Thursday, July 15, 2010

The Deal of the Universe

We left our rooms (with by now dry clothes) by 6:00 AM for the hike down to the bus station, over the cobblestones with our fully loaded backpacks. Just when I was starting to feel comfortable with my French, the simple act of trying to buy a bus ticket destroyed my confidence, but eventually we got it straight. We arrived in Deuxville with ten minutes to spare (but not enough time for a croissant), heading back toward Paris. We stopped near the old opera house so Darien could look for phantoms. She and Antonia ordered too much food (they are inconsistent meal sharers), and to top it off Antonia had to send hers back because of ... well, it was unappetizing and inedible. As we got up to leave what was a mediocre meal, she noticed that ten euros had been tucked under her plate, which showed some class. She and Darien refuse to acknowledge that this was their last meal in France.

We had to work a bit, but finally figured out the train to Charles de Gaulle airport. We gambled that we needed to be in terminal two and lost, which put us half an hour behind where we should have been as we scrambled back to terminal one. The line for Icelandair moved very slowly, and we were virtually the last ones on before the doors were shut. Antonia and I rewarded ourselves by watching Sherlock Holmes. We practiced Icelandic on the TV screen. Antonia gloated over her scores, and Darien corrected us.

We were greeted in the Reykjavik airport with complimentary shots of brennivin, the Icelandic schnapps made from fermented potatoes that literally means "burning wine" but is known by the simple name "black death." If you drink it quickly, you can get it down. There is a reason one can't buy it in Virginia. We rented a small, tinny Hyundai with strict orders not to enter the interior of the island with it -- the so-called gray area on the map that requires proper equipment or you die.

We found our way easily to our familiar hotel, The Three Sisters, but before going in we had a food crisis to manage. Darien had only one place in mind -- the little, greasy hamburger stand on the edge of the wharf across the street from the Sisters called Hamborgarabúlla Tómasar – Búllan. We ate frequently there in 2006 during our previous visit. It is plastered with rock and roll fliers and posters from fifty years ago. Darien forgives or overlooks the lack of cleanliness. We all selected their Deal of the Universe (burger, fries, and drink, which we all upgraded to milkshakes). Darien and Antonia salved their conscience by ordering the vegetarian option made with some sort of falafel mix, but cooked on the same grill with the high-fat burgers. I don't play games and just order the meat. I was sure the brennivin would kill whatever was in there.

They boy behind the counter was 17 and very friendly. He had lived in Iowa for five years, and then in the San Fernando Valley until his high school was closed because of drugs and he called his grandmother and said he wanted to come home. That was his story, anyway.

We went over to The Three Sisters and met Sandra, one of the ten children of Thor and Sonja. The last time we had visited Sandra had been living in Sweden. There was a minor mix-up of rooms because Darien had forgotten the little detail of Antonia traveling with us, so there was only one bed. It was all straightened out and all of us then fell deeply asleep, exhausted and excited.

We woke up at some indeterminate time. Maybe it was 8:00 PM, but it could have been noon with the way the light suffused the room. Light in Iceland is different. It seems to permeate everything, as if it is coming from more than one source. Colors are more vibrant and buildings glow. Awakenings can be disconcerting, since one's sense of time is disrupted. The familiar markers of day and night are fused into one.

Antonia and Darien went off to a hotpot to relax (one of their main goals) and I wandered the streets. Darien found me at 11:00 PM in a coffee shop and we returned home. We slept with the blinds open. I slept fitfully. Each time I woke up, it was light. There was no darkness. Only the quiet told me it was night.

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