit one of her favourite stores. Strangely, this is the same lounge we went to two years ago. It is the only lounge in Keflavik airport and services all the airlines. It even remembered S’ phone. J’s favourite store even sells the seal fur products S bought for his daughters on our last trip to Greenland.

The airport was very quiet, but there were around 8 flights departing. Most of them were to the EU, but there was also a flight to the US and our flight to London.

We got to fly on our first 737 Max. It is incredibly quiet, comfortable and smooth. The plane is less than half full. Only a few business people and a few intrepid British holidaymaker families are on our flight. We chatted with a nice Scottish chap who lives in Iceland. He works for a vaccine tracking company and was on his first flight in 18 months to visit a client. He told us some interesting stories about vaccine distribution and boxes that had gone missing. Each box of the Pfizer vaccine contains 6,000 vaccines, has a radio tracker and is worth a quarter of a million dollars.

We landed in Terminal 2. We thought we were in a queue for passengers from Green List countries. Unfortunately, it turned out that the Green and Amber List passengers were mixed, and we were lucky enough to get behind a plane from Lebanon and a plane from the US. We also arrived at lunchtime, when most of the border control staff were on break. There were just two people manning the border for hundreds of passengers. The couple we were standing next to accurately predicted that it would take 1.5 hours to get through the line. It was so bad that the Heathrow staff started handing out water bottles. However, a trip to the bathroom was not on offer so any people declined the water. The couple is in the travel industry and they were telling everyone to sign a Change.org petition to get remove the UK Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps. If you want to support it, here is the link: https://www.change.org/p/boris-johnson-vote-of-no-confidence-in-grant-shapps-you-have-failed-to-support-the-travel-industry/psf/promote_or_share. 

After customs, we collected our bags and headed to our new home, a Hilton in north London.

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Day 189 – Last hurrah at Kaldi

J worked again and packed. S slept until he was woken up by housekeeping. We decided to go downstairs to the bar for a few pre-drinks while we completed some admin. S is still grumpy about going back to London. However, we have decided that if things worsen in the UK and head to a THIRD lockdown, we will seriously consider leaving for mental health / reasons of sanity. We can’t believe the UK government is now focusing on two NEW scariants. We feel like this is a Groundhog’s day cycle we will never wake up from.

We then headed downtown for our last hurrah. We hit the happy hour at Kaldi and said good bye to all the people we met at the bar. Sadly Pablo was MIA, but we did meet his sister, who works for the Kenyan embassy in Iceland. We ended with a gin & tonic. J had a floral one and S had a spicy one. They were both tasty.

We headed off to dinner. We checked out a pizza place called Flatey that was recommended by the Italian bartender at the Hilton. Sadly they didn’t have any vegetable pizza, so we decided to try the Greek kebab shop we’ve passed by a few times called Greek Huis. S ordered a lamb gyro wrap and J ordered a chicken gyro salad. It was only then that J realised her wayward scarf had once again gone missing. It is now very clear to S that because J has a slick jacket on, these scarves keep slipping off her neck. J retraced her steps all the way back to Kaldi, running part of the way, and did not find the scarf. She had given up hope, but on the way back, found that some good Samaritan had placed it on a planter near the kebab shop. Icelandics seem to be a pretty honest and courteous lot. We have seen this in the number of people who alerted J to her scarf falling on the ground and the number of automobile drivers who kindly stopped to let us cross the street.

We had mixed reactions to the food. S really liked his lamb gyro. Although it didn’t have enough tzatziki, it was still better than the good lamb gyro he had in Capetown. J really didn’t like her chicken salad. We headed back to the hotel. S had one final beer while J had a fruit cup to offset the taste from the chicken kebab. We said farewell to our favourite bartender, Andre, who had served us through our entire stay at the Hilton. We would recommend this Hilton. It’s a little bit outside the main town, but gives you a good 15-20 minute walk each way so you can get your steps in and walk off some of the beer and heavy food. It also has a nice spa. All the staff were really nice.  

