When You Simply Cannot Un-hear Something
Tales From My Icelandic Travels
My family and I had many adventures on our last trip to Iceland, some of which I shared in previous blogs published at Ventec Life Systems. One of my favorite memories from that trip is from our first night staying at Hotel Reykjanes. The hotel is situated in the West fjords and is a former boarding school boasting a geothermally heated pool. Perhaps not so coincidentally, my grandmother was a student there during her youth, as it is just a few fjords over from her village of Ísafjör∂ur.
As charming and delightful as the hotel is, being a very old building, located in a somewhat remote corner of Iceland, its accessibility was a bit unconventional. Although they had a portable ramp to get up the six or seven stairs into the building I was going to be staying in, it was not sufficiently long enough to truly make it functional. It is fortunate that I travel in my manual wheelchair, which is relatively light compared to my power chair, as well as with several strapping young lads. Okay, that is an exaggeration; my brother-in-law, Wick, might squeak by as fitting that description. The other lads in question were my father and my cousin's husband, who is even older than my dad, so gentlemen might have been a more appropriate descriptor in their case. Nevertheless, they were able to heft me up the stairs to where one would think the excitement comes to an end.
Most buildings have no threshold in their doorways, or at most a small lip. For whatever reason, this building featured large thresholds that were more than six inches high, akin to something one would see on a ship. Again, thank goodness for the manual chair which is capable of popping a wheelie! Once I was safely up the stairs and over the first threshold, Wick kindly offered to take me on a tour. First, we visited the retro orange kitchen, then we went to the common living space and inspected the various decorations. Finally, it was on to my bedroom which sported a unique handmade wreath. Wick proceeded to take the wreath off the wall in order to give me an up-close look at the unique décor I would be sleeping with, and asked me if I thought it was some sort of Icelandic fertility wreath. It was honestly one of those occasions where I was at a loss for words. I am not really sure what it was. Perhaps it was a craft project made from the gatherings collected by the proprietors on some sort of nature walk. I honestly had, and to this day still have, no idea!
The evening ended with my grandmother, sister Soley, and Wick sitting on the bed across from mine while I warmed up with a view of the "Icelandic fertility wreath" and all of us having a good laugh over the banter between my grandmother and Wick. Neither of them needs any help in the sassy department; Wick is notoriously sarcastic, while my grandmother is super spunky. Paired with a little social lubricant, the two of them provided entertainment for one of the funniest nights I can recall!
Looking back, the things that I remember most are not the less than accessible accommodations, but rather the shared laughter and memories. And of course, who can forget the first time they see a fertility wreath…
Loa,
Great stuff, as always. It sounds like Wick has a "Wick"ed sense of humor!