On our first day in Iceland, we took a city walking tour and afterwards, the other students decided it would be a good time to go whale watching. It wasn't on my list of things to do in Iceland (because I know how cold it can get) but I decided to join the group. It was after lunch time when we finished out walking tour, so after we bought out 3 hour whale watching tickets, one of the girls and I decided to pop into a burger joint and grab something before it was time to get on the boat. When you buy your ticket, they give you free tablet to take to ward off any sea sickness. Everyone in my group took it, including myself.
Just waiting for my burger.
So, our tour was the first in a week to go out because there had been a storm and the waters had been too rough to sail. Well, the waters were still rough. I mean, roller coaster rough. At first it was fine. I actually didn't mind it. I kept thinking about when I was little and my parents would take us to the beach. I would go out in the water until just my head was above it and wait for the waves and let them bob me up and down. It didn't take long, but one by one, passengers started throwing up, including the girl I had lunch with. It's not that I'm not sympathetic to people vomiting, but if I want to keep the contents in my stomach down, I have to get away, quickly.
Here was the problem, it was effin cold outside the cabin of the boat (which is where you are most likely to get sickest). I spent a lot of time looking at the horizon, I prayed just to think about anything besides the people around me throwing up, luckily I'm hard of hearing, but that doesn't mean I couldn't hear anything at all. At one point, I opted for the ocean air. Good decision. It cleared my head and I couldn't smell or hear anyone getting sick.
This is not a lie when I say, at least 95% of the passengers on that boat got sick. They had these handy bags, like on an airplane, with a fiery volcano on the front of it in case you get sick. I was surprised they didn't run out of those bags. There was one crew member whose job (I assumed) it was to go around and collect the full bags and dispose of them. You couldn't pay enough money.
There I am, not sick, in the cold.
I had a very strong will to not throw up. I kept telling myself, this will only be for 3 hours. Nope, in fact it was 6 hours. We hadn't seen any whales when we got to the spot that the crew thought there would be whales at, so we wandered around the ocean until we found some. I saw 3 hump back whales. It was cool. I didn't get any pictures of them. So, not worth my money.
I kid you not, there where people passed out in the cabin of the boat like they had just been hazed at a frat party. Not to mention the upper deck of the boat. I went up there at one point to see the view, there were people lying around up there too! One little old lady that I sat next to seemed okay and even striked up a conversation with me. Then 5 minutes later, she whipped out one of those volcano bags (do you see the connection with the volcano and throwing up?) and said, 'oh, excuse me love' and then ralphed. The journey back was ALOT smoother than the one out there, so people started to perk up and come back to life.
Success! I last 6 hours against the mighty sea with out loosing my lunch!
Susan 'Yo Ho Yo Ho a pirates life for me' B.
