Diary: April 25-26, 2001

Þórunn Áslaug Harðardóttir

April 25, 2001 - SEE THE PHOTOS

Today was the most exciting day. We were supposed to see a castle and go to an island today. Everyone met in front of the school at 8:30 am and waited for the bus to come, but it was late. When the two story bus finally came we began our trip. We were supposed to go first to Ragnhildsholmen but we had to skip that because of how late the bus came. So we just drove straight to Bohus Castle. When we arrived to Bohus Castle we looked around for a while but we had to wait for some girls who had gotten locked outside the castle. Finally we began our tour through the castle and it’s history. It was amazing. Our guide told us the castle’s history along the tour. However, after an hour long tour through the castle we went back to the bus and continued to our next destination which was driving to Rönnäng via Stenungsund and the magnificent Tjörn Bridges. When we had been driving for ca. 20 minutes we began to smell a weird odour and after a while trying to find out what the odour might be we heard the people downstairs shout "FIRE!!!! EVERYONE OUT!!!!”. Many in the Swedish group freaked out but the Icelandic group just kind of took it easy, packed down their things and then went out. However, some left the bus without taking everything and some just taking a coffee cup and a coffee can ;-). The odour in the bus was awful and a smoke was coming through the air-condition. When we gathered outside the bus we saw no fire, just the bus surrounded with a white smoke. And then we were told that the bus wasn’t on fire, it had just broken down or something. So, we had to wait for a new bus and while we waited, a lot of cars noticed what had happened and hooted us, don’t know why they did it actually. When our new bus finally arrived it had only seats for 60 people, so ca 10 people had to stand or sit on someone’s lap during the way to the boat who was going to take us to Marstrand, which is an island. We had to take a shorter way to the boat to catch it so therefore we didn’t see the scenery we were supposed to see. The boat was very nice. Some of us were up on the deck, me included. It was a wonderful overview, a little bit cold weather but we are Icelanders so we were able to handle it. Some of us learned how to open and use the lifeboat, just in case something would happen, it might sink or a fire could break out hehehe... :/ Well, we arrived safely to Marstrand where we had lunch at a restaurant called Drott. After the lunch the groups splitup and we were allowed to walk around on the island. After ca an hour everyone took the ferry back to the mainland where busses were waiting for us. On the way back home we stopped at Ragnhildsholmen and took a look at it. Just for a historical reference, Ragnhildsholmen was a surrounding for an event in Brennu-Njals Saga. When we had looked around for a while at Ragnhildsholmen we continued our trip back home. Some went to Gothenburg to shop and the rest went home with their hosts to their families and packed down their things or did something fun with their hosts.

April 26, 2001 - SEE THE PHOTOS

The LAST day in Sweden.
Everyone met inside the School at 12:30pm. We said goodbye to our hosts, all the Swedish students and teachers. And off we went, driving again with a two story bus to the airport. The drive didn’t take a long time. When we arrived to the airport most of the students and teachers went to the tax-free thing and got some of their money back. We arrived rather early to the airport, ca. 2 hours before we were supposed to take off. Most of the students spent the time with playing cards and guess what happened!! Our flight to Copenhagen was delayed!! Once and again we had to wait at the airport. The flight was delayed for an hour so we just kept on playing the cards. Finally our plane was ready to take off. 11 students were so lucky to sit in Business Class seats! We got a soda drink and some juice to drink on the way to Copenhagen, but I actually think everyone was offered the same kind of drink no matter where they were seated:). When we arrived in Copenhagen airport we had to wait for ca an hour for the flight home to Iceland. While we were waiting for the flight we decided to go shopping. After a while shopping and having a lot of things in our cart and my friend Birna went in the line, it was a long line so Birna decided to go and check for more information about the flight on a TV screen while I waited in the line. After a while she came running and told me that it said "Closing" so we hurried up, left all the stuff that we were going to buy and ran towards our gate. On the way we heard Örvar calling "are you in a hurry?" and we said, "yes, it says closing!" "Hurry up" So he and few others came "running" after us. When Birna and me arrived to the gate it said "closed" on the sign. And we were like... "Ohh my god, this can’t be happening" but of course we didn’t miss our flight:) This was the first time that the flight was actually on time!!! “finally”. The flight home went very well, it took about 3 hours and we landed safe and soundly in Keflavik.

Þórunn Áslaug Harðardóttir