Halfway through the cruise and tomorrow we’ll finally be on land again. Tomorrow, at around noon, after a long sea passage, Pacific Princess will finally approach the coast of Iceland and pull into Reykjavík. I cannot wait.
Located in southwestern Iceland, Reykjavík is the country’s capital, and a gateway to stunning natural wonders, including and not limited to: snowcapped mountains, healing geothermal waters, waterfalls, lava fields, and geysers. Mom and I are planning on doing the excursion to Blue Lagoon, which is one of Iceland’s hottest destinations [in more ways than one]. It is an outdoor geothermal spa that has mineral rich water, which is supposedly good for certain skin conditions, and it’s fed by the excess underground water drawn by Svartesengi Power Plant. I’ve always wanted to visit Blue Lagoon ever since I saw it on one of those travel channel specials back when I lived in NJ and we actually had cable TV, and that was way before I moved to Texas.
Visiting Iceland has always been on my bucket list, so I’m pretty excited I get to finally cross it off. However, due to the summer solstice, Iceland is currently getting close to the time of the “midnight sun”, which means basically the sun doesn’t set until midnight… Even now, it’s almost midnight, and it’s barely twilight, so unfortunately this means I probably will not get to see Aurora Borealis aka Northern Lights due to the fact that I’m visiting the Arctic Circle in summer, where the sun never sets.
Today was the LAST day at sea, for awhile, and I couldn’t be more excited. It’s been too stormy, rainy, and foggy to really do anything around the ship like lounge on the sun deck or go into the hot tub or anything like that, especially since it’s only been about forty something degrees. Luckily, at least, the Atlantic Ocean is more calm than it’s been, so the voyage has been pretty calm today, and I haven’t really felt any bobbing or anything like that.
I slept really late today. Like I’m not kidding, I didn’t get out of bed until around eleven thirty am. That’s really late for me. I think I’m really confused. The time changes have seriously messed with my brain, and I don’t think my brain knows when to sleep or when to be awake anymore. I think I’m still partially on Texas time, so when I should be tired, I’m not tired, and it’s just been very confusing. I guess, at least, the excursions don’t start till the afternoon tomorrow, mostly due to a very stormy and icy sea that was delaying our voyage, but I’d so rather wake up late than have to wake up at like 7:00 am for something, especially since I’m so confused, time zone wise.
After I woke up, had some hot chocolate, and showered, mom wanted to go the dining room for lunch because she likes being served. We sat at a table with a bunch of older chatty ladies, who I’ve silently nicknamed “The Ladies Who Lunch” based on that Broadway showtune, if anyone knows it. They were all very nice, and mom was happy because she was with chatty older ladies, who came from the same sort of social circles that she does, so she had a lot to talk about with them. I read. I finished another book today, “The Girl of Fire and Thorns.” I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it, at first, but by the middle of the book, it grew on me, and I’ll have to get the second and third book in the series, and that my friends, is how book obsessions start. For lunch, I had a Monte Christo sandwich with mashed potatoes, which was good, but not as good as the one that I had in Disneyland, last summer, when Justin and I were on our honeymoon.
After lunch, I went back to the stateroom, after getting my room key reactivated for like the fifth time. I think my electronics deactivate that thing. I played a lot of 3ds and watched TV. I watched some of the baking shows and animal shows on TV, and then watched “The Force Awakens” for what seems like the 1000th time. That movie is ALWAYS on the cruise movie channels. Right as Han Solo was about to have a confrontation with his son, it was time for dinner.
Our table mates went to the chef’s table for dinner tonight, so it was just my mom and me. Vesko and Martin were happy to see us as always. I ordered an appetizer of vegetable tempura for dinner, but Martin insisted that it was too small and brought me a full-size plate of it instead, I ate maybe 1/4th of it, so I think I would’ve been okay with the tiny appetizer size, but I appreciate the thought. For my actual dinner, I had skirt steak fajitas, which were really good, but I only ate one of them because I was pretty full, and for desert I just had some simple vanilla ice cream, which is my dad’s favorite, and like my dad, I was amazed with how white the ice cream was.
After dinner, I came back to the room, and watched Loveboat while playing 3ds, and then switched to animal planet and watched a show about tiny little kitties [I miss my kitties], and that was really it. So another day of nothing interesting happening, but at least tomorrow we finally reach our destination, so I’m excited to see Iceland and take pictures.
8 days through the cruise, and 8 more days to go.