Pre-Hike Days -- Flight and One Day in Reykjavik

***The girls are hiking the NH Grid to raise money for Global Fund for Women.  Please follow the Sisters Hiking for Equality Facebook Page for more details.***

Thru-hiking.  That time in your life when you learn you don't need 99% of your home's contents, and when you understand that the pursuit of awards and the relentless climb up a career ladder aren't necessarily beneficial for you, your health, or humanity.  You meet all kinds of people from all over the world (if you're hiking outside of the USA), and you gain a perspective you cannot obtain from staying in your hometown.  After the girls go to college, I plan on thru-hiking everything I can.  I don't need much in life, and I am allergic to pretentious people.  Thru-hiking is cheap if you stick to the trails and minimize the hostels, and I have met very, very few pretentious people on thru-hikes.  

We have missed thru-hiking so much!  Our experiences on El Camino de Santiago in 2013 and the John Muir Trail in 2014 made us want to thru-hike something every year.  Last year, however, I made good on a promise I made when the children were very young to go see the Great Wall of China.  That trip was expensive, and we also highpointed Idaho (Borah Peak) that year, so time and money ran out before we could thru-hike anything.  

This year, our three week vacation plan was to climb Mt. Hood in Oregon using a guide service (we did that in May) and hike something that wouldn't take more than a week or so late in the summer.  The girls and I had been to Iceland years ago, but the girls didn't remember it and we didn't get to see much of the landscape back then.  An internet search led me to the Laugavegur Trail, which is supposedly the most popular trail in Iceland and only takes four-ish days to complete.  I booked the huts (described in detail throughout this blog) for a mid-September stay -- I booked them in February, and yes, they were almost completely sold out by then for the season, so BOOK IN JANUARY OR EARLIER for your summer Laugavegur hut stays!!  Hence, Mt. Hood and Laugavegur became this year's vacation plans.  The Mt. Hood experience can be found here.

Pre-Hike

 Buy your food before you arrive in Iceland.  I repeat -- buy your food before you arrive in Iceland!  Why?  Because everything in Iceland is three or four times more expensive than it is in the States.  Not kidding.  Buy your hiking food in the States and bring it with you.  

Yummy chocolate-peanut butter powder mix.  Just add water once you're at the huts!
Since this isn't a cream, it can be brought on board your airplane.

Looks like a thru-hike

The day of our flight arrived!  September 5, 2016!  I have a thing about not wanting to check baggage, so we wore most of our layers on the plane.

I'm the type that likes to get to the airport absurdly early, so we had some time to lounge at the gate before boarding.

Looks like I posed for this one, but I didn't.  :)

I love Iceland Air.  Kind flight attendants and an efficient and human boarding procedure.  We flew economy and our legs were NOT squished.  Plus, the on-flight entertainment system has a ton of movies, television shows, documentaries, and radio programs.  The five hours went by quickly.

We landed in Reykjavik at 11:40pm Iceland time.  From the airport, you take a Flybus into the city.  You can book a Flybus online ahead of time, or you can do it on the plane or at the airport itself.  Once we got into BSI bus station (45 minutes from the airport), we had to take another, smaller bus to our hotel (Center Hotel on Laugavegur Street).  It was almost 1:30am when we got into our room, so we unpacked as quickly and as quietly as possible and went to sleep.

View from our room.  There's a bar right down there, and people kept walking the street talking loudly, but with our windows closed the noise wasn't too bad.  If you stay here, you might want to bring earplugs.

The next morning...

Me studying the map of the city, seeing if we can walk to the BSI bus terminal the next day (we could).

We had one day in the city before taking a bus to Landmannalaugar, the start of our trek.  We spent it roaming about on foot and getting over jet lag.

Hallgrímskirkja, the tallest church in Iceland

Icelandic chocolate

Advertisement for Volcano Museum (we didn't see the film inside...wasn't in our budget)

The cat at the Volcano Museum

Cool mailbox for kids to mail their letters to Santa

An American bar based on The Big Lebowski

We didn't eat at the American bar...instead, we ate at a Danish restaurant not far from our hotel.  The meal was expensive!  Probably not expensive by Icelandic standards, but certainly expensive for USA standards.  Again, everything is three or four times as expensive in Iceland.

After dinner, we wandered some more.  Lots of beautiful murals and street art...

A walk by the water brought us to this sculpture...

Once back in our hotel, it was time to pack for our trek and take a couple of selfies.

Sage took this photo of her boots.  They look quite clean...that will change!  Yes, this is the kind of footwear you need for a mid-September hike of the Laugavegur Trek.  I had read September brings the beginning of winter...and that is correct...the girls felt too warm in their boots only on the last day.

Tomorrow -- the ride to Landmannalaugar (an adventure all by itself!).