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Day 188 – Iceland is still on the Green List (sadly)

J is proper busy again. S is proper bored and frustrated. He had his fingers crossed that England would remove Iceland from the Green List today. If it had, he would have refused to return to England and would have immediately booked a trip to Africa or the Caribbean. Alas it was not meant to be and we still plan to return to England on Saturday… begrudgingly. Despite multiple outreaches to estate agents in London, we have only managed to book a few viewings on Monday afternoon. Fingers crossed one of these flats is suitable otherwise we might be holed up in our London hotel for some time.

We walked around 10 minutes to Reykjavik’s COVID testing facility to get our 20th COVID test. It was an impressive operation. We probably spent only 3 minutes checking in with our barcodes and getting our tests, before being ushered out. The tests, like last time, were on the painful side and in the nose and mouth. But no panic attacks this time. The results came back in less than 6 hours and we were negative. These guys could teach the Germans and Swiss a few things about efficiency! This is the only place in Iceland where we’ve had to wear masks, other than in the airport.

We returned to the hotel and spent over an hour trying to purchase S’ African products. S’ credit card was blocked, unblocked and reblocked, to no avail. After countless back and forth emails sorting out the details, the purchase may fail at the final hurdle.

J also spent around half an hour filling out the UK passenger locator forms. They were pretty complicated and totally unnecessary, in particular since we are not quarantining on return.

J then spent the day working while S sat by himself in the hotel bar. Dinner was at a Vietnamese restaurant close to the hotel. It was better than we expected. J had the lemongrass chicken and spring rolls and S had a noodle stir fry.

For once we did not end the night having our free drinks in the bar as S used them all up sitting by himself during the afternoon.

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Day 187 – the boredom for S returns

It didn’t rain today. J worked all morning. S slept. We went downtown to eat a very late lunch / dinner at Islenski Barinn. S tried the fish pie this time. It came in a pot and didn’t have any pie crust. J had a salad. The food was really good, as usual. We ended our day at the Hilton bar with our free Executive Lounge drinks. S is ready to get out of here. 

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Day 186 – J’s work sucks (for S)

J started working again today. She woke up early to join her first call. Thank god she left the room and went down to breakfast, which was pretty mediocre, but a nice, quiet place to take a call.

S had to deal with some tax stuff this afternoon… unpleasant. He was then left to his own devices for much of the day. We went back to the mediocre Mexican for lunch. It was better today. There was, however, a cheese incident. Yesterday, J did not get any cheese on her burrito bowl. Today she specifically mentioned the cheese and we both got a sparse sprinkle. J  called them out for not putting enough cheese. The lady at the till said she could put more cheese, but she would charge J for it. Undeterred, and bolstered by her renewed status as one of gainful employment, J called her bluff and got her credit card. The lady ended up giving J the extra cheese for no charge. The moral of the story is, don’t play chicken with J over cheese or you will be beaten like a chicken egg.

Because it was raining off and on, we took shelter at the hotel for a few minutes before S said we might as well head downtown for happy hour. We decided to go back to the Lebowski Bar because S really had to use the loo and the Bastard was just too far away. J had a table to work from and S could have a few beers. We then headed to our actual destination, the Bastard. Ironically, it turned out that it was right around the corner. We learned that today is Taco Tuesday and there is a special on margaritas. Once again, J ordered the pretzels and jalapeno cheese dip. However, this time the dish was completely different and tasted exactly like we remembered from 2019. The pretzels were incredibly soft and buttery. The cheese dip was smooth, tangy and spicy. When we mentioned the improvement in the dish to the server, she lit up and told us it was a different chef and he would be happy to hear our praise. We had held off on reviewing this place until this second visit because S had a feeling that there was something off with the food on the last visit. All in all, we had a great time at the Bastard.

As you would expect, we finished off at the hotel bar for our Executive Lounge drinks. Andre, the bartender, knows us pretty well by now and he’s always good for a laugh. He is our favourite Icelandic person we’ve met on this trip. We happened to be seated next to the first English person we’ve seen in Rainland. We thought he might be here for Green List purposes, but he is here on business for Icelandair. Today was his first day in Iceland, so we had to give him all our recommendations for bars and restaurants in Iceland. S is sceptical that he actually took anything in as he didn’t write down anything, but he was a really down-to-earth, nice chap and we liked him. We hope to run into James again.

