Vikings, etc

So today we visited the area where Daddy use to work (Scatter Site).   We were going to go all the way up to the satellite golf balls, but Annika was freaking out on the drive, so we turned around instead.  Daddy's building is gone!  Mjorkadal is the country's jail now!

Then we drove to Vestmanna to see the viking museum, SagaMuseum.  It was so cool.  It is essentially a wax museum audio tour.  We were able to listen to it in English.  They told the story of Sigmundur Bresteson and Trondur i Gotu, Annika av Stora Dimun, and the Sharp Stone (used for non-death penalty punishments).  The wax forms were in 11 stations:

1. The first human inhabitants, were irish monks.  They arrived in round skin boats and lived peacefully for a time.
2. Brestir and Beinir fought Hafgrimur on Stora Dimun, and were killed.   The winning side wanted to kill their two sons Sigmundur and Torur, but Trondur i Gotu agrees to raise them.  
3. Sigmundur, on behalf of King Olaf of Norway, threatens Trondur i Gotu with death if they do not accept Christianity.
4. The decapitated Sigmundur tells Trondur i Gotu who killed him.  His daughter will not marry Trondur's nephew unless his death is avenged.  So the men that killed him, a farmer and his son, were hung.
5. The fight over whether the cathedral in Kirkebo should be completed.  The grass where this battle was waged is grows red grass to this day, in deference to how bloody the battle was.
6. The effect of the Black Plague on the Faroes.
7. Pirates in the Faroes.
8. The richest landowner in Faroese history: The Lady of Husavik.   Apparently, she owned several islands in the Faroes and several farms in Norway and Scotland.
9. Annika av Stora Dimon. Apparently, her dad lost her to the owner of Stora Dimun while gambling.  She was forced to marry him, but fell in love with one of his ranch hands.  The conspired to kill the farmer.  Three years later, her lover turned her in, in exchange for amnesty.  She was tried and sentenced to drowning (women were drowned, and men were hung), but she would not sink.  It was decided that her hair kept her afloat, so they cut it off and threw her back in.  Then, finally, she drowned.
10. Patur. He is sentenced to hanging for stealing food.  It is one of the worst offenses there is.
11. The Sharp Stone.  If your crime is not a killing offense, you are sentenced to a number of days sitting astride a sharp rock with your hands tied behind your back and your legs weighed down with heavy stones.  Apparently, it is excruciating.  Plus you are in a dark and dank cellar.

Finally, we drove to Hvivik to view the ruins of a Viking long house and barn, along side a viking burial mound.  It was a little anticlimactic, but worth the stop.

The plan was to go to Thorshavn this evening.  Tyr is in concert, along with about 10 other Faroese bands, leading up to a Danish headliner.  The kids don't really want to go.  It's cold and the concert is long, Tyr is playing for 30 minutes or less.  So we might end up watching Harry Potter 3 and 4.  We watched 1 and 2 last night.

Learning Faroese

The kids started their lessons yesterday.  Next time you see them, ask them (in Faroese) what their name is, where they live, what school they go to, or how old they are.  Elsa is really good about speaking to them in Faroese,  r e a l l y  s l o w l y.

We also went to Hanna's graduation.  Holy exclamation points, Batman, it was cold.  The girls and I were not dressed for the weather.  We had decided to dress up in our new duds, which didn't cover near enough skin.  

After that, the whole gang came back to mammubeiggji's house for dinner.  Hanna got an iPad from her fiancé as a graduation gift.

Friends and Family 2

Hey! I saw Asa Perdomo, Olavur Jacobsen, and Brynhild (don't know her last name.)  We also bought some craft items and strolled around town.  Then we went grocery shopping and took the bus home.  Mammubeiggji had pork liver with potatoes and gravy ready for us when we got in!

Friends and Family

Nothing new to say today.  Yesterday, the girls and I went shopping and Bear stayed home (on the computer).  I tried to visit Asa, but she does not work at the same place where Flovin thought I would find her.  They gave me directions to her shop, but she was closed and gone for the day by the time I got there.  I will try again today.  I am also going to try to visit Brynhild, Anya, Olavur, and Helgi.  I can't think of anyone else who lives in Torshavn.  If you can, let me know.

Helpful Bus Drivers

Bret, you will appreciate this story the most.

