Akureyri and Ólafsfjörður

We flew from Reykjavik to Akureyri yesterday. You probably already figured that out. 🙂

Here are the baby ducks that P found to be so cute:

The town is nice (what we’ve seen of it) and our hotel is very nice, even if there is no elevator. I’ve been able to snag a parking spot, and that is fabulous. One of the more interesting things about Akureyri is that it is presided over by a giant marbled Hersey’s kiss:

What am I afraid of?

I figure maybe if I write down the things I am afraid about, I can make them seem less big.

• I am afraid that my own physical limitations will prevent me from enjoying hiking around and may have me be in pain for much of the time.
• I am afraid that I will oversleep / can’t wake up adequately and won’t be able to get out the door in time to be where we need to be to embark on our day trips, and because of that we will lose tons of money.
• I am afraid of motion sickness (mine and that of my family).
• I am afraid of having miserably cold / wet travelling companions because I either didn’t buy right or insisted on packing too lightly.
• I am afraid of not having adequate nourishment due to a combination of lack of truly gluten-free food, my own over-picky tastebuds, and that energy bars are not adequate meal-replacements.
• I am afraid that my husband, who has just been diagnosed with Graves’ Disease, won’t be able to handle the physical burdens or stress.
• I am afraid that our youngest will routinely be out-of-control (partly fueled by inadequate sleep) and we’ll have to spend so much energy containing him that we won’t be able to appreciate the “now” of our surroundings.
• I am afraid of missing out on the awesomeness and wonder of it all because I’m too stressed out from lack of sleep and having to deal with logistics (food, packing / unpacking / laundry / re-packing, driving …)
• I am afraid of over-packing and thereby further depleting our precious physical energy by having to lug everything around.
• I am afraid of the impact of stress and inadequate time for hygiene on my worsening rosacea.

So, was that helpful to me? … Not yet.

My husband points out that he feels the most stressful part of travelling is the time right before you leave; once you have departed the rest of it is just dealing with it.

Mostly I wish I had been able to retain the ability to cancel outings without financial penalty. I’d like to feel like I have more freedom for recuperation from stress.