The beginning of a long summer

I want tp point out that this story is writting many months ago, but I still didn't finish, enjoy!

getting more and more readers, so it is a good motivation to follow all of you up with new story’s.

It has been already a few weeks ago that Iris left. To start…it was of course amazing to have her here. From the moment that she told me she would come I knew she would fit in with my roomates. I was right, no problems at all. I think they liked her, much as I do. Thinking about Iris coming, was thinking about Salsa Dance, laughing, clear my mind and heart, having fun, traveling. I wrote more times about the fact how it is, that someone that you love is coming here. It is special, strange and soo normal. I wanted to show Iris my life, my previous life, my work, my country.

The day she came was a hangover Sunday in Sante Sede. We just had the Eurovision party. Eurovision in Iceland, is like football in Spain. Eurovison, the religion of Pablo. For months I heard all the songs, knew all the singers, I was also totally into Eurovision. It is like a virus…slowly coming into your blood. It was my second Eurovion and this time….Icelandic style. What does that means? A big party in hour house. Pablo…the king of our Eurovion party. He made a bingo, a quiz, made the house to a real Eurovision house, last but not least a bet. No escape, Eurovision….It was a very nice, cosy, funny evening. Pablo went mad!!!! No points for Spain!!!!!! Puta, Joder, Conjo, etc etc….everything was coming out. But the good news was that Pablo loved the Dutch song and they ended second, so it dried a little bit his tears. When we finally made it to Kiki…..of course it was crazy there!!!! Most of the time the same people work in Kiki….and I never notice before…..but I saw him…..WAUW the doorman was very very very handsome and cute!!!! But that evening, I didn’t do anything about that…

So next day IRIS TIME! I couldn’t believe she was coming. I was nervous like little child. It is only 10 min from here to the bus station. But I was flying over the streets.

I was happy the weather was not to bad. It was warm and dry. I was waiting for the bus, no Iris….damm where she is? Should I go inside? And when I went inside she was there!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Iris, we hugged three times, looked at each other and the only thing I could do was smiling. Let the fun times begin!

Of course her first day we started relax. Let her get to know all the people, my friends and roomates. Must be a lot for her to take in. But I know it was going to be a great week. The only thing I planned was Whale Watching. It was something that I didn’t do yet, and I knew I would get it for free…..The very good thing about working in tourism. Getting things for free that was very very nice.
There we went for the whale watching. The sun was shining it was not to cold.
So we were maybe a liittllee bit to optimistic with our clothes. Stupid fashionista´s we are. At the boat we could wear a big suit. No no, not for us! Look at us we are pretty and we want to keep it that way. The tour started. How further the boat went, how more I looked around me and I realize…I felt….This is the place where I live, the place where I have my life. The wind in my hair, tears of the wind rolling over my eyes..looking at Iris. I was lucky. Lucky with the live I have, the beautiful place and country where I live and with the people who I still have around me even if there is a big distance. Iris and me together we have the perfect humor and of course I finally could speak in dutch and make jokes soo yes we had to do this. Poor tourguide, he was the first but not the last to make fun of. He was learning and had a strong German accent….f*cking Germans every where :P

Anyway if we saw Whales? Yes we saw them. But we only saw the back and vins. But it was okay. We could say we saw them. When we were done with the whale watching I showed Iris the city. Yess Yess…I can work at frontdesk, work in festivals, work as a tourguide, housekeeper, name it and I can do it!! :P But every time when I walk in Reykjavik and show them around, tell some of the history…..It is a wonderful place…
Of coursre everyone wants to do the Golden Circle. So I also wanted to do this with Iris. For me it was the first time to really do it with a travel company, so I was kind of curious what would happen. We enterd the bus and what did we saw??? Okay I can not really translate this. ‘ouwe graftakken’ It is a funny word we use for old boring people. The tourguide his voice was to fall in sleep with. But okay….he knew a lot of things so I was learning to! But an old group and a old, bit boring tourguide. …Me+Iris+boring=Making fun of it! But of course it was all about the Golden Cirlcle and having a good time together not about the other people around us. Anyway, when we came in at Thingvellir National Park he was able to make a joke. It is the park where the first ‘government’ was, in the park you can see the big influence of the volcano’s and earth quake. One side of the park is Europe and the other side is Amerika. So more the once he made the joke…’See you in Amerika!!’ hahaha so funny, I pie my pants off!!
At the Geyser Iris made some pretty awesome pictures, I told her a bit about the place and we walked and just looked at the place. Time for coffee ooww my god these days we were taking care very badly of ourself.

