Do We Love... Iceland

It’s almost 11 PM in Iceland and we can still see the glow on the horizon, which sounds dreamy until you’re trying to convince your brain it’s bedtime. We’re recording from the South Coast and talking through what the midnight sun actually feels like, how we’re handling the sleep disruption, and why Iceland can swing from cozy and normal to slightly eerie in a matter of minutes. 

From there, we go full Iceland travel recap: waterfalls that belong in their own category, a glacier sighting, and the black sand beach where sneaker waves make the shoreline genuinely dangerous. We also share a whale watching story that turns into a highlight of the trip, with dolphins playing in the wake and a juvenile humpback that our guide believes hadn’t been documented in Iceland before. And yes, we finally get into puffins, including the wild fact that they can spend months floating out on the open North Atlantic before returning to the same burrow each spring. 

Then we eat our way through Icelandic food, from the famous Icelandic hot dogs and lamb soup to a mushroom farm bistro where everything is grown on-site. Dessert deserves its own moment: carrot marmalade, carrot ice cream, and mushroom ice cream topped with local honey, plus the exact scoop strategy that makes it taste right. We wrap with a quick bee update, a little social media chaos, and a TikTok-style Q&A that gets weirdly revealing about who we are. 

If you love Iceland, travel stories, wildlife, and honest friend talk, hit play, subscribe, and share this with the person you’d drag along on a last-minute Reykjavik trip. What part of Iceland would you want to experience first?

Eyore is Appalled

Transcript

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Hello From Iceland

Heather 0:14

BS a lot for this one because oh hi everybody it didn't count down it was on my end it was counting down on my end yeah hi everyone hello from Iceland Welcome to episode 38 of Do We Love That For You Absolutely And today's topic is Do we have Iceland Yes So far I'm gonna say I do love Iceland there's some things that are feeling weird and creepy but there's other things that are like so normal and fun cool for example we're recording and for me it is just sunset and it is five minutes to eleven at night yes yes and it's 6 55 here so very strange very strange and you still have sunlight shining bright and I do some of the I do so but you just told me an interesting thing what did I you you you told me about the uh sun in the horizon or whatever it never leaves the horizon so I sent the a picture um tonight of when the sun technically set was setting and that was at what quarter to ten yeah

The Midnight Sun And Sleep

Heather 1:44

my time I think it was about quarter to ten I sent it to you and it is still like if I was a kid I would be able to play in my yard still there's still sun on the horizon like if I look out I'm in um it's like a greenhouse but they have a sun they have a hot tub in here they have a little picnic area it's like they're yeah it's like a three season room only there's a great big fire um wood burning stove that I've got heated up right now um but it's like so I'm in this little like greenhouse area and there is like I can see the road I mean like I can see the sun on the horizon near the mountains so it's kind of weird yeah it is very hard to go to sleep we definitely have been using the room darkening shades um of course because it's just like the sun is technically set it'll get a little bit darker around midnight it gets dark and it's dark from like midnight to a little after one and then it starts to dusk or twilight thing again and then by like 4 a.m well I believe now it's like 4 20 420 the sun is coming up the sun is coming up so it's really weird but let's see so far I believe you've posted all of this as well so far we've seen yes yes four or five waterfalls all of them are gorgeous none of them compare to Niagara Falls but none of them are better or worse than Niagara Falls like they're it's it's like they're on separate planes. I mean they technically are but like you can't compare them there's really no comparing no judging no um we have seen the glacier we have not gone to the glacier um

Waterfalls Glacier And Black Sand

Heather 3:44

I'm not sure that I am physically able to walk the glacier um so Rich is looking into being able to do that um Saturday I'm not sure if we're gonna be able to do it um we did go to the world's most deadliest beach um it's the Black Sand Beach we went there they have sneaker waves and that's the one where the waves crash on the rocks and you don't see them until they've broken on you. And I believe it was last summer was the last time someone passed away or I shouldn't say passed away. I'm gonna say disappeared um so we went there and we went there three hours before high tide so it was really cool because the waves were starting to hit the rocks so it was really cool. Okay um I see you have the puffin story on there so I'm gonna skip the puffins. I um we skipped the puffin story I'll I'll see on a quest for now um we went on a whale watching excursion and we saw white dolphins white tail dolphins um a ton of them actually um and the there was a group of them that just played with the boat it was really really funny to watch the dolphins playing with the boat and then at the end we did see a humpback um it was a juvenile humpback and it was actually according to our uh lady on the boat who was talking to us according

