Once upon a time, in a distant land, there lived a little princess. Her name was Bubsi. She loved life, potties, and ipads. Yes, ipads.
IPad in Iceland
One thing is for sure: when I will think back to our Iceland trip in August, I will remember the Ipad. For some reason, Bubsi discovered my dad’s old Ipad and got addicted to it on day one in Iceland. I swear she asked every hour whether she could potty with the Ipad. In other words, use the potty as a chair while trying to make an angry bird fly in the free Rovio app.
The sudden Ipad addiction made me feel really guilty. What was I doing, letting her play with it? Would it damage her brain? Could such a small toddler be addicted already? Wow. In the end, we resorted to making it a holiday exception. These days, the Ipad mostly “sleeps”. Out of battery, we just don’t charge it and claim it is tired. Saves us a tantrum and Bubsi seems to get it. Pheww!
Napping in Iceland
Sunny days, lovely town
But back to Iceland! What a beautiful country it is. We didn’t get to see much, as we stayed just four days, but what we saw was stunning. So much nature, lots of water, cute wooden houses. The weather was superb, no rain at all while we stayed and 15 degrees. Yes, that is hot for Iceland!
Papa participated in a conference and thus we kept to Reyjavik. Bubsi and I explored the town on a hop on hop off bus tour. We went swimming in local thermal pools (a winner with our water loving toddler). At the Laundromat Cafe downtown breastfeeding is encouraged, and the play area is huge, so we were there for a while. We even saw a Viking fight by scarily dressed Viking actors!
Too stressed for vacation
I know it sounds amazing. And it was. But we were too stressed with the move happening around Iceland to really appreciate it at the time. Plus, Papa was “at work” conferencing 2.5 days out of 4. Worse than that though, Bubsi developed a cell phone addiction alongside the Ipad one, so to avoid tantrums I had to hide the phone. Resulting in very few Iceland pictures.
The Blue Lagoon
On our last day we went to the famous Blue Lagoon, close to the airport near Keflavik. It was a sunny afternoon and the experience was surreal. The water really cleaned my skin and toughened my nails. It also ruined my hair but that is another story.
Walking to the Blue Lagoon
The only sad part was that Bubsi was not allowed to swim. And by sad, I mean tantrum ridiculous, as they only told us when she was already enjoying herself inside the water! If it hadn’t been such a special experience I would have left immediately. This way, Papa and I had to take turns watching a disappointed cranky toddler in a small room. If we come back, we wait until our kids are older.
One day we will return
When we visit Iceland next time, we will stay longer. We will have a proper vacation without stress. And our kids will be old enough to see and participate in the many attractions. Like seeing real puffins (Bubsi has a stuffed puffin animal which is her new favorite!). Or geysirs. Or climbing on ice. Did I mention volcanoes, real volcanoes?