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Day 185 – Jambo Kenya

Guess what, raining again. We grabbed some ‘Mexican’ food from a casual restaurant next door, Culiacan. It is the same place S took his kids 9 years ago. We then hung out in the spa’s outdoor hot tub (no bubbles). It rained on and off, but we stuck it out as it was perfectly pleasant in the hot tub. In fact, the last time we were in Iceland we were in another outdoor hot tub in the cold wind and the rain. It was great fun.

Afterwards, we headed downtown for happy hour as the sun had come out again. We went back to Kaldi, which was not very crowded. Our regular bartender, Christine, apologised as due to celebrations of the relaxation in COVID restrictions this weekend, many of the beers were out. She therefore let S have a special beer for happy hour prices. When S went to the bar to order, two guys asked him if he was Kenyan. They were Cyppie and Pablo and they are both Kenyan. They were intrigued by S’ bracelet and beads.They were intrigued by S’ authentic Samburu bracelet and beads. Cyppie showed us his Maasai bracelet, which was beaded onto his wrist and in the design of the Kenyan flag. Shockingly, J got to sing the Jambo song with Cyppie. Cyppie also shared this nugget of wisdom. In all his travels, everyone he has met has known: (1) Michael Jackson, (2) Bob Marley and (3) Coca Cola.

We got into a very long conversation with them and exchanged numbers. Hopefully we will hook up again before we leave. Cyppie even said he could help get S more braids if he wants them in Iceland. We also finally met the owner of the bar, the guy who flies around the world collecting gins. He is a Brazilian guy named George, and he is friends with Pablo and Cyppie. Apparently everyone loves them. J gave George some suggestions for new gins that he might want to think about adding to the collection. As Kaldi had one of J’s favourite gins, G-vine, she requested a Bramble. They did not have any blackberry liqueur, but they did have crowberry liqueur. Apparently crowberries are tarter than blackberries and more like currants. The fruit is found wild in Iceland. S decided to dub this new cocktail the ‘Cramble’.

We headed back to the hotel for dinner and saw a double rainbow (see picture below and yes, that is a hot pink petrol station). At the hotel, we had a couple of bowls of soup and our usual, free Executive Lounge drinks.

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Day 184 – Maybe they should call it ‘Rainland’

It was pissing rain again today. After last night’s experience, we wisely decided to take a taxi to town. S was upset that it cost $30 for what is a 20-minute walk. He thinks the taxi prices have increased post-COVID and sadly there is no Uber here. This is surprising given how developed Reykjavik is. The taxi lobby must be quite strong here…

We ate lunch at a new place called the Frederiksen Ale House. They had a good selection of beers, but it was the same old beer we’ve seen at other places. J had the burger, which was fine, but a bit salty as the egg was salted. We video chatted with our friends Bernie and Tamara, who are in the Dominican Republic celebrating their wedding anniversary and Bernie’s birthday. Sadly we couldn’t meet them as J has to go back to work. As with everywhere else we’ve been, the bar was mostly full of Americans. For the first time today, one of the waiters came up to S and asked him a question in Icelandic. S said “I have no idea what you just said”, and the waiter kindly switched to English. S thinks the hair braids are giving him an offbeat Icelandic look. The bar is very quiet and they provide board games. S has decided to complete an entire week of NYT crossword puzzles. We are now up to Sunday, which we will play tomorrow. The best part was that the bar played Bob Marley. So we have now heard Bob Marley in every single country we’ve visited on this whirlwind adventure.

In the evening, the rain stopped falling, so we headed back to Islenski Barinn for dinner. J had the seafood soup, which seemed pretty popular, and S had the reindeer burger. Both were excellent. You really can’t go wrong with the food at this place. For once, we saw non-American tourists. There was a large Chinese tour group at the bar.

We were able to walk back to the hotel. It was sunny (see picture of our hotel below) and warm out and the wind had died down, so it was actually the most pleasant walk we’ve had since we arrived in Ice(rain)land.

