Eight months ago our family had a life changing experience with our father passing away. My mother was unable to live on her own — her memory had been deteriorating for several years. My mother, Alda Mackenzie (nee Narfason) had a remarkable memory in her prime, able to tell us about all of the people back in Gimli where she grew up. She could tell us who our second cousins, once removed were, who they were married to and how many children they had. Now she was having difficulty remembering the names of her children and grandchildren. I stayed with her for 6 weeks in Ontario and then she came home with me December 29th to live with us in Slave Lake, Alberta until we could sort things out. We had missed our opportunity — we always said we should go to Iceland with mom — and we should have ten years earlier. But opportunity came knocking in March. My aunt Dilla (Narfason) phoned to say that she was going to Iceland – there was a seat sale and she was going with my aunt Olan (Isfeld). I tentatively asked if she thought mom and I could tag along. She said yes. I asked if I could invite my siblings and she agreed. My two sisters, Peggy & Liz, were able to go and so we had three sisters and three sisters — two generations heading to Iceland in mid-June. Thus our journey began...
Peggy, Liz, mom and I left from Toronto on June 15th and arrived early on the morning of June 16th. We got on the Fly Bus and headed to Reykjavik to Snorri’s Guesthouse B&B. Magnús, the owner, greeted us, let us grab breakfast and our rooms were ready to move into! The weather in Reykjavik wasn’t read for us, nor would it be, except for the celebrations on Independence Day, June 17th, and the day we headed home on June 23rd when the sun actually shone. Peggy began our running joke of tourist captions for Iceland, my favorite of hers was, Hot Flashes Welcome – Come to Iceland. I have never spent such a cold week in June anywhere — wind, rain and less than warm temperatures would be our constant companions on the trip.
We spent our first day wandering around Reykjavik. Mom was a real trooper and walked with us. Our first stop was at Hallgrímskirkja, the biggest church in Iceland. WOW is about all you can say. It is so impressive on the outside and yet not overdone on the inside. A complete contrast which is a lot like Iceland itself. The people are proud and independent but not in a showy way. They provide good service but not in a effusive manner. They don’t disclose easily and yet they make it plain through body language and tone of voice when they think you are being an idiot tourist. I was finally in a place where I could make sense of my relatives and see that our “quirks” are really genetically programmed. I had the “ah ha” moment many times during our travels and another tourist caption was born... Feeling a Sense of Entitlement? Need to be brought down a notch? Come to Iceland.
Dilla and Olan arrived the next morning, Independence Day, June 17th. Dilla had already been in touch with relatives and they picked them up at the airport, brought them home for breakfast and then whisked them to the B&B. Dilla would come up with many of these surprises over the next six days having already communicated with numerous distant relatives and agreeing to see many of them. Have I said that we come from a long line of strong, independent, practical, organized and “bossy” women? Dilla gets the gold star in this category and she would confer with me, “Mini Me” about the plans for each day. Had I talked to Magnús and booked the tour, should we go here or there on this day, what would we be doing as they were visiting, what time would we leave and meet up — there were numerous details I was to take care of and report back on the results. And Dilla gave directions with her usual straight-forward directness and ended it with, “don’t you think that’s what we should do?” giving you the impression that you had a say.
Independence Day was quite a sight with the President, Prime Minister and numerous dignitaries at the main square. There was a visible security presence but I think a lot less than the $1.1 Billion we spent for the G8/G20 in Canada. The sun came out this day and it would be a welcome sight — we just didn’t realize that this would be the only sighting we would have for 6 days. Celebrations were happening all over Reykjavik. Mom wondered why everyone was speaking Icelandic and we reminded her we were in Iceland on a trip. Her usual refrain, “Really?” was said often during the trip. For mom, every moment had the potential to be new and surprising. She did get into a routine of saying “góðan morgunn” to people and they would respond with “góðan daginn”, Good Day. Dilla helped us understand that in Iceland they wanted to wish you a whole good day, not just a morning. The Icelanders knew that the harshness of the landscape required more than just fortification for the morning, you really needed a whole day’s worth of blessing, each and every day.
Friday was our Golden Circle tour day. When conferring with Magnús about which day to do the Golden Circle and which day to do the Blue Lagoon we found out that we should save the “crappy” weather day for the Blue Lagoon. The Golden Circle tour was interesting but not done in the order we would have liked. We wanted more time at Gullfoss – the Golden Falls – and less time at Geysir and we would have eliminated the Power Plant tour to gain more time for sight-seeing. It was still interesting and beautiful (and wet and cold and windy).
