GREAT MATTRESS HEIST
Trip Start
May 20, 2000
1
3
16
Trip End
Aug 19, 2000
Reykjavik,
Iceland
Saturday, June 3, 2000
Well, I´ve accomplished much since I´ve last spoke to you. On the same day, I found both a place to live and a job. Alright!
I´m staying in an unfurnished room, only a 15-minute walk from Miðborg (downtown) Reykjavik. I´m on the third floor, and my window offers a broad view of the inlet the city is on. So, I can scan the water for whales when I´m in my room. I can also see some mountains. It´s pretty.
But the prettiest view from my room may just be the Dairy Queen on the next street over. How thrilled was I, the man with the all-ice cream-diet, to find that I´m a mere two-minute walk from the ice cream store! I had the M&M Jökull (Blizzard) for a house-warming party. Mmm, mmm. How about my new place? Location, location, location!
My job is in a nightclub, called "22." I found out after getting hired that it´s a gay club, and on my first night I had to clean up vomit three times. Not exactly my travel fantasty: picking up vomit in a gay club. But the music is good (rock & roll), the work is easy (I pick up glasses - that´s my entire job), and legally I shouldn´t have any job.
Did I say picking up glasses was my entire job? Actually, I left out the most-feared part of my work...the dreaded "window duty." See, the windows have to be closed because neighbors complain about the music. But the place gets really hot, so people always open them. Which is where I come in. Now, you wouldn´t think closing a window would be such a big deal, but the truth is that drunk Icelanders will defend their opened window almost to the death. My co-workers have been punched, kicked, and very nearly thrown out of the window in fights over it. On my first night, I stood guard at a window as two co-workers had it out with some clubbing Icelanders. I work again tonight - who knows if I´ll come out alive?
Many of my friends are familiar with my efforts to emulate tv´s "The Crocodile Hunter" (such as wrestling giant blue-tongued lizards and snorkelling in treadmill-like riptides). So, I received a lot of warnings upon coming to Iceland to beware of the animals here. That shouldn´t be difficult. Iceland has no native reptiles or amphibians, and the arctic fox is the only native land mammal. Other than a lot of birds, the coolest animal I´ve seen was a seal. It was off the rocky shore of Reykjavik, just its head and snout above water. I went to the edge of the rocks and barked at it. I guess I was hoping to convince it that I was a fellow seal so it would come over to me. No luck, though, it seems this seal was smarter than I gave him credit for. He did elevate himself out of the water for a closer look. Pretty cool, I´d never seen a wild seal before.
As I mentioned earlier, my room came unfurnished. My landlord later gave me a table and some chairs, but the only thing separating me from the floor when I slept was a thin foam pad. Something had to be done about that, and I didn´t have enough money to buy a mattress (I think, who on earth knows what a mattress costs anyway?). My room is near the University of Iceland, and I decided I´d try to make off with a mattress from there. I went into a vacant dorm and grabbed one and walked out. Now, mattress thievery is unlike most kinds of thievery in that you can´t just stick the desired object in your pocket because pockets just aren´t made large enough to hold mattresses. I carried it past five other university buildings, pretty scared the whole time. Had someone stopped me, I´m not sure if I would´ve ran or thrown the mattress at them or started speaking Icelandic or what. Luckily, the Great Mattress Heist went off without a hitch. I have a "hot" bed, and the room is coming along quite nicely.
-- Which is just in time! I visited Sóley at work yesterday. She was happy to see me. Her cheekbones seem as if they´ll burst when she smiles, squeezing her mint-blue eyes. I invited her for a "great" fajitas and milkshake dinner, and she accepted. Woohoo! We haven´t set a date yet, so I hope it happens. Wish me luck.
later - your pal, Justin
