by Joe
It always seems to me that unusual events or actions occur when you travel. Some occur to you and some are incurred by you. Either way for some reason these events can turn into the stories we tell our family and friends sometimes more often then about the things we saw or did and become magnified in their humor. Here are some of the funny stories from a recent trip to Iceland and London with my daughter Wendy, her husband Jack and my wife Cindy.

One of my favorite stories was of the 50th birthday party my daughter and I crashed at a pub one evening in London. The four of us were walking home from dinner one night about eleven o’clock and I asked if anyone wanted to stop off for a nite-cap before hitting the hotel. My wife said she was tired and begged off. Jack wasn’t feeling up to par and wanted to try to get a good night’s sleep before our next big day. Wendy said she would go so when we got by the hotel we went our separate ways. Wendy and I strolled down the street to where we knew some pubs were. However the only one we could find that was still open had a sign at the front door that there was a private party going on inside. We decided to check if the the whole pub was taken or just some of it. We went to the bar and inquired but the bartender said the party had reserved the whole bar. As we apologized and got ready to leave a fellow from the party told the bartender not to run us out and let us stay as we were with him. He could tell we were from the West, and continued to talk to us. He then called his wife and friend over to talk to the bloke and his daughter from the USA. Next thing we realized we had a crowd around us and the guest of honor eying us like “do I know these people?” We tried to buy her a drink but they told us no that she had already had too much. A fellow bought me a single malt and we talked for about an hour. Wendy and I made our polite “good nights”, told the guest of honor happy 30th and headed for the door. We laughed all the way back to the hotel about crashing the party and how polite and fun the Brits were. Our travel buddies were sorry they missed it.

Jack packed for two weeks in a duffle/backpack. While we three managed to cram everything into a carry on suitcase and our small backpacks we thought it funny that he could get all his stuff in that one bag. Well, after a week in Iceland we now know the reason: he couldn’t. He was ready to look for a laundromat. The fun part of this though was he found a laundromat cafe that was a full bar and cafe on the main floor and a laundromat in the basement. While I thought it was funny he had to do a wash I was pleased with the place he did it. I had not heard of this concept but it has its strong points. Wendy and Cindy went shopping while we did the laundry and had a couple of drinks to pass the time. I may have to think about opening one in town by the University.

A foss in Icelandic is a waterfall. We used that word all the time because there were so many. We got to laughing about how we were using the word as though we knew their language. Not even remotely!

The GPS we were using detected that we were going in the wrong direction. It had us turn onto a small partially graveled partially dirt road. We were a little confused where it was taking us. The road went up a small hillside and what looked like an old farm. Around 2 miles later we were back on the same road we had been on before the turn. However it had us turn in the opposite direction. In other words rather than telling us to turn around and head in the opposite direction, it took us on a small sightseeing tour to get us turned around.

We went to Thingvellir National Park and spent a day hiking around the area where the North American Tectonic Plate and the European Tectonic Plate come together in the middle of the country. We came across a beautiful waterfall. However when we got up close we thought it strange that no one was taking pictures but had their cameras and phone out as though they were waiting to do so. We got a little closer and we then knew why. There was some pompous dork with a camera climbing all over the rocks and the falls taking pictures of somebody he was positioning around the falls. He was spoiling the picture for everyone else and didn’t appear to be leaving anytime soon, or cared! The guy thought he was the hardest working photographer in the business. He placed the camera down for a few minutes and splashed some water in his face (it wasn’t hot that day) and then took a deep breath and started to move around the rocks again. Well you get the picture. We thought it was funny he was taking himself so seriously and knew everyone wished that he would get out of the way (or fall in).

My daughter and wife always have a soft spot for picking up strays. This time they picked up one at our Parliament tour in London. While waiting for the tour to start we began to talk to a young fellow who we found out was from DC where my daughter lives. And as we toured we talked some more to him and he was quite a nice guy. At the end of the tour we had scheduled an English Tea in Parliament and discovered that he was going too. Wendy and Cindy invited him to join us instead of dine alone. We asked the waiters at the door and they said they would make the arrangements. Our table was in the front and right by a wall of windows where we could see the Thames. His table would have been in the back against the inside wall. He said he would love to join us and was appreciative of the “upgrade”. I noted that he might have preferred his single table in back as it was next to an older single lady at a single table. Anyway we enjoyed taking to him some more, having tea, and talking and laughing about it later as our “good deed” for the day.

A few funny signs:

While in Iceland, we all spent the afternoon at the Blue Lagoon. This is a beautiful thermal fed lagoon that is icy blue in color due to the silica and minerals in the water. It is perfectly hot and the minerals are supposed to have all kinds of healing properties. Not sure about that last part as I certainly did not look 1 year younger let alone 10. However it was a lot of fun and very relaxing. The lagoon, sauna, steam rooms, a man-made waterfall, silica mask and algae masks, and the swim up bar were super. Alcoholic beverages are limited to three but I think you can have all the Krap you want. Yep they have a smoothie/slushee type drink called Krap. We wouldn’t let it die. Hey give me some Krap. How much Krap can you drink. Ummmmm, that’s some good Krap. One good Krap deserves another. You like a blue Krap or a red Krap better? Don’t put Krap in the water. This drink is total Krap.

Wendy will readily admit that she dislikes getting up early and will go to great lengths to rearrange her schedule to avoid doing so. So instead of Sunday morning service, we decided to go to Mass in London on Saturday evening. We found a Catholic Chuch online but had trouble figuring out how to get there using public transportation. Then it started pouring and taxis were scarce. When we finally flagged one, the driver was stellar but traffic was horrible. Luckily we made it with about two minutes to spare. We thought we could take the Underground back to the hotel, but were unfamiliar with the neighborhood. After Mass, as people were walking to the door, Wendy calls out, “Excuse me, can anyone please tell us where the closest tube station is located?” A woman stopped to explain, then said, “Oh I’m going that way – just walk with me and I’ll lead you to the station where you don’t have to change trains.” We had a great conversation during the 15 minute walk to the station, and we were at the hotel bar in minutes. Of course we started laughing about Wendy just throwing the directions question out to the crowd and how lucky we were that such a nice lady decided to help us out.

Sure some of these may be “you had to be there moments” and I know we had a ton more of those. I’m sure when you stop and think about some of the most enjoyable trips you’ve been on can be traced back to how much laughter there was.