Next on our planning…….Glacier Walk. I was nervous, I was sooo nervous. First of all, Hiking is not really my thing. I still don’t love it. I will do it, and I will enjoy the view, but if there is a easier way I will prefer that. Glacier walking didn’t sound easy to me, and by the way, walking on moving ice? Are you mad? Glaciers are a big attraction in Iceland. 11% of the country is Glacier, and in Iceland the have the biggest of Europe. Glaciers…in the time I spend in Iceland, I saw them changing, I saw them moving all the time, so I was not really jumping to go on the glacier. But he….It was something new, it was adventure so let’s go for it!! The guide was a tough typical Icelandic woman but she was very cool. She told us a lot. We went more and more up and at one point I was able to enjoy. Iris was smiling all the time, I think she had the time of her life on this big ice cube. Up on the glacier….it felt….there are no words for it. It felt special in any kind of way. At one point there was a hole and we were able to go in there, look up at the sky…magic that is Iceland nature.
It was sooo cool, I was happy like a kid after. Of course we were again joking in the bus back. ‘Old skin, everywhere only old skin’
Yeah I told Iris some Icelandic men are very handsome, but during her week it seems to be that they were al in a cave. Come on, where is the good meat?? Well no where, in the cave, on a ship I don’t know!!! We made a bet……I was convinced something will happen during her stay in Iceland, because Iceland is the place where things are happening that you couldn’t think of it before.

Well Blue Lagoon then? Yess we also made a trip to the famous lagoon. I was all week a bit sick, we did a lot of things so some relaxing was good for us. And well Blue Lagoon was not only a place for ‘old skin’ or graftakken…nono Young fresh people were also going there…. Perfect day, it was so warm!! We will get tanned when we are there. The sun was so bright, the water so blue that it was very painful for my eyes, so SUNGLASSES! Hipster Blue lagoon girls and taddaaa a group of maybe 20 men arrived in the lagoon. But the sunlight didn’t make them any prettier. Sorry Iris….they stay in their cave. Iceland…the country of Vikings, the country of Hipsters and young Daddy’s….

Then it was weekend so it was time to introduce Iris to the Iceland/Reykjavik Party sence…But I didn’t want to show her only Kiki. I mean it is a nice place and I go there a lot because of my friends, but hé I had a bet to winn, so again something new for me. B5! My thought were that is was a Skinka club. ( Skinka….let’s say it is a word for….woman with more make-up then clothes) Julio wanted to come with us. So we went there. Nono…no standing in Lines, Standing in lines is for Skinka’s, tourist, volunteers or what ever….for the real people…there is no line :P hahahaha So we went inside in a sec. Iris and me bought crazy (cheap 500 isk, 3 euro) High heals and we started to dance. Ooow I missed dancing with Iris. She was the one introducing me to Salsa, Bachatta etc. So of course we danced a Bachatta, but….I need to do this more often to make it work again. Anyway we had a good time in B5, I needed it to be in a straight place, different music and people. I needed to go out, with someone, that knows the real crazy me 

Spending time with Iris seem to be endless. After B5 I showed her Kiki, the famous place for my dear friends I made here. After a while my eye felt again on that big cute handsome security man. But I had no bet to loose or win, so again I smiled like a little kid, talked one sentence and run away. I was with my friend, no time for men!

On hour bit hangover day after we decided to go to the famous penis museum. Yess, you don’t only find these kind of place in Amsterdam, also in Reykjavik there is a penis museum. To prepare you a bit…it is everything that you don’t expect!. Iris and me are strong woman, not afraid…and make a joke out of a lot of things…but this museum….didn’t made us giggling teenagers, no this museum made us afraid of any kind of penis, it made us feel nauseous, it made us almost lesbians, it made us…..run away from any kind of penis. Do I have to tell you more? Do you want to hear the details? Okay….animal dicks in a pot wit water, you can see all the muscles, skin, hairs, etc etc. It looks like……burned snails…or like rotten eggs in a wet paper bag…You want more? So you better think twice if you want to visit this museum!
But as soon as we enter Lebowski and we were drinking a 60’s milkshake…we discover this was a mens place….and we tried as hard as we could the horrible things we saw 30 min ago. Lebowski, a place that looks like the movie, a place that brings you back to high heels and red lipstick, a place that let you dance as you never did before, bad thing…a lot of people, lots of tourist. We were there and suddenly I realize she was leaving soon, our great time was almost over….