Dolphins And A New Humpback

Heather 5:19

to her um as to the best of her knowledge this juvenile had never been seen in Iceland so they um we stayed with it for a little bit so that they could document um get its fins because that's like their their fins are their um their their flute is their own fingerprint like their oh how cool it's like their fingerprint so she said she had to um this was the first time they've never seen this print on a flute so to the best of her knowledge this was a first time seeing juvenile which is really cool um and it was a smaller one I mean it was huge but it was still smaller um and then we saw puffins yeah but again I'm gonna skip the puffins skip the puffins we are skipping the puffins are we doing a whole topic on food um no I was just gonna say you know run down your uh story that we kind of shared on the internet um I'm quite sure people want to hear from you like did it taste good people are saying ooh yum you know but you know sometimes hearing like how it was yeah so we went to this place called Farmer's Bistro and um did I send you the link to them? Actually I found them on Instagram oh perfect okay so you were able to link them absolutely awesome okay so we it was me

Mushroom Farm Food And Desserts

Heather 6:52

um Jade Eliza and Alec the four of us went there um Rich and Angela aren't big on mushrooms so they went um actually they both were needing American so they went and found a burger place um love it that did other stuff but they both got burglars they they just needed American and that's totally fine absolutely but um so we all went to this farmer's bistro and first of all they close at 5 p.m okay things here close at weird times and they open at weird times it's so weird but okay we got everything they make has mushrooms in it and the mushrooms are all grown in their farm as well as all their salads so everything we ate was grown right there on the property. Love it um so I got uh stuffed peppers and it was lamb with uh it was ground lamb with um mixed with portobello mushrooms and um it had a tiny bit of tomato paste and some like diced tomatoes and it I don't even know how to describe that it was just so good. The salad was just a tossed salad but it was so earthy. Yeah like there was no dressing on it and it was okay I didn't need dressing because the vegetables were so rich. Um and then for dessert we asked they have three desserts that's all they ever have okay and we asked for one of each with four spoons for all of it. Yeah so the first thing they brought us was the first dessert was a carrot cake and it had carrot marmalade on top of it and it had a little bit of the buttercream icing but it was in a dish.

Zia 8:56

Okay.

Heather 8:57

But let me explain this carrot cake to you and I'm putting up the air quotes around the word carrot cake because it looked like a zucchini loaf slice. Okay yeah it felt like weight wise like a zucchini loaf like a banana bread or something like that like it was it was it was solid yeah we showed the picture yeah but the crust was pastry oh my god I don't know how I don't know how to explain it and first of all carrot marmalade I want it I want to bring a vat of it so we had that then the second dessert we had was carrot ice cream and that was a coconut based ice cream with coconut flakes carrot flakes and on top of it was a carrot marmalade the same carrot marmalade was on top of it and I think I'm going to say that was the greatest ice cream I have ever had in my life awesome like I don't even know how to explain it it tasted like I was eating a carrot but I was eating ice cream like it had the ice cream ice cream then we had the mushroom ice cream yeah and that was um again a coconut esque based ice cream okay with mushrooms um purified or petrol you know uh pulverized mushrooms in it and um it was topped with local honey wow and the way they told us to eat it was to use the spoon it came in a little tiny mason jar and what they told us to do was just scoop all the way down and eat it that way. So the first bit you get in your mouth is the ice cream and you end with either the honey or the marmalade. Ooh nice and I tell you what if you don't do it in that order it tastes a little bit bitter the mushroom was a little bit bitter if you do it the right way so sweet.

Zia 11:12

The carrot you didn't need the carrot marmalade you could have eaten it just as the ice cream so good we also had another day we went and got the infamous Icelandic hot dogs yes and the hot dog itself was super good the toppings that were on it were weird I don't okay how to talk I don't know how to talk about them they were they were just weird they weren't bad but they weren't I wasn't gonna get another hot dog with them right right make it your own way kind of thing yeah um but to have it their way it was good for one um yeah we also had fish and chips you have to full have the full experience yeah yeah of course that's the only way to do it then that's what we're doing yep um we had fish and chips we had the black crust pizza yeah I sent you those pictures right yeah I put them up okay so the pizza um they had such weird combos of flavors oh wow we had one that was spicy tuna jalapenos onions and I'm not gonna I'm not lying but I think it had mushrooms on it too and then the other pizza we got was um lamb pepperoni mushrooms oh my goodness I love it and it had like jalapenos but the red jalapenos like the chili peppers yeah and it had that so it that was super good as well um wow and it was it was so weird the the the crust was a very rich crust yeah um and then and then the last thing we've eaten thus far was the official lamb soup okay everybody said you had to have the lamb soup and um we met these um locals actually today at the lagoon and um they asked if we had um the soup and we said yes and then he goes

