We will get home at 11:00 pm Iceland time and try to readjust to the time zone change once again. It was never easy, but gets harder as I get older. We made a point to go outdoors and walk for a bit this morning. The fresh air is great when we knowwe will be breathing airplane air later. We walked around inside the Harpa Convention and Concert building just across the streetfrom us. Its a beautiful glass building that reflects the sun, sky and ocean surrounding it. Very Icelandic.
As we had breakfast I thought about all the very friendly and helpful wait staff who have served us these couple weeks. There's no tipping in Iceland. Food and drink is expensive here in restaurants and bars, but not bad in the grocery stores. I think that service staff are paid better and don't rely on tips. It didn't seem to affect good service at all. I don't know how the U.S. Got into the tipped thing, but I could be happy without it. Everywhere we went our bill came to the table with a card reader. We just stuck in our credit card and paid. Chipped credit cards are used for everything but access to the toilets and rides on the bus.
Rick and I talked a lot about our early travels. He served in Germany and traveled around Europe on his leave time. I did my student teaching at an American school in Mexico City, and then traveled in Europe for three months with my friend JoEllen on $10 a day. We both think that we learned a lot on how to deal with unfamiliar food, currency, transportation, language, lodging and bathrooms. We learned to be flexible, polite, interested, and how to figure stuff out. Smartphones are a great tool with all the maps, language apps, currency converters, and online schedules.
I look forward to downloading my photos and looking back at this trip. In my younger years I always thought about what I would do when I returned. At almost 70 I don't think about returning here, I just think about all the amazing places I haven't been yet.
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