As usual, we ended the evening in the hotel bar with our Executive Lounge drinks. We decided to take a stab at the Sunday crossword puzzle and actually finished it. It was a team effort.

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Day 183 – 6 months out of the UK

We got up a bit earlier today. It looks like we will spend most of our time on this transition period hanging out at the local bars in Reykjavik. We started the day with a soup in a bread bowl and a beer at a local café, Svarta Kaffid. The only thing on the menu is soup in a bread bowl and only what is available that day. J has been wanting to try soup in a bread bowl since our last visit here. We decided on the mushroom soup, which came in a brown bread bowl. J loved it, S thought it was OK.

Next, we went to a themed bar / burger joint called Lebowski Bar. The place is modelled on the cult movie classic, the Big Lebowski. It has pictures of the main actors, Jeff Bridges, John Goodman and Steve Buscemi, on the bar. There is a bowling motif throughout the bar and even a replica of Lebowski’s rug as part of the decorations. S had to order the Caucasian cocktail (vodka, Kahlua and cream), which is Lebowski’s signature drink in the movie.

After a few more beers, we headed to Skuli bar. This is a highly rated craft beer bar, but we didn’t mean to go there. In fact, we went here on our last trip to Iceland and had specifically decided not to return. However, the bar we thought we were visiting, is temporarily closed and a new craft beer place we read about was also shut. So we stuck here for one drink and then left.

We tried to get into our go-to bar Kaldi, but were cruelly turned away. When we arrived in front of the door, we saw one of the bartenders locking it from the outside before stepping out to their storeroom. He explained that they were at capacity as everyone needs to be seated. Not sure what would have happened once there was an emergency once he locked the door from the outside, but it may be best we weren’t in it.

We then went on to the Bókabúd Máls og menningar, which is a bar / café / live music venue located inside an old bookstore. You can still buy books there. As we were sitting and enjoying the ambiance, one of the customers decided to go play a few songs on the piano. He was pretty good (see video above) and this made for some nice background music.

We then tried to grab some food at a dim sum shop. This didn’t work out as it turns out the very limited menu was more than half vegan. You couldn’t even get a pork dumpling. So we decided to try an Italian restaurant, Rosso Pomodoro, which was surprisingly good and authentic. S had the penne arrabbiata and J had the pepperoni pizza.

Although it was still raining and quite windy, we decided to walk back to the hotel. Apparently poor decisions can also be made before 11pm. The rain wasn’t so bad, but mixed with the wind and the cold, it was a much more miserable walk than we expected. If we didn’t miss the Caribbean until now, we certainly did on the walk back to the hotel.

As usual, we finished the night in the lounge with our free Executive Lounge drinks. Given the price of beer (and everything else) in this country, you have to take advantage of every free drink you can get!

Guide to Reykjavik prices for the innocent:

1 beer = $15, $10 at happy hour

1 glass of wine = $17

1 cocktail = $20

2 soups in a bread bowl and 2 beers = $57

1 pizza and 1 pasta = $55

Joy of walking back to your hotel in the 2 degree Icelandic wind and rain = priceless

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Day 182 – a Whale of a time

We woke up very late this afternoon and missed lunch. Once again we were chased out of the room by housekeeping. It looks like we will have to affirmatively break the jetlag cycle. We decided to head downtown again to one of our favourite bars, Islenski Barinn. It was very windy and chucking down rain, so we took a cab.

Islenski Barinn is just as we remembered. Even the food menu has hardly changed. It is very cosy with lots of wood panelling and a proper sitdown bar, but we decided to sit at a table. J went back to the store to return her scarf while S sat down with a stout. J was able to exchange the scarf, the shop wouldn’t accept a return.

When J returned, she ordered the ‘Flamingo’, which is a neon pink spritzy cocktail made of grapefruit and vodka, which comes out of a keg and is listed in the beer section of the drinks list. J is a big fan.