Hot Dogs Pizza And Lamb Soup

Zia 13:24

well wait which soup style did you have and I told him it was the clear broth and he goes that's lamb broth and I'm like okay well it's clear it's not you know creamy it's a clear broth but okay right um and then it had the lamb and it has carrot chunks and um potatoes oh wow and it was very good okay very very good so awesome yeah I wonder if they make that like we make chicken soup you know like oh I don't feel good and now they're like well you need lamb soup I'm gonna say yes because um from what I understand from what people have said they um they are trying to make this island totally it's totally independent okay so there's there's now cows here um they do have to import they have to import some stuff obviously yeah but the lambs all the sheep that we that I see those are gonna be in somebody's tummy yeah um they have um they have chickens um like on our property we have four chickens um so we're getting eggs from them every day but I believe from what everybody is saying here that they're trying to make themselves totally independent um that's great because it'll help their economy absolutely in the long run um but um very cool yeah so I want to bring up this puffin story um I I did mention it a little bit on social media um we took the two separate pictures that you took on two different days and I separated it um okay so Heather sends me puffin pictures well she tells me she saw puffins um and I was like I kind of knew your schedule but you know so I was like wait a minute aren't you going on a tour tomorrow to see puffins and first thing you said to me first thing you said to me was shut up um because I said do you feel bad that you saw this puffins today and you're paying tomorrow to see other puffins um yes so I got the shut up and um I said to her I was like okay so we have monetary supported muff puffins tomorrow and then we have non-monetary supported exactly so what I said to everybody here was I said these are puffins in the wild and these are puffins on the tour did the puffins on the tour did they um dress up for you they dressed up like penguins no so honestly the tour was worth it in itself to learn about puffins right so puffins okay what do you know

Puffin Tour Versus Wild Sightings

Zia 16:44

about puffins that's that question because I feel like maybe I was the dumb one but according to what I'm learning I wasn't as dumb as I think I am because as this thing was talking to us I'm like so okay okay so I feel like um I feel like they fly right they just okay and I know that yeah and I know that like there was many of them in the way of Star Wars production so they had to get out of the way um they were they were they turned into yeah I know that um let's see what else do I know about a puffin um they nest I think certain um only certain times of the year is that that is true okay and I think I know way too much more about puffins than I should I feel like oh I'm gonna I'm gonna fill you in you're gonna be a puffin genius in a minute yeah um so yeah I was like I I I don't know I I feel like the kids always wanted to watch those nature shows so you know not totally oblivious to the puffin world but you know so oblivious enough I should say you ready mind book number one when they migrate they float in the ocean until it's spring wait what they're leaving now from Iceland they're gonna fly out into the open North Atlantic they're gonna float on the water and then they're gonna come back in March Wow they just float that's a long time they just float in the water they can fly but they're very not graceful flying okay they're very uncoordinated they don't have like an actual nest they burrow into a cliff okay but every year they come back to the same spot the same burrow but then they have to go in farther because their siblings are in there and well they have one.

Heather 19:07

They only have one baby a year okay and they come back to the same spot they do not mate with they mate with the same person every year but they don't necessarily spend the non rearing and raising your child time together. Okay. So once they raise their tick they go off and float in their own ocean area and then they come back and meet up and bang it out have another tick.

Zia 19:34

Yep.

Heather 19:35

So yeah it was it was kind of weird yeah it's a little bit like the penguin mating with the one person and then yeah yeah they do mate for life they do mate for life and if they lose their partner they will find unlike penguins if they lose their partner they could find another one right right but then that one becomes their mate for life.

