Iceland, in one word...

If I had to describe Iceland in one word - Youthful.  And with youth comes innocence and trust.  I suppose it starts from the fact that the island itself is the newest to appear on the planet and it is constantly growing, but it's also about the people. 

I've already mentioned that nearly everyone we have met is 25 or less, and the one elderly fellow so far, our innkeeper Siggi, has such a wonderful spirit and friendly demeanor that he might as well be in his 20s.  When we arrived (deep in to a glacier carved valley), he was adorned in his carpenter overalls building the next cottage in his complex.  Even paying for our stay was a very casual and trusting endeavor whereby, if we hadn't asked him how to pay, I'm not sure if it would have happened and we probably would have just left a pile of Kroner on the table.

Even our first apartment in Reykjavik, the owner just left the keys sitting on the counter in plain view behind an open window!  So, just enough concern to lock the front door, but with enough faith that nobody would breach the sanctity of the home by reaching in the window.

I think we have seen perhaps two police cars so far, and one of them flashed his high beams to remind us to turn on our headlights (mind you, it never gets dark here, so what's the point...).

Lastly, and this may get long, so you can stop here if you like, but it was a microcosm of my experience here:

Trying to find one of those super cheap styrofoam coolers we all take for granted in the states was another display of youthful exuberance.  It started with a half successful pantomiming of my needs to a grocery store worker, which she lead me on a quest to find the better English speaking worker, which lead to an excited conversation about where I might find such a thing to keep our food cold during our road trip.  It was decided I should go to a Ramsbarfurgim.  Ok.  Thanks!  How do we find such a place, and what type of store is that?  Google it! We made our way to the next Ramsburfurgergurger (turns out it is exactly a Bed Bath & Beyond), and I found the only cooler they had, a $75 dollar plug in style thing.  Yeah no. 

Up walks another 19 year old blond kid and asks me, "flugy blurgen takk pleeby deeby?". (note, I'm sure he said something coherent in Icelandic, but that's what I heard).  Based upon my expression of American confusion, he quickly toggled to English, and I began over with my request.  He takes me to a water cooler.  I said it was for food.  He said..."oh, for fish!". I thought, well, no, but figured that was close enough.  He then walks me to the front and engages another youthful employee in a debate as to where I might find such a thing.  The fish and tackle store of course, at which point they brought out a piece of paper and began to sketch a map of the town and where I would find it.  See below for reference.  We made our way over, and because it's not America, and it's Sunday, the store was closed. The end of our quest. 

We ultimately improvised and Nicole created a make shift cooler with a couple bags of ice and some aluminum trays from the original grocery store we started in.