We ordered dinner at around 5pm. S got the ‘grilled’ fin whale, which is normally served rare. S requested it very rare. When it arrived, it was properly blue and looked like it had just kissed the grill. J ordered the ‘Icelandic hamburger’ and added a fried egg and bacon. Sadly, the egg was forgotten on the grill and overcooked, so they had to come out with a fresh one. The food was great and we will definitely be coming back.

Despite having spent several hours at Islenski Barinn, the weather was still terrible, so we found a taxi at a taxi rank and headed back to the hotel. The taxi driver was a very jovial chap. He talked the whole way to the hotel and pointed out some local attractions, including where Reagan and Gorbachev reportedly met, the John Lennon island and a statue of two dinosaurs hugging. (The statue’s pretty abstract, so we’ll have to take his word for it.)

As usual, we ended up in the hotel bar for our free Executive Lounge drinks. The place was even more packed than on previous nights. We finally found a spot near the bar to sit. It may be due to the weather and nobody wants to leave the hotel or because it’s Friday night. S is very concerned that the horrible weather is going to get rid of his tan before he is able to show it off to all his pasty friends in London. On the other hand, given that Icelandic style is a bit more ‘eclectic’, despite the beads and shells, S’ hair is not really drawing any attention in Iceland.

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Day 181 – Back to our favourite bar in Iceland

We slept in this morning and got up in time for lunch. We were chased out by housekeeping, who were trying to clean our room. We are slowly adjusting to the time zone change. We decided to walk to downtown Reykjavik. It was about a 15- to 20-minute walk, but very windy and cold. Fortunately, S had a windbreaker and let J wear his sweatshirt, which had not been worn on the entire trip. She wore about 5 layers, but her hands and head were still cold. The Icelandic locals were not wearing jackets and some were in shorts and T-shirts. The Iceland summer weather was clearly not part of our packing plan.

Downtown Reykjavik was pretty quiet, but otherwise just like what we remember from our last visit in November 2019. There are very few tourists here now, but we did meet a couple from Florida who live near S’ sister, M. Our first stop was the Bastard. We stopped here for a snack (pretzels with hot cheese dip), which J loved the last time we were here. We even got an extra pretzel to soak up all the leftover cheese. J also took advantage of the Thursday drink special and got some excellent Moscow Mules. She also bought a Bastard bar t-shirt, which she had regretted passing on during our last stay (see picture of the painting that is on the T-shirt below).

After that, we headed to our favourite Reykjavik bar, Kaldi. This is the local branch of an Icelandic brewing company. It is a very trendy place but also very relaxed and full of locals. The décor is modern and the bar is compact, but fully stocked with over 140 gins, a wide selection of craft beers, some of which they brew, and every kind of glass you can imagine. We had a nice chat with the bartenders and some of the other patrons, all poking fun at the Will Ferrell Eurovision movie and the mythological elves that keep watch over Iceland. One of the bartenders is the same lady who served us in November 2019 and said she actually remembered J. We were there in time for happy hour and had some nice beer and wine. J liked the sour raspberry beer. J also took the opportunity to pick up a hat and gloves from a shop across the street. She also picked up a scarf, which slid off of her neck a few times on the way back to the hotel. She is going to try and return it to the shop tomorrow as it is defective. Otherwise, it will be lost by the end of the week.

After Kaldi we headed back to our hotel and stopped by a Thai restaurant called Ban Thai as a kebab shop J had had her eye on was shut. It was just a hole-in-the-wall, but nonetheless still pricey. Without drinks, the total came to $50 for two mains and a bowl of rice. Icelandic prices can be worse than Turks & Caicos prices, sadly! This is one of the reasons why we are probably some of the only people going back to the UK through Iceland.

We ended the evening in the hotel bar, taking advantage of our free Executive Lounge drinks. Once again, the hotel bar was packed.