Zia 19:59

But yeah it's kind of weird huh amazing yeah so when you were away um I was watching some odd videos on the internet and there is this girl that I started watching and she goes to the dollar store all the time okay and she introduced something and I was like I need this in my life because Heather needs it in her life. So no um and I actually responded to something um she had said because um I'll try to tag her um she had said when when she likes something she doesn't

Dollar Store Finds And Golden Girls

Zia 20:39

say it very happily you know but she says a lot she has a little southern accent I'm not quite sure where she is from but she's like okay I love this is good get it by it and I'm like okay okay so I just I went to the dollar store yeah I go into the dollar store the other day looking for what I'm gonna tell you I found and I sat there and I was like I cannot stop hearing her say it's good by it so I was like thank you that I went through the whole store and all I heard was buy it just buy it it's good yes so I told her that I was like thank you so much that I could blame this on you that I had to buy these things for you right so I went there they had golden girls lip glosses oh no so each color has the little person on it and you know it's it's I bought myself a Dorothy because she's my favorite but of course you have favorite right now you know that right yes I know and um but I did um get you all four the like I said the faces are a little squishy um so you would have to try to like seal that if you wanted to you know keep them for the behives some way to put them on the hives. Yep or you have a template for you know making something with your printer Exactly.

Heather 22:15

Wow. I love that. Thank you.

Zia 22:18

But I'll post a picture of what I got, Heather. And um Yeah, it's just so cute. But along those lines, you had a B update. I do have a B update.

Heather 22:29

So because, of course. Oh, I said B cause.

Zia 22:35

Because.

Heather 22:36

Sorry. So see, this is what happens when it's 11:15 and Heather. Heather cannot sleep in

Bee Hives In Iceland Surprise

Heather 22:44

Iceland.

Zia 22:45

But you know what?

Heather 22:46

We all don't sleep before.

Zia 22:48

You think this stuff stops when she's over in Iceland and not a different time zone. We're the same.

Heather 22:53

We are. Oh my gosh. Anyway so we were sitting somewhere waiting for something. Oh, I think we were eating, it was after hot dogs. And Rich and I were sitting looking out at the marina and up in Reykjavik. And the girls and um Eliza and Alec were off wandering. The the they had we gave them like 45 minutes to just wander. And um, so we're sitting there and we're talking, and I'm like, I haven't seen any bees. And he's like, Yeah, I'm like, why don't they have any bees? So, of course, what do I do? I search for bee clubs in Iceland, and lo and behold, there is 289 bees on this island or beehives on this island. Wow, and they are super, super, super regulated. They don't have varroa, they don't have any of the parasites, they don't have any of the um brood issues that we have. Um, none of the foul blue, the European or the American. They get all their bees. I mean, if they get all their bees from Finland, and that's it. The bees are totally inspected and made sure that they are completely clean before they come into this country. So there are zero issues with the bees here. Um, and then of course, after we said that, we saw like four bees, but that's great. You know, but yeah, so I was so excited. So I did reach out to the bee club. Um, I have not heard back from them, which makes me kind of sad. I was hoping I would hear from somebody, um, but I didn't, or I haven't yet. We still have a couple more days here, but I don't know that I'm gonna be able to touch base with anyone.

Zia 24:49

I wish I could, but yeah, so that would be amazing.

Heather 24:55

So tell me, how has it been being permitted on social media? Are you being nice to everybody?

Zia 25:04

Yes, I think everybody can justify that I have been very nice. Um,

Social Media Theme Songs And Wi-Fi

Zia 25:09

I went a little crazy with the theme songs. Um I love it. It was a challenge for me. It was a challenge for me to find it. I don't know, man. You post it, I'll theme song it. But I have to tell you, every time I did put a theme song, and my daughter-in-law was here um too, and my son's girlfriend, and every time I was posting a song with the pictures you sent me, I was like, Oh god, she's gonna kill me. Oh god, she's gonna kill me.

Heather 25:44

I'm and I was like, I have not been on social media this whole week. I've just been sending to you, and I mean it's hard because we're so busy and our time is so off.

Zia 25:53

Yeah, but nobody has talked to me. Um, I got like a couple comments from Nikki um that she was talking, you know, to me. So very good. Um, but nobody's talked to me, so I haven't had to argue or give a weird comment, or you know, nobody's challenging me. It's fine.

Heather 26:12

I think that's good. I mean, Eliza's here, so she can't get you.

Zia 26:16

Right, right, right. My skills are being wasted.

Heather 26:21

Or maybe they're just smart and scared. Oh my goodness.

