I swear you guys, every time one of these month posts comes up I’m amazed at how fast time flies! I have really been enjoying these post though, it’s such a fun way to look back on our time here and read about our life in a new country.
This month was all about hanging out with good friends and exploring more in Iceland.
Here is what our 9th month in Iceland looked like:
Book club | This month I hosted book club, we read Mindy Kaling’s “Is Everyone Hanging Out With Me?” which I loved, but mostly during the parts when she talked about The Office. I always look forward to having these monthly meet-ups to hang out with these ladies. Sometimes we only talk about the book for 5 minutes, and then spend the next 3 hours chatting about our lives!
Icelandic holidays | Spring time in Iceland means a lot of random days off, I have been learning. The first holiday we had off work was “sumardagurinn fyrsti” or the first day of summer. First of summer really marks the end of winter and the start of “winter light”. When Kaelene asked me to go to yoga on the beach, I was like, “um, yah that sounds awesome!” Until we realized we had to wear double layer everything just to keep warm. It was still really fun and gave us a good laugh.
Blackout curtains | Speaking of summer, the daylight hours have been killinnnngg me! I am really sensitive to light when it comes to sleeping. So after a sleepless weekend, I went straight to IKEA for the darkest curtains I could find. When I got home I was really excited to put them up, until I realized the walls are made of concrete, so my little old screw driver wasn’t going to cut it. I message our neighbor asking what tools I would need to go buy to hang up the curtains, and he immediately showed up at my door with a drill in hand. The curtains were up 5 minutes later. Moral of the story: the blackout curtains are a MUST in Iceland, and thank goodness for neighbors!
Girls day | The book club crew decided to do an adventure day around awesome places not far from Reykjavik. We stopped for the most delicious homemade tomato soup you will ever have in your life, visited the gorgeous Bruarfoss watefall, grabbed farm fresh ice cream, and ended the day relaxing in the Laugarvatn Fontana hot pools. Talk about an amazing day, ugh it was so great! You can read all of the wonderful details in Kaelene’s post!
Weekend exploring | Bobby was gone for the weekend so I ventured out for a long drive around the gorgeous Hvalfjordur. A lot of people miss this picturesque drive because they take the tunnel, but who knew there were so many hidden gems along the way?! For such a short drive from Reykjavik, this was a day well spent. We also have a friend that has a summerhouse around that area, so I spent the day relaxing and enjoying nature in the middle of the Icelandic wilderness – it was bliss!
Cinco de Mayo | You know how Cinco De Mayo is all the rage in the States? People throw parties, go out for Mexican food, and drink too many margaritas to celebrate this holiday. Let me tell you, this is not the case in Iceland. I was looking forward to this day since I’ve been seriously craving some Mexican food, so we made a double date to meet up with Kaelene. There is one Mexican restaurant, and we were one of two tables occupied! The tacos were no comparison to what we are used to, but I still got my taco + margarita fix!
3 day weekend | Another Icelandic holiday so we took full advantage by heading up to North Iceland. Initially we just planned to go to Siglufjörður, a small adorable fishing village that we had never been to. But the weather was perfect and the further we drove, the more we wanted to keep going! Long story short, we ended up driving all the way to Dettifoss, one waterfall we skipped on our Honeymoon. We even stayed overnight in the town that we decided to move to Iceland, so many wonderful memories! It was an amazing weekend, I can’t wait to tell you all about it!
Things that are easier:
- The good part about more daylight = more time for exploring!
- We leave for Ireland in 9 days! Our friends from Houston are coming to Iceland and then we will continue to Belfast and then down towards Dublin. We have a full itinerary planned, and I can’t wait to see that beautiful country.
Things that are still hard:
- Daylight – We’re almost to peak season of nearly 24 hours of daylight and it is messing.with.my.head! I forget to go to bed at night, and I wake up at 3am thinking it’s 10. The blackout curtains have started helping with the sleep, but it definitely takes me a long time to wind down at night.
- Living in another country proved it’s toughest when my dad called to tell me my grandpa passed away. I knew he hadn’t been doing well for a while, but it is always difficult to be away during these times. I wish I could be there for my dad, but I am still so thankful for the good memories with my grandpa.