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Day 180 – Welcome to Iceland

Our arrival into Iceland was pretty smooth. They confirmed that we had been fully vaccinated and let us through without showing proof of a negative COVID test. However, in order to leave the airport, you have to take a COVID test (in your mouth and one nostril). You have to go outside the airport to do this. It was 7 degrees and very windy, which made the temp feel below zero, which S particularly enjoyed in his shorts, Hawaiian shirt and sandals. S carried his bag and was sent through one line. J decided to put her bags on a trolley, so was sent through a separate line. S was whisked through to be handled by a technician who was one foot shorter than him. Oddly, you are asked to stand against the wall as a technician in full PPE sticks one swab in your mouth and one swab in your nostril. S was a bit concerned by the logistics of this as his technician was a foot shorter than him. S offered to sit down to make this easier, but this option was not available.

Meanwhile, in the trolley queue, J was stuck behind a lady who had a panic attack and was screaming and flailing her arms about during her test. It was pretty terrifying to watch. Having had 18 COVID tests before this, J still wondered what the hell was coming next. Our 19th COVID test ended up being painful, but not as bad as Dr Jellyfinger’s test in South Africa. Iceland has managed to nearly eliminate COVID by installing this torture chamber in the airport. This is very different to the warm welcome we’ve had in other countries on this trip. If COVID persists, we may become COVID testing consultants, as we have now had almost 20 COVID tests in multiple different countries all over the world. We know what works and what doesn’t.

For those reading the blog and so we don’t forget, we had no intention of coming to Iceland on this trip. While we’ve been to Iceland several times and love it, this was a warm weather trip. However, the UK government has so screwed up their COVID policy, the only way we could get back to London so J could work again, was to come through Iceland. So here we are. 

We found a taxi and took a $150 taxi ride to the Hilton Nordica, which is the only open Hilton in Iceland. It turns out that this is the hotel S stayed at in 2012 with his daughters. Sadly, our room was not ready. We were told that the hotel was very busy and overbooked. We were guided to a lounge with big leather couches, where we tried to sleep. J also had a spot of breakfast. One of the guys at reception was excellent. He was very apologetic that our room wasn’t ready and even gave us some bottled water. He made our experience as comfortable as it could be in the circumstances. This was all particularly amusing as we were supposed to quarantine in our room until we received our COVID test results. Apparently we were quarantining in the lounge and the restaurant.

We also learned that Iceland has just relaxed some of its restrictions. It is no longer required to wear masks and the curfew has been extended from 9pm to midnight. This means we can stay out later and go to our favourite bars. However, we were told that a number of businesses didn’t survive the lockdown. We will head to the downtown area tomorrow to see what has become of our favourite bars and shops.

As soon as our room was ready, we headed upstairs and crashed until 6pm. Fortunately, we slept through our entire quarantine and woke up to a text message stating that we “had not been diagnosed with COVID”. This meant we were now out of quarantine and are free to move around the country. We are in a Queen Executive Plus room. It is relatively small, with just a TV separating the bedroom from the sitting area. There is no air circulation in the room and we weren’t able to open any windows. You might not think this is a problem when it is 7 degrees outside, but the massive windows created a greenhouse effect which made the room very stuffy and very warm. We are hoping to move to a bigger room later this week as we are here for 10 nights.

Like every other Hilton we’ve been to on this trip, the Executive lounge was shut. However, as is generally the case, we were given vouchers to use at the bar. The bar was packed. We were given two drinks each (house wine or beer) and a snack platter. We used the time to catch up on our blog. By the time J was ready to order a meal we were told that the room service and all nearby restaurants were still closing at 9pm. The bar began to empty out at around 9pm. However, there was a second wind of guests who trickled into the bar after 10pm. We lost track of time as it was still totally light outside as Iceland is so close to the North pole. The bar was still serving drinks at 11:30pm, which was weird given we thought there was an 11pm closing time. Given the rules in Iceland are changing so fast, it’s not clear how late places will stay open. We also saw food packages being delivered, which suggests some restaurant was open somewhere. J was very jealous but was able to make do with the American snacks she bought in the US.

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Day 179 – on our way to Iceland

We woke up early today to pack and do some last-minute laundry before heading to the airport. M drove us to the airport. We breezed through check-in and security and went to the American lounge for a few drinks. J tried to find some American fast food, but was unsuccessful. The best she could find was Nathan’s, and the line was too long. On the surprisingly positive side, she ended up eating the lounge food, which is some of the best she’s ever had. There was an edamame and roasted corn salad, which was delicious.

