Transition Stage? - Part 10 of Our Story
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 @ 7:44 PM
I don’t know if anybody else felt the same way when they first moved out here, but we had to keep pinching ourselves to make sure it was reality and not just a dream. On our first visit to Iceland we walked across the overpass above the main road, where there is the most amazing view up into the mountains. We just stood there, with the cars zooming underneath us, and Charlie kept saying “this is our home”, “we live here”, “we ACTUALLY live HERE!!!” Unbelievable!!
After the first few days though, I seemed to drift into a bit of a daze. I think all the big build up, selling, packing, travelling had been so full throttle that actually arriving here I suddenly had no purpose. I was very quiet and Charlie knew that something wasn’t quite right but when he asked me to explain what was going on in my head – I just couldn’t. At first I put it down to being exhausted from our journey but it wasn’t that. We had made the giant leap. Achieved the impossible. The apartment was perfect, as was the location. The beach was incredible, the sun was shining (some of the time!) but I felt totally lost. Charlie started asking if I wanted to go back to the UK but I definitely didn’t want that! It took me about a week to snap out of it. Couldn’t explain it then and still cant! Transition stage maybe?
Our friends introduced us to the delights of coffee sombre in a glass at the local Spanish café where we can sit out on the pavement watching the rest of the world passing by. They also pointed out where the best shops were for everything that we might need. Although Iceland is great, they are a little bit pricey so we’ve found that it’s better to shop in the Spanish supermarkets. They are an Aladdin’s cave of goodies, especially the fish counters. It was a bit strange not being allowed to take your own shopping bags or trolleys around with you but rather lock them up until you’ve done your shopping. We are learning!! Slowly but surely. Still get caught out by the siesta now & then, usually when we’ve run out of teabags (cant beat a nice cuppa!) and all the shops are shut between 2.00 & 5.00 in the evening. We’ve made one beachside restaurant Casacola, our local for having a couple of beers on our way back from trips to the beach and the waiter Antonio is helping us with our Spanish. We try to learn at least one new word or phrase a day. So we should be totally fluent in about twenty year’s time!
