Coming Home…. On the way.

August 23 - 25, 2011

Moving is always hard and time-consuming, but an international move (at least the way I did it) has some unique considerations – for me, the luggage was the challenge. The cheapest way to get our household goods back to the U.S. was to check them as excess baggage – and Iceland Air had the best price for that, which is why I flew Iceland Air and decided to throw in a stopover for two days.

Darrell had already left with the fully packed ski bag (thank goodness!), my fold up bike, and a box of things – plus his check-ons. That left me with 2 boxes of things, 2 boxed bikes, 2 suitcases, and 3 backpacks – does that add up to 8 plus 1 carry on??? Yup, that’s it. The challenges – pretty simple – how to get all of that to the check-ins without ever leaving it unattended, which is impossible without help. Fortunately for me, people popped up to help. In Frankfurt (where I flew out of), I got two baggage carts (2 Euros each, but refundable when you returned them – that part is important). As I started to load them, a man came by and said something about helfen – which sounds enough like help that I knew he was asking if I needed help. To make a long story short, he was Polish and his name was Sebastian. He made a living by cruising the airport looking for bottles with a refundable deposit and baggage carts that he could return for the 2 Euro refund. He spent a lot of time with me- which was a bit creepy, but ultimately, I was very thankful. After all of my luggage was checked, he left with both of my carts and a handful of Euros from my change purse (which I gave him).

OK, step 1 completed. The next problem was in Iceland. There isn’t on-site storage for baggage at the airport, but I had researched and found a place just off-site (500 meters away, which can be VERY far when you have this much luggage) that would store my luggage for a fee. I went through customs pushing my two carts overflowing with luggage and boxes – with a little help from the customs guard. When I called the off-site baggage storage, the woman was quite no nonsense about me having to get there on my own… so I got two carts and started pushing them out of the airport. The route started with a sidewalk, but turned into a road. To be exact, it was the only road that leaves the airport. Fun.

Fortunately, I was in Iceland and not the US; this road had traffic, but it wasn’t a highway and the traffic wasn’t consistent. My plan of attack was to leap-frog the carts. I pushed one about 50 meters, then went back for the other, pushed it 100 m, then went back for the other, and so on. At one point, the cart waiting for me up ahead flipped over spilling everything onto the shoulder. Damn it. Then the one I was pushing dumped. At that point I shouted out a cussword – which I am sure is what led to the two young people to come ask me if I needed help. The landscape here was pretty barren with no people around except one worker tending the airport lawn and these two young people hanging out talking to him - I was lucky they were there. The rest of this journey was cake with their help!

After storing the luggage, it was a nice bus trip to Reykjavik (from the airport in Keflavik). The highlights of the stopover were:

• · Being at the tectonic plate boundary; standing on the North American plate (pictured below) looking across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to see the Eurasian plate 7 km away (cool!)
  

• · Seeing the Icelandic horses – famous for being small (don’t call them ponies if you don’t want to offend the locals) and having a unique gait called the tölt. Apparently, the tölt is so smooth that you can drink Champagne while riding the horse and not spill any.

• · Seeing a geyser field – The Great Geysir is no longer active, but is the origin of the English word for geyser. The Strokkur geysir didn’t fail to please though – I saw it spout 4 times in about 20 minutes.

• · The Blue Lagoon – ahhh, what a great way to end the trip. I stopped here the morning of my flight home - on the way to the airport. The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa located in a lava field. This ended up being a great way for me to let go of the stress of moving and get ready for a nice re-entry back into the States.

The rest of the luggage handling was much easier. I asked the people at the luggage storage to drive me back to the airport, and they happily obliged. In the U.S., a customs agent helped me through the final check, and then Darrell was there to help with the last leg to our car. My first thoughts – gosh, Americans are so nice. I was heartily welcomed back by the man at passport control, had help from 3 customs agents with baggage, and talked to a nice lady on the train about her son. What struck me most, is that Americans smile a lot – this is good. Yup – I’m back…

Mt. Rainier welcoming me home as I flew into Seattle.