Zia 26:28

Oh my god, that's great.

Heather 26:30

So I don't know if you can do your TikToks, but um I I I don't have that button, so we're gonna have to we're gonna have to have to just verbally say TikTok. And I don't know that Rich will be able to get him on there either because that's okay. Literally fought for what 30 minutes trying to get on here to talk tonight. Yeah, the Wi-Fi wasn't good. I'm actually on Alex, Eliza's boyfriend, so I'm actually on his hot spot right now on his phone. Yep, see what we do for you people because, huh?

Zia 27:00

See what we do for you people. See, see what we do.

Heather 27:02

There are no mosquitoes in Iceland.

Zia 27:05

Oh my god. Amazing.

Heather 27:08

Almost reason to move here.

Zia 27:10

Yep, kind of oh, especially for my son. He was he's so he was like so allergic to mosquitoes when he was younger, is terrible. So yeah.

Heather 27:18

Oh my goodness. That's crazy. All right. So let's do the ticky tock. Verbal tick tock, yeah. We'll do it tonight and we'll we'll just we'll get it all back for next week. Yep. TikTok ready.

Zia 27:35

All right, so we got quite a few t this time. Um awesome.

Heather 27:40

Yeah, I love that.

Zia 27:42

So uh I'll take the first one. Um, this was from Kate, and she said, which is superior to you?

TikTok Q&A Food Candy Travel

Zia 27:49

Muffins or cupcakes? But also, also, which is better? Breakfast for dinner or dinner for breakfast? Kate, that's mean.

Heather 28:04

All right, so let's see. Muffins and dinner for breakfast. Okay. Breakfast for dinner.

Zia 28:11

Breakfast for dinner? Okay.

Heather 28:13

Dinner for breakfast. Oh my gosh, I don't know. I can't.

Zia 28:19

Um do it!

Heather 28:21

No, dinner for breakfast.

Zia 28:23

Okay, so you're going muffins. Okay. I obviously you know, I I am a slave to a cupcake.

Heather 28:32

You are.

Zia 28:33

I I actually had a student one time, um, you know, she knew that every time they would come around with cupcakes, I would say, yes, please, cupcake. Yes, Miss Z has a problem with cupcakes. So she had she had gotten older and she came around with her cupcakes probably around third grade, and she was like, I know you want one because you have a problem with cupcakes, Missy. And I said, Yes. Yes, I do. Give me cupcakes. Yes, yes, and I'm gonna say I am a huge person to have breakfast for dinner because I love a good bowl of cereal for dinner.

Heather 29:11

Alright, I'll give you that. Yep.

Zia 29:13

Yep. Love it.

Heather 29:15

So Nikki posted Halloween candy is already coming out in the stores. Be honest. Would you buy a bag of candy corn? Um, yeah.

Zia 29:28

Yeah, I have to. I have to. Yeah. Star Star and I eat a bag ourselves together. We it's our tradition. We love it. Yeah.

Heather 29:36

Candy corn is awesome.

Zia 29:38

Yeah.

Heather 29:39

There's just no question about that.

Zia 29:40

Yes. Give me candy corn. Absolutely. Um, the next one um was kind of thrown in there last minute. Says, what keeps a long-distance friendship strong? Trust. A good Wi-Fi connection. Well, that's Alec.

Heather 30:07

No, trust. I trust that you are always gonna be there for me. I trust that you know, Allie is always gonna be there for me. You know, you know, the distance ones that I'm still very close with. I trust you guys that we're gonna all work on it together.

Zia 30:26

Yep. Yep. So absolutely, I agree. Yeah, trust, just the confidence to be like, oh, I can reach out and you're gonna give me um I mean I did that too. Not an answer, yeah, but not even an answer that I want. You're gonna give me an answer that I need.

Heather 30:45

Yeah, yeah, I'll give you the answer you want too, but I'm gonna tell you I'm giving you the answer you want. That's not what you need to hear.

Zia 30:52

Right, absolutely.

Heather 30:53

I mean, I did that too this morning when I had my little mini freak out. I thought a bag got stolen and thank god it didn't, but I was ready to go insane.

Zia 31:04

Yep, and I was like, I don't really freaking care. No, I'm just joking. Oh, I don't care. You're not here, I don't care. No, just joking.

Heather 31:18

I don't care.

Zia 31:19

Um, you're with your other friends. That's right, that's right.

