The GCW Tour, the Frozen Cruise: Let Us Acknowledge the Bone

Regular readers of this blog will know that God hates me. One does not wind up in my set of circumstances without some major antagonism from some universal deity somewhere -- well, that or a serious run of bad luck.

That said, I do have to acknowledge that the universe does occasionally throw me a bone, and the last two days have definitely been bone days. This is to say, I'm not sure everyone has quite the experience in Iceland that the EYO, the niece and I have had. In fact, given the stories we heard from our guide today, we know they probably don't.

This is the second year the Disney Magic has come to Akureyi. Last year when they arrived -- same time of year as we did, mind you -- they were greated with snow. When the guide asked some of the folks who'd signed up for her excursion if they hadn't been given warning that it would be cold, they said, "Yeah, we were told it would be cold -- like fifty degrees cold." So she had to explain that fifty degress in Iceland was a hot summer day; cold, even in the summer, meant snow. So we clearly lucked out, as we got Iceland's version of a hot summer day.

Then there's the other side of the equation. Like a lot of subarctic climates, parts of Iceland are apparently known for having some pretty terrible bugs. In fact, according to our guide, the name of one of the lakes we visited on our excursion from Akureyi today (more on that later) translates to "black fly lake." It's so bad that the guide described being screamed at by one of her tour participants, who wondered a) how she had the nerve to bring tourists to such a place, and b) why the locals didn't spray pesticides or otherwise take steps to control the bugs. (He supposedly wasn't impressed by her argument that the local fish and birds actually depended on the bugs for their survival.) But while we saw a few of the little black flies -- and I can certainly understand how they could be a problem -- it was by no means the plague our guide described. And the guide couldn't really explain why the bugs hadn't appeared while we were there.

All of this is to say, I thought Iceland was a pretty amazing place, and would certainly recommend it as a destination to anyone looking to see some amazing scenery. But with non-cooperative weather -- or insects -- it might've been a much different experience.

Black Fly Lake -- no snow, and very few black flies