The Faroese bus schedule does not make much sense to me.  I read the schedule of buses going from Velbastad to Havn, and decided that we needed to be at the bus stop at 1130am, yesterday.  When the bus arrived, he seemed to be pointing in the wrong direction, so I asked the driver if he was going to Havn.  After an initial snap at me for asking a dumb question, he looked at the schedule with me and very nicely explained how it worked and that my next bus wasn't until 1330 (they use the 24 hour system).  We decided that was too long to wait, since we could walk for 30 minutes to catch a different bus right away.

We spent the day in Havn, and again made a mistake looking at the schedule.  We took the city bus out to the last stop, closest to Velbastad, then waited for the Velbastad bus.  Again, he seemed to be turned the wrong way.  Unfortunately for us, it was the same driver.  I asked him if he was going to Velbastad, and he laid into me yelling about how I should read the name on the bus.  Couldn't I see that he was going to Kalbak.  So I yelled back that I had no idea where Kalbak was, since I didn't live in the Faroes.  "Yeah, but you speak Faroese."  "But just because I speak it doesn't mean I know my way around." He was a little flustered after that and said the return bus would be in a few minutes.

So, Bret, it is not just at bed and breakfasts that I get yelled at.  As it turned out, Duruta was on the bus the second time, and helped me explain the story to Mammubeiggji.  He is taking the bus into Havn this morning and promises to give the driver a hard time for chewing out his relatives from USA who are doing their best trying to learn the language! Let's see how he treats the next idiot that asks dumb questions.  Maybe someone will come up with an idiot proof schedule.

What boredom brings

Bear asked Ommubeiggji to play his accordion for him because he was bored.
Afterward, he gave it to Bear to try.  Bear has since spent about 2 hours, on
and off, playing it.  Perhaps we will have a new accordion player in the family
6 weeks from now.

      

Jóansøku

We were supposed to go to Koltur yesterday, but there was a 2-4 hour wait for the ferry.  We tried twice, to no avail.  Apparently, one of the two farms was really broken down.  A Danish benefactor donated enough money to restore it and turn it into a special meeting place/historical site for folks to visit.  The caretaker had expected a few hundred visitors, but instead had over 2,000.  He promises to set up another event for folks to come visit soon.  It is not super easy to get there because there is no steady ferry to that island.  Otherwise, the only access is by helicopter (tirla.)  So we spent our Jóansøka in Velbastað with Elsa, Beinta, and Duruta.  They had an enormous bon fire in the grass above the town.

Suddenly: Islands

We said goodbye to Bret Thursday morning and then boarded the ferry, Norrøna, for the Faroe Islands.  On board, we enjoyed shrimp on bread, turran fisk, lasagna, lamb stew, and a plethora of desserts.  The conditions were amazing.  It was like sailing on glass.  We hardly felt any rocking.  What with jet lag and the excitement, I was unable to really sleep.  The kids had multiple naps throughout the day.  I had just closed my iPad, around 1 am, when Annika shouted "Hey look, an island!" There was no sleeping to be had at that point.  I ran outside to get a better view.  It appears that we were sailing between Eysturoy and Kalsoy, then between Eysturoy and Nølsoy, until we finally approached Thorshavn. 


What a mess, getting off the boat.  We took the elevator from the gang plank to ground level, where the lobby was solid, wall-to-wall people, waiting to get on the ferry.  We had to bump and excuse our way out the door.  We found Hanna waiting outside, but her car wasn't big enough for us AND the luggage.  She took the big stuff to her house, then came back to take us to Velbastað, then brought our big stuff over on Friday, late morning.

We had breakfast late on Friday, then walked to Kirkjubø (the neighboring village with an historic church and farm.)  It took about one hour in each direction.  I'm pretty sure it was uphill both ways, and with the way my feet feel now, barefoot in the snow.  Mammubeiggji made us sauteed flounder and potatoes for dinner.  Bear, who has eaten next to nothing since leaving Boise, had at least 10 filets and 10 potatoes!

Danielle has been such a good sport.  She has never complained, has tried everything at least once, so far, and has had impeccable manners in all situations.  In fact, she went out of her way on several occations to make peace between siblings or child and mom.

Photos to follow soon.  Mammubeiggji does not have wi-fi, so I have to download the images to my lap top, find a chord to plug into his landline, then upload images to the blog.