Heather 31:22

Go ahead, take the next one. Oh Miss Mac says, What places are still on your bucket list to visit? Oh my gosh. Well, you go first, because you go. I don't have one.

Zia 31:46

I did all the Michael got me to Egypt. That was my bucket list.

Heather 31:51

Okay. So I have always, always, always, always, always wanted to go on an African safari. Okay. But then as I got older and I realized it's not really African safari. Like you're not driving right just to Africa, you're on a like a reservation.

Zia 32:15

Yep.

Heather 32:16

It made me sad. So I would still like to do it, but I feel like it's not like my dream to do that anymore. Okay. Um I want to. No, go ahead. I want to hit every island in the Caribbean. Oh, okay. Yeah. I mean, we all know I want to go to Blease. Yep. But like real bucket list, I would love to hit every island in the Caribbean so that I can say I have been to every island in the Caribbean.

Zia 32:53

Amazing. Um, I like I have trips I think I should go on.

Heather 32:59

Okay.

Zia 33:00

That's not much of a bucket list, but um, like I feel like I should explore Italy. Um just because my upbringing was so strong to hone in on those routes. Um, Anthony Bourdain did at one time the his favorite place to go was Indonesia. And um he made me think that maybe I should go there just to explore my family's heritage. Um I already went to Holland, you know, so that was part of our family heritage. Um but I I think I I should go to Italy um just to explore that. Um I know Zach and myself always say we should be in Iceland or, you know, um just because of our Viking roots. Um but um just little things like that. Um, and you know, Michael and I are both Italian, so you know that would make sense. And I have to get to Bermuda to, you know, bring my mom there.

Heather 34:07

So well, that's supposed to be our long weekend.

Zia 34:10

Yep, yep, I know. I know. So you know what?

Heather 34:14

Maybe we just leave the boys and you and I go.

Zia 34:17

I don't want to go. I just don't want to go.

Heather 34:20

I know, that's why you keep putting it off.

Zia 34:22

I know, I have to, and I just I just don't I I've been there so many times that I just like it's lost its luster, and I'm just kind of like peace. But I've never been there, so I know Michael's like, I really would like to go. I would love to see that. Yeah, so I have to like suck it up, buttercup.

Heather 34:44

So it's actually almost I'm changing the subject real quick. Okay, go ahead. It's actually almost dark here.

Zia 34:51

Yeah, and there's no lights.

Heather 34:57

Like

Baby Forests And Iceland’s Green

Heather 34:58

anywhere, no, and um and I'm looking on a river, and I know I 100% know there is a house that's probably a kilometer away okay across the river, and I can see a light.

Zia 35:18

Wow, like maybe a front porch light or I don't know. I don't know, it's just weird. Yeah, well, that's why I like going to my dad lens because when I go up there by the mountains, he has like the blackout curtains, it's so black. Yep, everything, yeah. There's no lights or anything.

Heather 35:40

Yeah. So yeah, there's so I've been taking a lot of like scenic pictures and scenery pictures and stuff, and it's like I can't describe the green that everything is here. Oh wow. So they are in the process of growing forests. Okay. Um, because in the Viking times, they the Vikings cut down all the trees.

Zia 36:11

Yeah.

Heather 36:11

Because they needed them. So there are no trees here. So it looks like a desert, only it's so lush and plush. Love it. And then you see like these trees that are like four feet tall and oh my goodness, feet tall. And these are like birches and and and whatever, the the native birches. Um, but they had to bring them in, so even though they're native, they had to go get them and bring them back. Um, but it's funny because you'll drive down the road and you'll see this, like, so we've been calling them the the age of the of the forest is like this is a baby forest, this is a teenage forest, that's a young adult forest. But they've only been growing forests for like 20 years, so none of these forests are big at all, but it's so cute because they're literally in squares. It's like, I mean, I know they don't use acres out here, that's an American thing, but however they plot out their property lines, like yeah, this property is a forest, and they literally like edge it.

Zia 37:20

That's it's really cute.

Heather 37:22

You know what? When we go up the mountain to go to Reykjavik, I will there's a forest you can see looking over into the valley. Um, when we get up to the top of the mountain, I'll take a picture of it because it's literally like a square, like forest.

Zia 37:40

That's awesome. So, you that being said, I mean, do they have a lot of the older stuff that the Vikings built around there?

