A Whale is ... Who Really Cares?

The shuttle driver came to take me to Whale Watching.  I was the only person doing this particular tour combination.  Now I know why.  You've gotta be insane to do both these things in the same day.

Especially when fighting a cold.

I should note that, what with all the excitement of Horry, my cold wasn't really a factor in the riding, and I was rarin' to move on to the whale watching.  (Sure, sitting in the shuttle bus waiting for the driver for ten minutes was a bit of a freeze, but I could handle it.)

Peggy had advised that whale watching was the coldest she'd ever been.  I packed accordingly.  By the time I was sitting on the deck of the whale watching boat, I was wearing:  jeans, a wool turtleneck, a wool sweater, a jacket (combined flannel vest and spray jacket), and a scarf.  As soon as the boat pushed off, I felt the wind whipping through my jeans like they weren't even there.  I quickly added rain pants to my ensemble.  (And wasn't it nice that I'd bought the ones with full zippers, so I was able to put them on while remaining seated -- and without having to remove my hiking boots?)  Cold.  Windy.  Ucky.  I sucked on a lozenge.

We went out to the whale watching waters and saw dolphins!  Three in a row.  All leaping together.  (I tried to get a pic, but I doubt it came out.)  Cute.  Dolphins.  After I'd watched them for a bit, I moved away from the railing to let the others see.  And to sit in the sunny patch on the other side of the boat.

And sat. 

And sat.

Words came over the loudspeaker about a whale somewhere, so I went to look, but it had gone under the surface.

So did I.  I went down the stairs to the cabin below.  With windows.  And (relative) warmth.  And tea for sale!  I unzipped my jacked, bought some tea, and sat by the window trying to warm up and spot the whale at the same time.

Had partial success on both fronts.  Saw something vaguely whale-like leap and dive, and I was satisfactorily warmed -- except, for some reason, my feet, whichstubbornly remained frozen.

I remained there, and as the loudspeaker announced signs of whale on the other side of the ship, I got up to walk over, and realized I didn't really have the strength for that.  Decided to just sit by my window, eat a muffin, and watch for all the whales on the starboard side.

As the trip progressed (with our guide being the only person to actually SEE the whales doing anything particularly cool), I started to care less and less about the whales.  In fact, sitting here (on this hard table) was rather uncomfortable.  Maybe I should just sit on the soft cushy seats in front of it.  Who cares if I can't see out the window from here.  If they call out a whale, I can always get up, right?

I dozed off, dreaming of when I would get back to the hotel, and sink into a hot tub in the spa.  Warm feet... yessssss.

I was awakened by the loudspeaker talking about puffins.  We had apparently pulled up alongside Puffin Island or something.  Loads of puffins everywhere.  I pulled myself up to the window for a look.  Nothing.  I looked across the ship outside the windows opposite.  An island.  With puffins on it.  I mumbled -- to nobody in particular -- "How nice, puffins" and went back to sleep.

Didn't wake again till we were pulling into port.  Whale watching company gave me a lift back to my hotel.

Hotel... spa... hot tub.  Hot tub GOOD.  Complimentary neck and shoulder massage while in hot tub -- BETTER.  I melted in there.  Got out and sat in the "Relaxation Room" -- in a nice cushy lounge chair, with a warm fleece blanket over myself.

Wasn't till about twenty minutes later -- when the chill started -- that I realized sitting there in a soggy bathing suit for twenty minutes was a stupid, stupid thing to do.

Put on dry clothes and went back to my room.

Now, tonight is my last night in Iceland.  I'd thought of going out to dinner for nice Icelandic fare -- and was flipping through guide books to find a place -- but, at the same time, I felt like crap and couldn't see myself leaving the room.

OK, here's the problem.  (Well, one of the problems.)  I brought a lot of cold medicine with me.  That's not the problem.  The problem is I'm taking some OTHER med which reacts badly with ... an ingredient found in my cold medicine.  I could take some Advil, but I was basically on my own with whatever I could find in the room.  Which, ultimately, added up to a teapot (and a few teabags) and a $5 can of peanuts from the mini-bar.  (Which was probably the best food deal I got in Iceland.) 

The peanuts and tea got me feeling well enough to go downstairs to the restaurant in the hotel.  Which is, apparently, one of the nice places in Reykjavik.  Well, the main restaurant is.  It also has a "cheaper" bistro attached.  (I was going to put "bistro" in quotes, but, really, "cheaper" is the word that deserved them.)  Scarfed down massive quantities of food, and came over here to the free internet terminal to tell you all about my day.

Tomorrow I leave.  The package I purchased has a stop at the Blue Lagoon (thermal baths) on the way to the airport.  We'll see if I'm up to it.

Being sick sucks.  Going back to my room for the rest of the tea.