Page 9 - 2000 ICELAND

Prior to the concert, we had a “gourmet dinner” at a fine restaurant on the
main shopping square of the city. There were way too many letters, mostly

vowels, in its name for me to recall it after the concert when it was time to
write the diary. The food was delicious and much more varied with salad

and vegetables than we were to enjoy for the rest of the trip. However, we
also learned that the rumors about food in Iceland being very expensive are

unassailably true. Our dinners (without alcohol or side dishes) were over

$50.00 each!

We had much enjoyed exploring the city afoot for hours and then having
that wonderful meal and the stirring concert afterward, but now we were

pretty much “done in” and ready to head back to the Guest House for some
sleep. Of course, the heavens were at odds with our sleepiness because

even though it was well past 10 PM, the sun was as bright in the sky as it
had been at noon! So we wandered over to the bus-stop we had carefully

noted on our way into town and began to wait on the buses which the

notice promised come every 20 minutes.

When an hour had elapsed, we decided that we needed more information.
It happened that there was a bus terminal about a block away so we

trudged there to see what was the matter. The lady behind the counter
who was also making hotdogs, selling cigarettes, drawing up Cokes, finally

deigned to look at us. In answer to our question about where to catch the
#4 bus and when, she casually replied, “The # 4 is not running tonight; it’s

broken down.” There was no notice to that effect (even in Icelandic) posted

at the stop, yet she acted as if “everybody knows that!”

Anyway, we were stumped now because the #4 was the only bus which
went in the direction of our guesthouse. We were by now just too tired to

walk the 2.5 miles back so we gave up and hired a cabbie who charged us
$9.00 for the drive. Icelandic taxi fares were reputed to be steep and that

proved to be true as well. Oh well, we were home, showered, and in bed by
midnight and asleep immediately.