The flight to Boston was fine and we were happily able to get back into First Class. This was the first US flight we’ve been on post-COVID where some food was served in First. It was a mediocre cheese plate, but better than nothing.

We arrived in Boston and had to switch terminals to the dedicated international terminal, Terminal E. We had to collect and re-check our baggage onto Iceland Air as American has currently suspended flights to Iceland. Terminal E was deserted. There was only one place serving food, Monica’s Mercato. At first we thought it would be fine as we saw a bar, but it turns out the bar has been closed during COVID. We ordered food (pizza and a sub) and were told we could go to terminal C for some drinks. J walked all the way over to terminal C and found an open Wahlburger’s. Unfortunately, it wasn’t possible to remove drinks from the premises, so we waited three hours for our flight in the deserted terminal.

Even though the menu was limited, S was excited to get a final Italian sub as the sub in Greenville was not great. Everything seemed in order until he realised there was balsamic glaze on the sub. Everyone knows a proper Italian sub has red wine vinegar and oil, not balsamic glaze. The balsamic glaze messed with the taste profile and S still wanders the earth looking for an Italian sub.

Iceland Air transatlantic business class was very disappointing. Although it was a wider body plane (Boeing 767), there were 5 seats to a row and very little legroom. The seats barely reclined, so it was impossible to sleep on the flight. There was less legroom and seat width than our flight from Miami to Boston. The food service consisted of a salad or nothing. Only a few drinks were served. The kicker was that the business class lavatories had been reserved for the flight crew and were not available for the business class passengers, who had to walk the entire length of the plane to use the economy lavatories. It was only then that we realised that business class was full and the rest of the plane was pretty empty. It would have been better to travel economy and try to sleep in an empty middle row, where you could have laid down across four seats. However, you do have to pay for food and everything else in economy.  

We strongly recommend anyone visiting Iceland from the US not to fly Iceland Air, as the business class is more like premium economy.

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Day 178 – Authentic Korean food

We both woke up feeling pretty poorly from our second dose of the COVID vaccine. This might help ease some of the annoyance our friends might be feeling from our vaccinated status. S actually felt like he had come down with the flu, with chills, aches and coughs. J managed to go downstairs to say good bye to S’ parents and brother. J, J’s parents, M and JT all went to a very good Korean restaurant in Fort Lauderdale for lunch called Gabose. They use real charcoal for their meat grill. We had an incredible spread of Korean seafood pancake, fried dumplings, blackbean noodles, galbi and sides. We had to get back quickly so M could take a work call.

S had finally gotten out of bed as the negative side effects from the vaccine were wearing off. S and J’s step dad went to the pool while J rested inside with her mom. J’s mom repaired and reinforced S’ beaded hair with some needle and thread. We think these will stay in place at least until we get back to London.

We had one final dinner together with our family. We introduced S’ niece to the leftover Korean food, including kimchi, and she loved it. S’ nephew also liked the galbi. We all requested songs for JT to play on the Sonos, including Bon Jovi, Johnny Cash and Pink Floyd. JT also found an extended version of Garth Brooks, Low Places, which we had never heard before.  

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Day 177 – Pfizer: dose number 2, baby!

We woke up fairly early to head to CVS for our second COVID vaccine. This went smoothly and we got a few more coupons for S’ dad. Most of our friends are now fully annoyed with us. Not only have we avoided six months of lockdown and toured beautiful destinations around the world, but we have also managed to get vaccinated while many in the UK are still waiting for their second jabs.

After CVS, S’ dad took us to the grocery store. We picked up some prosecco, pickles and deli meat. We’ve decided that we really like the Mt Olive dill spears and they are even better than Vlasic.

J’s mom and stepdad arrived for lunch and we spent the rest of the day partying at the pool.

For dinner, JT grilled up some steaks and there were s’mores for dessert.  

