FlyDay

OK…FlyNight is more accurate. Jen and I will leave tonight for Iceland and Geothermal Nirvana.

I’d wanted to find an early flight so’s we could get in same day. It’s just a five hour flight BUT Iceland’s five hours ahead of us. There aren’t any, that I could find anyway, daytime departures from Boston to Reykjavik. Sad-city. WHY aren't there?

If the flight left at 10AM, it’d get into Iceland a little after 8PM local time.  That’d be perfect! We’d clear immigration and customs, get a smackeral for din-din, have a lovely hot toddy and crawl into the airport hotel’s warm embrace by 11PM. We’d get a wonderful night’s sleep (versus trying to get shut-eye in cramped plane seats), be all adjusted to the time difference and ready to zip down to Silica Shangri-La by late morning. It seems like such a civilized way to go.

No. Instead we’ll get on board our eastbound silver bird at 8PM and arrive in Iceland at 6AM (1AM Boston time). Oof! That’s too damn early to check into spa del paradiso. In fact, the buses don’t start running until around 7:30. What to do, what to do?

Well, first we’ll have a sit, a cuppa and some brekkie. The airport has a few interesting choices.

There’s the Kvikk Café for coffee and pastries, Hjá Höllu for wood grilled pizza (breakfast pizza SQUEEEEEEE!!!) and Loksins Bar (which translates from Icelandic as Finally, a bar :). I may have a top-of-the-morning toddy need, don'cha know.

We’ll then hit Mathús, a self-service restaurant, to pick up sammiches for our glorious hotel room. From there we’ll stop at the Pure Food Hall for wine, chocolate, snack-type items and whatever else strikes our respective fancies.

And then we’ll find our bus to Relaxation Heaven. Depending on how much time we blow, shopping and dining at the airport, we may be able to dodge the early check in fee. HOPE! if not, we’ll dump our bags with the incredibly accommodating front desk, go for a wee hike in the lava fields and then a float after which our room should be ready sans extra charge.

You may wonder why Jen and I keep going back, why we don’t explore other wonderful places (Barcelona or the Shetland Islands fer instance). Have I mentioned how blindingly restorative and wondrously lenitivo this place is? This is the Zen ideal of vacations. To float in the secluded geothermal lagoon, looking out on the brill and seemingly otherworldly landscape, without a newspaper or shopping mall for miles is the perfect way to soothe our mega stressed selves, to unwind and begin restoration of the ol' joi de vivre.

In October of 2016, three months after the horror of losing my brilliant and Amazing Bob, Jen and I came here for the first time. I experienced my first pain-free moment (with a side dish of bliss) while floating. I was able to chill and breathe again.

OK, that and it’s a relatively short, non-stop flight from here. We can come for a long weekend and not be apart from our ES kittens for molto difficult yonks.

So yeah duh , of COURSE we keep coming back!