Philadelphia, PA USA

Tomorrow my folks and I leave for Iceland. My parents picked up three (3!) guidebooks and every few hours we pick one up and browse through it. The only problem is that we can only pronounce about one place/person name in ten, which makes for very tricky communication.

"Well, we're going to be in... hhhhhhh... Snuffelupagus¹, right? So that's where... Bredafjorder?² is. And there's Helgafell near -- oh for the love of god³."

It's been very entertaining.

Meanwhile it's going to be a high of 50-some degrees Fahrenheit during the day (down to the forties at night) (plus mostly cloudy and maybe rainy!), so I'm stocked up on woolens.

We're spending 2 nights in Hellissandur, which, with its neighbor Rif have a whopping population of 580 people. According to Lonely Planet: Iceland it has a petrol station, a post office, AND an ATM. And a maritime museum.

Sweet! Love those maritimes.

Itinerary for tomorrow:

Ass early: Wake up, shower.
7am: Dogs to boarding kennel.
8am: We get picked up.
Forever: Drive to the New York airport.
2pm: Fly to Iceland.
Forever: Continue flying.
Some horrible hour: Customs etc.
After that: meet up with Iceland Air person who should hopefully be there to meet us and get our rental car.
A freaking hour later: Arrive at hotel in Rakey-a-vik⁴.

(Though to be sure there's no easy way to get to Iceland from here).

¹ Snæfellnes
² Brei∂afjör∂ur
³ Stykkishólmur
⁴ Reykjavík.