We have been staying in Florida for the past couple of months but are now back in Iceland. We really enjoyed the slow pace in Florida and loved the weather up until late December, when it started to cool down a bit. The highlights were:
- Going to St. Augustine, which is a really beautiful town just north of Orlando. St. Augustine is the oldest town in the US, dating back the 15th century. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough time to properly explore the town but will be back for sure.
- Going to the MGM Park (Disney Hollywood Studios) and testing our nerves in The Tower of Terror and The Aerosmith Roller-coaster and calming our selves in The Puppet Show 3D cinema.
- Seeing the Orlando Magic play the Utah Jazz in the Amway center. The game was not that great, the players seemed to be worrying about what to get their wives and mistresses for Christmas rather then playing basketball, but it was fun to experience the atmosphere and seeing the fans.
We also got to see two of my classmates from the MBA. We met Laura in dueling piano bar in downtown Disney. We had never been to a dueling piano bar before (or even heard of one) but it was great fun and a great concept. The entertainers made fun of us being from Iceland, which never seems to get old. Preston took us on a tour through Cocoa beach. We saw almost the original Ron Jon shop, surfers surfing in the cold see and Elínborg was almost eaten by a pelican.
On the 23rd we flew to Reykjavík for the holidays. Christmas eve is the main day for gathering in Iceland when we have a family dinner and open the presents. We spent the evening at Elínborg’s sister’s house where we ate a wonderful traditional Icelandic Christmas dinner – smoked pork loin, brown sugar potatoes, cream and fruit salad, red cabbage and canned green pies. After wards we opened the presents where my sister in law and her husband took center stage by carefully disguising their presents by wrapping them in multiple layers of paper. On Christmas day we went again to Elínborg’s sister, Ásta, for a family dinner party with her in-laws.
It was kind of strange being back home and a couple of things that I had forgotten about or not thought of for a while. Firstly the darkness was darker and longer than I remembered. It isn’t properly bright until just before lunchtime and sunset is around 15:00. I also felt that people are pretty fashionable and current over here but perhaps most places look fashionable compared to Orlando :)
Now we are in the small air-plain on the way to Egilsstaðir where my mother and her husband live. We will meet up with my brother and his son over there. Egilsstaðir is an hours flight from Reykjavík and is the biggest town in the eastern part of Iceland with almost 3.000 inhabitants – so pretty big in Icelandic terms. The plan is to stay there until the 29th.
I’ll put in some pictures on facebook to match…
The bird that threatened to eat Elínborg
Orn's Travel Blog 