“The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.” ― G.K. Chesterton

The fifth day in Iceland was the day we were leaving.

The day before, Michael had driven over 10 hours.  By the time we got to the hotel he was exhausted, as expected, so we didn’t go out and went straight to bed.

He had hiccups that were persistent and kept getting in the way of his sleep. We Googled and tried some of the techniques recommended to stop hiccups. They would work for a while, but then would return.  Eventually we fell asleep.

The next morning, I wanted to have breakfast first and then leave for the airport.  Michael wanted to skip breakfast and leave right away.  Our flight was at 11:30am.  In the end, I agreed with Michael, we still had to stop at the gas station and fill up the tank.

His hiccups came back again, on and off.

We stopped at a gas station to get gas, and made it to the airport with a lot time to spare.   We checked in, and then got breakfast.  There was not a lot to choose from, so we got croissants and coffee. 

We had to take a bus to get to the plane, I haven’t had to do that in a long time.  It was an uneventful flight.  To eat, they gave us a choice of chicken sandwich or cheese platter.  I got the chicken, and Michael got the cheese.  They were both good, but he barely touched his.

We both have Global Entry, and our bags had priority tags, so it took minutes to get out of JFK airport and into an Uber.  They were handing out Covid tests, and for a moment I thought about stopping to get some, but decided that we needed to just get home.  We got home it was only 2 pm, 6pm Iceland time.

“The most poetical thing in the world is not being sick.” ― G.K. Chesterton

As I was unpacking, Michael said: “I think I should take a Covid text”. What? Seriously? Why? He answered: “because persistent hiccups can be a symptom of Covid”. He had just Googled and found that out that it can be a Covid symptom, although rare.

I got a test, and lo and behold: He was positive.  It was shocking to me.   Who knew hiccups can mean Covid?  It turns out the fatigue he was feeling was not only about the driving.

I tested negative. The next few days I woke up with a scratchy throat. Five days later we tested again. He was still positive, and I was still negative.  On day 10 we both tested negative.  I never got it, so I think my scratchy throat was just a cold.

By now he is already feeling back to himself, and back to the gym. I finally came back to the office.  Because I had been exposed, I made sure to stay away from the office. 

“One of the advantages of being disorganized is that one is always having surprising discoveries.” ― A.A. Milne

Back to the trip.  To summarize, it was a wonderful trip.  We did a lot in 4 days.  In hindsight, we would do some things differently, such as staying in hotels throughout the country, so we wouldn’t have to do too much driving in and out of Reykjavik.  I would have researched restaurants and coffee shops and already have a plan of times and places to stop to eat. 

But then again, it is fun not to have everything so planned.  It can be fun to just leave room for discovery.  Beautiful things can be found in the unexpected and unplanned.

As far as being an expensive place as everyone say, it is!  But with planning, it doesn’t have to be.  We bought our tickets and hotel just one week prior, so we probably overpaid.  There is an airline called Play Airlines that flies out of Stewart Airport, about 1 hour from me.  They sell tickets to Iceland for around $500.  Actually, I just checked and it is now $299.00.  We didn’t want to take a chance since we were going for only 4 days.  But when I retire, we will perhaps take a chance on budget airlines.

Iceland is gorgeous, clean and safe.  They even recommend hitchhiking!! I may go back at some point, but only after I crossed off some other countries off of my list first.  Well, I better start making that list then.