Page 9 of Adrift in Iceland
‘I think we should go somewhere for breakfast. There’s a new place that Iris told me about. Then shall we go to the pool?’
‘Definitely,’ said Astrid. She loved the pool, and if she and Gudrun were going to spend the day talking, there was nobetter place than in a hot pot. ‘I’ve missed that so much. In Norway we went for saunas, but then you have to plunge into the cold water, and when it is cold outside anyway, I would much rather be getting into warm water.’
‘See? You are still an Icelander at heart. Even if you did love Tromsø.’
‘Is Olafur working today?’
Gudrun nodded. ‘He’s on the Golden Circle tours this week. I said we would meet everyone at the bar for dinner. Is that okay?’
‘Of course.’ Astrid knew that where Olafur went, his friends went most of the time too. Over the years she’d come to know their group of friends a little, mainly from listening to Gudrun talk about them. From what she said, they all had partners now, so there could be quite a group at the bar later.
‘I think you’ll especially like Iris. She and Siggi are together,’ said Gudrun. ‘He almost died when the lava tubes erupted near Grindavik and they realised how much they loved each other.’
‘Oh, Gudrun. I’d forgotten what an old romantic you are.’
‘I think I have magical powers because ever since I came back from Norway, every single one of Olafur’s friends, apart from Anders, has fallen in love.’
Of course, it had nothing to do with the fact that they had all reached that age when they’d naturally feel drawn to settling down rather than continue behaving like teenagers, hanging out in bars and taking crazy risks with their adventures. They were all in their thirties now and had almost certainly realised that there was more to life than beer and adrenaline rushes.
‘Well, that’s quite some claim you’re making. Maybe there’s just something in the water,’ Astrid teased.
‘I thought you’d come back here with a Viking in tow, As.’
Astrid laughed. ‘Oh my god, no.’
‘What is so funny about that?’
’My career is just getting started. I can’t tie myself down when I could be disappearing to the Arctic Circle on a research boat for weeks at a time.’
‘If he or she,’ Gudrun said, looking pointedly at Astrid, ‘is the right person, they won’t mind that.’
‘It’s a distraction though, isn’t it?’
‘I think it can work. You should meet Iris. She’s a volcanologist, and although she works here most of the time, she travels a lot to visit places that have volcanic activity.’
‘Isn’t Siggi the one who travelled half the year and then came back and worked for Jonas?’
Gudrun looked sheepish. ‘Okay, so maybe he goes with her most of the time, but he would wait for her if he had to.’
‘Okay. Enough talk about men. Mind if I have the first shower?’
After a breakfast of waffles and coffee, then a longer-than-usual session in the hot pots at the local pool, Astrid felt more relaxed than she had in a long time. Being back in Iceland, in places familiar and comforting, helped her not to yearn after Norway too badly. It was so lovely to spend time with her sister. They’d spent the day reminiscing about all sorts of things, and that had reminded her she had belonged here once. Four years wasn’t that long, and although she wished she could have carried on life in Tromsø, she had to embrace the change. She’d also managed to avoid the topic of men successfully since the conversation they’d had that morning. Romance had never been at the top of her list of things to do. She’d had the odd fling, even relationships that perhaps would have endured if she hadn’t waved goodbye and left on a boat for weeks or months at a time. It had never felt like the right time to pursue anything, to make a commitment she wasn’t sure she could see through. And she’d never felt strongly enough about anyone to have any sense that she wasmissing out on something.
They caught the bus back from the pool and after popping back to the house to freshen up and change, they set off for Islenski Barinn which had long been the favourite hangout of Olafur and his friends and still the place they gravitated to on a Friday night.
Astrid had never socialised with her sister except for the odd drink on a fleeting visit home. The four years between them had seemed like a bigger gulf when they were younger. When she’d left for university, opting to study in Sweden since at the time there were no marine biology courses offered in Iceland, Gudrun had been fifteen. Then, when she moved back to Iceland to study for her master’s degree, she was in the north in Akureyri. This was going to be the longest she had lived in Reykjavik since she was nineteen.
Gudrun led the way up the steps and into the bar. It was busy, but then it was Friday night. Astrid doubted they’d be lucky enough to get a table. Then she spotted Olafur waving at them from a big table at the far end of the room underneath a piece of art with the name of the bar written in huge letters.
‘Do you want a beer?’ Gudrun asked.
‘That’d be great,’ said Astrid, pulling out her phone to pay.
‘This one’s on me. Go and sit with the others.’
Not wanting to go over to the table alone, but without a good reason to object, other than that she was nervous, which would sound ridiculous, Astrid headed over to where Olafur was.
‘Hæ,’ she said.