Our last day we spend mostly inside. We had been so active, I needed to sleep a bit before getting into night shifts and in the meanwhile, Iris made a great food for us, made a drawing on the wall in Jésus room and a bit before 8 in the evening we said ‘bye’ “don’t cry, don’t cry” But we did.
We had a beautiful time together, we could share, laugh, cry, dance, party, talk…I showed her my life and I guess she understands why I am living on the crazy Island……

What about my friend Tomos? Well it went from good to bad, from bad to normal, to bad, to driving each other crazy. He told me many times different and opposite things. After I saw on his facebook he was in a relationship, after him telling me she likes him a lot, if he tells himself that he likes her that one day he will, after he was telling me, that he didn’t want to be alone anymore I couldn’t do anything more than excepting the fact he had a fake relationship that would make him happy for a while. We broke contact I needed a break from this man. While I was in a bus with Iris I posted on fb a picture of and Mr Tomos himself gave a comment….It drove me crazy. We were suppose to not tell each other nice things any longer, keep distance, even not talking and then he posted “El know me and I know El better then most people do, she is one of the most if not best woman I ever met etc etc’’ I didn’t know to cry or to laugh. I wrote him a private message telling to leave me alone and be happy with his girlfriend. Space and distance is what I needed…..his reaction…go fuck around El, have fun!

After a while everything cooled down and life was just life. Summer was coming, the sun started to shine, tourist were dropping in. The streets get painted, flowers in pots, everything was getting ready for the tourist. I love Reykjavik with the bright colors in the summers, I like to see how everything changes all the time. I know they don’t make the city nice for me, they don’t plant flowers because I love to see so much colors, they don’t close the streets for me…I know they do it for the tourist but somehow…when they are doing this it makes me happy, it means summer is coming, festivals are starting, it also means that the time of HARD/A LOT……Hard and a lot of working, Hard work outs at the gym and outside to clear my mind, hard party’s in the free time, a lot of enjoying the small moments with friends, hard running throw life and the summer.
To be honest the night shifts gave me in a way time to think, time to decide, time to talk to myself, how crazy that might sound, but I like talking to myself and clearing my thoughts and making decisions. The night shifts gave me a little break of the crazy life people have here during the day. Nightshifts are for zombie people, for people who want to escape reality, maybe for people who are a bit strange and likes to be not social from time to time…yess like me indeed!!

One of the thoughts I get during the night was about social media. We are living on social media, taking everything that we read and put granted. We take it seriouse believe everything we read and see. Most of our communication if throw social media. What happened with the time we had conversations, discussions face to face? What happened with informing eachother about important face not throw written text but throw spoken words? What happened with the time we saw reality in the way we live and not with what we see on facebook. So I took a test, because for me my facebook is just a way to keep in touch with the Netherlands, also most of the things on my fb are not true, are a joke, or fiction. I know I gave a image of myself on facebook, but true people and true friends, know me, know what is true and not, not what is joking and what not, true people, look further then facebook…..so I changed my status in Engaged….
Many people respons with congrats, nice, happy for you, who? And I laughed my ass of, because…and this I write specially to my real friends and my family….I will not get engaged without telling your first by skype or phone….and of course if I would be serious with someone…in love with someone, I will tell it…and me getting engaged…well if you know me….you know that something like that will take a long long time… I mean don’t get me wrong, the wedding of my beautiful little sister Annet with her great man Roel was beautiful, love was shining over them, But I am a different person. I don’t strongly believe in something like marriage, I neither believe that there is just one person for everyone and….I need a lot of time and a lot of space just because….because it is the way I am….not a easy to catch woman….special not for long time  So to all my facebook followers, don’t believe everything that you are reading ;)

I stayed in Iceland to work on a special project for foster children. Something that drives me, something that is close to me, something….that needs to be shared with the world. But all these months, I didn’t find the right people, not the right tools, not the right time and place….and my motivation disappeared…maybe this subject is still to hard for me, it is a personal thing, it will be a fight with myself, it will be opening a book, it will be starting discussions about the past with everyone who was involved. Maybe it will even hurt people….I have a lot of material, lots of ideas, I know I can find the right people, the money, I know it is not hard to make…..but honestly….my heart is afraid for opening this discussion, for spreading the words I have to say. Not because I am afraid about what other people thing, not because I am afraid for confronting people of the past….no I am afraid that this time I am not strong enough, and Iceland gave me something important, something more importing then the nature, the friends, my life…Iceland made me stop fighting to the world, stop fighting with myself, Iceland made me stop fighting with the past…..so why I should open it again? Maybe it is not the time….not now……

Life in Iceland goes fast……specially the summers the run over in a blink. I might seem to disappear from the world sometimes, maybe sometimes you think I forget you, or my life I had in the Netherlands. Maybe you think I don’t care about you anymore…..For those who are close, for those who I consider as friends and family….I will never forget where I come from, who are waiting for me, who I miss, my thought go many times to you…..