[sandjsbeachbumbonanza]

Day 176 – Bob Marley lives

Today was our final day at the Somerset. J woke up early to pack. The Somerset gave us late checkout so we had time to go to the beach. Unfortunately it was a red flag day again, so S stayed at the pool. J checked out the beach and immediately returned to the pool. J splurged as this was our last day in the Turks and had 2 pina coladas. We decided we had to do one last walk on the beach before we left beautiful Grace Bay. We had a nice walk all the way down to a pier and decided that was the place to head back. On our way back, we finally heard it, Bob Marley being played by one of the beach DJs at a neighbouring resort. After much concern, this finally proved our theory, that every cool holiday destination from Africa to the Indian Ocean to the Caribbean has to play Bob Marley. We went 17 days without hearing any, including being denied a Bob Marley request, but our faith in humanity was restored.

Checkout was pretty straightforward and S blagged himself into getting 2 rum punches at checkout. He mentioned that the hotel should serve rum punches at checkout so people can be reminded about how nice it is to be on holiday and be more likely to return. Everyone is always happy to arrive on holiday, no one is happy to leave, so a farewell rum punch is a nice touch.

We were collected by the regular driver, Adrian. Our check-in at the airport was pretty poor. We were in economy as First Class was sold out. Despite the fact that our total luggage was within the weight limit, the check-in desk ladies actually made us move around our luggage to redistribute 12 pounds of luggage from the ‘Beast’, J’s large bag. This was even though S has platinum status and has flown around 2 million miles with American. This redistribution also unfortunately caught the eye of an airport security guy, who decided to pull J into a small, windowless room and go through every item in the Beast. When S tried to comment, the security guy made J shut the door so S couldn’t see what was going on. To be fair, other hapless tourists were also subjected to this ‘random screening’, including a lady who had been at the airport gate and had to return to this windowless room for screening. It was a very unpleasant experience, even though the security guy ended up closing up all of J’s packing cubes and repacking J’s bag better than she had packed it.

We got through security fairly quickly and headed to the only bar in the airport. On the way to the bar, we decided to stop at a gift shop which was selling Hawaiian shirts. S ended up finding a great shirt. It was made of light cotton, red, had parrots on it and was 50% off. The 50% off was the clincher, so S bought it.

After a short wait on the tarmac, we boarded our 39th flight of this trip.

When we arrived in passport control in Miami, we tried to hand over our passports. The passport control guy told us not to and just told us to look in the camera. The facial recognition identified us and we were waved through. This would be a sobering experience for anyone who is weary of Big Brother as they knew who we were and didn’t even need our passport to let us into the country.

It took ages for our baggage to arrive in baggage claim. S’ sister M and JT picked us up and took us to M’s house. S’ brother, D, D’s girlfriend and S’ parents were waiting for us at M’s house. They had grilled up some nice dogs for dinner. After dinner, we headed to the hot tub and had a nice chat. It was a fun evening.

[sandjsbeachbumbonanza]

Day 175 – Last full day in the Turks

We went to the beach today, but a red flag was up and the beach was not as calm as it had been. The rough waters agitated the seaweed, which was now accumulating on the beach and in the water. The water was somewhat cold, so we only went in the water once and didn’t spend much time in the water.

We decided to have a look around the gift shop at the Palms next door. It was very touristy and over-priced. They didn’t have any Hawaiian shirts, so we didn’t end up buying anything.

We came back to the pool and saw Adam and Michaela. Adam decided that he couldn’t sleep in his newly braided hair and he was going to have all the braids and beads removed. We also met an interesting guy who used to work at Wirecard, the disgraced German payments company that went impressively belly up over accounting fraud. It turns out that he worked in their Singapore office and was mates with the whistleblower who turned the company in. This trip has shown us that people with interesting back stories like to go to beach resorts.

Dinner was at Mr Grouper’s as J wanted to go back and try the coconut grouper. The coconut grouper was a bit disappointing as the breading was too thick and a bit mushy around the fish. J’s advice for anyone going to Mr Grouper is to get the blackened grouper, which is healthier and excellent. S had the conch chowder. It was good, but not as good as the smoky conch chowder at Bay Bistro.