Days 5 - The Journey to the Island

Yes, we successfully made it over to Iceland but now we were heading over to Westman.  Our day started without a hitch and more sunshine.  The bus driver was early and his father was making the trip with us.  We had a two hour drive and then a 30 minute ferry ride, which most of us non sea worthy people were quite happy about.  The bus ride was very quiet, most likely due to the fact the majority of the people were asleep as we pulled away from the hostel - boys included.  Much different from the bus ride home from the Blue Lagoon the previous day, where the kids entertained us with songs the entire ride back - I won't mention the fact that the selection of songs was very limited.

Anyway, the drive was uneventful at least as far as we know.  Just before reaching the harbor we saw a beautiful, lush mountainside with quite a few high waterfalls off in the distance.  The ferry ride was an experience.  We were told that there wasn't really a concept of a queue and that is truly the case.  It is just a free for all.  We did manage to get on and grab a spot on the boat for the whole crew (28 in all).  Once we arrived at the island, we elected to wait until the smoke cleared and then quietly and calmly debarked from the ferry.  We did have to stop one Icelander from taking off with one of the women though.

We eventually loaded up all our luggage unto some unmarked truck with a man who never asked us where we were going, so we were a bit unsure if we would ever see our stuff again but figured it was a small enough island we might be able to track him down.   A bus then dropped the boys off at the elementary school, where they would be staying during this part of the journey with the chaperones, as well as the rest of us.   It seems that even though we drove right by the Guest house we were staying, it wasn't convenient to drop us off there.  

Although the sun was shining with some scattered clouds, the biting wind made it seem much colder.  Still no rain, so no complaints here.  After the boys were settled at the school and the majority of the adults at the Guest house we did a bit of exploring of the town.  We then met back up at the school to head to our first exciting dinner with all the other teams.  We were treated to some Icelandic meatballs, roasted potatoes, jam and cole slaw - not too bad.  After dinner a quick bus tour of the city.  We had a wonderful guide, who was quite a comedian take us around and tell us about the town.  He told us about the volcano that erupted in 1973 that spewed tons of ash on the town and although none of the inhabitants were killed the population went from some 5,000 people down to 4,000 after it erupted.  Also, Keiko, the killer whale in Free Willy had lived here for awhile during his lifetime.

Not too much happened after the tour, we have an early breakfast with our first game at 9.  We did hear some rumors of the chaperones playing some serious cribbage games and then sneaking off to the tavern to hang out with the locals after the boys had gone to sleep.

post by Suzy