Wednesday, February 1, 2017

There are stories in Scandinavian folklore that refer to women who have chosen to fight as a warriors in the Viking Age. If you are fan of the History Channel’s “Vikings”, you know that one of the main characters, Lagertha, is depicted as a shield maiden. She goes to war alongside the men and is ferocious in battle. Among the many countries invaded by the Vikings is the land of my heritage – Ireland. I think I may be descended from a Viking shield maiden.

We spend our last morning in Reykjavik walking downtown and looking for an opportunity to spend our remaining kroner. Hats and gloves filled the bill quite nicely.

To get to Keflavik airport from downtown, we boarded a Flybus van that took us to a central transfer station. It’s really a very efficient system, bringing passengers from all parts of town to catch the bus that will take them to their final destination, whether that be the airport, the Blue Lagoon or one of many daily tours.

Now the fun begins. There are a lot of people waiting in line for the bus to the airport. The first one we tried was already full, but another came along quite soon after. While the others worked to get all of the bags loaded, I got on the bus to save seats for all of us. First our friends get on, then Mark comes to say they wouldn’t let him load the rest of our bags, and they wanted us to take the next bus. Two are already loaded, sitting somewhere in the middle of the storage area, and I have no intention of being separated from my bags or my husband.

When I get up to leave the bus, one of our friends asked where I was going. “To fix this” was my reply, spoken in my shield maiden voice. I told the man loading the bags that we needed to get two more on. He said that wasn’t possible, there was no place for our bags, and we’d have to wait for the next bus. “No! Our friends are on this bus, and so are some of our bags. We’re going on this bus.” He was insistent, and so was I. He offered to find our loaded bags to take them off. “No! They’re too far in. We’re going on this bus.” After a little bit more of this, he finally gave in and found a mostly empty compartment for our bags. Miracle in Reykjavik!

Victory to the shield maiden, who knows when to hold the line.

The rest of the day was uneventful. After a six hour flight, we landed in Minneapolis and headed home. Comfy bed….