Iceland Confirmed!

Good news everybody!

All of the critical pieces of my trip to Iceland have come together. I was able to book my flight by going into Flightcentre in person. I'll be flying out on Tuesday, August 18th at about 9:00 p.m. That will put me in the airport at Keflavik around 7:00 a.m. local time on the 19th. For those who are interested Iceland operates in the GMT timezone, and don't bother with daylight savings. In a country that has no sunset at certain times of the year, and no sunrise at other times it would be a bit silly to attempt daylight savings.

I've got a room reserved at the Guesthouse Ísafold in Reykjavík. That sentence alone has made me realize that if I'm going to continue blogging about this trip I'm going to need to learn the shortcut keys for accented characters. You can check out the guesthouse at http://www.isafoldguesthouse.is/ for a few pictures. Obviously I'll have a few of my own when I get there.

This morning I also got confirmation that my deposit has been paid for the final piece of this puzzle - my diving trip! I'll be diving the 20th, 21st, and 22nd. An extra day in between when I arrive and when I dive would have been ideal, but sometimes you take what you can get. Either way, it should be really fantastic.

That leaves me until August to figure out what I want to do with my remaining time in Reykjavík. I'm looking at some glacier hiking, whale watching, and puffin watching. Haven't booked anything yet, and I may just leave some of it up in the air to give myself a bit of flexibility. I've picked up the Lonely Planet guide to Iceland because I found their Japan guide to be an invaluable resource back in '07. These days there's a wealth of travel information online, but sometimes it's nice to have a bound book with you. I found that I used a lot of online resources for planning the trip to Japan, but that I really relied on the Lonely Planet guide when I got there. It's nice to not have to find an internet cafe to look up a map of your area, or re-confirm the location of a spot you wanted to visit. Also, I love the Lonely Planet show, and I try to show some support. For those who are interested Lonely Planet is known as Pilot Guides in some areas.

Anyway, enough product placement for now. I'll keep you all posted on my research of the Reykjavík area as it progresses. Don't expect anything for about a week and half, because as of Saturday I will be in the middle of the Killarney wilderness, and completely cut-off from my beloved Internets. I'll have pictures and stories to post when I get back. Until then, be well, and start planning your own trips!