Letters Home - Iceland
by Leslie Shalduha
September 17, 2025 The Chronicles of Leslie and Emma
I sit today in the cutest little cafe, Cafe Babalu, finally discovered after weeks of seeking, writing this, which is a bit less personal as I share this all in one go, rather than individually emailing to each person. I want to be sure the links included come through correctly. I know that some of you really like to see the nitty gritty details of the areas we visit so I thought adding the links would be nice. I look forward to hearing back from you so that we can have a more personal connection on the reply!
We have big news to share on this update so I hope you will forgive the length. Perhaps a cup of tea to settle in and enjoy?
We have decided to give up our Iceland plan and move forward—next stop Scotland!
Iceland is billed as a peaceful, progressive country. We have found the exact opposite to be true, with one long street painted in a glorious rainbow the only thing to indicate otherwise, in many ways. As time marched forward to us having to secure our next housing and no clear path emerging that the Immigration department planned to accept us in time, we chose to withdraw our application at the risk of paying exorbitant rent with no hope of refund should our application not be accepted. This was the straw that broke the camel's back but there have been many straws along the way. When Immigration asked for further information, they included this information in the small print - "Should your application be denied, we will ask you to leave Iceland (obviously) and if you are lucky, we will ask nicely. However it is possible that we will ban you from the Schengen Area forever." Paraphrased, of course, but as we plan to stay abroad indefinitely, we are unwilling to chance being banned from much of Europe due to the inefficiency of the administration here. This is not an us problem, rather one that dozens of international students here are facing. The fault lies primarily with the University of Iceland and I am hoping that those students still engaging in the fight to hold them accountable find success.
In the meantime, we did start classes and I enjoyed them very much! I found older people like myself in the classes as well as the traditional age college student. I learned much in this last month and look forward to continuing to engage in those parts that really interested me. For instance, I read the book Frankenstein for one class and how wonderful it is!
While we attended class and struggled to make it work, we managed to find time for fun and tried to integrate into the local life as best we could. We first stayed in an airbnb in a neighborhood just out of the City Center, within walking distance to most areas of interest. The bus system is nice enough, but entirely unreliable so often we just hoofed it to wherever we wanted to go. After three weeks, we moved into our apartment, which is located right in the City Center and have really enjoyed that. From here we can walk nearly anywhere we want and do take the bus for longer excursions (to Ikea for tea supplies, the Immigration office needlessly, the mall for shoes).
There is a really neat bookstore and bar that has free live music every night and once a week a Comedy Open Mic that we have been attending. We have been regulars with the comedians and they make fun of us for coming every week; usually it is a different crowd primarily made up of tourists. We have gone to the live music a couple of times, breaking out of our early to bed routine and enjoying some night life. The music has been great and draws quite a crowd!
We spent one day exploring Viðey Island, just off the coast of Reykjavik. We took a ferry over and walked about seven miles around the outer edge of most of it. It has an interesting history, once a monastery, housing for government officials and a thriving fishery in the early 1900's. Now it is basically just a nature reserve. There is an interesting memorial to John Lennon there, the Imagine Peace tower, designed and built by Yoko Ono. We loved our day there, though we collapsed in exhaustion at the end waiting for the ferry back. We took the ferry back to a different port and enjoyed a longer voyage across a windy harbor to get home.
We have wandered all over the city, seeing as much as we can within walking distance, averaging four or so miles a day. The Harpa Concert Hall is quite the architectural wonder and beautiful to see, especially if the sun is shining through the thousands of glass panels. The houses, especially in the historic downtown area, are spectacular. Cats wander freely everywhere, with little bells and collars, making friends with all who pass and prompting pictures on tourists' social media by the hundreds, no doubt.
We do eat out once in a while, though we mainly do so at two restaurants that, while expensive, offer good quality food and terrific atmosphere. I mean, avocado toast in most restaurants is about $35 and a bowl of soup no less than $25 in most places. Better to go with the devil you know, as they say. One is a burger/bagel place called Le Kock and Tail (burgers) and Deig (bagels/donuts). Raised in the USA, the Icelandic owner brought a touch of America and combined it with an Icelandic flair. Another is called Rok, and is just around the corner from our apartment. More upscale, they offer small dishes so suggest folks order several dishes each. Emma and I often do two each, which is plenty of food, and thoroughly enjoy the busy pace of this popular little place.