Heather 37:49

Or they do. Um, there are a lot of

Vikings Tourism And Speed Cameras

Heather 37:54

um we would call them historical monuments. Um, there are a lot of things like that. There's um out by the coast, um not so we're on the south side. We're we're we're in the area of what they call the the south ring. Okay um and that's the reason we're here is because we're between the two big cities. Rekyvik is to our east, um, about two hours, and a city called Vic, and by city, there's uh 800 people in the city. I love it, and then you have Vic, which is about two hours the other way, but we cover the south of the island, okay. Um, and we're we're almost obviously dead center. Um, we're inland, probably in our world, probably 45 miles from the coast. Um, but out by the coast, you see these stone sculptures. I mean, we would call them sculptures, but they aren't sculptures, but they're stone stacked that the Vikings used as markers. Love it. Um, so we have there's a lot of them around. Um, there's a lot of you can see the old, old, old houses um are typically now like barns, and then the houses built next to it. Like you can see the old barns and things. Um and then honestly, just everything here looks older. Uh it's all in great condition. Um, we were talking to some locals today at the lagoon. Um, they're very nice couple, and they actually told us to go check out a um a lighthouse up uh just on the north side of Reykjavik. So we're gonna go see the lighthouse up there, um, hopefully. But um, they were talking about how when the financial crisis happened for us in 2008-2009, that is when their tourism skyrocketed because as Americans were able to start traveling, they came here because the economy was so bad here, so travel was much cheaper. And so that's how they revived their economy was because when they realized that everybody was coming because their economies were bad, they took that and fueled their economy. So they started building the tourism up in 2008-2009 timeframe, and that's what brought it to what it is now. So they've built all these new roads, they've redone all the roads. Um, that's another thing. We can drive somewhere, we could drive, you know, 15 miles and pass one car. Wow.

Zia 40:48

Sounds like a good road for me to travel on.

Heather 40:52

No, because they have cameras on the roads and they clock you, they they scan the license plate at this place, and then the next place you should be should take you this long, and if you're before that, they mail you a ticket.

Zia 41:09

Oh, no, I meant because no one was on it.

Heather 41:12

No, I I know what you meant, but yeah. I know what that's great.

Zia 41:16

I I can't believe they have cameras. That's amazing.

Heather 41:19

They have cameras everywhere.

Zia 41:21

I love it.

Heather 41:22

There's an office somewhere on the island, I'm assuming up in Reykjavik, but yeah, it's like I looked on the website on their website for the traffic because we wanted to make sure we knew traffic signs and stuff like that. Yeah. And there's like on the wall, is like you know how like when you watch like war games or whatever, they have all those cameras on the wall or TVs, like that's what they're sitting there, and it's literally every road in Iceland, and that's how they monitor traffic.

Zia 41:49

So I could get a job there. You could, yeah, be like, pull the video. That's right.

Heather 41:57

Your favorite sentence.

Zia 41:58

Yeah, pull the favorite sentence, pull the video. I gotta get used to it again. Uh I'm I'm slacking for two months.

Heather 42:04

You are, you'll get there.

Zia 42:06

But so I'm excited for you uh to see all the things I did while you were away.

Next Time The Travel Drama

Zia 42:14

And you can be proud of me because I didn't scare anybody. So good.

Heather 42:19

And on our next on our next podcast, when we record next, I'm gonna tell you the drama of getting to Iceland.

Zia 42:26

Oh, yes, okay. Great.

Heather 42:28

Um, because that that was drama in itself.

Zia 42:33

Yep, yep.

Heather 42:34

Very much so. You were involved. I I was texting you a lot during all of that.

Zia 42:38

Yep. Um you know what? It might go long because I have a trip, you know, next week I'm taken.

Heather 42:43

So no, you're gonna be gone. I'm gonna be gone actually. I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna be in New York for next week. Yep, but I'll be able to sleep and you're leaving. I'm coming to New York and you're leaving, so we're not gonna see each other.

Zia 42:55

No, nope, but that's okay. That's okay, it's okay, yeah. Yeah, yep.

Heather 43:01

So all right, it is almost midnight, so I should I should pretend to go to bed because I'm very not tired, but yes, I have to sleep because you know, sunrise. Click clocks, yes. Love you guys, miss you guys. Bye, guys. Thanks so much.

Zia 43:20

Love you, bye.