Seyðisfjörður, etc

Today, we saw the most amazing field of icebergs (Jökulsarlón.) Bret will post some photos on his blog (see the link above.) We also were able to see several "fingers" of the Vatnajökull (Europe's largest glacier.)

We finally arrived in Seyðisfjörður around 1630, only to find out that there was no room at the inn. That includes the hotel and the hostell. We called Mamma, Hans David, and Edna to find out if we had friends or family in the area, to no avail. Bret was just getting ady to drive us back to the last town, when I asked to stop at the grocery store.

I asked if anyone knew of another place to stay, and this lady gave me a list of people who have rooms to let! I called the first person on the list. She does not take Visa, so we tokd her we had to see if we could get that much cash from the ATM first. That worked, so she said to come up in one hour (so she could clean, lol) and gave us the address.

What an adventure!

Blue Lagoon, Edna, and Waterfalls

Yesterday, we spent several hours at the famous Blue Lagoon natural hot spring and spa. The girls and I purchased a special face mask before we figured out that you can get a third kind for free. As soon as I figure out how to upload pictures from this device, I'll include some funny ones from there.

Yesterday evening, we met up with Edna and Christopher. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant that she used to work at, walked around town a little, and had a glass of wine at the hotel. Chris only spent dinner with us because he had basketball practice before and after. I really enjoyed seeing her. We figured it has probably been a good 32 years since we saw each other!

Today, we started off on a three hour tour of puffin and whale watching. We saw a bunch of puffins and several whales. Then we tried to leave town, but were thwarted for several hours by the confusing road system in Reykjavik. We finally managed to find the southern ring road and proceded to view several waterfalls, and the Eyarfjallajøkull visitor center. That is the volcano that shut down European air travel for many days in 2010.

The landscape here is so different than what we are used to seeing. The sand is black. There are miles and miles of either moss or Icelandic columbines. Waterfalls abound, as do strange rock formations and glaciers.

Tonight, we are staying in a town whose name roughly translates to church field monastery. The rooms are tiny, but comfortable, and just in time to prevent insanity. I think the last 2 hours were just vast nothingness!

Reykjavik

We landed here around 9 am yesterday. The cold Atlantic air and light breeze felt like home. Bret got us a car and proceded to drive us around aimlessly for a couple of hours. We finally parked and had lunch in an all glass building that looked like a giant honeycomb. A friendly waitress directed us to the Hilton, where Bret has some sort of executive membership.

Apparently, we arrived on their Independence Day! There were people and activities everywhere. Some of the girls were dressed in their national costumes, most of the kids had balloons and flags, everyone seemed to be having a grand time. We mostly walked around and observed the festivities. I got myself a flag and a pin that depicts the Faroese and Icelandic flags criss crossed.

Every time we sat down, one of the our kids would start to fall asleep. We poked, prodded and teased until they woke up properly. We had made a rule that no one was to go to sleep until at least 8 pm to minimize jet lag.

Bret, Bear and I went to bed watching the newest version of Robin Hood. Bear fell asleep about 30 minutes in, I lasted about an hour, and Bret watched the whole thing. The girls have a room about 10 doors down.

Just before dinner, I got ahold of Edna. She is going to pick us up after work today to take us out to dinner. We also hope to go to the Blue Lagoon and to see the power plant that Bret´s company built out here in the mean time.

Shot Nerves

T minus 3 hours

I have a knot in my solar plexus the size of a soft ball. I get light headed every time I stand up. I´m impatient with the kids and Bret. No breakfast yet, so no meds in my system, AND having coffee. Not a good combo, but what the hey!

I am having issues with my car, so we just dropped it off at the dealership. I dropped the keys in the drop box, then tried to lock the car manually.....nope, wouldn´t happen. We drove off with my beautiful car sitting in front of the garage open for the world to explore. I retrieved the checkbook and walked away. I absolutely couldn´s stand it, so I called the active section of the dealership (the Mercedes people) and asked the phone guy to send someone over to lock it. He agreed, thank god!

So there is a combination of things going on right now. I´m nervous about the two long flights coming up, I´m excited about the trips through Iceland and the Faroes, I´m worried about my car and I didn´t sleep hardly at all last night. I packed rather sloppily, because I was in serious decision fatigue mode. If I can´t find something appropriate to wear, I´ll just have to go shopping!!

