As we slowly woke the morning after the wedding, all was still. The rain had stopped and the clouds began to disappear, revealing the snow-topped mountains in the distance. Through the windows, fields of blue had begun to show in the skies over the bay.
This was the first day after our day. The party was over, the toasting all done. We were now a married couple. Still reveling in the afterglow of the wedding, we lingered in bed a little longer before starting the day.
By ten in the morning, we made our way downstairs for breakfast and to see Jakob off. The hotel was quiet as guests came and went. Birds flew against the wind outside the window, floating against the sea air with wings outstretched. This was peace. This was home.
Jakob eventually joined us in the lobby with his bag packed. He was on his way back to Keflavík to catch a flight to Toronto for another wedding. We had felt so comfortable with him there that it was sad to see him drive off. That would be the first sign that the wedding was over and that reality would soon set in.
Though we had planned to venture up into the mountains to explore those parts which had been hidden by the rain and fog, Pia and I decided instead to walk the path to the church once again and to spend the afternoon wandering the dunes around Búðir. The weather had calmed to a cool breeze as the sky continued to clear. We walked from dune to dune, stopping to take photos of the surroundings and each other. Eventually we found an especially cozy spot and laid back in the sand. Suddenly we were back on Vlieland where we spent our afternoons eating snoepjes and napping under the sun. After all the nights spent in front of Skype feeling disconnected, we were once again Jamie & Pia, bonded even more tightly by the rings on our fingers.