Upon our return that evening we went to meet some relatives, Lauga Guðjónsdóttir and her family who hosted a wonderful supper for us and Lauga’s sister, Sigga Guðjónsdóttir. We had a wonderful time at Lauga’s home surrounded by her 2 children, spouses and grandchildren. Lauga & Sigga are related to us on Emeratiana’s side, our Afi’s mother. I could see the family resemblance in Lauga, she reminded me of Afi and our Uncle Mundi. Most of the younger generation spoke English very well, the older generation not as well and yet language was not a barrier to our gathering. It fuelled our curiosity and desire to know more about our Icelandic relatives. We exchanged email addresses and by the next day Peggy had already added many of them as friends on Facebook.
Gurry, the daughter, insisted on taking the 3 of us to Viðey Island for the afternoon. She picked us up Saturday, took us to the big Flea Market in Reykjavik and then we headed to the ferry to go to Viðey Island. Gurry was like many of us, she hadn’t been to Viðey since she was a teenager. Tourists usually see more of our own sights than we do ourselves and she enjoyed coming with us for the day. Viðey was a beautiful island with lots of birdlife, history & Yoko Ono’s IMAGINE PEACE TOWER. This is an outdoor work of art conceived by Yoko Ono in memory of John Lennon. We understood why the island had been abandoned, it was bleak in the cold wind that is relentless in Iceland and visiting is one thing, living there would be another.
While we frolicked on Viðey, mom and the aunts were exploring their roots in the South of Iceland visiting relatives close to Eyjafjallajökull. They were driven around to different relatives houses, had coffee and ate and ate all day. While we enjoyed a leisurely day of sightseeing, they packed in a major tour, finally getting back at 11:00 pm. We received gifts of ash from the volcano — a welcome souvenir. My favorite t-shirt was “Kiss my Icelandic Ash”.
On Sunday we met more relatives who had us over for another full meal. Birna and her husband Gisli put on a fantastic spread. Margaret Bjornsdottir, Birna’s aunt, was there and they were the perfect hosts. Margaret was of strong Icelandic stock and they were from Magnús’s side, our Afi’s father. The stories of our family were fascinating and we instantly connected to these wonderful people. Birna works at Hallgrímskirkja and invited us to drop by when she would be there. Her open and lovely manner made us feel welcome immediately .
Monday was our Blue Lagoon day. Cold, windy, rainy — PERFECT weather for going to the Blue Lagoon. Mom would have none of it and didn’t venture out to the pools, preferring to watch us from the comfort of the indoor café. Dilla and Olan braved the cold walk to the pools and joined us for 45 minutes before they left for lunch with mom and back to the B&B and on to have supper with more relatives. The 3 sisters stayed, enjoying the wonderful warm pools, perfecting the submerged walk that kept only your head exposed to the elements. We met American tourists, listened to lots of languages, hopped out for a wonderful buffet lunch and got back in again. The sun never appeared and we were in heaven. But ecstasy was yet to come that afternoon as we experienced the in-water massage we all booked. Oskar was my masseuse and all I can say is, Thank you Oskar, the pleasure was mine! We met a man drifting by after his massage with a look of pure contentment who sighed as he passed us and then sleepily looked at us and asked, “Had we had a massage yet?” “Oh yes”, we replied and nothing more needed to be said. We got out an hour later only to discover that we had sunburns, I repeat, SUNBURNS — without the sun ever appearing. Oh the irony.
Tuesday we toured more of Reykjavik and went for supper at the Perlan Restaurant. The view was fabulous (even with the rain) as the restaurant revolved 360 degrees and the food was wonderful. This was a great way to end our trip together – breaking bread, drinking wine and savouring each other’s company.
Wednesday, our last day, the sun came out. Peggy and I quickly went out for a few hours to stroll in the sunshine and enjoy a lunch outside. We now knew why they had tables and chairs outdoors, they didn’t want to miss one moment of that precious sunshine. We said our goodbyes to Magnús, to Reykjavik and jumped on the Fly Bus to the airport. Last minute shopping was easy at the airport, but boarding wasn’t. They don’t like you to lounge in comfort before you board, the lack of seats in the boarding area was a surprise and left us with one last line for our tourist quips, Tired of too much comfort — Come to Iceland. Our sister, Liz boarded for a plane to London to further her travels and we hopped on for Toronto. Dilla and Olan would leave us in Toronto and head back for Winnipeg. I would stay in Toronto for a few days and then leave to go back to Edmonton. Mom would be staying with Peggy in Toronto and I wasn’t looking forward to the goodbye. This trip had been one I will remember as long as my memory serves me. I had gone back to our roots and found that being home is being in the moment shared with others. Thank you Dilla, Olan, Peggy, Liz and especially mom — I love you all and “There is No Place Like Home”.