Tightrope walker

Follow the link above to a story about the first man to ever walk across Niagara Falls. Our very own Power Engineers Inc strung the catenary cable to make this happen!!!!!

Missing Passport

What are the chances that the one person who travels the most can't find his passport on the eve of our travels? We looked in his usual passport "spot" with no results.  I tore up our bedroom with no results.  Bret is now outside tearing up all the cars, looking in all the cracks, glove boxes, etc.  We may end up detouring through Seattle to get him a new one.

I have to admit that it is at least partially my fault.  when I took his suit to the cleaners, last week, I found the passport in the inside jacket pocket.  not sure what "safe" place I put it in after that.  But what was he doing leaving it in his jacket pocket for so long?

T-5

To buy a camera, or not to buy a camera. We have a great digital camcorder and 3 darned good cameras, two of which are drop proof, water proof, heat and cold resistant, and shake resistant. Never mind all the smart phones and iPod Touches. However, these are not good enough for annika. She needs one that is just hers, to eliminate the risk of having to wait in line to use it. She wants a "real" camera, to meet her future photography goals. However, she only has $200 to spend. This is birthday, Christmas, and job money that she has saved so she would have spending money in the Faroes. Argh! Kids!

In other news, still packing.

T-6

By this time next week we should be at JFK, in New York City. Annika is beside herself, and keeps squeeking about seeing Iceland. She is most excited about standing on the fault line where Iceland is supposedly falling apart. I gave Danielle and Annika a 2 hour lesson in Faroese and some packing tips. Bear is almost packed.

Since Fathers' Day is going to be in Iceland, we celebrated today. Bret has been practicing on his new guitar for the last several hours. He has always been interested in guitar, and the kids are planning on starting lessons this year, so I thought it would be fun for them to learn together. Very Fathers-day-ish. Maybe I'll learn too. Then we can be a guitar swinging foursome. Of course, the kids will be able to play songs by the end of this week, while Bret and I will still be struggling through the winter. Oh the joys of aging.

T-8 days

Well, not all the details are worked out yet, but we have started the packing process and I have some blog followers. Apparently, Annika is doing her own blog. I was kind of hoping we would all take turns posting on this one. That way, we would get different perspectives on the goings on.

I'm still trying to get ahold of my cousin who lives in or near Reykjavik. That would be really great. I also need to find someone in Suduroy and Vidareidi to stay with. If worse comes to worse, we could make it a day trip, but that would not be the same.

Summer Solstice

It has been a lifelong goal of mine to sit on Slaettaratindur (Faroes' highest mountain) and watch the sun go around me on the longest day of the year. Unfortunately, the solstice is on the 20th this year. Does that seem early to you? Anyway, we will be in Iceland at that time. We will be able to experience the disconcerting effect of having no night time, but i don't know how many days we have to get the full circle experience. I will have to ask one of my hosts to enlighten us. Either way, I think we will have to make the trek up the mountain, as I have actually never even been on it. That is probably hard to imagine, since I lived there for 8 years.

What to do While Travelling the South Ring Road in Iceland

There are quite a few worthy sights to see along the way. The drive is expected to take 2 days, but we have set aside 4 days to ensure that we see what there is to see (at least the highlights). Since I cannot figure out how to set up special characters on the iPad, you will have to suffer through my spelling errors along the way.

Starting from Reykjavik
Hengill - hot springs and steam vents
Seljalandsfoss - a "refreshing" waterfall
Skogar - history museum and cascading waterfall at deafening decibels
Dyrholaey - black volcanic beaches, giant sea arch, puffins
Kirkjubaejarklauster - pseudocraters, hexagonal lava pavements, monastery, antique farm buildings
Ingolfshofdi - Iceland's first settlement, nesting sea birds
Jokulsarlon - iceberg-filled lagoon, seals, orcas, arctic foxes, sea birds
Hofn - tours to Vatnajokull (glacier)
Djupivogur - oldest wooden building in Iceland
Hallormstadur - arburetum, Iceland's highest natural arch, lake
Egilstadir - viking burial site, saga sights, one of Iceland's tallest waterfalls. On a clear day, you can see Snaefell, Iceland's highest peak
Seydisfjordur - important WWII naval port, where we board the ferry

If time allows, we would like to make side trips to Keflavik, volcanoes, glaciers, and Vestmannaeyjar

Getting Ready

T minus 10 days until we take off for our summer vacation!