We rented a car for several days this last week as a friend from Wallowa County came to visit us! Before we picked her up at the airport, Emma and I threw a dart at the map and decided to explore the Reykjanestá area. Here we saw breath-taking ocean views, an historic rock pool built in the last century to teach children to swim, a lighthouse and geothermal power plants surrounded by hot spots featuring boiling mud and steam pouring out of the ground. It is both spectacular and eerie!! Warnings abound to stay on the walkways as the ground can be lava hot at any point and even give way under your feet. No thanks! A few days after we were there, a news outlet reported that while we were there an earthquake swarm was beginning, with over fifty quakes recorded. Whew, close call!!
With our friend arrived safely, we splurged a bit the first day by going to fabulous Hvammsvik Hot Springs, an hour drive out of the city. Located on the ocean's edge, we could dip in and out of different temperature pools and even take a dip in the ocean. The next day we did the official tourist thing by driving around the Golden Circle, with Þingvellir National Park, an area where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are being torn apart causing a rift, which means we walked between the continents on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the Gullfoss Waterfall, Geysir Geothermal Park, amongst other scenic wonders. We saw gorgeous Icelandic horses and a glacier (my first! So amazing!). For those of you Game of Thrones fans, we walked through the Almannagja Gorge that was used for several episodes—pretty cool!
On the third day, we retraced the trip that Emma and I did on our visit here three years ago. The town of Vik and its famous Black Sand Beach was the goal but lots of exciting things were along the way. Many waterfalls and historic farms dotted a good bit of the drive, as we followed the coastline south. We found more lighthouses with fascinating histories. We attempted to visit one of the oldest swimming pools in Iceland that I had seen in a movie once, Seljavallalaug. As we were driving Emma pointed at a misty valley to the left, saying she wanted to go there. Perfect since we had just missed our turn and that is where the pool was! We drove back into this magical valley, parked at the end of the road, piled on the layers of clothing and started walking. The info online said it was a fifteen minute walk along a stream.........well, that was only partially true and likely at certain times of year accurate. After braving a couple of stream crossings and an area of the trail that had been washed away we came to a rather large chasm where the trail has been washed away. Here is where we called it quits and turned back to the car. Folks behind us apparently braved it and carried on - perhaps they used their selfie stick to bridge the chasm? It began to pour rain so we were good and soaked when we arrived back at the car. We stopped at famous Skógafoss waterfall, then to the Black Sand Beach, stopping along the way for picturesque views, including the Dyrholaey Peninsula. As we made our way home, we stopped for dinner at a farmhouse restaurant that we had eaten at on that prior trip. Here we felt a bit of true Iceland, I think. Our meals featured their own farm fresh beef and our server spoiled us a bit. Perfect ending to a wet and wild day!
After four days of pretty intense adventuring we chose to take it easy on our friend’s last day. We walked around a peaceful little sculpture garden and spent a couple of hours at the best thing I have found so far in this country—the city pool. There are many here, all filled with hot springs water with large swimming pools and multiple hot tubs filled to different temperatures, steam rooms and some have saunas, too. Emma and I have checked three out, but our favorite is the one located in our first neighborhood. We go to the pool several times a week. This is a big part of the culture here! In some countries, folks congregate in bars but here it is the city pool. The pools are very clean and well-organized. This is the only part I will miss about Iceland!
Our friend returned to the US and Alex arrived from Norway for a couple of weeks. While Emma and Alex have some fun exploring the city together, I am cobbling together our next plan and getting some work done. We plan to fly to Scotland on October 1. I am lining up housesit opportunities; seems like a good way to save money and see the country! We have a visa to stay in the UK for six months.
So! Iceland was a bust, a swing and a miss. Never fear, though, we are in good spirits and ready for the next adventure. The most important thing is that we are safe, healthy and happy. The second most important thing is that thank goodness we really like each other. I am grateful for this as we navigate all of these ups and downs in very close quarters.