osk: Walking, Walking, Walking

Monday, November 24, 2014

Walking, Walking, Walking

We had been asked to come by Iceland Unlimited this morning for a surprise: Cake! Jón had this cake made for us in honor of our visit. We visited with him and the staff for a while and talked about our trip yesterday with Jón's brother Krístjan, which was SO awesome!

This afternoon there was a package waiting at the hotel from them A huge map of Iceland signed by everyone, with "Pippa's Wish" written across the top! Jón had also made notes of all the places we should visit along the south coast when we stay in Selfoss. We will definitely be having that framed when we get home! They were so good to us and so awesome about giving us tips about accessibility around the city — and also warned us about the places that aren't but should be.

This afternoon we just walked and took pictures and bought some pressies for friends and for ourselves, of course.

It was a beautiful day, with lots of sun and one short downpour that didn't matter because we were inside drinking hot chocolate at Tíu Dropar. Everything is getting decked out for Christmas and I just loved the window dressing in a lot of the shops, so I kept saying to Kevin, "Oooh! Take a picture!"

When I am looking at people's blogs of their travels or when I think about going somewhere, I personally like to know what it will look like as I walk through it. Of course, we all want to see the beautiful scenery and monuments, statues, etc. But I also want to know what it will look like from my perspective, just being there. That's all we have wanted is to just "be here." So here's what it looks like, a day wandering just a couple of the streets of shops in Reykjavik, including Laugavegur and Klapparstígur. And some other stuff too, like our amazing dinner.

To whomever lives in this house, we love it. If it was accessible, we would gladly buy it from you. Maybe we can just visit you instead.

I have a photo of this on my Iceland board on Pinterest, so it was cool to see it in person!

I just loved this barber shop's logo.

Lighted Christmas angel that we loved.

At Tíu Dropar.

This was our splurge dinner at Torfan.

Cream of langoustine soup

Pippa's escargot and langoustines

Apple tart

Blueberry skyr

And to end the evening, a "marssage" from Daddy.

6 comments:

Limitless LisaNovember 24, 2014 at 4:30 PM
I love living vicariously through your photos! I am also loving the overcast, rainy views and lichen. You are making me love Iceland!
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MariaNovember 24, 2014 at 4:42 PM
Saw you sitting in Tiu Dropar as I passed by and had send you a silent all the luck in the world wish :). Enjoy your time and lifes!
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Karen PasNovember 25, 2014 at 12:34 AM
I hope you haven't missed the shop of the Handknitting Association in Skólavörðustígur 19 where the 'real' woollens are sold (and lots of them!) for reasonable prices. All hand knitted by Icelandic women, no Chinese copies that are often sold in tourist shops.
http://www.handknit.is/en/user/home
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Why We Are Here

Pippa was born with a Grade III brain bleed caused by a lack of oxygen. This brain injury led to her being diagnosed with cerebral palsy just before her second birthday and shortly after turning 4, she was diagnosed with Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, a rare and severe form of intractable epilepsy.

She had a wish to go to Iceland because of her love of Sigur Rós. Pippa's grandpa Barton wrote a referral to a certain large wish-granting organization and was very specific about her unusual wish from the start. This organization deemed her medically eligible and told us that her wish would be granted. We were very disappointed when a rep from our state's chapter of this organization said that her wish could not be granted because they don't send children to Iceland (and I won't even get into the details of her callous, condescending attitude).

An outraged friend channeled her upset into an online fundraiser that raised all of the money for Pippa's trip — and then some. About halfway into the fundraiser, the larger organization told us that we had been misinformed and that they could actually send Pippa to Iceland after all. (Insert exasperated sigh.) At nearly the same time, thanks to a flurry of donations, including from Sigur Rós themselves, we made the majority of our goal in one insanely wild weekend. Once the fundraiser was all done, we were able to tell them to give the money to another child as we wouldn't be needing it.

Although the whole experience started with frustration and heartache, we all believe that this is the way things were meant to be. We have gained friends in Iceland before even setting foot there, and we have been showered with so much love and generosity that has humbled us and made us beyond grateful. This blog will cover our trip in photos and in words. This is the story of how a wish came true.