Mail

Recently I have been having amazing adventures with the Icelandic mail service, Pósterinn.

First there was the sending of Christmas cards. They all seem to have gotten to the right place. I am happy with that.

Then I sent out pictures of the boys to nearly everyone I know. Not so many of those arrived. Most just didnt get anywhere but one was special.

One envelope was sent back to me. I never wrote a return address but they opened the card with pictures and saw the message to my brother, To Tye, From Ko-Leen, thats it. Now, being the only Ko-Leen in Iceland it was very easy to put my name in the computer and get my address. So I got the envelope back with my first name and address printed on the back and the erry feeling that the post office knows everything about me now.

I have also had a few problems with the mail and Ebay. You see, I ordered some iron on paths. I could not find any in Iceland so I ordered them online. Nearly two months later they start coming in the mail with insane bills from customs.

Now I should make it clear that I was prepared to pay tax on these things. I knew that most items coming through the mail were taxed about 50% of the price you paid, including shipping. So if you payed 800kr for something, including shipping, you could expect to pay another 400 when it got to Iceland. Expensive, but I expected that. I did not get what I expected.

I paid just over 800 kr for some Mario iron on patchs and was slapped with a bill for more then 1200! So these cute little patches cost more then 2000kr.

There doesnt even seem to be anyone you can reason with about this. You either pay the money or forfeit the money you already paid to buy it. I am still shaking.

And last but not least: While switching apartments the mail switch over has went very smoothly, everything is coming to the new place and our mailman even wrote us a kind note:

Davíð og KoLeen
Viljið þig vera svo gíð að merkja ykkur á kassa.
kvedja
Guna Póstur

meaning: would you be so kind as to label your mailbox

the piont: even if the post office is evil, our mailman seems nice enough
its the little things