I was not expecting to spend the first half of 2020 in self-quarantine in Iceland. My daughter and I came to Iceland from Portugal in late February to spend the winter holiday with family. We were planning to stay for a week and a half, but things changed. Even though the coronavirus outbreak had already started at the time, it was mostly confined to Asia, and we didn’t really expect it to become global pandemic.
On February 28th, the first case of COVID-19 was diagnosed in Iceland. A few days later, on March 2nd, the first case was diagnosed in Portugal. At this point, the number of infected was rising fast all over Europe. A week after the first case was detected in Iceland, 45 people had been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the country, and the virus had started spreading domestically. At this point, flights to and from Iceland also started getting cancelled. I felt very uncomfortable about returning to Portugal, not only due to the risk of infection, but also because I worried we wouldn’t be able to return to Iceland, in case the borders would be closed. So we made the decision to stay in Iceland for now.
March 2020
By the middle of March, countries around Europe had started closing down. Borders were closing, schools were closing and workplaces were closing. In Iceland, the virus was popping up all over the place. Schools and workplaces were closing one by one (not because they were told to, but because of infections). And for some reason people were buying a lot of toilet paper.
On March 16th, with 180 active infections in the country, a 4-week ban on public events and gatherings took effect in Iceland (samkomubann). At this point everything started closing down. High Schools and Universities switched to distance learning, and swimming pools, gyms, libraries, some shops (like Ikea) and several cafes and restaurants closed temporarily. From March 19th, everyone arriving in Iceland was obligated to quarantine for 14 days. By the end of March 2020, almost 1000 people in Iceland had COVID-19 (275 people per 100.000 inhabitants).
Leaving Reykjavík
Reykjavík was practically on lockdown and the domestic spread of the virus somewhat out of control. So we decided to leave the city and self-quarantine in the South-Iceland countryside.
There was, of course, a lot more snow in the countryside than in the city. The drive up to the house was absolutely impossible, and it wasn’t even possible to open the gate properly. So we had to leave the car down by the road and carry all our luggage and food supplies to the house.
This was the ultimate social distancing. We were all alone in the middle of nowhere. And this is where we stayed for weeks, our only real-life contact with people on our weekly trip to the grocery store.
April 2020
In April, Europe reached over 1 million people infected by COVID-19. In early April, the rate of infections in Iceland was still on the rise. But towards the end of April the numbers started dropping. On April 24th, no one was diagnosed with COVID-19 in Iceland, for the first time since virus arrived in the country. By the end of April, 1,797 people had been infected by the coronavirus since the pandemic started in Iceland and 93% of them had become healthy again.
Quarantine Life
In Iceland, April is pretty much still winter and it can be really cold. So we spent a lot of our time inside. We spent our days inside puzzling (a lot), playing board games, playing video games (Animal Crossing is a very strange game), watching movies and series, reading, practicing yoga, playing music (my daughter taught herself to play the kalimba), baking and cooking a lot, and my daughter had school online.
When the weather allowed, we’d go outside for walks and to play in the snow. We also had some nights with beautiful northern lights.
Snowstorm
We had one big snowstorm in April. The wind was so loud, it was almost impossible to sleep during the night. We thought the roof might get blown off the house. The next morning the weather was still going strong. All the windows were covered in snow, we were completely snowed in. It was so dark inside, because the windows were covered in snow, that we had to have all the lights on even though it was the middle of the day.
And then the electricity went out. And it was completely dark in the house. Luckily we had flashlights, and we quickly started trying to clear the snow off the windows to at least get some daylight in. No electricity also meant no water, because the pumps run on electricity. So we went outside to fill a few pots with snow to have at least some water.
Luckily our phones were somewhat recently charged, and we also had one landline phone. We called the electric company and found out the entire countryside was out due to the snowstorm, and they didn’t know when the weather conditions would even allow them to get to the root of the problem. We decided to put all phones except one on flight mode to safe the batteries. And then we just continued our day with flash lights. Thankfully, the electricity returned in the evening and quarantine life got somewhat back to “normal”.
May 2020
At the beginning of May, over 1.5 million people in Europe had been diagnosed with COVID-19. At the same time in Iceland, the numbers were going down and limitations started lifting. 50 people were allowed to gather, in stead of 20 before. Due to the strain on the health care system in the past weeks, there were now huge waiting lists of people needing surgeries which had been postponed, and now finally it was possible to start these again. Very few people were getting the coronavirus in Iceland now and life was slowly going back to normal within the society.
At the end of the month, 200 people were allowed to gather, and the government started debating if or how to reopen the borders. Shops, gyms, restaurants and institutions started opening again, as well as bars and clubs, which were allowed to be open until 11 pm. Only a few people were infected with the coronavirus in Iceland in all of May. It finally felt like, at least within Iceland, life was starting to get back to some sort of normality.
Spring is coming?
We continued our self-quarantine in the countryside in May. Slowly the snow melted away and nature started coming to life. The local ptarmigans we’d been watching for weeks started changing from their white winter coat to their brown summer coat. They were a bit slow though, because in the brown spring landscape their white coat was extremely obvious. The ice cream truck stopped by once, which was great. But by this time, we had puzzled enough for a lifetime (if not lifetimes), and to be honest, we were starting to miss human society.
Baby Goats!
At the end of May we were lucky enough to be invited to cuddle baby goats at a neighbouring farm. It was the first time we visited other humans since we went into self-quarantine. I cannot express how adorable the baby goats were. They were so friendly and cuddly, jumping on us like little puppies, and happy to hug for ages. This was probably the highlight of our strange winter of isolation and solitude.
June 2020
At this point, Europe had reached 2 million coronavirus infections, but Iceland was pretty much corona-free. So we decided it was time to return to society. On June 15th, the borders were scheduled to open, as in, the 14 day quarantine wouldn’t be required anymore but everyone would have to be tested before entering the country.
A little bit of “Normal”
It had been a tough winter and now that Iceland was finally a safe place again, we wanted to use the opportunity to travel a bit before the limitations on the borders were lifted. So on June 4th we started our 16-day trip around Iceland.
Click here to read about our road trip around Iceland!
How’s your 2020 been so far?
