Day 1-arrival

January 5-We have arrived in Iceland safe and sound! We got up in the 6 am hour on Wednesday, January 4 and arrived at the Keflavik airport in the 6am hour of Thursday, January 5. Since those two 6am hours occurred only 17 hours apart, something had to go, so we shortened the day and the evening of the 4th. Shan and Sally's folks and Shan's sister came out to Denver International Airport to see us off and we had breakfast together.
We pulled ourselves away none too soon, though, because the flight to Boston was boarding as we came up to the gate! The first flight was uneventful and we landed in Boston around 4 in the afternoon there, so that was where we had supper: see how the day got shortened there? And, Sally and I got to have a couple beers (nightcaps) at the Boston Beer Works at the airport and the kids were quite content with all of the electronics we recently bought for this trip.

The second flight to Keflavik was intended to be the shortened night of January 4 and it worked fairly well. Interestingly, the flight time of five hours was only a little more than an hour longer than the flight between Denver and Boston, so there was not a large amount of time to sleep, but we made the best of it and everyone got a little shut-eye in the process and the kids did not seem to be bothered by the moderate chop we encountered between Greenland and Iceland.
So, we got in at 6am local time on January 5, our first day in Iceland. Our seats were in the rear of the plane, so by the time we deplaned, went through passport control, and took the bus to the main terminal, our bags were already on the conveyor belt. We tried to declare items at customs, but the officer told us that lots of stuff could come in, so, unless we had ten bottles of liquor, we need not worry. Alright! Word to the wise: buy food and especially liquor in the duty-free shops at the airport to avoid Iceland taxes!
As promised, Johann was waiting with a placard with Sally's name and a car for us to use when we exited customs. We are now the proud drivers of a Toyota Corolla....... with studded tires for ice driving. It's not a 4-wheel drive and it's not a pickup either, so we sent Johann on ahead with two of our bags and drove the 40 km to Reykjavik. Once there, we made our way downtown and plotted our next move. We quickly decided that getting kronur was important so we could feed meters, so we could park, so we could get some breakfast and try to get our bodies onto Iceland's time zone (0 GMZ, so seven hours ahead of Colorado/ Mountain Standard time). It was only after driving around a half hour that we discovered that parking is free until 10 am, because the city is dead until then! Even the coffee shop that Sally visited let her in "early" at 9:15! Of course, it should be noted that it was still pitch black at that time as well.
In any event, we did get money and parked and strolled around until we found a restaurant called "Laundromat." Yes, "Laundromat." No, that is not an Icelandic name. Yes, they did have laundromat facilities downstairs and someone came in to use them while we were eating. So, are we so unadventurous that we only selected a restaurant that had an English name? Actually, no. I had heard, but not truly appreciated, the extent to which English has become used in Iceland. What we experienced linguistically at Laundromat has been common at other places as well. The menu was in English, the waitress spoke English, and a small library of books in English were available for us to peruse! The real score was downstairs where there was a play area for the kids, who were not feeling particularly energetic, since they had been cooped up in the back of a Corolla for over an hour and it was around 2am by their biological clocks. The play area, the books, and the food revived them, though, and by the time we finished, the sky was beginning to brighten!

I should note here that the Reykjavik area has a population of about 200,000 people, so getting around is not very difficult. We headed over to the Fulbright office after breakfast to pick up necessary paperwork and meet Sandra and then we went over to the Department of Immigration to finish the paperwork necessary to get our Icelandic equivalents of a social security number. It was interesting that the least friendly person we met the entire day was the lady at the governmental office. Even she cracked a smile after a while, but she still tried to conjure up diversions and road blocks to delay the process. In the end, I think we convinced here we had done everything correctly, so she took our pictures and we left. By this point the three kids were really dragging, so we gave them each a Mountain Dew and Sally and I continued to pound coffees as we headed to the Icelandic version of the Goodwill Store to find Spencer a booster seat. We failed, but we found lots of other cool items we could use. Given how tight we were on space in the car, those items would have to wait. We continued our search at the Reykjavik mall, where we also had no luck.
The check-in time for our hotel/apartment was 2pm, which was quickly approaching, so we headed back downtown to check in. That was a bit of a fiasco: I got stuck (they have had a banner year of snow in Iceland and the Corolla has issues, even if it does have studded tires) and the door to the hotel was locked. And along came Johann on the white horse! He had our two extra bags, a cell phone and know-how! He called the guys with the apartment, who came right over and helped us into the room and then he casually got into the Corolla and drove it right out of the spot! Turns out that if you just apply the gas slowly with studded tire, they can pull you out of those kinds of situations. What do you know?
So, it all turned out just fine. The apartment was fantastic. We stayed there for a short while until the kids started to drop off and then went window-shopping. The sun had set by 4pm, so it was dark again and we could see all of the Christmas lights that the city and individuals had put up. It was quite beautiful around town. Interestingly, there were a lot more people on the streets than in the morning! Since we knew we couldn't buy anything (especially the giant stuffed puffin that Alex fell in love with) and started to get cold, we finally stopped at a restaurant for supper. Yes, that is right, we skipped dinner as well. By the time we finished supper all three kids were sitting with glazed looks in their eyes, so we headed back for an early bedtime. Of course, once we got back and they got ready for bed, suddenly everyone got a shot of energy! Nonetheless, the kids were in bed by 7 pm and Sally and I were not far behind. I won't say that the night was completely restful (I caught Spencer playing on the iPad at 1am, because he thought it might be morning, given how late the sun came up the previous morning), but we all slept in until 10am the next morning. That, however, is day 2 and I will talk about that later.