macular degeneration, macular, diagnosis Travelogue: Iceland! – My Macular Degeneration Journey/Journal

Travelogue: Iceland!

Greetings! We are back from our vacation to Iceland. Glad we did it. Glad to be home. My husband wanted to drive the ring road around the island and we did approximately 1200 miles in our ten days there. More than enough traveling for me.

I have an acquaintance who went to Iceland over the summer. She stayed in Reykjavik and did day trips to things in the Golden Circle. My acquaintance described Iceland as an Utopia. Hmmmmm, no and yes.

On the no side, I did not get the memo telling me winter starts in September in Iceland. It poured, I repeat, POURED, down rain sometime of every day we were there. That time was usually the same time I was getting out of the car to view an attraction. Since it was between 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit the whole time we were there, I spent most of my time wet and cold.

The second memo I missed had to do with the cost of things. I bought a piece of cake that turned out to cost $7. Gas was something like 191 krona a liter. There are 115 krona to a dollar and 3.8 liters to a gallon. Therefore gas was something like $6.30 a gallon. Ouch. A meal for two at a family style restaurant cost us $50 or $60. We ended up buying things at the market or grabbing something at a convenience store. Not cheap, but cheaper.

On the positive side, Iceland is ruggedly beautiful. If you like your landscapes served up raw, Iceland is for you. Lava field after lava field. Powerful waterfalls. Treacherous glaciers. Iceland has them all.

Iceland also has fiercely independent citizens, nearly all of whom speak fluent English. They are also friendly and helpful nearly to a man. Good people the Icelandic.

The things we did on our vacation were not for everyone. Although I never felt the least bit threatened, our activities were on the adventurous side. We went into a tunnel carved into the glacier and into a lava tube. We went whale watching and took a boat ride among a collection of small icebergs. In short, we did what I intended for us to do. No concessions to my vision.

The things my vision interfered with were much more mundane. Stairs made of horizontally laid boards blended one into the next. I held on to the railing to keep from falling ass-over-teacups into the falls. I was useless in navigation because I could not read road signs. I also had to depend on my husband to read overhead menu boards and flight information in the airports.

I took lots of photos but some of them are badly out of focus. Note to self: always check to see if the autofocus is really on.

So that is pretty much it. We saw a lot and did a lot. AMD did not interfere with my ability to go adventuring….as long as I had someone to read the signs and get me there in the first place! All told, our time in Iceland appears to have been a success.

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