What Had Happened Was....

On February 23, 2017, I started writing a post about my trip to Iceland. It was around 10:00 pm, and as I started reflecting on my trip and thinking about all the excitement that was Iceland, I heard a noise. At first I wasn't certain what that noise was; then I realized it was me.... snoring loudly, nonetheless. I had fell asleep with my computer on my lap, all the lights on and my television blasting. I removed my glasses, forced myself out of bed to turn off the light, switched my television off en route back to my bed and went to sleep. Then three weeks passed, and I realized I never finished that post. I've been eyeballing the draft for weeks now, but for some reason, I'm not feeling it. Therefore, I will try again. And with that, Iceland...

I wasn't certain what to expect. I'd seen the influx of Blue Lagoon posts on Instagram, and of course heard about the Northern Lights... but Iceland. What exactly would we do in Iceland? The planning was very minimal. We booked through Fleetway Travel on a whim after seeing a deal advertised on Facebook. Weeks went by, then months and finally we started sorting through things to do once we were there. Two friends coordinated to rent a car in lieu of us paying for tours, my flight to Baltimore where we were flying out of was booked, all of our Winter gear was purchased and then finally it was time to go. Since we had more than a few hours before our flight to Reykjavik, we decided to pay a visit to the newly opened National Museum of African American History since we were in the Washington DC area.

The museum was nothing short of amazing and to be honest neither words nor photographs could do it any justice. It's overwhelming, it's breathtaking, it's pain, it's joy and it is everything that is uniquely and perfectly us. From the harsh beginning of our tale, captivity and slavery, to the quest for freedom..... The loss, the death and despair of it all, everything is encompassed within those walls. The magic quality of blackness completely takes hold of you from the minute you walk into the building until you leave and I highly recommend everyone that's able to pay a visit to the museum.

I was too busy taking everything in to take too many pictures, but the ones I captured in my mind will stay with me always. The museum is worth spending hours and hours inside of. It tells a story that one must see to truly be able to believe. I think we take for granted the depth of our struggle and how hard African-Americans had to fight to make it to where we are today.. how hard we are still fighting. But I digress. If you are in the area, go as fast as you can so you can experience it for yourself.

After enjoying lunch in the museum it was time to make haste so we could check in to our airlines in enough time.. Then finally it was on to Iceland.

The flight from Baltimore to Reykjavik was a little over 5 hours. I slept and read the majority of the way until our flight attendant alerted everyone that we were flying through the Northern Lights. After those few moments of excitement, I was fully awake and ready for our 5 in the morning landing. Definitely not the best picture through the airplane window with my phone, but in real life it was a wonderful teaser and was eerily beautiful.

The first thing I noticed once we landed was how many foreign destinations were leaving from the airport when we arrived at 5'o clock in the morning. The next thing I noticed after we breezed through customs and the duty free shops was just how truly cold it was there. There was snow piled up on the ground and by the time we were in our rental there was snow falling from the sky. For my little Houston, Texas never lived someplace where it snowed for real heart, I was in heaven. Real snow. Finally... Thankful for our fur and layers, we headed to our hotel to see if we would be able to check in early. After we were told we would have to wait until that afternoon, we grabbed a quick bite to eat and set off to see the country since we had a car and time to kill before we would actually be able to check into our room.

Our first destination was the Golden Circle, an area heavily known for tourism that was easy to navigate by car and without a tour guide. My two friends drove and navigated us there, while the rest of our squad struggled to stay awake in the backseat of our Volvo. In an effort to not insult the entire country of Iceland, I will spare the spelling of the places we went and direct you to google the Golden Circle. There, that's where we went. We went to the National Park, we saw geysers, ate, awed upon the most beautiful sight I have ever seen in my whole life, found the secret lagoon and found out that the KFC in Iceland was touched by the Gods. All before checking into our hotel that evening....

Unfortunately the cold weather kept making my phone battery die so I didn't take as many pictures that first day as I would have liked. We covered so much ground that first day that a quick nap and refresh were necessary once we checked into our hotel. We decided to venture into the city in search of food, and stumbled across a restaurant called Apotek. The menu in no way fully described the deliciousness that was our meal that first night. Literally one of the best meals I have ever had.... Literally, no exaggeration.

After we dined, we sought out entertainment. Our first stop was a place called KiKi Queer Club... It was a tad too much for us. One can only listen to so much house music before the flashing lights and jumping causes a seizure. I was ready to go. After being up almost an entire 24 hours my attitude was slowly but surely turning into shit trash. We were en route to our car, when another friend stopped in the middle of the street because she had heard "Work" playing loudly. We went to explore, and a vodka & red bull later we had sweated out our hair dancing to you guessed it, nothing but American hip-hop with the locals. It was pretty surreal being in a club full of foreigners who barely spoke English, but knew all the lyrics to N-words In Paris, and sang ALL the words to the song out loud.... ALL of THE WORDS, ALL. But the vodka made it okay, well bearable... then it was almost 4 am again and we again set out for our car.

Food trucks with donuts and Belgium waffles held us captive momentarily, but then we were back in our hotel where we giggled until we passed out. Our eyes closed probably around 5 ish and that was our first night/day/night in Iceland.

P.S. I noticed after I pushed 'Publish' none of my videos work. If you know how to make them work, let me know. Thanks! -Fal