The **official** start to Days Off w/ Axelle & Martin:
I don't apologize for the lack of writing the past 3 days. I worked in Rvk a little, Judith learned the tours and herded for the first time on Jórdan, and pushed papaya around in the shit wheelbarrow. I will include extra pics and vids to make up for it here.
Now, onto today:
Elisa worked in Reykjavik today and I got a glorious day off. Yesterday I was in Rvk and Axelle and I figured out if we both have today (15th) off, we may as well have fun together instead of wasting the day in our rooms. We tried to ask the manager last night if we could use the Guide car to do a part of the golden circle, but he said absolutely not, so we had to improvise. I understand his reasoning, but as a silly little 23 year old I thought it was bogus. It was definitely a smart boundary on his/the company's part though, and that's all I'll say about that.
Since Elisa had gotten in earlier than Axelle was waking up (we have to be in Rvk at about 8/8:30 usually to help finish tacking and because people arrive around 9:10/15), I took some time on the COMFY sectional couch to do some trip planning for my parents. I will give it to Rvk, they have the better apartment and furniture. The Ölfus view is better, but the Rvk apartment is sooooo cozy, and their couch is deep-sleep worthy. Mary and Ethan are leaving quite a bit of their trip planning up to me, so I want to make sure I give them the best taste of Iceland I can with their accommodations. I made a google doc and booked their airbnbs before Axelle was up (honestly Lisa helped a bit with the waking her up part haha), and then we were off!
We ended up taking the guide car to the coffee shop in downtown, where we got a hot cocoa and croissant at Emelie & the Cool Kids while we brainstormed (keep in mind its really only 10:30am at this point). We decided to try to contact the whale watching, where we met the coolest gal who clued us in on the guides-go-for-free mentality that is most of the Iceland tourist industry. We booked a whale watching tour promptly after hearing that news for 1pm, and walked around to kill some time—it now being 11:30. We ended up in this mainstream bookstore where we browsed the fiction section, talked about the books we hauled to Iceland that we didn’t think we’d end up having time to read, books we HAD read and loved, and listened to two girls loudly criticism an astrology handbook with their friend. I was half tempted to let them know they sounded like dicks, but was too focused on how badly I had to go to the bathroom. I met up with Axelle and we got in line for the bathroom, which had a key that was being passed between people in line but some guys graciously passed to us first—bad move on their behalf, because right as we got in Axelle realized she had to shit. 11/10 bonding move in our friendship, but sucks to be the guy going in there afterward. Thinking about it now I bet it was funny to him and his friends though.
We thought about some food, but decided better not as we were cutting it close on time, but I DID think about snagging a bottle of water before we got on…just in case.
...boy was I right on the money there. No sooner had we boarded our fearsome vessel, drug on our XXL jumpsuits Axelle decided to grab from the deck (no comment on this, I made her take a snapchat video with me showing the ridiculous space left in our suits to bring back as proof.), and situated ourselves at the back of the boat facing out when the sickness hit.
I will say before things get too grim, we DID see whales—tons of them! One breached next to the boat, another group just flapped their tales, and we saw a mother and calf, but good god my internal stability breached as well. Luckily neither Axelle nor I was physically Ill, but near the end there it was getting shady. Small sips of the water saved us in the end.
Once we put our ridiculous jumpsuits back and got our feet on solid ground, we sprinted over to the fish restaurant place to get SOMETHING on our stomachs. It super helped, and even warmed us up a bit while we hatched the plan of how we were going to tell the other girls that we got the tour for free. Naturally, being the emotionally mature and responsible adults that we are, we decided that we’d tell the girls we showed the captain our boobs and he let us sneak on.
When we got back to the sacred stable we think our dear germans Lisa & Elisa believed us for a hot minute—as we actually did really well keeping a straight face—but eventually we felt bad (and a bit like we were gatekeeping) so we divulged our info. Iti was napping, and since we had planned to take some photos and videos in the Lupines later, Axelle and I decided to learn the WAP dance. I am fully aware I’m late to that trend by about 2 years, but it seemed like the best way to kill the time, and I think we started to get the hang of it in the end! Even though we may or may not have scarred Lisa & Elisa, it was worth it as now Axelle and I feel like baddies again.
Poor Iti really didn’t get much of a nap, so we rallied and headed out for our photo op. I brought Moa so she could graze as she’s been walking so much lately, and never fights or runs away, so if I can offer her even a smidge of kindness in the midst of the hot hell of summer I hope it’d be this. I thought that was the general consensus of the group, but how wrong I was. Axelle brought Biggi (which I guess wasn’t a flashy choice but still she had fun ride plans) and everyone else brought strong/showy horses. I was thinking folk-chic photos standing with the horses, but oh well. I assumed role as pro photographer for the evening (Moa as my assistant) and ended up enjoying my time from the ground. The girls galloped away at the end, but Elisa came back to walk with me. I thought about joining in, but the last thing poor Moa needed was a gallop uphill having to carry me after 2 long, hot tours already today.
Elisa and I made our way home shortly afterward, and I’m waiting on her to finish her shower so we can go through the photos. If there are any good ones I’ll attach them to this entry:
Komentáře